Good sound design is one of the most essential parts of any film or TV project—whether you realize it or not. Two people who know just how important it is are the sound designers behind Netflix’s Children of the Church Steps, Tomás Alem and Bernardo Uzeda. If you’ve seen (and listened!) to the show, you can tell a lot of love and tender care went into fleshing out the world of Brazil’s Candelária Massacre tragedy.
Taking influence from projects like City of God, the sound design for Children of the Church Steps is cinematic and engrossing. How did they pull it all off, you ask? Lucky for you, we had the opportunity to interview Alem and Uzeda on their process.
Check out the interview below—or have someone read it out loud to you to get in an auditory mood. Your choice there.
NFS Interviews Children of the Church Steps Sound Designers Tomás Alem and Bernardo Uzeda
No Film School: Hey Bernardo and Tomás! Netflix’s Children of the Church Steps is inspired by an incredibly well-known tragedy in Brazil’s history, the Candelária Massacre. How did you approach your sound design on the project, knowing you were tackling such a historically significant event?
Tomás Alem: Our first priority was to understand Luis and Marcia’s vision and how they wanted to approach the event beyond the tragedy and the historical accuracy—which is the most obvious path—towards a more artistic, emotional, and socially conscious direction.
The project rather focuses on the protagonists’ childhood explorations, social bonds, struggles, and dreams in a very authentic and creative way, and the sound design needed to capture this sensitivity so we could enrich the storytelling without overdoing it.
NFS: What unique challenges did you have to overcome in creating the soundscape for this historical period of 1993 Rio de Janeiro?
Bernardo Uzeda: There were a few challenges in the production sound cleanup, of course, as Candelaria’s church is located in one of the most intense transit areas in Rio de Janeiro’s downtown, and we wanted to have the dialogue as isolated as possible to be able to bring in more historically accurate elements such as motors and voices from pedestrians and street sellers. Of course, being from Rio gave us the background to know what to capture or produce in the studio and what to avoid.
Alem: Rio’s downtown has suffered a lot of structural transformation because of the 2016 Olympics and one of its unique elements is a very intrusive bell from a new train system called VLT that we had to manually remove.
The show also gave itself the creative freedom to adapt some modern elements of the city such as the train Jesus uses to “surf”—which is a real thing in the city—so that we’re not limited in the quality of the materials we could use on such an immersive sequence.
Instead, the goal was to have the best sound quality possible, knowing that the series was going to be mixed in Dolby Atmos. We had the privilege to have a train liberated exclusively for us to capture it in all of its details and from multiple perspectives with an Ambisonics system, so it could sound authentic but also full and rich.
NFS: The show also features an impressive cast of young actors. How did these performances impact your approach to the sound design for Children of the Church Steps?
Uzeda: The cast of young actors are the crown jewel of this series. Most of them have never acted on an ambitious project with big names involved. Their performances have a broad dramatic range and it was especially interesting working with them while recording the ADR sessions. A year had passed since principal photography, they were more confident although their voices had changed a bit. This imposed some challenges later when editing the new material interwoven with the original production sound, nevertheless the final result was very solid.
NFS: Your studio, Aura Post, stands out as one of the preeminent sound design facilities for film and TV in Brazil. Could you tell us more about how Aura Post was formed and how you view the company’s role in the Brazilian entertainment industry?
Uzeda: Aura Post was created seven years ago when we felt the need to build our own professional structure to meet the increasing market demands. Tomás and I were already partners since 2011, working as freelancers in our own separate studios, and we teamed up more frequently over the years with other freelancers to address bigger demands until we found ourselves spending more time talking on the phone than working in Pro Tools. I also work as a composer (my latest project being a horror feature for Netflix called A Mother’s Embrace), so I try to conciliate both crafts at the studio, which is great since I have full trust in Tomás leading the sound post team while I can focus on the score, if the project demands both of us on different roles.
Alem: We started being increasingly specific with the vision for the sounds we wanted to create. This need to have more control over the creative process made us build our own foley studio, and soon after, our studio facility in Rio de Janeiro. From then on, we were able to really develop our unique workflow and nurture a diverse team so we could build a solid sound design studio, building beyond our work as freelancers.
We have since established ourselves as one of the leading post sound facilities in Brazil, focusing on the creative side of the sound craft while partnering with many other studios and production companies in Brazil and internationally, with the ability to attend high-complexity demands without losing the flexibility to partner in more independent and authorial projects.
We really want to keep pushing ourselves as we’re ready to enter the video-game and asset creation market; that’s definitely a short period goal we have.
NFS: Netflix’s catalog has grown increasingly globalized in recent years, as has the world of entertainment at large. How have these developments impacted Aura Post’s role in the entertainment industry over the last several years?
Alem: Hugely. Our role in the industry is directly related to Netflix’s initiative to produce original content in Brazil since 2017 when we were brought on to participate in Jose Padilha’s The Mechanism.
Although we were already cemented as sound editors in major national feature films and high-demand projects, Netflix brought—along with other streaming competitors—the demand and need to have our own unified professional structure so we were able to deliver sound within the best international practices, having the conditions to develop a team in a sustainable and steady way through the years.
Since then we have been able to work on very diverse projects—from zombie terror to thrillers, comedies, dramas, and documentaries—consolidating our place in the industry and allowing us to develop incredible new talents, even within Brazil’s harsh conditions.
Uzeda: Working on Netflix projects encouraged us to find solutions and improvements which influenced our workflow and studio protocols at their core. Being required to deliver quality and speed at international standards, and also editing with enhanced delivery formats in mind (such as Atmos) was a nice push for us. We also have the privilege to develop partnerships with some of the best re-recording mixers in Latin America such as Armando Torres Jr. and Caio Guerin from Full Mix Estúdios and also Rodrigo Noronha and Gustavo Loureiro from Lagoa Acústica.
NFS: Children of the Church Steps is executive produced by legendary Brazilian filmmaker Fernando Meirelles. What did his involvement mean to you both, and what was it like collaborating with him on this project?
Uzeda: When mentioning Fernando Meirelles, the first image that comes to mind are the raw and gritty performances of the iconic City of God. It’s also a big privilege of course to be involved in a project with a producer who is a reference for all Brazilian filmmakers and professionals. Meirelles’ films had a big influence on us long before we were involved with any kind of project.
NFS: Bernardo—can you briefly discuss the role that music plays in the overall sound design of Children of the Church Steps?
Uzeda: Music had an especially important role in the dream sequences, usually preceding the brutal event. In these moments there is a rich combination of the original score with atmospheric textures that we were able to weave within the soundtrack, giving a unity (almost like a leitmotif) for some themes that were recurrent throughout the series. There is also a nice touch of period songs from the 80s and 90s that Brazilian viewers will easily relate to.
NFS: Tomás—do you have a favorite sequence or scene in Children of the Church Steps from a sound perspective?
Alem: I love the chocolate factory robbery scenes being portrayed differently in each episode and how we’re able to play with the same events from each protagonist’s feelings and point-of-view.
It was really challenging to break down every detail and perspective and maintain objective references to keep a realistic approach to the events while also being able to play with the sound design to adapt to each character’s unique interpretation. We had the freedom to break some rules to enhance their imagination and adapt to the unique timing of the edit.
NFS: What films or television shows we expect to see (or hear!) next from the Aura Post team?
Alem: We’re currently working on a very exciting film called Overman, a superhero political satire based on a character created by Laerte, an important Brazilian cartoonist. It’s been a super fun and creatively challenging project; we’re really passionate about it. It’s produced by Disney and Migdal Filmes and directed by Tomás Portella, a very prolific partner we’ve already worked with in the past.
Uzeda: We also worked on a very intriguing period drama series for HBO, directed by Marcelo Gomes (who directed Cinema, Aspirins and Vultures). It follows the story of flight attendants who trafficked forbidden pharmaceuticals during the first years of the AIDS outbreak in Brazil. Both projects should be released within the next semester.
Author: Grant Vance
This article comes from No Film School and can be read on the original site.
