{"id":1113,"date":"2021-11-24T10:41:51","date_gmt":"2021-11-24T10:41:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/work.creativamotions.com\/flavorlab\/?p=1113"},"modified":"2025-04-02T23:06:08","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T23:06:08","slug":"the-breakdown-parables","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/work.creativamotions.com\/flavorlab\/the-breakdown-parables\/","title":{"rendered":"The Breakdown Parables"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\" lazyloaded\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/608377115?h=67cec3f539\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/center>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h5 id=\"h-trailer-for-the-breakdown-parables-by-emil-benjamin\" class=\"has-text-align-center\" style=\"text-align: center;\">TRAILER FOR\u00a0<em>THE BREAKDOWN PARABLES<\/em>\u00a0BY EMIL BENJAMIN<\/h5>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><center>In early 2020, Flavorlab began talks with a film team at Columbia University for sound design, mix, and music clearance. They were about to wrap production on a dark comedy short film, the thesis project of writer and director,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.irrelevant.media\/emil\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Emil Benjamin<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.irrelevant.media\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Irrelevant Media<\/a>, entitled\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt11095806\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>The Breakdown Parable<\/em>s<\/a>. Set in a seemingly normal casting office, the short follows five groups of actors coming in to audition. Each unravels to their most toxic forms, stereotypes of the acting world. Meanwhile, the receptionist begins to fall apart as she acts as the gatekeeper between reality and a purgatorial audition room.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><center>An actor himself, Benjamin met many of his cast members at drama school. As director, working with his friends and longtime collaborators, gave him much needed insights to poke fun at these more harmful archetypes. \u201c<em>The Breakdown Parables<\/em>\u00a0is the result of years of conversations and observations surrounding micro aggressions, internalized racism and misogyny, and the often-misconceived weaponization of woke culture we find in rehearsal rooms, tv &amp; film sets, and, in this case, casting offices,\u201d he explains.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4 id=\"h-i-always-view-my-actors-as-co-authors-of-the-characters-they-play-but-it-was-particularly-important-to-create-a-collaborative-space-for-this-piece-as-it-covers-some-topics-that-dwell-outside-of-my-own-lived-experience\" class=\"has-text-align-center\">\u201c<em>I always view my actors as co-authors of the characters they play, but it was particularly important to create a collaborative space for this piece as it covers some topics that dwell outside of my own lived experience.<\/em>\u201c<\/h4>\n<h4 id=\"h-emil-benjamin-director\" class=\"has-text-align-center\"><em>Emil Benjamin, Director<\/em><\/h4>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><center>By picture lock, the short had graced every screen in the Flavorlab office. Taken with the comedic pacing, eye-catching cinematography, and wild characters, both the sound and music teams were eager to get started. Audio engineer, JC Chao, dove in just in time for the COVID-19 pandemic. \u201cInitially, we were targeting to finish within the month,\u201d says Chao, \u201cBut the scheduled screening was cancelled and, now, I was working from home with a whole new set up.\u201d Mixing was postponed indefinitely as long term plans \u2013 in office or at home \u2013 were figured out. With ADR still to complete, eventually actors began recording. Some did remote recording with the sound team, some even sent in voice over from their phones. While a momentary quality hiccup, Chao didn\u2019t miss a beat achieving consistent mix and moving on to the real star: the sound design.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><center>\u201cThe film ebbs and flows between naturalism and absurdity. Earth and Hell.\u00a0I wanted the sound design to mirror that,\u201d says Benjamin. While largely set in reality, amidst rotary telephone rings and underscore, there are some intense, and otherworldly, sound experiences. Probably the most notable example of this is the \u201cpurgatory\u201d introduced in act three. At this point, the walls and doors of the casting office pulse with a blinding light, coursing with holy, but demonic energy. Given notes like \u201cthe door of an airplane being ripped off\u201d and \u201ca bitter cold wind,\u201d JC got creative with this vivid starting point. The key here was layering. He combined many ominous layers: choral dissonance, howling winds, screaming, and whispering, to name a few.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4 id=\"h-it-was-a-really-organic-process-where-we-both-got-to-try-out-new-ideas-the-film-wanders-between-the-real-and-surreal-and-so-too-does-the-sound-design\" class=\"has-text-align-center\">\u201cIt was a really organic process where we both got to try out new ideas. The film wanders between the real and surreal, and so, too, does the sound design.\u201d<\/h4>\n<h4 id=\"h-jc-chao-sound-engineer\" class=\"has-text-align-center\"><em>JC Chao, Sound Engineer<\/em><\/h4>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><center>Another blend of sounds occurs in a battle between two women. As they jealously argue and tension builds in the scene, a reverb slowly washes in. One ends up on the floor, experiencing what seems like a possession. Chao played with pitch shifting, phase shifting, and a touch of the delay effect, EchoBoy, to give her a voice from the beyond. The other takes on a powerful, super-human sound \u2013 stomping away with large, booming footsteps.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><center>In addition to sound design and mix on this short, Flavorlab music supervision team provided music clearance. Featured prominently is Mozart\u2019s \u201cHm! Hm!\u201d from\u00a0<em>The Magic Flute.<\/em>\u00a0The piece underscores the most outlandish, comedic moment in the short, as well as its most emotional. Benjamin sought these powerful polarizing emotions to highlight the archetype and reality, Earth and purgatory, of\u00a0<em>The Breakdown Parables<\/em>\u00a0world.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><center><em>The Breakdown Parables<\/em>\u00a0premiered at the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bushwickfilmfestival.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Bushwick Film Festival<\/a>\u00a0in October 2021. Following our work on this short, Flavorlab is working with Emil Benjamin once again on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.filmswithapurpose.net\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Films With A Purpose<\/a>\u2018s upcoming documentary,\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.filmswithapurpose.net\/oyate\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Oyate<\/a><\/em>, following the people of Standing Rock and the activists involved in #NoDAPL.<\/center><\/center><\/center><\/center><\/center><\/center><\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Flavorlab provided music supervision and audio post production to comedy short, The Breakdown Parables, directed by Emil Benjamin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1084,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/work.creativamotions.com\/flavorlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/work.creativamotions.com\/flavorlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/work.creativamotions.com\/flavorlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/work.creativamotions.com\/flavorlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/work.creativamotions.com\/flavorlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1113"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/work.creativamotions.com\/flavorlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1128,"href":"https:\/\/work.creativamotions.com\/flavorlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1113\/revisions\/1128"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/work.creativamotions.com\/flavorlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/work.creativamotions.com\/flavorlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/work.creativamotions.com\/flavorlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/work.creativamotions.com\/flavorlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}