Creating a Killer ‘Live’ Concert for Shyamalan’s ‘Trap’ – with Sound Supervisor Jill Purdy and Dashen Naidoo

Director M. Night Shyamalan's film Trap mainly unfolds at a pop concert. To make the performance feel 'live' and to keep it going throughout all locations in the stadium, the sound team – led by sound supervisors Dashen Naidoo and Jill Purdy – needed to craft reactive concert crowds, create a unique sonic perspective of the concert for the different locations in stadium, and then shift to the killer's POV (and incorporate the film's score) to portray his anxiety and to tell the story Shyamalan intended for the film. Here, Naidoo and Purdy detail their approach to achieving a convincing concert sound, using sound to build tension, and so much more!

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Interview by Jennifer Walden, photos courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures; Jill Purdy; Dashen Naidoo

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Ever been to a big event and just felt trapped in the crowd? Imagine being intentionally trapped at a crowded event with no way out. That thought is honestly anxiety-inducing. Director M. Night Shyamalan cleverly taps into that nightmarish scenario in his newest film Trap by making the film’s main character a serial killer who attends a concert with his daughter only to find that police have the place locked down and escape will be nearly impossible.

The main portion of the film unfolds during a ‘live’ concert by pop icon “Lady Raven” (performed by Saleka Shyamalan). The young crowd of superfans sing along to her songs, call out support for the concert’s “Dreamer Girl” and special guests, and react just as you’d expect a concert crowd to. Making this concert feel ‘live’ took tons of work in sound post. Supervising sound editors Jill Purdy and Dashen Naidoo (also sound designer) needed the concert to be felt and heard, dynamically and realistically, in every part of the stadium, including the concourse, tunnel, backstage, and employee areas. Here, they talk about how they achieved that by blending loop group with effects crowds, production crowds, and source music to sell the concert, creating different dialogue treatments for different comms and device speakers, shifting sound to the serial killer’s POV in chaotic situations to build tension, and so much more!

Trap | Official Trailer 2

When did you start on the sound of Trap and what were dir. M. Night Shyamalan’s thoughts/ideas for how this film should sound?

Sound supervisor/sound designer Dashen Naidoo

Dashen Naidoo (DN): I started late February 2024. Around that time, we did a spotting session with Night, who gave us his early sound ideas for the film – lots of perspective ideas of how and where to play the concert and crowds, thematic ideas of Lady Raven vs. Cooper, and where shifts should occur to pull us into his headspace as he tries to work his way out of the “Trap” he’s in. The film ran close to two hours in its very early stages.

Shortly after these discussions, Night and his picture team had me jump into cutting right away. I started tackling scenes that were most important for him at the time – the fryer explosion scene, the suspect tackle scene, the kitchen scene at the end, etc. Most of our work was dictated by what Night wanted to hear on any given day.

Upon delivering back to the picture department, I’d print a handful of stems for each scene so they had some flexibility with the faders on their end.

It was great to have Night’s attention to sound so early.

Parallel to me, we had a UK sound design team which consisted of Ben Meechan, Jeremy Price and Luke Gentry (SONA. Sound). An awesome group of designers who tackled the SWAT/action scenes.

Jill Purdy (JP): I started on Trap a little later in the post process – aside from providing some dialogue clean-up and ADR for the scenes Dash was asked to design early on – as I was wrapping up Ishana Shyamalan’s The Watchers in Pennsylvania at the onset of Trap.

Trap mainly takes place during a ‘live’ concert. Can you talk about how you handled the ‘live’ music and performances in post? Did you have pre-records of the songs? Can you talk about your approach to making it feel like it’s happening live, both inside the concert and also throughout the hallways of the venue?

JP: All of the concert songs were pre-recorded and then refined throughout the mix (more on Saleka’s process below!). Dash and I focused solely on the crowd in these scenes, balancing this with the pre-records provided in the AAFs to us from picture editorial. From our understanding, some of the crowd extras on set had earpieces with feeds of the songs to which they could mouth the lyrics they learned prior to filming, but no singing was recorded at this time.

Sound supervisor Jill Purdy

While editing and mixing, it was important to keep the energy and momentum as high as possible to convey the excitement of twenty-thousand people in a stadium that was filmed in actuality with approximately two hundred (more on this in the next answer). It was essential to Night that this momentum was felt dynamically and realistically in every part of the stadium, including the concourse, tunnel, backstage, and employee areas. When we were below the stage with Cooper and Jamie in the merchandise storage area, it was important to hear the concert crowd and music bleed; when we were in the concourse, it was important to hear announcements from the stage spilling into this area and the crowd at all times. It was crucial to hear the anticipation of each song and the exhilarating reactions to Lady Raven in every part of the stadium, reflective of each location’s perspective and relation to the stage.

How did you handle the concert atmosphere? Were you able to get recordings of the crowd on set – for the sing-alongs and callouts especially? Or, were those handled with loop group?

JP: ​​The concert atmosphere was crafted moment-by-moment to reflect the actual concert vs. Cooper’s headspace and emotional state by using various combinations and layers of production crowd, FX crowd, and loop group singing/general walla/crowd bursts/single callouts.

Although none of the sing-alongs were recorded on set, our production mixer, Greg Chapman, captured production crowds for all of the concert scenes that were used as a base to build upon.

Although none of the sing-alongs were recorded on set, our production mixer, Greg Chapman, captured production crowds for all of the concert scenes that were used as a base to build upon. We recorded two separate loop groups: one adult-only, and one teen group. The teens were provided with all of Lady Raven’s songs prior to our session so they could be learned before recording. To say that the singing enhanced the concert scenes is an understatement! It was the icing on the cake to create the concert reality and the teens were exceptional. I need to give a special shout-out to ADR Recordist Devin Doucette at Company 3 in Toronto, who recorded the group sessions!

We spent a tremendous amount of time mixing the crowds, which dominated the first half of the film, ensuring that a deliberate and meaningful balance between all sound elements, including source music and score, was achieved to enhance Night’s vision and storytelling.

Since this is a psychological thriller, how did you use sound to build tension? (For instance, there are shots of Cooper’s face as he’s feeling trapped in the concert, and there’s a nice sonic shift of the music and crowds.)

DN: Those shifts happen a bunch of times through the film, and we did our best to build them into the Avid so that we could create a blueprint for the mix. It was mostly pulling away from all of the worldly sounds and letting music take over.­

Alternatively, we created tension by sonic shifts within the sound effects. For example, in the fryer explosion scene, we shift from the concourse crowds to the kitchen sounds and then completely into the sound of the bubbling fryer to pivot our attention to what Cooper is focused on.

For Lady Raven’s piano performance at Riley’s house, what did you have in terms of tracks to build this scene? Was Lady Raven’s production dialogue track used for her singing?

JP: No production/dialogue recording was used for Lady Raven’s piano performance. Saleka – being an incredible songwriter and performer – spent all available time fine-tuning and perfecting her tracks in her recording studio, which was adjacent to our mix stage in Pennsylvania. Much like Night as a director, Saleka wanted every moment to be reflective of its intention in the overall context of the film.

There’s a really tense scene of Lady Raven listening through the bathroom door to what The Butcher/Cooper is doing to the family after Lady Raven reveals that he’s a serial killer. Can you talk about your sound work for this scene inside the bathroom?

DN: This was very 50/50 between Jill and me. We both feared having to loop any of the characters for this because so much of the selling point is built into the natural performances from the shoot day which we will never be able to recreate. Jill built a great, full track from various production takes.

Night wanted the door banging and handling to sound very intimidating and scary as if Cooper could break it down at any moment, so I did a similar record with a door at my home.

To help sell it a bit more I recorded a bunch of commotion for Rachel, Riley, and Cooper so you get a sense of their movement in proximity to Lady Raven’s point of view.

Night wanted the door banging and handling to sound very intimidating and scary as if Cooper could break it down at any moment, so I did a similar record with a door at my home.

We shaped it out to build in intensity – knocks to bangs to furniture falling/breaking, etc. Their voices and performances increase in fear and tension as well. Chris and Gilly did a great mix job of this. Very rewarding!

Another tense sequence is the limo ride. Lady Raven escapes into a crowd of her fans. Can you talk about what went into the sound build here?

DN: The SONA. crew did a great pass on this scene, and we added more as it changed and evolved over time. The crowds had to build in size and intensity; the handcuffs were a mix of tracks recorded by SONA., myself, and our foley team. There were layers of knocks on the windows as crowds got closer to the vehicle. Night also wanted to keep Lady Raven’s movement alive when we cut to the front-seat shots of Cooper. When Lady Raven finally escapes, it bursts with crowd energy that shifts into panic once the SWAT team arrives. This scene went through a lot of iterations over time.

Several overall crowd passes were recorded with loop group, with the initial pass not previewed for the group so they could react as authentically as possible to the action in this scene…

JP: Several overall crowd passes were recorded with loop group, with the initial pass not previewed for the group so they could react as authentically as possible to the action in this scene – the arrival of the limo, the speculation of who might be in the limo, the recognition of Lady Raven in a dire situation needing help, the rallying of the crowd/fans to help Lady Raven, the arrival of the SWAT team and Cooper’s escape.

It was very important to have the crowd focused on Lady Raven and her safety, with callouts and specific lines written and intentionally placed throughout the scene to boost this urgency. It was also essential to keep Lady Raven “alive” throughout the scene as she worked to escape from the handcuffs and limo via breaths and efforts.

Cooper and his wife are in the kitchen. He’s eating the pie, and talking about how angry he is. This is a great moment for foley! Can you talk about the sound work here?

DN: The foley team at Footsteps Studio did an incredible job with all the small hand movements, plates, cutlery, etc. The intention was to be uncomfortably hyper-real with those elements and they brought great stuff to the table – literally!

I added creaks of Cooper’s chair whenever he leaned forward, the fork hitting his teeth as he took each bite, etc.

In addition to this, I added creaks of Cooper’s chair whenever he leaned forward, the fork hitting his teeth as he took each bite, etc.

Sound effects editor Jack Madigan recorded and designed Cooper’s heavy knife. I loved it. He nailed it!

JP: The kitchen scene was incredibly meticulous (and satisfying!) to edit, resulting primarily from camera noise heard in the close-ups of Cooper and Rachel, the noise floor in that location, and the sound of the kettle in some takes. Night shot on 35 mm film stock – which is fabulous!!! – but the camera noise was extensive during the close-ups. The dialogue edit involved several layers of various noise-reduction processing and some out-taking to preserve the production audio, which I’m thrilled to say remained intact throughout the film. Thanks to Greg Chapman for his production mixing; there were so many variables to contend with on this one!

Cooper gets tasered by the police. Love the taser sounds! What went into those?

DN: Night wanted this scene to show Cooper as a giant that can’t be taken down, even by three tasers!

The SONA. team designed this moment, and it was awesome. They designed taser clicks, electricity cable twangs, etc. The rising voltage electricity sound just before Cooper collapsed was very cool and effective.

There is also a lovely array of dialogue treatments in the film – walkie-talkies and earpieces, the camera feed from the basement, etc. Can you talk about your approach to the different dialogue processing?

JP: We experimented with different dialogue treatments throughout the film to obtain distinct environmental qualities that reflected realistic locations, the headspace of the characters speaking/listening, and audibility. This became especially important with Spencer’s first reveal on Cooper’s phone in the stadium bathroom – balancing clarity for the film audience with the reality of what might be heard by the other characters in this scene and acknowledging Spencer’s actual location with respect to Cooper’s.

…Cooper could hear Josephine in her real physical location as well as in his earpiece simultaneously.

This also came into play in the family bathroom later on during Spencer’s conversation with Lady Raven – balancing the clarity of this phone conversation vs. the clarity of the family chaos occurring on the other side of the bathroom door.

When Cooper steals the earpiece that allows him to eavesdrop on the FBI and SWAT team members, it was essential to tailor Cooper’s listening experience to the environment he was in, be it the stadium, stadium tunnel, or backstage, with clarity and audibility reigning after each treatment was established.

The backstage earpiece treatment presented an interesting challenge/balance in the scenes where Cooper could hear Josephine in her real physical location as well as in his earpiece simultaneously. All of the treatments considered each ‘real world’ location, with subtle changes reflecting Cooper’s headspace as the cat-and-mouse chase progressed.

What scene was the most challenging for sound editorial? Why?

JP: Overall, the concert scenes were the most challenging, as Dash and I literally provided hundreds of tracks that needed to blend together seamlessly to make the concert as immersive and real as possible without making it sound like a wall of noise. It was wonderful to be able to weave in and out of any layer at any given moment to feature Lady Raven, the overall crowd, single callouts, crowd singing, excited bursts, and balance any and/or all of these elements to convey Cooper’s emotional state. The amount of time it took to achieve this balance was overwhelming, but rewarding.

What was your favorite scene for sound design? Why?

DN: I’d say the kitchen/kettle scene. The dead quiet and intense scenes are the most sensitive and critical, which often makes it a challenge. To see a kettle steaming at full blast but not yet whistling is an example of creative license that we can take in film sound. It’s unnatural but also unsettling, which I think adds to the emotional intention. It’s also a very exposed scene and because of that, each little sound has to land to make it terrifying. It’s a delicate balance between equal parts dialogue and sound effects/foley.

Post Sound Team, Left to Right:
Chris Burdon, Dashen Naidoo, Jill Purdy, Jack Madigan, Tyler Newhouse, Gilbert Lake. (Not pictured) Music Team Lesley Langs, Dylan Neely

How was working on Trap a unique experience for you? Now that it’s all done, what are you most pleased with in terms of the final sound?

JP: Working on Trap was unique in that it was a wholly collaborative effort from the entire post-editorial team and we all contributed significantly to a track we are proud of.

…it was a wholly collaborative effort from the entire post-editorial team and we all contributed significantly to a track we are proud of.

With regards to sound, Dash, Jack Madigan, and I traveled from Canada, our re-recording mixers Chris Burdon and Gilbert Lake traveled from the UK and our music editors Lesley Langs and Dylan Neely traveled from different parts of the US to spend five weeks together on Night’s mix stage in Pennsylvania. Our professional and personal rapport was fantastic from the get-go and I think that is reflected in the track. The challenges we faced not only with the concert scenes but with the intimacy of the dialogue scenes in the latter half of the film to parallel Cooper’s mental state were overcome by non-stop communication and presentation of ideas within our team. The fusion of these ideas with Night’s vision for his film was the ultimate collaboration.

DN: It was a lot of fun both on and off the stage. The team we had that Jill named above was all on point. We caught a rhythm with each other pretty quickly and we always had a plan for each day.

It’s a very dynamic film as we go from a roaring concert to quiet and intense scenes and everything in between!

It was a unique experience having UK mixers, American music editors, and us, Canadian sound editors, all come together to work on a mix stage that’s built in Night’s home in Pennsylvania.

In addition to everyone mentioned above, I wanted to shout out Night and his team: Co-Producer Jeff Robinson and Post Production Supervisor Chris Clemente. They made our stay and work environment very comfortable.

In terms of final sound, I am most pleased with the shape of it all. It’s a very dynamic film as we go from a roaring concert to quiet and intense scenes and everything in between! It’s very fulfilling to see it all take shape.

A big thanks to Dashen Naidoo and Jill Purdy for giving us a behind-the-scenes look at the sound of Trap and to Jennifer Walden for the interview!

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