Episode 04 Pt. 01: Sophie Sound meets Jaime Sainz - Let Sound Be My Compass.
On the Feature Film Sand Castle (Director, Matty Brown) and small details that tell the story in a subliminal way.
A New Episode of Sophie Sound’s Restless Journey in Wonderland
Dear Reader,
In this episode, I finally make it to Never Stop Never Stopping. With no clear direction, determined and sure I’ll end up somewhere, I receive a phone call in the middle of nowhere, deep in Never Stop Never Stopping.
x,
Sophie
Fade In –EXT. SOPHIE – LANDSCAPE – ALONE – DAY
The cinema wall falls away, revealing a wide open field. A giant clown’s head descends from the sky.
SFX: Theme park music and old-school slot machine sounds.
BIG HEAD (singing, in an announcer voice like a theme park ride):Welcome, Sophie. THIS IS NEVER STOP NEVER STOPPING. Enjoy the ride.
She picks up her backpack, looks around. Nothing.
SOPHIE SOUND (clapping her hands):Let’s do it.
A SKIP IN TIME. Sophie walks across an open field—no woods, no landmarks in sight.
CUT TO
She pulls out a recorder and begins to record.
SFX: From her perspective—headphones on—white noise, static, a boat engine, distant interference. She points the recorder toward the sound.SFX: (Turning up the volume). The sound grows louder.
Afternoon falls. Busy Bee appears.
BEE:Oh look who made it into Never Stop Never Stopping. What’s your plan?
SOPHIE SOUND:I’m about to figure it out. I hear some white noise and a few other sounds. Don’t know what it is yet.
BEE:What about this direction? (Points one way.)What about that direction? (Points another way.)Did you hear that? I can hear something.
S:What, what? No.
B:Yeah, I hear something over there.
CUT TOClose-up on the recorder as it turns in the opposite direction.
BEE:Oh wait, there.
SOPHIE SOUND:Dude, go away. You’re confusing me.
CUT TOSophie walks again. She stops, looks in a direction, and turns up the volume.
SFX: Interference, white noise, static, boat engine, people murmuring.
SOPHIE SOUND:That’s the sound of a TV!
SFX grows louder as she walks toward it—TV, murmuring voices, boat engine sounds become clearer.
CUT TOFirst-person POV: she adjusts a knob on the recorder. When she looks up, a carpet, chair, phone, TV showing a movie, jacket, food delivery, and water appear in front of her. The white noise, interference, and language are now clearer. A movie plays on the TV—there’s a lighthouse in the frame, and the sound mimics a boat engine.
CUT TOSophie stands in front of it, staring at the TV. She moves the chair closer and sits down to watch.
SFX: TV turns off.
SFX: Phone rings…
Sophie Sound: There was a movie “The Sand Castle” playing on the TV, here on the naked field. In the opening credits it says you are the Sound Supervisor?
I first met Jaime Sainz in Mexico City, where he was one of the first people in post-production to review my sessions and give me feedback. Originally from Orizaba, Mexico, Jaime describes himself as a “failed musician” who ultimately found his place as a Supervising Sound Editor. He recently completed his first film in that role: The Sand Castle, the first feature film by American Director Matty Brown (which we’ll analyze in depth in the second part of this Episode.)
As a kid, Jaime was passionate about music and dreamt of becoming a musician. His father, though supportive, urged him to find a career that could provide stability.
“I was searching for a career when I discovered music and audio production. I thought, ‘Okay, this is cool. I’ll learn how to record music, play in a band, and understand microphones and studios.’” Jaime recalls.
And he lived happily ever after…
Well, wouldn’t that be boring? …
After winning a scholarship to the Vancouver Film School, Jaime moves to Canada in 2012. There, he sharpens his skills and builds a strong bond with fellow Mexican scholar Alan Romero who later becomes his partner of a shared Foley Studio Project that will get them into the Feature Film Olymp. But before that, he studies Sound Design in Canada.
After graduating in Jaime takes on every gig he can find to survive and feed his hunger for Sound. A Craiglist Gig to ADR a French Soap Opera keeps him afloat in Canada. “So what I would do when the French guy, Jean-Didier would come to record ADR, is that I would grab my mattresses and the bed frame and everything, and I would create a recording booth, with a microphone and a monitor inside. It actually absorbed the sound from his voice very well and isolated the exterior sounds in the apartment.
But then soon after, his visa runs out. Trying to find a job to renew it, the plan is to send out applications to loads of companies including Capcom, a video game company in Vancouver.
“But I couldn’t land a job at Capcom that I really hoped to get and that I needed in order to extend my visa to stay in Canada. My visa just expired and I had to go back to Mexico. I was heartbroken and disappointed.”
I sometimes forget that the position Jaime managed to work himself into today, doesn’t come easy. Peter Handke says in one of this thoughts: “Ich werde mich entschlossen verirren.” which translates to “I will decisively get lost.”
J: “Terrible, terrible. I was two years freelancing, and I would send emails. I would send emails to a lot(!) of studios, and nobody would answer me back. I would even tell them, like, you don't have to pay me. I would do it for free. Just teach me. Just give me the opportunity!.. I don't know if maybe the emails went to the spam inbox or whatever, or maybe they were like just, they didn't have a space. No one would reply.”
S: What changed?
J: Back in those 2013/2014 days, I remember that we had a Master Class in Vancouver Film School with Robbie Elias, who now is the lead sound designer at sledgehammer Games, and he has done all the Halo franchise. He's on the VFS alumni.
S: So, he played a big role in this?
J: He was saying that he spent like two or three years without any job, and he thought about quitting. Yeah.
He said, “That's it. I can't do this anymore because I need to earn some money, you know? And as much as I love sound, I cannot continue with this because it's heartbreaking.” And one day, a friend of him called him and said like, “Hey, there's a position to work here in Microsoft in Seattle. Do you want to come?” That's how he started his journey nowadays. He's a successful lead sound designer of the Halo franchise. So with that in mind, that helped me to go on, like, even though I didn't land anything in those years."
That struggle feels all too familiar to me. But then, a turning point, that sounds like a manifestation of Elias’s story and determination.
“Alan, the same friend who studied with me in Vancouver called me, and he said like, “there's this opportunity to record Foley for this Netflix series in Mexico called ‘Club de Cuervos’.” Jaime tells me.
I love that series.
J: The first season was on and they needed a Foley team for the second season. They hired Alan… and Alan called me…
The rock started rolling.
“Yes, because Alan and me - besides being very, very good friends - our work dynamic was super simple. The communication was perfect. It was super smooth. We reached a point where we would not talk because we knew what to do, you know?“
Until…
J: One day, we got a call. They told us about a new movie and said, “It’s from Alfonso Cuarón, and they want to try you out as a Foley team.” Alan and me. And we said like, “yeah, sure.” I was super scared, honestly, because it's like, man, this Alfonso Cuarón, he's a genius, Children of Man, you know? And then they gave us the scene of…
…did you watch the movie?
S: A long time ago, but yes, I watched it.
J: Okay, there's this scene where they are in the forest and there's a fire and a lot of children grab buckets with water and they start putting out the fires. And then this priest dressed up as a, whatever it was, comes in front of the camera and starts singing a song, a song like, I don't know what kind of song.
S: Chaos.
J: Chaotic. 100%. I watched that and I was like, no, man, we're going to die. I don't know if we're going to be able to do this, but we have to. So we went for it.
They landed the job on the later Oscar-winning movie ROMA. And through another strain of luck and good recommendations they land in the ears of Martín Hernández.
J: We knew about Martín but we never met him, right? And I mean, someone who did The Revenant, Birdman, Amores Perros, Pants Labyrinth. It's intimidating, you know? But he trusted us and made us part of his team at Cinematic Media.
S: And that's where you still are?
J: Yes. For six years now.
…At Cinematic Media in Mexico City where he just finished his first film as Supervising Sound Editor for The Sand Castle.
Jaime: Yes, this was my first film as a sound supervisor. The things is, that I had supervised streaming series before, but never a film all by myself.
Sophie Sound: The story is a movie based on war, a family fleeing war I think from Syria and being stranded on an island.
J: Exactly. The core theme is immigration. Nadine Labaki is Lebanese, the children in the film (Zain Al Rafeea & Riman Al Rafeea) are Syrian, and I believe the male lead role Ziad Bakri is Palestinian. The movie never explicitly tells you where they're from or why they ended up there. They're stranded and waiting for someone to pick them up. There are subtle hints throughout the film. For example, when the mother says, "We shouldn't have paid them the full amount without knowing if they'd actually come" you realize they must have paid smugglers to transport them. These small details are scattered throughout the movie, helping the audience piece things together. They never specify where the characters are from, but if I recall correctly, it’s based on a real incident involving Syrian immigrants in the 2000s. A boat carrying refugees capsized while heading toward Greece. You can see a reference to that in the film—there’s a scene where Nadine Labaki’s character looks through binoculars, and you hear a radio broadcast mentioning the Greek government's concerns about a boat that capsized. That event actually happened in real life.
J: Exactly. Most of the movie revolves around that tragedy.
….
In the second part of this episode, we continue the conversation with Jaime about being a supervising sound editor, working with Matty Brown on sculpting the sound and analyse a scene.
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x,
Sophie Sound
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