M. Night Shyamalan’s latest thriller, Trap, shot entirely in the GTA with a DGC Ontario crew, hits theatres on August 2nd. Wider Lens sat down with Co-Sound Supervisors Jill Purdy and Dashen Naidoo to learn more about the unique challenge faced by the Sound team: crafting a dynamic, immersive soundscape that could seamlessly transition from the roar of a massive concert to the tense, intimate moments that drive the film’s suspense. Jill and Dashen take us behind the scenes to reveal how they brought this project to life sonically and the collaborative partnership that helped them achieve Shyamalan’s bold vision.
How did your team get involved with the project, and how did you both come on board as Co-Supervisors?
Jill Purdy: I first worked with Night on his last movie, Knock at the Cabin. I have a long-standing relationship with the film’s Post Production Supervisor and Co-Producer, Jeff Robinson. He’s worked with Night since the first season of Servant and also on Night’s movie Old. Jeff and I go all the way back to working on Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan.
When Jeff started working with Night, he thought our personalities would mesh well. He tried to get me on Servant and Old, but I was busy with other projects at the time. When Knock at the Cabin came up, he tried again, and that one worked out. I went down and worked with a New York crew on that project via my U.S. work visa.
When Trap was shooting in Toronto, Jeff again asked if I’d be able to Supervise. I had a Supervisor role on Knock at the Cabin, and we started advocating for an entire Toronto Sound crew.
One of our Mixers on Knock at the Cabin was Chris Cooke, a Senior Re-Recording Mixer at Company 3, which created a Toronto connection as well. We tried to get Chris on board to mix, but he is always in high demand and was unfortunately unavailable. We just kept pushing for a core Toronto crew, and finally, that idea stuck. Once Night saw that we had the best team for the job, he trusted us.
Left to Right:
Chris Burdon, Dashen Naidoo, Jill Purdy, Jack Madigan, Tyler Newhouse, Gilbert Lake.
(Not pictured) Music Team: Lesley Langs, Dylan Neely
Jill and Dashen, you two are Co-Supervising Sound Editors on this film. What was that experience like? How did you divide duties on the film?
Dashen Naidoo: I hit the ground running because Night likes to fall in love with the sound early, which is great for us. The movie is very dynamic, as you can see from the trailer. We go from huge concert settings to extremely suspenseful and intense scenes. He needed to create this world and wanted to hear the shape of it in the Avid. A lot of that involved me building the sound elements, delivering them, receiving notes from him, re-adjusting, and then delivering them back.
Whenever the scenes were dialogue-sensitive, I reached out to Jill. She would do a pass to clean up all of the dialogue so that we had the flexibility to play with it. This allowed us to see how everything complemented each other in a scene. It’s super helpful because when a Director and Picture Editor are engaged with the Sound, it allows us to build more trust and create elements that will end up in the final mix. This avoids the surprise of showing up to a mix and presenting a bunch of new stuff that hasn’t been heard before. Jill and I were able to hit those targets early.
Jill: I deal strictly with dialogue and ADR; I don’t do any design work, effects work, or very little of it. So, supervising-wise, it’s usually me on the dialogue side and someone else on the sound design and effects side, which in this case was Dash. Often, the Sound Designer is the sole Supervisor, but I’ve been pushing for the importance of dialogue recognition. I think it’s becoming more common to have someone focusing on dialogue and someone focusing on design, with both collaborating closely.
Night’s daughter, Saleka Shyamalan, plays the pop star Lady Raven and recorded all her own music, and the film takes place at the fictional Lady Raven concert. How do you rebuild that concert experience when you’re mixing the film?
Dashen: It’s definitely not easy, and it’s really done piece by piece. When Jill and I went to the set back in November to see what the actual concert looked like from a “movie magic” behind-the-scenes perspective, there were maybe a couple hundred extras moving around, and then the visual effects would fill out the entire stadium. We were hoping to pick up some recordings of screams and cheers, but in the chaos of the shooting, we couldn’t capture everything on our bucket list. It was still great to see how the concert was being filmed. Jill and I hung around for a few hours, met up with Night, and got a good perspective on what they were doing and aiming for.
When we finally got the cut of the movie, we could see what they had done to make it feel like a huge concert. It’s set in a Rogers Centre-type stadium, meant to hold 20,000 people. It was all about building out that experience with huge crowds and cheers, keeping the energy high. Jill did amazing work with the dialogue loop group, capturing the crowd interacting with Saleka and maintaining that energy. That was the key for Night—keeping the momentum going and the energy high throughout the whole thing. Saleka was actually around for the mix while she was working on her music for the film. She had her Engineer with her, and they delivered full stems of her music. This allowed us to have a ton of flexibility in the mix to play and to come up with interesting ideas for audio headspaces and sound design.
Night’s films usually have these dynamic shifts, even within scenes, and it gave us the opportunity to prioritize different elements, whether it’s Lady Raven’s performance or the suspense of a scene. During the mixing process, we work on things piece by piece, but it’s only in the later stages that we can watch longer segments and see if everything comes together. While it doesn’t always hit the mark right away, even getting close and refining the ideas is a win.
Jill: Dash did an amazing job with layers and an abundance of intricate material, allowing the Mixers to adjust the levels as needed, creating surges or pulling back at any moment. In the film, we enter Cooper’s (Josh Hartnett) headspace, and it was important to balance the concert atmosphere with his internal experience. We wanted to maintain the feeling of being at the concert while also delving into his character and building tension.
From a dialogue perspective, how do you manage the balance between high-energy, loud moments and quieter, more suspenseful scenes?
Jill: For the crowd scenes, we used some production crowd tracks that we could layer. We also recorded adult and teen loop groups, who followed the scenes from beginning to end, reacting as a real crowd would at a concert. We recorded multiple layers of the whole concert, each song, and added specific call-outs and screams like “I love you, Lady Raven!” We placed these sounds against the surges that happened whenever Lady Raven made a move on stage. These elements were recorded separately so we could add or remove layers as needed, especially when we were dealing with the score and the live concert footage. The mix was very intense, especially in the first half of the movie, which is mostly the concert. Balancing all the intricacies and subtleties while keeping the characters in focus was challenging, but the talent of our loop groups made it much easier.
What is your usual process when working on a thriller film to make sure the sound continues to build tension?
Jill: My process for everything I do is pretty consistent. My main goal is to make the dialogue sound as clean and natural as possible while preserving as much of the production audio as I can. I believe in keeping the authenticity of the performance, so this means going through all the takes to find elements that can subtly enhance tension, like breathing. In these thriller and horror projects, breathing becomes really important in quiet moments because it reflects the characters’ emotional states.
For me, the process is the same in these tension-filled thrillers or horror films: maintain the clarity of the dialogue, sift through the production audio, and shoot many wild tracks with loop groups and ADR. This gives me options for unplanned moments that come up during editing or mixing. If something unexpected arises, I can draw from these additional recordings.
Dashen: It’s pretty similar for me in relation to following a character’s emotional state. Also knowing when sound is driving an idea and knowing when to stay out of the way. These shifts are useful weapons in creating tension. I try to avoid bringing too much to the mix that we don’t necessarily need. Being involved early on helps eliminate unnecessary elements, which makes the final mix more efficient. Time is a big factor, and bringing too much means the Mixer has to sift through everything to find the right balance. It’s important to have enough options to explore different ideas without overloading the process. Part of the process that a lot of people don’t know about is we do “translation tests” on our end when we have the time. You take it to a theatre, whether it’s early in the morning or at the end of the day, and play it back just to hear how it translates into a typical theatregoing experience.
What was the most challenging scene to design sound for, and why?
Dashen: The concert scenes were definitely challenging, mainly due to the sheer amount of elements we were working with. It was a super collaborative effort between what Jill and I contributed, and everything had to blend seamlessly. We spent a lot of time shaping these elements so that the loop group and other important sounds could be heard without being drowned out by the music or crowd sounds.
On the other side of the spectrum, we had very quiet, suspenseful scenes where we were carefully selecting just a few elements to play. It’s the same concept, just with fewer ingredients—sometimes just two or three because the intensity was so high. Some scenes were entirely dialogue-driven, while others were more effects-driven. We brought hundreds of tracks to this mix, and it’s impossible to play everything at once without it sounding muddy, so we had to pick and choose our moments carefully.
Is it rewarding to work with a Director so invested in every part of the process?
Jill: Absolutely. Night is very collaborative, and even if he has his own ideas, he’s willing to listen to what you want to propose. There’s always tweaking, but in the end, we’re all just making sure the sound is the best for that particular moment, and every moment has a particular sound.
Dashen: What’s great is that Night works in passes. He’ll watch scenes with us and refine them every time we watch scenes again. It gives us perspective, but ultimately, it gives him perspective on what we can do with a scene. And as Jill mentioned, he’s really open to new ideas. I remember him saying early on in the process, “I just have to hear it. If you have an idea, put it on the table, and we can see if it lands.” But even if it doesn’t work, it helps you figure out what does work.
Is there anything in this film you’re particularly proud of?
Dashen: I found the process very rewarding. Working abroad has been a first for me. It can be nerve-wracking going into those situations because we have five weeks to get this movie sounding as great as it can be in the time we have. You hope the dynamics and the energy works in a room, and it really did. We all had a great time working on this film, everybody was just so easy and fun and creative.
Jill: I’ll echo that. I always get a little nervous working with Mixers that I haven’t worked with before, and highly decorated, award-winning Chris Burdon and Gilbert Lake have reputations that set the bar extremely high! But they were the most wonderful team, and we all gelled personality-wise. It made it easy to be away from home mixing on Night’s stage in Pennsylvania for five weeks because we were so tight, both professionally and personally. We were all on the same page in terms of getting the film to sound as great as it could, and I’m stoked to hear what people will think of it. I’m super proud of the way the crowd scenes turned out, all of the layers that we brought to the table, and how they ended up working out and mixing. It’s always amazing when you can walk away and be proud of the track that everybody contributed to.
See Trap in theatres on August 2nd.
