Spain’s Oscar entry for international feature, “Sirāt,” not only earned a nod in that category, it also made history when the film’s sound team was recognized.
Supervising sound editor Laia Casanovas, re-recording mixer Yasmina Praderas and production sound mixer Amanda Villavieja are the first all-women sound team to be nominated.
Casanovas says the significance of the nomination was not lost on her and the team. “Sirāt” follows Luis (Sergi López) and his son, Esteban (Brúno Nuñez), who arrive at a desert rave in the mountains of Morocco. They’re on a mission to find Luis’ daughter Mar, who vanished from one of the raves over five months ago, and end up in a small caravan of ravers on a trip through the desert.
Working with “Sirāt” director Oliver Laxe, Casanovas and the team spent nine months on and off on the sound design process. “We needed some time to think about the decisions that we were making and, also, we were working in an emotional way,” she says.
Casanovas and the team were driven by the emotions that the movie conveyed and tried to reflect that.Villavieja’s work went beyond recording dialogue — she spent time capturing the atmosphere and ambience of the desert.
The vehicles of the caravan — a minivan, large trucks and campers — were also another element
that proved a surprising challenge. “We needed a different sound when it came to the engines, so we recorded with those with my team in post,” Casanovas says, ensuring they had the correct and distinct sounds of the tires and engines.
Music and the sound of the landscape were an integral part of the film, and the team found some of the right elements in a surpring place. “We had a lot of recordings of the wind in the desert, but also around Nice, France, because there’s a volcanic landscape there that has a low-frequency background,” Casanovas says
The sound seamlessly intertwines with Kangding Ray’s score, and it took the two teams working closely to ensure they were aligned.
“It was a back-and-forth process,” Casanovas says. “I sent the sound design, and he sent the music to me. It was so inspiring because the characters are so connected to music.”
The key was to make sure her team had the same “grainy sound and textures, that saturation and distortions the music has.”