Patrick Hogan desires audiences to listen to what they can not see.
The movie director and sound skilled is a 10-time Emmy-nominated supervising sound editor. Hogan has labored on over 100 tv exhibits and films, together with Cobra Kai, Umbrella Academy, HBO’s Six Ft Underneath, and Reservation Canine. He is earned three Golden Reel Awards for his sound work.
Now, along with his newest horror brief, Blindsided, Hogan is combining each halves of his profession in a movie designed particularly to showcase what sound can do when it turns into the primary storytelling instrument. We chatted with the filmmaker to study from his strategy.
Hogan created Blindsided after a dialog along with his spouse and producer Anna Krista Johnson at a movie pageant.
“I used to be at a movie pageant griping to my spouse, who’s additionally the producer, concerning the high quality of the sound on a number of the movies there,” Hogan mentioned.
He thought, as a substitute of telling tales that him after which determining the technical execution, why not begin along with his biggest power and construct a narrative round it?
The idea emerged shortly: a girl trapped in her residence with a monster, however with one twist. She’s blind.
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Horror with a Snorri Cam
Hogan wanted a solution to maintain the movie visually participating for sighted audiences whereas nonetheless placing them contained in the protagonist’s restricted sensory expertise.
The answer got here by way of a Snorri cam—a vest-mounted digital camera rig that retains the lens centered on the actor’s face whereas transferring with them by way of house. It is a disorienting approach at first, creating an nearly floating high quality to the picture. However Hogan realized this uncommon alternative might clear up his storytelling downside.
“Sometimes, in a movie, the digital camera factors in the direction of what’s occurring in any common movie. When an enormous monster jumps into the room, the digital camera factors on the monster, and also you see the large monster,” Hogan mentioned. “And we thought, ‘Nicely, what if we flipped that and we simply turned the digital camera away from what’s occurring and simply confirmed her reacting to it?’ And now the viewers goes to listen to every little thing as a substitute.”
By holding the digital camera locked on the protagonist’s face all through all the movie, audiences see her reactions slightly than the threats themselves. The background stays seen however barely out of focus. The monster’s location, actions, and actions are conveyed totally by way of sound design.
“Whenever you’re in a theater, it is an attention-grabbing expertise as a result of quite a lot of the sound that is telling the story is coming from behind you, not in entrance of you,” Hogan mentioned.
Working with mixer Jamie Hart, Hogan blended the movie in 7.1 encompass sound, taking full benefit of newer audio expertise to pan sounds across the theater house and immerse audiences within the protagonist’s disorienting expertise.
Sound Design Issues Extra Than You Suppose
Hogan has seen an issue in low-budget filmmaking. Whereas aspiring administrators obsess over digital camera gear and lenses, they constantly neglect sound high quality. And sound, when it is unhealthy, is often noticeably unhealthy.
“I all the time level out yearly, the iPhone comes out with a brand new telephone,” Hogan mentioned. “They usually all the time tout the enhancements within the digital camera and the way a lot better the digital camera is. However how typically do they discuss how a lot better the microphone is?”
The identical sample repeats in filmmaking boards and communities. Freshmen flood dialogue boards asking about cameras and lenses whereas barely mentioning microphones, lavaliers, or increase placement.
“I’ve talked to quite a lot of movie pageant administrators they usually say, ‘Look, if a movie’s slightly darkish or slightly vivid or slightly purple or slightly inexperienced or no matter, visually, if it is slightly off, however we love the movie, then we overlook that,'” Hogan mentioned. “‘But when we won’t hear the dialogue, if the dialogue’s unhealthy, even when we love the movie, we won’t play it. We all know the viewers will simply be annoyed.'”
When somebody asks what digital camera to purchase with their thousand-dollar price range, Hogan would not give an anticipated reply.
“Shoot it together with your iPhone, however spend that thousand {dollars} on some lights and sound gear. Or on hiring actors who’re actually good, or spend it on manufacturing design,” Hogan mentioned. “Good cameras are straightforward to get. All the opposite stuff is the difficult half.”
Constructing Natural Monster Sounds
Creating the sonic id of Blindsided‘s alien creature required following the information established by legendary sound designer Ben Burtt on Star Wars. Hogan began with natural recordings and manipulated them.
It was necessary to layer a number of sound components that may very well be adjusted and recombined for every look.
“Good sound design is often not simply discovering one sound, however taking a number of sounds and mixing them in new and attention-grabbing methods,” Hogan mentioned. “Not solely does that make the sound extra layered and sound extra actual, however it permits you to subtly change it in order that if somebody yells or screams, each yell and scream would not sound precisely the identical.”
For Blindsided, the monster’s voice mixed a number of surprising components. Animal roars from creatures like bears, elephants, lions, and tigers supplied the baseline. Hogan and sound designer David Barbie (who labored with Hogan on Netflix’s Umbrella Academy) added much less apparent layers.
Excessive-pitched cymbal strikes created screeching, metallic undertones. Barbie even recorded his personal vocalizations—screams, sniffs, respiration—and manipulated them by way of pitch-shifting and different results to sound huge and inhuman.
By adjusting the stability between these layered components for every of the monster’s appearances, each roar carries barely completely different emotional weight. Some moments sound angrier, others extra curious or predatory. The variation makes the creature really feel extra alive and unpredictable.
BlindsidedCredit score: JohnHog Hazard Productions
Environmental Sound Placement Creates Realism
One of the vital frequent errors Hogan sees in pupil and low-budget movies entails environmental shaping, or the way in which sound behaves in another way relying on bodily house, distance, and obstacles.
When the monster rampages outdoors on the road, Hogan added delay and echo to simulate sound waves bouncing off surrounding buildings. Contained in the residence, he utilized reverb to indicate sound reflecting off partitions, flooring, and furnishings. When the creature strikes behind a wall or into one other room, the audio turns into muffled, with excessive frequencies filtered out to recommend the sound passing by way of a bodily barrier.
Distance issues too.
“Whenever you’re shut, you’ve got extra treble proper there,” he mentioned. “Whenever you’re additional away, it is the low frequency, so it is extra muffled, and it is simply the low frequencies which can be coming by way of.”
These changes work collectively to create a three-dimensional sonic house.
“We’re not exhibiting you the place the monster is, however we’re telling you the place the monster is with sound,” Hogan mentioned.
The movie’s opening exhibits audiences the surroundings earlier than the fear. The primary few pictures hint the trail the monster will finally take, giving viewers a psychological map.
Strive Pre-Recording Sound
Maybe essentially the most uncommon side of Blindsided‘s manufacturing concerned reversing the normal filmmaking workflow. As a substitute of recording visuals first and including sound later, Hogan created all the audio panorama earlier than capturing.
“We really did the entire movie and sound first. We did the sound design and the entire thing, the crash, every little thing in sound made a seven-minute radio play,” Hogan mentioned. “After which on set, we performed that again in order that the actor … she’s really responding to the sound. She’s not having to fake.”
Even the opposite actors recorded their dialogue first, permitting the lead performer to listen to and reply to actual voices and performances slightly than imagining them.
The approach additionally allowed Hogan to fine-tune the timing and depth of sound cues earlier than manufacturing, guaranteeing the audio would work completely with the eventual visuals slightly than hoping to repair issues in post-production.
BlindsidedCredit score: JohnHog Hazard Productions
Accessible Skilled Instruments
The Snorri cam rig required a digital camera gentle sufficient for an actor to put on on a vest whereas transferring by way of the residence set, however succesful sufficient to ship true cinematic picture high quality in low-light circumstances.
He selected the Blackmagic Cinema Digicam 6K, which supplied the perfect mixture of picture high quality and manageable weight. The movie takes place at night time in a blind individual’s residence, the place there is not any logical cause for lamps to be switched on. Lighting got here primarily from moonlight by way of a window and, after the alien crash, fires burning outdoors.
To seize sufficient gentle in these circumstances, Hogan paired the digital camera with a Sigma Artwork lens able to opening to f/1.4 or f/1.5. The huge aperture created an especially shallow depth of discipline, blurring the background and holding focus totally on the protagonist’s face and eyes.
“The DP is definitely strolling proper there along with her as a result of he is actually, he is received his arms on the lens and he is doing minute little focus changes,” Hogan mentioned.
However the shallow depth of discipline served the story, isolating the protagonist within the body and blurring the threatening surroundings.
For post-production, Hogan edited every little thing besides the sound in DaVinci Resolve Studio, which he switched to in 2020. The visible results, colour grading, and movie enhancing all occurred inside a single program.
Horror usually advantages from darkness, however in the event you push the shadows too far, audiences cannot see something. Make it too vivid, and also you lose the threatening environment. Hogan and his colorist experimented with a few of DaVinci Resolve 20’s latest options, although he acknowledges they took a danger by upgrading software program mid-project.
“We broke the rule, we backed up every little thing,” Hogan mentioned.
For sound work, he caught with Professional Instruments, which stays the trade normal and what he makes use of in his day job.
The entire undertaking got here collectively on what Hogan describes as a really, very low price range.
“The greenback barrier of moving into good high quality cameras and enhancing gear is basically not there anymore,” Hogan mentioned. “Within the grand scheme of issues, in comparison with motion pictures that price tons of of hundreds of thousands of {dollars}, what they’re charging for a digital camera and software program. And it is most firms, not simply Blackmagic, it is come down throughout the board.”
For younger filmmakers taking a look at skilled work and feeling intimidated by the obvious useful resource hole, Hogan sees the present second as uniquely promising. The instruments are accessible.
“16-year-old me could be very jealous of what 16-year-old starting filmmakers at this time get to play with,” Hogan mentioned.
Recommendation for First-Time Filmmakers
After a long time of working in each sound enhancing and directing, Hogan has realized what issues.
“Discover the story that you simply’re uniquely located to inform,” Hogan mentioned. “Blindsided is a superb instance of that, proper? There aren’t perhaps that many people who might inform this story the way in which we advised it.”
Hogan might make Blindsided the way in which he did as a result of he possesses experience in filmmaking and sound design. One other filmmaker with completely different abilities would possibly inform a totally completely different story.
The second piece of recommendation is about folks.
“Discover folks to collaborate with and make connections. Work on different folks’s movies,” Hogan mentioned.
Studying the technical elements of each filmmaking place makes you a greater director as a result of you’ll be able to talk extra successfully with division heads. Constructing a community of trusted collaborators lays necessary groundwork.
Blindsided operated on a tiny price range with a small crew, however nonetheless required about 18 to twenty folks to finish.
“Gear comes and goes, good individuals who you belief and who belief you, who you’ll be able to work with collectively. That is the important thing,” Hogan mentioned.
This text was delivered to you by Blackmagic Design. For extra horror filmmaking interviews and insights, try the remainder of our Horror Week 2025 protection right here!
