Mastering a Symphony of Slaps

As far as cinematic experiences go, the short film ‘Festival of Slaps’ could be described as a ‘peculiar gem’. It’s totally weird, and very wonderful. Written and directed by Abdou Cissé, the film examines the misunderstandings surrounding African parenting and its collision with contemporary lifestyles. The story centres around the protagonist, Ade, at a graduation dinner with his parents. In a fateful turn of events, he begins to choke, leading his mother, clad in traditional Nigerian attire and gele, to give him the mightiest slap of his existence. As he faces life's final curtain, his mind’s eye revisits a showreel of stand-out, mother-delivered slaps from days past. 

We owe much of the auditory side of this eyebrow-raiser to the expertise of Adam Smyth. He’s no stranger to awarded work, but it's safe to say this vinyl enthusiast hadn’t quite come across anything like this before. 

In this conversation, Adam sheds light on the genesis of the project–tracing its evolution from concept to symphony, as well as its vast scope, spanning sound design and mixing.

LBB> Adam, congratulations on the nomination. The film is pretty weird and wonderful at once. Can you tell us about the initial brief and how this project evolved? 

Adam> When director, Abdou Cissé, and producers, George Telfer and Cheri Darbon approached us about working on this film, we knew pretty quickly it was going to be a large and wonderful undertaking in creating a mega sound mix! It was a really exciting and ambitious project. Something I think Abs brings to all his projects and something that can only be backed up by great producers like George and Cheri. Not to mention our amazing team at String and Tins. When everyone is aligned and matching ambitions anything is possible! Nothing is ever really off limits until it’s a solid ‘no’. 

LBB> Walk us through how you approached the sound design and mix for ‘Festival of Slaps’. 

Adam> Like with most of my projects, I like to take a bit of time to analyse the offline. The editors Marvin J Alvarez and André Rodrigues really crafted this one. It’s my job to maintain and elevate their beats and cues if I can. We start by working through dialogue and doing a foley pass before I get stuck into the fun bit of sound design. Abs and I talked about approaching each scene like it had its own film genre attached to it. It’s why we quickly move between horror, romance and sci-fi, to everyday drama. Subtle but effective sound cues help immerse our audience in the emotion of that particular scene and guide them through (hopefully without them noticing!).

LBB> Can you discuss any specific techniques or tools you used? 

Adam> I like to think well-explored and crafted sound design is a technique. The slaps took a fair bit of time to dial in and get right. It ended up being a combination of trailer booms, real slaps, some meat being hit with a bat and a lot of saturation. At one point, I distorted a big sonic boom to the point of no return! But, like the ambition of the film, it was needed to push it as far as possible in that moment. You’ve gotta take some risks, right? 

LBB> Tell us something about the project that our readers might be surprised to learn? 

Adam> We recorded a fresh arrangement of the song, ‘Walk With Me’ by The ARC Choir with the wonderful Glory choir. We essentially live scored/directed the film with them in the booth. We took at least a week’s worth of evenings and some long weekends tweaking the music edit. There’s plenty of subtle moments where the music will slow down and speed up releasing tension. Tension and release is a great trick to use when it comes to sound design and I like to tie music into that too. 

LBB> What particular scenes or moments in the film required special attention and why? 

Adam> The restaurant scene leading into our end scene. It really needed to feel as if we were missing ‘something’ but you didn’t know what. We played around for a fair while trying to get this to feel right. Ultimately, it came down to stripping things back and having some of the more ‘mundane’ sounds of life come to the forefront, like an interior radio/tv or just sipping tea. 

LBB>  Talk to us about some of the challenging parts of this project and how they were overcome.

Adam> Countless edits. I’m just going to say it. When you’re into your 15th re-cut the walls start to cave in, it’s easy to lose sight of the project. It’s always good to remind yourself that a re-edit means it’s moving forward. The care is still intact and the director is trying to find that extra magic. Always staying subjective and asking yourself “Can I make this better” is a key skill to being a good sound designer. It’s good to take a back seat and let others comment on the work. Getting feedback from my fellow designers at String and Tins is essential! 

LBB> Where do you draw inspiration from? Were there any particular sources or references that helped you when working on the sound design of this film? 

Adam> All the work coming out of London! Honestly, seeing our peers churning out incredible, well thought out sound work is very inspiring. It’s like being in the premier league, when you’re in the same mix as other great teams, it forces you to perform better too. I’m a huge fan of how Edgar Wright uses sound in his films. I’d like to think I have my own aesthetic that’s developing… but the craft and coming up with new ideas/approaches is what still drives me! Can I do another sound article about ‘Dune’? 

LBB> Looking back, is there anything you would've done differently? What particular aspects are you most proud of? 

Adam> I really felt like this was a huge collaboration between so many people! And it shows with a BIFA win and a BAFTA nomination. I’m just proud that everyone wanted to make it the best it could be. With every project I work on there’s always something you want to tweak but it’s good to let go and move onto the next. I’m constantly learning from every job and person I get to work with. It’s what makes my job feel so rewarding! I get to listen to great sound in some of the best studios in the world. When your job is also your hobby it’s hard to complain! 

LBB> Anything else you’d like to add? 

Adam> Yes, no one was slapped TOO hard in the making of this film.