J.R. Fountain – Supervising Sound Editor Interview

J.R. Fountain Supervising Sound Editor Interview

J.R. Fountain is a Supervising Sound Editor & Re-recording Mixer, working with Sound Dogs Toronto as well as recording libraries through his own company, Big Room Sound.

Focusing first on his long-standing role as Sound Supervisor for the Netflix series Locke & Key, he then takes us through his beginnings in the world of sound design, from recording his own sounds to forging an identity in the industry and finally the unique challenges of working on animated features.

J.R. Uses Dehumaniser 2 in Locke & Key:

Dehumaniser 2’s Vocoder module was used for the sounds of the dark & eerie shadow demons from Locke & Key season 1

Dehumaniser 2 offered a simple yet creative approach in bringing the Shadow Creatures to life in Locke & Key. Having my processing chain all in one plug-in and utilising live input with my voice was super helpful in creating these unique creature vocals!

J.R. Fountain

JJ: Hi J.R! Thanks for taking the time to have a chat with me today. Can you share with us what you’re working on at the moment?

JR: I’m currently working away on Locke & Key, Season Three. We’re about halfway through our post sound schedule at this point!

JJ: How exciting! Have you noticed a development in how you’ve approached the sound design to Locke & Key as the seasons have progressed?

JR: For sure – with each successive season there are always new elements popping up in the story like more magical keys, new locations and characters. And of course those need new sonic treatments, so in that sense we are always developing the sound of the show. It’s been interesting to see its language form over the past two seasons. It’s at a point now where I ask myself while creating, say new key sounds, “does this feel like it belongs to Locke & Key?”. I feel like there is an aesthetic built-in now, which is cool. I haven’t had that experience before.

JJ: That’s brilliant. So, when you’re working on Locke & Key, do you do that through your sound design company, Big Room Sound? 

JR: Yes and no – I’m a freelancer and Big Room Sound is my company that I bill everything through, but Locke & Key actually came through Sound Dogs Toronto who I am a part of as well. Our producer Ra’uf Glasgow has done a number of shows with Sound Dogs over the years and this one was a good fit for me to take on.

JJ: That’s cool. It’s always interesting to see how sound design projects originate and come together. Could you tell us a bit about your background? How did you get started in sound design and what made you pursue a sound career in the first place? 

JR: I got started in high school. In grade 12, I wanted to do a co-op placement [education programme] at a recording studio, but my music teacher had a better idea. He connected me with a former grad, Stephen Barden, who was doing sound editing with Sound Dogs in Toronto. I had an amazing music teacher so I listened to him and I suppose Steve did too! So, at 17 years old, I started taking the train downtown every other afternoon to spend time watching Steve work as a dialogue editor and learn about sound for movies.

To be honest with you. I didn’t even really like it when I first started! I had no idea about sound for movies or anything like that. I was into music, but I grew to love the people there, and the work as well. So much so that by the end of grade 12, I thought “this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.” After highschool, I did a 3 year Media Arts program at Sheridan College in Oakville and after that I came back to Sound Dogs to begin my career.

 It’s crazy to think that was back in 1998, and I’ve been with them pretty much ever since. I was really really fortunate and am forever grateful.

JJ: It’s so unusual to hear people staying with one company in this industry – we often seem to see sound designers jumping from studio to studio or moving to freelance, but you must have seen the sound design industry progress, plus the company, and you’ve yourself alongside it!

JR: Ya I suppose! Keep in mind, it hasn’t been without some side-tracks here and there. I am a freelancer after all. But by and large I’ve stayed close to them. Nelson Ferreira, who owns the company, is the best and has built one of the top sound design companies in Canada. He is so good at nurturing and growing talent. I wouldn’t be where I am without him or Barden or the others in our collective.

JJ: So, with Big Room Sound, you record sound libraries. Does this mean you go out into the field and capture those and build them yourself?

JR: Absolutely. The importance of recording your own sounds was instilled into me early on in my career. I think I naturally gravitated towards it as well because I value originality so much. My first piece of gear I bought was a DAT recorder and a mic. Nowadays, a laptop and Pro Tools is the first thing budding sound designers buy and rightly so. But a close second ought to be a recorder in my opinion.

That little DAT recorder spawned a great side hustle in my downtime too. I uploaded my first sound effects to sell on royalty free websites around 2004. It’s a lot of work recording and mastering sound effects, but early on I had lots of time between jobs and used it as an investment in myself. I’m thankful that I did too, as the extra income has given me a little more freedom than I might not have otherwise had.

And honestly, I just really enjoy recording. I find the more new stuff I can bring to a project, the better. It really turns my gears and helps fuel my creative process.

The first sounds I recorded were a coffee table drawer and light switches in my basement, but now in the last year or two I’ve been out to record tanks and helicopters!

J.R. Fountain
Big Room Sound – Sounds & Recordings by J.R. Fountain

JJ: I guess it helps you to build your own personal identity and you’ll have particular sounds that you can call back to, and it just makes the whole thing so much more personal.

JR: It most certainly does! There is a special sense of accomplishment the first time you cut a sound you’ve recorded into a show and it works. It buoys your confidence to do more, and spurs you on to try new things. And it doesn’t have to be much either. The first sounds I recorded were a coffee table drawer and light switches in my basement, but now in the last year or two have been out to record tanks and helicopters.

There is a tremendous sense of discovery and creativity when you’re away from your computer that inspires and leads your work. The best question I ask myself when I’m recording is “what if?”. What if I put the mic here instead? What if I turn this prop upside down? etc. This way of working is something we do a lot of at Sound Dogs, it’s not always about searching the library (which we do plenty of too), but also going out and finding the sound in the world, experimenting, and trying to come up with it yourself.

It doesn’t work all the time. Trust me, you screw up lots! But if you’re patient and persistent in applying that kind of mindset, over time you develop not only a skill set for creating sounds but also your own voice and originality in your work. It’s not something I recognised at first. I wasn’t setting out to “establish my own voice”, I just loved recording and making my own stuff. But as I reflect back on my journey so far it’s something I’ve identified as being critical in honing my craft.

Whether you end up using the sound right away or not, you will one day.

It’s something I believe is so beneficial for people to get into early on.

Make time for it, and in a few years look back and be proud of the personal library you’ve built.

J.R. Fountain

JJ: That’s very true. In fact, I’ve only just started doing that. I bought a Zoom H1 and went back to my hometown and recorded things to use in my own work. I learned so much from working in this way, It was a really eye-opening experience that I wish I did much earlier!

JR: Absolutely. When it comes to recording, I like to tell people it has given me the means to learn and practice all the steps involved in sound. You learn how to place mics, set levels, perform props or vehicles or whatever, to make sure you hit record! (Ugh…how many times I’ve forgotten that) Then you bring it back to the studio and you have to chop it up into usable bits, get rid of the mic bumps, the slates, the ticks and pops and all the junk you don’t want.

Then you even have to mix it, set the levels again, roll off some rumble, compress the transients a bit, peak limit it and re-record it. Outside of actually cutting it to picture you just did sound for movies from pre-production to post and in such a small sample size that you can practice that over and over and over.

Whether you end up using the sound right away or not, you will one day. It’s really helpful and something I believe is so beneficial for people to get into early on.

Resist the temptation to say, “I don’t have time”. Make time for it, take baby steps, and in a few years look back and be proud of the personal library you’ve built.

JJ: Is there a bucket list place or dream sound you’d like to record?

JR: Oh, Jeez. I’m sure there’s plenty! If I’m to think about it, they’re usually the ones that have gotten away from me. When I was working on PAW Patrol: The Movie there were a number of recording projects that I wanted to do. I’m happy to say I did most of them but there were a couple that got away from me. One was recording RC jet airplanes, that would’ve been wicked cool.

I’d done some research on them and was amazed at what people were flying and how fast they could go. I found a guy on YouTube in Germany zipping one around at 700 km/h and it sounded amazing! I set about finding people here in Ontario and spoke to one group who flew at an airport a few hours from me. We tried and tried to connect for a session but because of weather and/or COVID restrictions at the time we just couldn’t make it happen. Grrr.

Animals would be high on the list. Anything beyond the domestic stuff like dogs, cats, and farm animals. I’ve always had plans in the back of my head too but because much of my motivation for recording is project-based, I just haven’t really needed them in a significant way. But they’re always great elements to use.

JJ: I imagine with Locke and Key, you had some real-world references from the less fantastical aspects. But with something like Paw Patrol or The Breadwinner, for example, you’re essentially building that whole sound world from scratch. So, is there one type of project that you find more of a challenge?

I think the amount of references I have to draw from has far less to do with the format of the show and a whole lot more to do with the genre of the show. The farther away you go from reality, the less real world references you get. Locke and Key is fantasy, PAW Patrol is action-adventure, and The Breadwinner is drama. They all have elements of reality in them, but arguably The Breadwinner has the most real world references of those three.

The challenges lie in bringing each of those worlds to life with the time, resources and creative vision you’ve been provided with. Those all combine to make each project unique. Whenever one of those categories is deficient is when things can get difficult on a project.

With regards to animation sound design; it differs mostly from live action in how dialogue is captured. This is where the “build it from scratch” you mentioned comes into play. Animation dialogue only contains dialogue, whereas live action dialogue comes with backgrounds, foley and anything else the mic picks up on set.

Because animation dialogue is so incredibly clean, there is a lot of sonic space to fill out and we rely more heavily upon all the sounds we’ve prepared for the mix. But I don’t think we prepare any less or more for a live action mix. It’s just that in a live action mix, because production dialogue comes with more than just dialogue we don’t always have to rely upon or have space for as many sound effects.

JJ: The Breadwinner is set in Kabul, which is a very different culture to Toronto or the UK, for example. How did you approach the sound design for something that’s so far removed from the sounds that you know?

JR: That was something I was very sensitive to. Thankfully Nora, our director, prepared an incredible creative outline for me when we began working. She and her production team had already done a lot of research while developing the story and creating the visuals and she passed much of that on to me.

It came as a PDF filled with her thoughts and intentions as well as numerous reference links to check out. This inspired me to do some of my own research as well, mostly through the vast resources of YouTube.

Fortunately, there are a lot of recordings from Arab nations which made pulling a library together not nearly as difficult as I’d first thought. I focused heavily on crowds for the city and market locations, as well as mopeds, tuk-tuks, and worn-out cars. Being the desert and trying to use wind emotively, I searched for sooo much wind to play in both interiors, exteriors and key dramatic moments.

And the one very signature sound Nora wanted was the Islamic calls to prayer that echo out over the city. We used those sparingly but they were very effective. Lots of flavours to give each scene/location a particular feel was the goal.

JJ: That’s really interesting. It takes your creativity to bring those worlds to life! Thanks so much for your time and for sharing so much with us.

JR: Yes, you bet, man. I appreciate you reaching out!

More Information on J.R. Fountain:

Check out his SFX Libraries: https://www.asoundeffect.com/sounddesigner/big-room-sound-inc/

Visit the Sound Dogs Toronto Website:

https://www.sounddogs.ca/

Check out J.R. Fountain’s work on imdb:

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0288354/

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