Directed by Bree Bridger
OVERRIDE
by Elizabeth A.M. Keel
September 5-29, 2019
SOUND DESIGN: JOHN PEEPLES SHARES THE DESIGN PROCESS FOR OVERRIDE
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Sound Design by John Peeples
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With Override, as with any show I work on, you start with the script first. Without any preconceptions I sit and read through the show and try to allow myself to react to what is there. Whenever I encounter a script for the first time I tend to ‘hear’ the environment of the play as I am reading it. I don’t write anything down the first time I just read and let the play take me where it will. I just feel it. The next time I read it I will begin to mark places within the script that I feel have either musical transitions or sound effects as well as start to make a cue sheet. This will be my guide to creating those things later. This part of the process can be a bit mechanical and occasionally boring, but it can also be a time where you can sit and think about something exciting you might want to try. I tend to over design shows and know that there will be things that will be cut later on. Doing that, I try to never get too attached to particular cues, knowing that things can, and will, disappear as the design process continues.
Early on in the process for Override it seemed that the show had a techno feel to it. The two characters were students at an elite university and were each working on projects that could be happening now or sometime in the near future. Also, it had a rom com feel to it.
Starting with that information, I began by making a pre-show music playlist. This helped me focus my science fiction energies.
The music I chose all came from a band that has been in existence since the 1970s and is a favorite in the electronic music scene named Tangerine Dream. They have many albums of their own and have also done more soundtracks for movies than I can count.
For all of the sound effects sprinkled throughout the show, I used a program called Logic Pro X. I found some electronic sounds as well as a MIDI keyboard and some instruments within Logic Pro X to create some sounds that the director Bree and I believed sounded right.
We liked the idea that there were sounds coming from the laptop, feeding the helmet placed on the ‘subjects’ head, and getting feedback. It was a fun process coming up with these different sounds. I had to experiment a bit to find the right combination, moving from the more traditional ‘beeps and boops’ you’d hear from a computer to what you’ll hear when you come in and see the show, which Bree and I like a bit better.
For the end of show music I created a short music track that I hope caps off the show nicely. I don’t usually write show music so this was a new thing for me and I was excited to do it for Override.
I hope you like what you hear when you come see the show.