The Sound of LUX, OBEN

Amazing student work continues to pour out of French animation schools – this time from EMCA.

(Above) Juliette Oberndorfer creates an entrancing, enigmatic story in her grad film, LUX (check out her blog and portfolio for more imagery) – but this otherwordly, cyclical transit is really heightened by the clever sound design of N’gouda Prince Ba, who previously composed the ethereal setting for OBEN earlier this year (below).
 

Aside from the fact that these stand alone as impressive visual and conceptual works, my real interest here was the emotional gravity created in both by this sole sound designer.   N’gouda Prince was kind enough to elaborate on his contributions to these works, his background, and expanding portfolio:

“I began my education in mathematics, but then transferred to a film school near EMCA, so I know a lot of students there – especially Thierno Ba, who asked me to work on OBEN.

For OBEN, I tried to create a tension to reflect the storm. It wasn’t easy. I wanted to compose a simple soundtrack, but the emphasis was the transitions between scenes.  It’s a bit difficult to keep a musical coherence between the great outdoors and the hospital. For LUX… Juliette wanted ambiance without music, with a climactic ending. In general, it’s simple for me: I just try to tell a story with the sound paralleling the film visuals.

At the moment, I’m working as an interaction and scenic designer for a museum (dance, exhibitions, theater). I’m also writing a new documentary film, and am developing the sound for animated film called “Sillage”. I hope I will succeed in telling the right story with the sound!”

No doubt it will be a success!  We look forward to future work from N’Gouda Prince Ba and the students/grads of EMCA.

Credits

LUX

Created by Juliette Oberndorfer | EMCA
Sound Design by N’gouda Prince Ba

OBEN

Created by Thierno Bah, Noé Giuliani, Pierre Ledain & David Martins da Silva | EMCA
Sound Design by N’gouda Prince Ba