The Neon Sound with Albert Huang
When a famous actor is questioned about why they think they were selected for a film, a typical answer given is “I was the right person for this project at this time. Preparation meeting opportunity equals success.” That equation is not only true for the marquee names we know but also for many of the film industry professionals working behind the scenes who contribute their extraordinary talent to these creations. It most certainly applies to sound supervisor and dialogue editor Albert Huang of the soon to be released feature film Neon. Since March of this year, the film and television industry have all but shut down, struggling to stay alive amidst a global pandemic that has ironically brought a greater demand for entertainment by the viewing public than ever before. Fortunately for Huang and the creators of Neon, his home studio allows Albert to work remotely and as masterfully as ever. Producer Runqiu (Rachel) Ma had the film locked but needed a fair amount of post-production work to finish Neon. A fan of Albert’s work on the documentary Go Together and other productions, Rachel Ma reached out to Huang to acquire him and make good use of his abilities.
While his work for Neon was not what he would describe as being initially intuitive for him, this fact actually testifies to what Albert accomplished for this film. He reveals, “When the director first showed me the locked picture, I was thinking we wanted to create a happy and positive mood for the film.” He laughs, “I was quickly informed that this was wrong. Ha.” Mengke Li wanted to rebuke the veneer of a happy-go-lucky experience for the more true-to-life pressure that comes from college entrance exams and peer pressure.
Neon is a film created without trained actors; one which utilizes real life drama. What subjects like this offer in sincerity, they lack in the wisdom of how the filming process works. This places high demands on professionals like Albert to recalibrate and strengthen the footage. He describes, “There is a multitude of ways for someone like myself to help a director achieve what they want. For example, during a night market scene, the area was not isolated and controlled which means that the sound is quite cluttered with traffic, rustling sounds, and the like which is distracting. By simply importing the clips, using software tools to remove obtrusive sounds, EQing out weird frequencies, and then matching the ambience of the location, I can insert the ideal sound environment into a scene where it did not previously exist.” He adds, “Sometimes it’s simply a matter of adjusting which mics are giving you what you need but slow-motion and montage scenes require a great deal of creativity. As the sound supervisor I lead a team that includes a sound effect editor, a re-recording mixer, a Foley artist, and a Foley recording engineer. I’ll work with the director and rerecording mixer to insert sound effects, music, and other elements. It’s like painting with a sonic paintbrush. The general public doesn’t really know how much creativity I get to utilize in my job…and that’s fine because seeing them enjoy the story is my greatest compensation.”
