Sound of Metal

Editor - Mikkel E.G. Nielsen, Supervising Sound Editor - Nicolas Becker

Sound of Metal editor Mikkel E.G. Nielsen and Supervising Sound Editor Nicolas Becker took the aspects of collaboration between picture and sound to new levels for director Darius Marder's narrative feature debut.  Despite being a scripted film, the movie has a strong documentary style and an innovative approach to immersing the audience into the experience of a man coming to grips with the loss of his hearing.  Debuting at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), Sound of Metal has been winning over critics and audiences with this "radically organic" approach to storytelling.  The film is currently available to watch on Amazon Prime Video.

Editor Mikkel Nielsen was brought up on Danish documentary films and had previously made a name for himself on such projects as Beasts of No Nation.  For Sound of Metal, he implored director Darius Marder to give him some room to do an assembly of the film near the end of production without distraction or interruption.  Meanwhile, Supervising Sound Editor Nicolas Becker, who had previous experience working with the sound of silence on the film, Gravity,  jumped right in on production; capturing and developing the sounds that would create the world of drummer Ruben Stone's decaying hearing and define the Sound of Metal.

Making Sound of Metal

In our discussion with Sound of Metal editor Mikkel E.G. Nielsen and Supervising Sound Editor Nicolas Becker we talk about:

• Waiting until late in production to start an assembly cut
• Creating a visual and auditory language for a film
• Manipulating sound to awaken the senses of the audience
• Working in stereo to stay portable and show that less is more
• Shooting on film to "up the game" of the cast and crew

The Credits

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