Sound design and mix for OpenAI’s The Builders of Our Time with Alto - a brand film about the people building with Codex. One author on the sound, first brief to final delivery.
The brief was witness, not design. Nothing in the film should sound produced; it should sound like you were in the room when it happened. So the design was built from real one-shot sounds placed on the edit points - cuts as percussion, the picture playing the drums - and pitched into the key of the score, slotted where the music runs thin. At its spine is a human pulse, tempo-mapped, that becomes the idle of an engine. Biology into machine.
Voice and dialogue were recorded with real talent, directed over the wire. Every creative decision was made by ear, in the room, by a person.
When the film went to a live event, the playback spec asked for a hard music duck under the voice. It was built, heard, and it didn’t serve the film - so two versions went out: the spec as requested, and the studio recommendation, with stems for both so the room could go further. The recommendation went to the room.