Latest news with #SecretLevel
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Secret Level' sound editor Matt Yocum on using the ‘punchy aesthetic' of video game audio for new animated series
'One of my favorite parts of my job is the variety,' says Matt Yocum about the diversity of projects on which he has served as sound editor. An Emmy Award winner for The Last of Us, he has worked on both television and film, from live action to animation. 'Animation really does stand out amongst the herd of other possible choices,' says the designer, because 'you're not necessarily tied to any 'natural conventions.' You're able to bend things and go further and manipulate sounds in different ways and be more exaggerate.' Yocum has brought that approach to the Prime Video animated series Secret Level and discussed the show as part of our Meet the Experts: TV sound panel. A self-professed gamer, Yocum delighted in taking part of Secret Level, which he describes as 'an immense undertaking.' He explains, 'Although they're all animated, each episode is in its own genre and has its own world with its own rules and set of logic and creative approach.' The first season of the show features 15 episodes inspired by 15 different games, ranging from Dungeons and Dragons to Pac-Man and beyond. More from GoldDerby 'Have I said too much?' David Chase and Alex Gibney on revisiting 'The Sopranos' for 'Wise Guy' doc - and, yes, that finale Every Disney live-action remake, ranked from worst to first (updated) All the 'Mission: Impossible' movies, ranked (updated) Even though Yocum brought a unique approach to each episode of Secret Level, he introduced cohesiveness across the entire season by drawing upon principles of video game sound. He explains, 'Game audio has, in a lot of cases, this specific, punchy aesthetic. There's something hyper-real about things and impactful.' The sound editor aimed to 'bring that punch and that largeness and that impact and the visceral nature of things' to all 15 installments. SEE 'Secret Level' creator Tim Miller explains how he gets writers to create short stories based on video and role-playing games One of the standout episodes of the season from a sound perspective is 'Warhammer 40,000: And They Shall Know No Fear.' This entry was a massive undertaking for Yocum because, in his words, 'The edict from the director, Dave [Wilson], on day one of Warhammer was, 'Nothing in the Warhammer universe is small, so everything needs to be huge.' These are huge titanic marines and they're flying in big ships and they're shooting huge guns and they're carrying big swords.' From his perspective, the challenge of executing something so humongous in sound design is, 'If everything is a 10, then nothing is a 10.' 'The trick on something as loud and as big and as rambunctious as Warhammer is to create pockets in order to create contrast, because the way you achieve something feeling 10 is by perceiving it and following it with moments of fives or sixes or sevens,' describes Yocum of his approach to adding variety to the massiveness of the fifth episode. He adopted this method 'so that the loud stuff feels loud,' punctuated with 'moments of soft.' Warhammer is also unique because of its overall lack of dialogue, save for some introductory narration and a line or two throughout. Director Wilson came into production with 'this whole sweeping, flowing backstory' that the audience might not understand, but which Yocum found tremendously helpful. 'I actually love knowing that stuff," observes the supervising sound editor, continuing, "It gives me the why behind every sound, so in those pockets of quietness, I can pull from those ideas and create things.' This article and video are presented by Prime Video. SIGN UP for Gold Derby's free newsletter with latest predictions Best of GoldDerby Dream Team: 'Étoile' creators Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino on the secrets of their partnership: 'You want to be jealous of something someone has done' TV sound editors roundtable: 'Adolescence' and 'Secret Level' 'The dialogue is king': 'Adolescence' sound editor James Drake on the 'chaotic and intense' first episode Click here to read the full article.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
TV sound editors roundtable: ‘Adolescence' and ‘Secret Level'
As Adolescence supervising sound editor James Drake and Secret Level supervising sound editor Matt Yocum tell it during our Meet the Experts: TV Sound panel, their work might be intrinsic to what we experience on screen, but they have a confession. 'It's not a very glamorous job,' says Drake. (Watch the full panel above. Click each person's name to see their individual discussion.) The BAFTA nominee for Boiling Point elaborates, 'A lot of people don't realize that so much of what they hear is done by people alone in little studios, hidden away in the dark.' Even if the everyday realities of a sound editor's career are not as ritzy as other Hollywood roles, he shares, 'There are a lot of people who do the job who care intrinsically about the sound' and 'use sound to engage the audience and help tell the story.' More from GoldDerby 'The Last of Us' director Kate Herron on bringing the Ellie and Dina relationship to the show: 'It was a privilege' 'Sunset Boulevard': Will Andrew Lloyd Webber break a 30-year Tony drought? How Zoe Saldaña helped shape Pixar's upcoming film 'Elio' Yocum emphasizes that many viewers don't realize that sound editors do more than incorporate production sounds from principal photography into the final edit. Rather, they often must 'come up with sounds for sometimes these fantastical things and other times things that are more based in reality.' The Emmy winner for The Last of Us provides an example of the popular club scenes in TV shows and film to reveal, 'There was no sound during any of that, just the two main characters talking,' meaning the music, ambient noise from the bar, and beyond were all created and added after the fact. Both sound editors have worked on dozens of film and television projects and say that they tremendously enjoy getting to revisit series after some time away. 'You spend a lot of time over the course of a project getting intimately familiar with the workings of whatever the universe is that you're currently in, and you're a part of shaping the logic and the approach and the sonic character and the emotion,' and 'when you get to come back to something in a repeat sense,' you get to 'expand on those ideas,' describes Yocum. Drake concurs and stresses that sound editors bring their own life experiences and entertainment consumption to these projects, especially shows that unfold over years. He says that when you get to return to a series for a second installment of episodes, 'Your life has changed, and there's new plug-ins around, and you've heard new shows or films and they've given you a little spark of excitement. … You're experiencing new things as you go along.' Watch the full panel above to hear Drake and Yocum discuss the moment in their lives in which they both knew they wanted to become sound editors and their favorite part of the sound editing prep process. This article and video are presented by Netflix and Prime Video. Best of GoldDerby 'The Pitt' star Supriya Ganesh on Mohan 'reworking' her trauma and when she'll realize Abbot is flirting with her Dream Team: 'Étoile' creators Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino on the secrets of their partnership: 'You want to be jealous of something someone has done' 'Secret Level' sound editor Matt Yocum on using the 'punchy aesthetic' of video game audio for new animated series Click here to read the full article.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Arcane' writer Amanda Overton describes reworking the end of season one so that a second season could be allowed to develop
When Arcane was first being mapped out as a series, the initial plan was to only do one season in the Piltover-Zaun region. When the decision was made to do a second season, Amanda Overton and the show's writing team had to do a major rewrite of the last two episodes of that first season. 'The idea was we're gonna get to really dig into what leads up to the war and the build up to the war in Season 2. That decision was made after the writer's room of Season 1 ended and then we came back and we're like, OK, let's write a season two that builds up to the war,' she tells Gold Derby during our recent Meet the Experts: TV Animation panel. Arcane, which can be streamed on Netflix, takes place in the universe of the online multiplayer battle video game League of Legends. The show centers around two cities: the prosperous and ideal city of Piltover and the dilapidated and sleazy undercity of Zaun. As the disturbance between the two places gets more heated, sisters Vi (Hailee Steinfeld) and Jinx (Ella Purnell) begin becoming aligned on opposing sides of a looming war over differing beliefs and mysterious occurrences. The series picked up the Emmy for Best Animated Program for its first season back in 2022. More from GoldDerby As Joel returns to 'The Last of Us,' cinematographer Catherine Goldschmidt explains what went into killing him off TV Animation roundtable panel: '#1 Happy Family USA,' 'Secret Level,' and 'Arcane' 'Secret Level' creator Tim Miller explains how he gets writers to create short stories based on video and role-playing games The writer's room always knew from the beginning that they wanted the relationship between Vi and Caitlyn to be their OTP (one true pair) couple for the series. But Overton wanted to draw out the establishment of their romantic attraction to make their romance epic. 'You really have to earn that relationship getting together. I think we did things in season one to make that attraction they had to each other explicit. We made that conscious choice to take the entire series as we knew it to get them together so we could feel like they had the same sort of treatment that most couples like that would get.' One of the more difficult things in developing the show was keeping track of all the world-building that a series like this requires. 'It's a huge scope game and it's a game that changes all the time. It's kind of like they're always iterating on the game. It's not just one set story. It's something you always have to keep your pulse on in order to make sure that what they're doing in the game would reflect properly in the show.' This article and video are presented by Netflix. Best of GoldDerby Making of 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power' panel: Bringing the Balrog to life was 'like doing a slight of hand card trick' TV Animation roundtable panel: '#1 Happy Family USA,' 'Secret Level,' and 'Arcane' 'Secret Level' creator Tim Miller explains how he gets writers to create short stories based on video and role-playing games Click here to read the full article.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
As Joel returns to ‘The Last of Us,' cinematographer Catherine Goldschmidt explains what went into killing him off
During the first season of The Last of Us in 2023, cinematographer Catherine Goldschmidt was merely one of the show's fans. 'I definitely felt really invested in the characters, and I was very curious about where the story could go next,' she tells Gold Derby. It didn't take long for Goldschmidt to find out after she was approached to join the series for Season 2 alongside returning cinematographer Ksenia Sereda. 'I'm not a game player, so I hadn't played The Last of Us Part II. However, I watched as much as I could on YouTube, and I read what everybody thought of it,' she says. 'For the for the game to take its two main characters, and essentially kill one of them in the early stages of the game, thus making it the story be about these sort of two sworn enemies — and that, as you play the game, and you play each of them, it gets confusing for the game player to see who's in the right and who's in the wrong — that really fascinated me.' More from GoldDerby TV Animation roundtable panel: '#1 Happy Family USA,' 'Secret Level,' and 'Arcane' 'Secret Level' creator Tim Miller explains how he gets writers to create short stories based on video and role-playing games '#1 Happy Family USA' co-creator Ramy Youssef reveals how animation was the perfect way to capture the middle school experience Based on the video-game franchise, The Last of Us stars Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey as, respectively, Joel and Ellie, two broken-hearted loners who form a surrogate father-daughter bond against the backdrop of a fungal apocalypse that has left the human race in tatters. In Season 1, Joel and Ellie (who is immune) travel across the country to find a group of rebel fighters known as the Fireflies, who may have figured out how to stop the Cordyceps outbreak that has turned those infected with the fungus into mutated creatures. However, once it becomes apparent that the cure will result in Ellie's death, Joel kills several Fireflies, including the doctor who would perform surgery on Ellie. He then lies to Ellie about what he's done. Season 2 picks up five years later, with the doctor's daughter, Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), out for revenge. She gets it in the season's second episode, 'Through the Valley,' where Abby and her cohort capture Joel by happenstance during a massive snowstorm, and she beats him to death in front of Ellie. The shocking twist left viewers stunned, and its reverberations have been felt for the remainder of the season, as Ellie and her girlfriend Dina (Isabela Merced) traveled to Seattle to find Abby to get their revenge. Goldschmidt shot multiple episodes in Season 2, including Joel's death in 'Through the Valley.' An Emmy nominee previously for HBO's House of the Dragon, the acclaimed cinematographer was given little time before jumping into the deep end of the series. 'One thing that I like to tell people about Joe's death scene is that that was in our first week of shooting,' she tells Gold Derby. Directed by Emmy winner Mark Mylod (Succession), 'Through the Valley' was immediately flagged by critics as one of the most ambitious television episodes on HBO since the heyday of Game of Thrones. In addition to Joel's death, the episode also features a massive attack on Joel and Ellie's home city of Jackson, Wyo., by a horde of infected. The scale of the episode has been compared to the Game of Thrones classic 'Battle of the Bastards,' which won multiple Emmys in 2016, including for its writing and directing. 'Not only did we have this episode with this crazy moment of Joel's death, but this crazy moment was right at the start of the shoot, right before we could really get into a good rhythm with the crew and the cast as well,' she says. 'So, that was very daunting. However, Mark is obviously an incredibly experienced director and really in-tune with the actors, and he prioritizes their performances over everything else. I wanted that as well.' For Goldschmidt, one of the biggest challenges was immediately apparent. The ski chalet where Abby kills Joel was a real location in Vancouver. 'The location had two-story high windows that are all south facing, which means the sun is just constantly coming into that room from a different angle every second of the day,' she explains. 'But it's not supposed to be sunny because there's a massive snowstorm outside during the show events. We got maybe one day of clouds. So it wasn't the right weather at all. But I wanted to create this protected scenario for Mark and the actors so that we didn't have to shoot in any particular order for the daylight and could do turnarounds quickly. To do that, I basically treated this interior space like an exterior space because these massive windows made it so open to the elements.' Goldschmidt says she convinced producers and co-creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann to place massive blackout curtains on construction cranes outside – a request typically made for day exteriors that she needed to apply to the interiors. They happily obliged. 'So then we could move much more quickly,' she adds. 'Because I turned it into a studio.' Joel's brutal murder plays out mainly in the same fashion as it does in the video game, with Ellie coming into the space just before Abby deals the show's complicated hero a death blow. Unlike the video game, however, which cuts to black as Ellie is knocked unconscious following Joel's death, the show allows the audience to experience the tragic aftermath. An injured Ellie crawls over to Joel's dead body and cuddles up next to him; the camera perspective shifts to a God's eye perspective from above to survey the trauma. 'We were in this real space that actually did have this incredible height to it,' Goldschmidt says. 'As we were going through the scenes and the shots and the way the coverage would work, I knew we weren't going to be taking in that space ever, and I knew we were just going to be with the characters and crawling on the floor and feeling what they were feeling. So Mark and I were sitting around wondering if we ever wanted to show off this space, and what would be the right emotional moment to do it.' Goldschmidt suggested the shot above Joel and Ellie to give the audience a breather after the intensity of the scene. 'We realized not only did that feel emotionally right, but it also was a great segue into the montage that was basically going to close out the episode,' she says. 'So the montage was scripted, but it was just one of those things where we were inspired by the real location and looking to take advantage of that. I'm really proud and happy of that shot, and happy to see all of our intentions with that shot work.' While Joel is dead on the show, viewers will see him again on Sunday's episode, a flashback to the five years between the end of Season 1 and the start of Season 2. Goldschmidt, who also shot episodes four and the upcoming Season 2 finale, will likely be watching. 'Visually speaking, it's such a rich, wonderful post-apocalyptic world,' she says of the show. 'So I was really excited about that and really excited to work with the team.' Best of GoldDerby Making of 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power' panel: Bringing the Balrog to life was 'like doing a slight of hand card trick' TV Animation roundtable panel: '#1 Happy Family USA,' 'Secret Level,' and 'Arcane' 'Secret Level' creator Tim Miller explains how he gets writers to create short stories based on video and role-playing games Click here to read the full article.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Secret Level' creator Tim Miller explains how he gets writers to create short stories based on video and role-playing games
In putting together episodes of Secret Level, creator Tim Miller utilized a very similar system that he used when doing the show Love, Death + Robots. He assembled this group of novelists and short story writers and helped to give them key information about various video games to build stories off of. 'We make these big decks that tells you all the do's and don'ts and we send them to the authors and then they pitch us. We'll usually ask five or 10 authors to pitch us on any given game. Then we pick the best idea that we like and they write a prose version of that story which we then adapt into a screenplay,' he tells Gold Derby during our recent Meet the Experts: TV Animation panel. Secret Level, which is available to stream on Prime Video, is an animated anthology series that tells standalone short stories based various video games and role-playing games. Among the games that were used as the basis for episodes in the first season were Dungeons & Dragons, Mega Man, New World: Aeternum, Pac-Man, and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2. Miller has won three Emmys in Best Short Form Animated Program for Love, Death + Robots in 2019, 2021, and 2022. More from GoldDerby As Joel returns to 'The Last of Us,' cinematographer Catherine Goldschmidt explains what went into killing him off TV Animation roundtable panel: '#1 Happy Family USA,' 'Secret Level,' and 'Arcane' '#1 Happy Family USA' co-creator Ramy Youssef reveals how animation was the perfect way to capture the middle school experience Miller is a longtime lover of short stories and how flexible the format is in allowing one to tell different narratives. He gave an example of how this translated to television by remembering a pitch for a television series he made about lesbian necromancers in space and how the people in the meeting stopped him before he could get any further. However, to pitch something like that for Secret Level wouldn't cause anyone to bat an eye. 'That kind of freedom is impossible to get with the heavy lift of a movie or a series and you have to worry about it being popular to kids, grandmas, moms, dads, and everybody else. We can afford to be niche.' When looking to what might serve as the basis for episodes in the second season, Miller doesn't divulge any specifics but does demonstrate that there are four categories of games they work with: nostalgia games, indie games, games that are coming out, and games that are currently out and popular. He especially loves the ones that fall into nostalgia because of the memories that they can they can bring back for him. 'Like Pac-Man was the first video game I ever played and so it has meaning to me. I still remember putting that quarter in the slot and so I love the fact that we can kind of go after anything in that regard and sort-of control the narrative and go after what we think is interesting instead of a commercial vibe.' This article and video are presented by Prime Video. Best of GoldDerby Making of 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power' panel: Bringing the Balrog to life was 'like doing a slight of hand card trick' TV Animation roundtable panel: '#1 Happy Family USA,' 'Secret Level,' and 'Arcane' '#1 Happy Family USA' cocreator Ramy Youssef reveals how animation was the perfect way to capture the middle school experience Click here to read the full article.
