'Cell 211' or what a mutiny sounds like... for Goya

The Resonancia and Cinemar Studios, under the direction of Carlos Faruolo, Sergio Burmann and Jaime Fernández, made it possible to capture the sounds of a riotous prison... which has now earned them the Goya.

The first Goya of the night for Cell 211 recognized an aspect that often goes unnoticed by the viewer but is vitally important in cinematographic narrative: sound. Sergio Burmann, Jaime Fernández and Carlos Faruolo managed to win for their work in Cell 211 a Peter Glossop y Glenn Freemantle (Now), Pierre Gamet , Nacho Roro-Villanova and Pelayo Gutierrez by The Victory Dance and Aitor Berenguer, Marc Orts and Fabiola Odoyo for the intimate Map of the Sounds of Tokyo.

Far from recording silence as in this last film, Faruolo, Burmann and Fernández had to provide sound for a film shot in natural locations and with hundreds of extras. The Resonancia facilities in Madrid and Cinemar in Santiago de Compostela became the workplace of these three professionals and their teams night and day so that we can imagine what a riot sounds like.

Carlos Faruolo, with his Goya in hand, told Panorama Audiovisual that "the most complicated part of our work was, without a doubt, the excess of riots that were in the film. We made sure that despite the fun, the viewer would not get tired. It has been a magnificent work of which I am terribly proud, even if we had not won the award."

For his part, Sergio Burmann highlights the difficulty of working with a lot of movement, without barely cutting the actors. “We wanted to get a direct sound that was as clean as possible and then be able to play with raising it, lowering it, giving it more or less reverse,… playing with an adverse acoustic situation,” he added. The solution to this challenge was to work with a lot of pole and radio microphones with a result… Goya.

Postproduction Resonance is a studio created by Carlos Faruolo, a renowned audio engineer who has provided sound for hundreds of productions. Cinemar is a studio created in 2006 in Santiago de Compostela that offers an integrated post-production and sound mixing service. These studies were designed by the British engineer Philips Newell, with Dolby approval.