A COLLABORATIVE POST
WRITTEN BY BOOM BOX POST
Something that was adapted during work from home was how the Boom Box Post team discussed recent film and series binges. These discussions prior to quarantine typically took place around the lunch table, but now they have shifted to a designated watch and listen slack channel. Here, we gush over our favorite new series, as well as offer recommendations to each other.
With that being said, I’d love to invite you into the discussion and highlight a few of the films/tv shows our BBP team has been streaming from home recently.
Growing Up Wild
“I watched Disney's Growing Up Wild on Netflix a couple of months ago. It's a 2016 nature documentary following four groups of baby animals growing up in their part of the world. I couldn't help but notice how full and lush each setting sounded. This included Sri Lankan jungles, African deserts, Alaskan coastlines, and other beautifully crafted soundscapes. It may not be fight scenes and monsters, but it was definitely a wonderfully relaxing sonic experience. My favorite part had to be all of the adorable baby animal vocals. So cute!” - Katie
The Mitchells vs. The Machines
“If you haven't watched it yet, I highly recommend "The Mitchells vs. The Machines" on Netflix. It completely floored me. Genuinely hilarious, visually inventive, heartwarming. Top marks for an animated feature IMO.” - Jeff
“It’s so good. Sci-fi mech robots with Michael B Jordan, Dakota Fanning, and David Tennant. I just really love sci-fi more than anything. I highly recommend it!” - Kate
“In general, considering the storyline of the show, there’s a lot of tech. There being multiple mech bots that the characters brought on for the GenLock program operate, there’s lots of servos, lots of use of pitch shifting for directionality of movement, lots of metal movement, but for the mech bots being 4 stories tall, they definitely went the more streamlined hi-tech route. They’re not clunky sounding in their movements, the gear movement layered in with the servos is more towards fluid and ratchet-y than heavy, clunky gears. However, the mech bots being massive, there’s of course lots of big, solid metal impacts all throughout. Especially mid fight sequences and when they’re running training exercises. The user interfaces, holograms, etc. which are all prevalent throughout are generally in the direction of more modern “subtle” hi-tech. Leaning towards higher frequency sound effects used to capture the movement of the interfaces/holograms/graphic images, straying away from the more old school “beepy” telemetry as I usually call it. There’s also quite a bit of fighter jets and flying throughout the show, which they kept in the realm of high performance, further technologically advanced versions of current jet sounds rather than going really sci-fi with it. Considering they’re working with a high level clearance military operation involving humans and advanced robotics and connectivity technology, not like alien space battles, it makes sense to go that route and is well suited. During the person to person, non-battle and mech training portions of the show, which in season 1, especially earlier on, there was a fair amount of dialogue and character development, they generally went very much in the direction of realism. Which also makes perfect sense considering the style of animation for the show. It would have been odd if they opted to go toony or highly over exaggerated with it.” - Greg