The Sound of Arrival

Sylvain Bellemare (Best Sound Editing) and Barnard Gariépy Strobl (Best Sound Mixing) discuss the unique challenges of building the soundscapes of the alien heptapods and managing their multi-national crew working in Paris, Montréal, Los Angeles, and New Zealand. Adhering to director Denis Villeneueve’s mandate to keep everything real and organic, the sound artists describe using no electronics in generating the film’s sounds, and how the sound design interweaves seamlessly with the haunting score by Jóhan Jóhannsson.