Emerald Fennell’s followup to her Oscar winning film, Promising Young Woman, is a twisted, horny tale starring Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi, Rosamund Pike, Richard E. Grant, and Alison Oliver. Saltburn is a gothic fairytale that follows two college students at Oxford as a mystery unravels one summer. Our Awards Editor, Jillian Chilingerian, was lucky enough to speak to the Supervising Sound Editor, Nina Hartsone, about her work on the film.

Jillian Chilingerian: How is your day going?
Nina Hartstone: Yeah, really good. Thanks. It’s just so lovely to be back in the world of Saltburn.

Jillian Chilingerian: I’m so excited to talk about it because I have seen it twice. I love it, obsessed. I’m probably going to go again. I have so many questions about a lot of the sound that went into this because there are so many special moments that I want to dive into. So first thing I want to talk about, what was the process of defining how Saltburn sounds and what is that going to be like? This is such a visual movie, but I think the sound just adds an extra layer as the viewer, you’re kind of submitting yourself over to this place and getting lost in it. So, what was that process of creating that atmosphere?
Nina Hartstone: Yeah, well you follow a journey through the movie. We’re always trying to make sure that we were definitely working with the period, working with the music that’s in the film. As you say, once you get to Saltburn, the place itself has its own character, so making sure that we use the sound to really kind of amplify the character of the house and the family themselves apart from the individuals, the whole family has their own character as well. We definitely did a lot of thinking about how to really support the story, support the performances, and also take us on this journey, it’s an absolutely thrilling ride through the film, and sound had to be a big part of that, to really bring the viewer in, we wanted to make sure that while the viewer is watching it, they’re, they’re actually feeling the sound, they’re not just hearing it, they’re feeling it and we made some of the sound design quite visceral, we had lots of fun recording all sorts of different things to try and get get things real. But also, there’s huge kind of sections in it, where we’ve got quite a lot of voices that we needed to record. We made sure we researched the periods, and that everyone was speaking in the right kind of dialogue and the whole concept of our sound work for it was really to take us on a journey, and take us into Saltburn and just envelop us in this world with our amazing characters and just make sure that the sound was bringing the viewer in. So using moments to make the viewer lean into the story and listen, maybe using silence at times, and then contrasting it with a lot of sound work that hits you on transitions and those kinds of things, everything to make it feel real, and obviously, the whole humor as well. It was great to work on something so funny. We had so much fun, making sure everyone’s great performances landed with humor, but also with any kind of sound that we could use. It’s all very subtle, but just to try and amplify the humor of some of those scenes.

Jillian Chilingerian:When you first see that trailer, which is Oh my gosh, you’re like oh what is this and then watching it, it’s like just the laughter of eruption and hearing people being so vocal about how they feel all good things. I think like those beats, which you’re mentioning, they just hit so well with everything coming together.
Nina Hartstone:Yeah. Yeah, it was huge fun to work on. We laughed a lot.

Jillian Chilingerian: And then going back, there are moments and, I don’t want to spoil, but there’s a scene in the third act, where there is the music playing and then cuts and, we hear Oliver’s whimpering and I think that’s like a very pivotal moment on his character journey of, we already know something’s wrong with him, but I didn’t know, we could sink lower. So I am interested in that decision of music is cutting and, then we’re just having to sit there and sink in with the visual and like that audio experience of this man doing things.
Nina Hartstone: I mean, that’s the thing. There are so many incredible and groundbreaking and visceral scenes in the movie making the choices with the sound and the music to amplify, and picking those moments for when the audience would lean in. We were so fortunate, obviously, the performances are all incredible, every cast member does such incredible performances, it’s impossible to pick who you love more. And the fact that Emerald and Victoria our editor are super sort of conscious of sound and music, it’s a huge part of the process from the get-go from all the way through the process, they’re all always thinking about how the sound or music are going to work. So it means for us coming on, we’ve already got something that just works so well and we know that we can then bring this extra layer of sound design and sound choices that are in the language of the film. But also, can we go from things that are quite realistic to then also quite stylized, and also quite intimate, but also very grand. So it gave us this full kind of palette to be able to work with and it was just finding the way that is the most powerful and the most effective, that really kind of told the story and told the story of the performances that were being given and, and where you are in the headspace of the characters as you journey through the ride in Saltburn.

Jillian Chilingerian: Yeah, I love that it’s very apparent, I think the story is dealing with this idea of starting off from the beginning. Was it love? Was it lust? Like, how does he really feel about this relationship between Oliver and Felix and this world where he’s an outsider and entering into something that he thought he could try as much as he wants to, but he’ll never feel like that. So, how did you like working with that kind of idea?
Nina Hartstone: I mean, as we go through the film, we’re kind of Oliver’s ears and eyes through it, I think it was really important to follow his experience and use the sound that way. So we always made sure that if we’re with him in a room that we are, and we look at him, we’re hearing any little breaths that he does any of his reactions, we’re always made sure that we are close to close to the character in that way. I think the whole journey that we go through, just always trying to not just represent what we see visually, but also using sound, whether it’s putting things out or adding things in it just to try and bring the viewer inside his head. And that’s always such an interesting layer in sound to actually try and use it to depict trying to find moments and whether it’s the style of the sound, whether it’s something that’s kind of makes you feel uneasy, a sound that goes in or an atmosphere, or whether it’s something that feels warm and rich, those things always keep the audience on that emotional journey with our protagonist. That’s the sort of fun, detailed work that sound gets to bring to the beautiful images that we already have. You know, it’s just like trying to build that real richness, but also making choices all the time to support the story and support the character development.

Jillian Chilingerian:Yeah, because no matter if you agree or disagree with the character, we’re very much pulled in, and go along with him whether you want to or not at certain moments.  I personally love a movie where we are in the head, we are figuring and mapping out and as we know, he’s very calculating, but also very silent. Just watching him go through that with like, the sound amplifies or subdues certain moments, I think really speaks to his journey.
Nina Hartstone: Yeah, it was quite often about building that tension up to a particular moment and you have journeyed, it’s not like one moment here, one there, there’s, there’s a build, there’s the overall build across the whole film, but then there are also certain sections there’s a build of pressure cooker environment, and then release of lots of joy in various scenes. So it had such a great rich pageant for us actually for the sound.

Jillian Chilingerian: Because, like you’re mentioning, it’s not like there is a final moment of the last word, but there’s also all these moments of build-up and keeping the audience unlocked if there’s always a sense that something is going to happen. I love movies where there is slurping and gnawing and we definitely get a little bit of this slurping in this. What is the process of creating that sound? I feel like it’s a movie where we’re peering in on people at the ugliest moments.
Nina Hartstone:Yeah, well, definitely, our Foley team who were fantastic, they had lots of fun, creating all sorts of sounds for this film for various different scenes. And I think it is those intimate sounds, and it’s finding the balance of something that is real, but also is speaking to actually what you’re watching. There’s wickedness, it’s quite shocking in certain areas. We did an awful lot of recording, and recording different sounds, and all sorts of things from kind of like fruit and vegetables to octopus to all sorts of different sounds, to really try and find exactly the right thing that feels right for the images and it’s really supporting what you’re watching and also giving the audience a really visceral experience. So important for us to, with the sound actually make the audience, not just observe it, but actually feel something and we do that with the music, but we also do it with certain sounds that can be very uncomfortable to watch and listen to certain areas, and you come to Saltburn and you enjoy a ride and you are in it from beginning to end. And it was so important to us to actually use the sound to heighten the experience of the viewer, wherever we could, and really make the whole ride of this movie, just as enjoyable. And as sort of participatory if you like from the audience, you are glued to the screen and you are leaning in at times, you’ve pushed away at times, but you want to go to the cinema and you want to enjoy the experience. 

Jillian Chilingerian: I love that because that’s definitely how I felt and the people around me because it’s so easy to get distracted. This is one where I’m like, I don’t know who’s distracted, because you are really pulled in as if you’re at Saltburn and I feel like it ties to this idea of us watching lust and obsession on screen and how will we all relate to that?  But this was so insightful. The sound really got me and I love hearing how sound really ties to character journeys because it’s something that sometimes can be so subtle that you don’t pick up on. I just love what was done here to create this atmosphere of how everything came together, both visually and for audio to have just all in symphony.
Nina Hartstone: It’s great. I mean, it was such an exciting project to work on all counts, and just such a collaborative effort as well across our sound team and everybody else. Now it’s getting out there in the world. We’ve been kind of holding this thing and now it’s so wonderful to see it going out there and everyone enjoying it.

Saltburn will be in select theaters November 17, 2023.
You can read Jillian’s review of Saltburn on her website, Offscreen, here.
You can read our review of Saltburn here.