Of Troopers and Knights Documentary

Project Overview

Created as both the opening sequence and trailer for a documentary on the Swiss Garrison fan community, directed by Sandro Schreiber, this project was shot on location at a Swiss military museum and inside an underground military bunker.

Although an unpaid passion project, it reflects my approach well as a sound producer: building a believable world by combining practical craftsmanship and technical experimentation.

Engineering a Soundscape

As the sole sound recordist on set, I handled boom operation and location sound capture, followed by dialogue editing, sound design, foley, and final mix in post.

A large part of the sonic world was built from scratch using custom-recorded source material. For the blaster shots, I recorded a suspended slinky with a piezo microphone and experimented with striking it with different materials. The pen from my graphics tablet gave me a good mix between not too bright and not too warm.

The footsteps in the snow are simply packing peanuts in a cloth bag that I then crunched in synch with the steps.

The TIE Fighter scream was recreated by combining and shaping recordings of a trumpeting elephant and a car driving across wet pavement, like Ben Burtt did for the original Star Wars movies. I used library sounds for this.

Fabricating an Imperial Interface

Beyond audio, I also designed and constructed the featured droid interface prop. The housing was drafted in CAD and 3D printed using metal-infused filament. I hand-finished and polished the parts and fitted the housing with selectable LED lighting diffused through white lapping paper to create a practical effect for camera.

The same port is placed in various spots throughout the short film. And it made a cameo in another project as well. Can you spot them all?