Sound of Breathing in a suit

[Gohanto]

I'm working on a short film set in space at the moment, and having some trouble finding a good way to get the sound of "breathing" in a contained suit.

The sound of Jeremy Renner breathing in the bomb suit scenes of Hurt Locker, or Cillian Murphy's spacesuit scenes in Sunshine are basically what I'm aiming for.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

[Big Andy]

Originally Posted by Gohanto

I'm working on a short film set in space at the moment, and having some trouble finding a good way to get the sound of "breathing" in a contained suit.

The sound of Jeremy Renner breathing in the bomb suit scenes of Hurt Locker, or Cillian Murphy's spacesuit scenes in Sunshine are basically what I'm aiming for.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

First, all the breathing is ADR.... or is most likely ADR. The breath sounds are also extremely saturated. A lot of Compression followed by some eq work. OR you can use something like Speakerphone and do some microphone emulation followed by a lo-fi speaker.

[Rick Sanchez]

Originally Posted by Gohanto

I'm working on a short film set in space at the moment, and having some trouble finding a good way to get the sound of "breathing" in a contained suit.

The sound of Jeremy Renner breathing in the bomb suit scenes of Hurt Locker, or Cillian Murphy's spacesuit scenes in Sunshine are basically what I'm aiming for.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

ADR or Foley it. You can breath into a cup or a tube or a scuba mask or even cupped hands and get that claustrophobic sound.

[Big Andy]

Originally Posted by Rick Sanchez

ADR or Foley it. You can breath into a cup or a tube or a scuba mask or even cupped hands and get that claustrophobic sound.

Good Call!

[santacore]

The sound of Jeremy Renner breathing in the bomb suit scenes of Hurt Locker,

I never heard the dialog sessions, but I would imagine it was looped by Jeremy or a loop group, then processed. If it's up to you, I would try Rick's ideas.

We did do some Foley sweetener for interior perspective of the helmet. Primarily a stereo cloth track that we recorded a few different ways. The first pass we recorded like a normal cloth pass, but with the artists hands in a box, and a little added eq. The other pass we took a stereo mic and rubbed cloth agains the foam windscreen in sync with picture. Between the two takes it gave a cool sense of movement in a confined space.

It might be a nice element to add to the breaths.

[Jfriah]

Side note: worked ADR on Mission To Mars--- you'd think "hey! great opportunity for good clean location sound, with a mic mounted in the helmet right by the mouth!"

Pretty much all the stuff in the suits was ADR because of the fans to keep the actors cool.

[marclop]

Originally Posted by santacore

The first pass we recorded like a normal cloth pass, but with the artists hands in a box, and a little added eq. The other pass we took a stereo mic and rubbed cloth agains the foam windscreen in sync with picture.

I'm sorry I didn't get that, my english is not quite good. You mean that for the first pass the cloth movement was done in a box and the second rubbing the cloth against the mic (foam windscreen on the mic)?

Congratulations and great job!

Best regards,
Marco

[santacore]

You got it Marco.

Jfriah comments reminded me that they did have to loop everything because of the fan in the bomb suit. In fact, I'm starting to think we did do a breath pass. Most likely with hands or a cup over the artists mouth. I know we had a motorcycle helmet on the stage so we probably shot a pass with that on the artists head. Fun stuff!

[Gohanto]

Thanks for the ideas guys!

[marclop]

Thank you John for sharing with us this information!! Man...Foley it's a lot of fun!
Best regards,
Marco

[postprosound]

If its a low budget, and ADR might be difficult, my 2 best suggestions would be to use speakerphone, or worldize it the dialog inside of a very small space. I would imagine, that would give you very good results.

[cjguitar]

Originally Posted by postprosound

If its a low budget, and ADR might be difficult, my 2 best suggestions would be to use speakerphone, or worldize it the dialog inside of a very small space. I would imagine, that would give you very good results.

That's actually a good suggestion, and Speakerphone 2 has a new cover module, which you can use place the sound inside a box/cup/trunk of a car, etc. That should work great for that kind of sound. You might also want to go for a stereo sound, and bring it into the room a bit, if mixing in 5.1 sound.

[AdamJ]

Got exactly what you need right here:

Scuba mask breathing sound effect

Click on "Click to Load" halfway down the page to preview. Made by a pro for pro use.

Otherwise go here for some more, there are some Gas Mask breathing sounds half way down the listings that could also work:

Breathing sound effects

[bongjong73]

I have had some success by cutting out the bottom of a gallon milk jug. Then having the talent hold it up to their mouths and speak/breathe into that. Don't know if that is the affect you are looking for.

[Audio_Vision]

2nd the use of Speakerphone 2 and the cover module, very powerful. Some high Q filters to add some resonance in the upper mids might help as well.

[Spall]

OR....

soak a tea towel in water, find a large stainless steel bowl like a mixing bowl, stick your head over the bowl and drape the wet towel over your head and stick a mic inside too. Sounds strange, and I haven't recorded it myself but the last time I had a chest cold I had some vicks in some hot water and did the drenched towel thing to breathe in the vapour. I thought to myself if I ever need to do that.....

and if you do, take a photo so we can laugh!

[Gohanto]

Originally Posted by Spall

OR....

soak a tea towel in water, find a large stainless steel bowl like a mixing bowl, stick your head over the bowl and drape the wet towel over your head and stick a mic inside too. Sounds strange, and I haven't recorded it myself but the last time I had a chest cold I had some vicks in some hot water and did the drenched towel thing to breathe in the vapour. I thought to myself if I ever need to do that.....

and if you do, take a photo so we can laugh!

Hmmm.... well first, what's a tea towel? (If I'm going to take ridiculous photos I might as well do it right)

[Spall]

Originally Posted by Gohanto

Hmmm.... well first, what's a tea towel? (If I'm going to take ridiculous photos I might as well do it right)

ha ha, tea towels are what you use to dry the dishes my friend! And guess what, last night I actually got out our larger stainless steel bowl having remembered what I mentioned and tried it. Sounded very close. (breathing/talking into it) Luckily no one was watching

[dwlb]

I recorded some astronaut-helmet breathing and dialog a few years back. Stuck the actor's face in a glass mixing bowl and it worked pretty well. Then added the scuba/breathing apparatus sounds from the f/x library like AdamJ mentioned.