So I should preface this by saying that this is the first mix I’ve done for The Onion News Network that’s definitely NSFW (for anybody not familiar with ‘net acronyms: not safe for viewing at work).

That said, it’s the most complex sound design work I’ve done for them, too. It’s a satire of those “true crime” shows that feature dramatic reenactments of crimes that may or may not have happened–but of course The Onion pushes that reenactment to the next level…

The only audio I received at the beginning of the project was the dialogue.  Every other sound you hear–from the footsteps down to the noise of papers shuffling–is something I did in post-production.  While I got some of the sounds from a stock library, I actually recorded a number of them myself.  (It’s hard to find a stock sound for “building a cardboard pyre.”)  Because Raw Justice is a new show for The Onion, I also had to get sound for the title shot and all the various graphic swipes throughout the piece.

Crime Reporter Finds Way Of Linking Warehouse Fire To Depraved Sex Act

This was an interesting one from a post-production perspective. The Onion’s in-house graphics team (great work, BTW) and I (as a freelancer working in my own studio) had to go through several stages of revisions, coming closer and closer to creating a reasonably believable bat effect.

BREAKING NEWS: BAT LOOSE IN CONGRESS

I’m personally a bit bummed we had to deliver in mono, because I had some great binaural panning as the bat flew across the room in my first mix.  But because stereo just wasn’t an option, in the end I took more of a natural “as you’d hear it live from from the mics” approach–which is, I reckon, how it would sound if you were watching it on C-Span.

(Are there stereo room mics in the Capitol building? Maybe somewhere someone has a copy of Joe Wilson’s “you lie!” in stereo.)