SHADE
SHADE came to me through director Valentino Dors, and from the jump it felt like one of those projects where the sound couldn’t just “work” — it had to feel right. The production audio was already solid, so my job wasn’t to fix mistakes, it was to sit with the film, watch it over and over, and really listen to what it wanted to become. Post wasn’t clean or linear. Cuts kept evolving, new music landed mid-edit, and I had to stay fluid the whole way through. Scene by scene, I shaped the dialogue, built the environments, and leaned into the quiet moments just as much as the loud ones. Projects like this matter to me because they’re not about polish for polish’s sake. They’re about trust, restraint, and using sound to deepen the story without ever pulling attention to itself. That’s the kind of work I care about most. Cannes Indie Shorts Semifinalist
Client
Valentino "Wavylord" Dors
Year
2025
Services
Sound Design, Foley, Film Mix, Film Mastering
Category
Short Film
The Situation & The Goal
Award-winning up-and-coming director delivered a well-recorded but unpolished on-set audio capture that needed to be elevated to festival- and broadcast-ready quality.
Picture edit was still evolving during post, with new cuts and assets arriving mid-process, increasing technical and creative complexity.
Goal: Transform raw production audio and temp assets into a cohesive, cinematic final mix that preserved performance authenticity across multiple environments while meeting professional loudness and quality standards.
Process & Key Actions
Reviewed the full film multiple times to understand narrative pacing, emotional intent, and sonic priorities before touching the timeline.
Collaborated directly with the director/editor to request and troubleshoot multiple AAF exports, insisting on a fully embedded, timeline-accurate AAF to ensure optimal post workflow.
Imported and conformed the final AAF into a custom, structured Pro Tools post-audio template, organizing dialogue, ADR, futz, temp SFX, music, and ambiences.
Cleaned, leveled, and organized every second of audio, ensuring proper track placement, gain staging, and session hygiene before mixing.
Performed detailed dialogue editing and mixing across diverse environments (car interiors, exterior scenes, bedroom, retail space), maintaining clarity and continuity.
Executed sound design and diegetic Foley, including footsteps, fight impacts, and environmental detail, building on and enhancing the editor’s temp SFX.
Designed immersive ambience layers tailored to each scene’s location and emotional tone.
Utilized Waves Audio Ultimate and iZotope RX for dialogue cleanup, noise reduction, and tonal consistency.
Integrated late-stage picture and music changes, adapting mixes without compromising continuity or quality.
Managed ~3 structured revision rounds with director and producer, refining creative intent and technical balance.
Delivered a final mastered mix optimized for film festival exhibition and broadcast loudness standards.
Results
Delivered a fully mixed and mastered post-audio package suitable for festival and broadcast presentation.
Achieved director and producer approval after multiple revision rounds, indicating creative and technical alignment.
Elevated production audio into a polished, cinematic soundscape supporting performance, pacing, and realism across all environments.
Notable screening run with an exclusive screening at University of Miami, and a placement at FilmGate Untold Stories Festival and Cannes Indie Shorts as a semifinalist.
Personal Takeaways & Skills Gained
Strengthened end-to-end post-audio workflow discipline for narrative film under evolving edit conditions.
Demonstrated technical persistence and advocacy by pushing for proper AAF delivery to protect final quality.
Deepened expertise in dialogue-driven storytelling, environment continuity, and diegetic sound realism.
Reinforced ability to collaborate closely with directors and producers while managing revisions efficiently.
Sharpened skills in cinematic mixing, sound design, and festival-ready mastering.