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Crime Nation

Audio Post Team for Crime Nation on THECW

ABOUT

Candle True Stories teamed up with the CW to create Crime Nation.

Gabby Petito, University of Idaho, Alex Murdaugh, Gilgo Beach. If you recognize these names and places, you’re the ideal audience for Crime Nation, The CW’s series that delves into the details of real criminal cases. Each episode features exclusive reporting, in-depth analysis, interviews and dramatic recreations. Flavorlab was thrilled to work on the 2024 season. Partner and re-recording mixer mastermind Brian Quill was ideal for the job. “I watch these kinds of shows, so for me, it was a lot of fun to work on.” Brian described the job as enhancing the sound design to make things more tense, dialing in the sound of the dialogue, leveling the music and editing it all together. “We smooth it all out,” Eric Stern, another of Flavorlab’s crack sound mixers who worked on the project, added. “If the audience notices an audio cut or a break, we haven’t done our job.”

WHAT SETS IT APART

According to Brian, what sets the project apart from other doc-format shows is that music drives Crime Nation. Sometimes the music is as loud as the dialogue to increase the tension. Raising the volume isn’t the only way to create suspense, though. Quill says adding a split-second of silence or using low audio right before the climax punctuates the visual to elicit a chilling effect. (In the case of Crime Nation, the visual is, more often than not, murder.

Also what made the job fun for Eric was how varied it was. For the dramatic recreation scenes, Stern beefed up various sound effects by adding reverb and adjusting the EQ. For a murder scene in the woods, Eric added layers of footsteps and crickets low in the mix. For a boat accident, he enhanced the sound of the boat motor right before the crash. And no spoilers, but if someone was to use a wrench as a murder weapon, you’ll hear it scrape off the table first, all thanks to Eric.

SWEET SPOT

Additionally both Eric and Brian loved working on the project. Like any job, Brian says “there’s always something I didn’t know how to do, that I figure out by the end. Every time we step up to the plate on a new project I like to think we do a little bit of a better of a job.” Finally This job came to Flavorlab through our long-time collaborator Stina Hamlin at East Coast Digital. It’s always icing on the cake when we get to work with friends. Thanks Stina!

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