Primate Cinema Installation
Client: Rachel Mayeri
Event: Ars Electronica, Linz
Provided: sound design
Date: 2012
Every now and then a project comes along that is difficult to summarize in technical terms within a single sentence. "Primate Cinema" is a film within a film, in which live chimpanzees in the Edinburgh Zoo witness a drama film involving one live ape and several humans in ape suits, shot in Los Angeles. I was brought into the project to create the complex dual screen sound design. To begin with nearly all location sound was scrapped and replaced by chimpanzee recordings and ADR of humans imitating them. Background sounds and foley were also carefully added into place. At one point in the film, we are shown a series of ape cartoons--which I also sound designed--which adds a third layer to the film within a film concept. The final quad-channel audio mix was added to a dual screen video installation for debut at the 2012 Ars Electronica Festival.
More project details: https://www.rachelmayeri.com/projects/primate-cinema/
A short trailer of the film in the early stages