The Sounds of The Power of the Dog

For her 1920s frontier drama The Power of the Dog, filmmaker Jane Campion sought to perfect every element of storytelling onscreen: the beautifully photographed New Zealand locations standing in for rural Montana, the performances from stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, and Kodi Smit-McPhee; and the soundscape that captures the tension, isolation, and fear at the heart of the narrative. Working in collaboration with Campion, sound effects editor and re-recording mixer Tara Webb, supervising sound editor Robert Mackenzie, and production sound mixer Richard Flynn used sound to amplify the atmosphere of dread inside the ranch house where Cumberbatch’s Phil Burbank holds sway and to authentically replicate the wind-swept world surrounding the property. 

The teeth of a comb, spurred boots, the hooves of hundreds of cattle, a whirling hula hoop — every sonic detail helped bring to life the claustrophobic tale, in which domineering Phil intimidates both his younger brother George (Plemons) and George’s new bride Rose (Dunst), at the same time he develops a fondness for Rose’s adolescent son Peter (Smit-McPhee).  

Webb, Mackenzie, and Flynn spoke to Queue about their approach to creating the film’s naturalistic sound and how they incorporated music — both composer Jonny Greenwood’s score and musician David Ward’s banjo — into the mix.

 An edited version of the conversation follows.

Queue: How did you three become involved with the project?
Tara Webb: The idea of working with Jane was tempting. The first screening we went to [of an early, unfinished version of the film], I remember being excited because it was already such an amazing film. Everything was really phenomenal. I was like, Okay, anything we do now is just going to elevate that and add to it.

Robert Mackenzie: Tara and I had worked with Jane previously on the Top of the Lake series and so it was great when she liked us enough to invite us back.

Richard Flynn: I worked with Jane on the first season of Top of the Lake, which was shot in New Zealand. When I heard she was coming back to make a movie, I got in touch with her. 

Did all of you read the Thomas Savage novel on which the film is based? What were your first impressions of the story itself?
Flynn: I read the book and really enjoyed it. Knowing Jane, I could immediately see why she was drawn to it. Some of the themes, even though they were more masculine, reminded me of themes that she previously explored. When I read the script, I thought it was one of the most faithful adaptations. Even the sound ideas from the book carried through into the film.

Webb: I read just over half of the book and decided to stop because I wanted to watch the film and see the ending. I wanted to have that tension and surprise.

How did sound design play a role in character development? 
Mackenzie: Phil’s boots, for example, reflect his masculinity, his imposing presence. Then you’ve got his sensitive side reflected through him polishing the saddle or with Bronco Henry’s handkerchief. You get both sides of the character through the sound. With Peter, the first time you see him, he’s playing with the paper flowers and you hear the delicacy. Later on, you see his other side: the surgeon’s precision with the scalpel. And then you’ve got the character of the world of Montana reflected in the winds and the vast expanse of the backgrounds.

Mackenzie: Everything we do is smoke and mirrors and Jane was interested in using all the tools within our toolbox to make it authentic as well as dramatic. So we really steered away from artifices like drones, tones, and those sort of normal sound devices in movies and really leaned into the naturalistic sound. The fact that Richard could capture a lot of that on set was an absolute godsend because that stuff is so hard to recreate. With Phil’s boots, Tara used the recordings almost like a reverb, and then she could layer the foley [reproduced everyday sounds performed in the studio] on that. But without that naturalistic beginning, it starts to sound very artificial very quickly.

We hear a lot of intimate detail in Rose’s character. A good example of that is when she’s dancing with George on the hilltop. We can hear that George is a bit clumsy. We can hear him stepping on Rose’s toes and that awkwardness. By pulling the focus on the sound of Rose’s skirt flapping in the wind, we can really focus on their relationship. We go from that wide expanse, the endless horizon of the hills, and then, sonically, we pull focus on the two of them and hear their intimacy. 

What are some unexpected sound sources used in other scenes throughout the film?
Webb: I really enjoyed researching types of birds and animals in Montana that would’ve been around at the time. The elk calls, that was awesome, trying to find moments to add them when it suited. 

You’ve talked about tension and intimacy. What are the dominant emotions conveyed by sound throughout the film?
Mackenzie: Sound’s really good at fear, horror, and tension. A lot of what we did was try to enhance isolation from the expanse of the landscape to Rose locking herself in the house to isolate herself from the outside world.

Flynn: Isolation. The house becomes quite suffocating. I always think emotions are like the weather and the extremes of the weather. You’d have these eerily calm days where it was almost like there was no weather, no breeze. And then on other days you’d have these whirling sandstorms; everything was whipped up and angry. Even though we were only there for a short window of time, for the most part, the weather really helped everything else along.

Mackenzie: Another would be calmness. What Tara did in the sacred place — the running water, the wind through the trees, and the delicacy of Phil’s actions — invokes a real sense of calm.

What were the differences in how you treated the sounds of the outside world and the sounds within the Burbank house?
Webb: We’ve treated the outside much lighter to create that expanse. It might be one or two winds moving around, maybe an elk call, or something in the distance. Whereas when we went inside the house, to create that oppression, it was a heavier feel. There were quite a few winds — some of them would have a little bit of a tone to them — as well as wood creaks and fire crackling.

Mackenzie: That house is almost like a mortuary: very cold and oppressive. We push the outside world away. When Rose is locking herself in, we hear the wind through the cracks in the door. We hear all the close-up detail, which is different to what we hear with the expansive Montana.

What are the particular challenges of designing the sound for an adaptation?
Mackenzie: It’s Jane’s artistic vision for the adaptation, and we’re really there as tools for her. One thing about Jane is she’s so endlessly curious about what everyone can bring to the table. She comes to the project almost like she’s never made a film before. How can you help me bring these characters, this environment, to life? What tools do you have in your bag that can help me achieve these emotions that I want to convey? It’s getting in the sandpit with her. You’re free to experiment and she’ll challenge the way we’ve done things before. 

Flynn: Working with Jane is curiosity and openness. While she’s done her homework on script and casting, everything comes into play on the day. Sometimes those films are quite serious, but if someone actually asked me to describe Jane, I’d describe her as a very playful person. It’s just that openness to unexpected things happening. One of the challenges and joys in my job is trying to be open and responsive to the knowledge that any moment could be that little moment of gold. That method is instilled in everybody that works on the set from the props people to the art department. When people get excited about working with Jane, one of the reasons is just that exploration that we’re all allowed to participate in.

Mackenzie: It’s an open book that she’s still curious to explore. Right up to the last day.

What was specific about designing for this time period? 
Flynn: There were a lot of things in the film that were of that period, particularly vehicles, which Dave Whitehead, the sound designer, did an incredible job of capturing. The piano that Rose plays is a Mason & Hamlin piano, which is an American piano manufacturer that’s been around since the mid-nineteenth century, referred to in the book. They had to source it from America and they’re very expensive. You can get the authentic period ones for about $30,000 or $40,000. 

What were some of the challenges of working in this landscape? 
Flynn: The South Island of New Zealand is quite a remote place and the weather patterns there are very unpredictable. When we were filming some of the very intimate scenes in the barn with Peter and Phil, there was a pretty heavy amount of wind, dust, everything flying around outside, and lots of things were flapping. But the barn was so well constructed, it was almost like shooting on the soundstage. But overall, we were in a quiet enough place. That’s always a godsend for the location recorders because you’re starting with a blank slate.

What about working with animals? 
Flynn: We had dogs, cattle, chickens, you name it, all making a contribution to the soundtrack. I love working with animals. They’re amazing, extraordinarily patient, and accommodating. I suppose the most difficult thing is getting in amongst them when you’re trying to capture the sound — they’re incredibly powerful and big creatures. I’ve never worked with such a big herd before and I wasn’t quite ready for the sheer volume of sound they made when they were all moving together. I just had to be a bit zen about it and go, “They’re there, and I can’t ask them to be quiet.” 

Webb: Horses always take a while to cut because you’ve got a lot of [hooves]. Then you’re adding the saddle, the movement, and the reins. To make it sound authentic requires a lot of layers. It’s finding that balance between it looking and sounding right.

What was the most difficult scene to work on?
Webb: We approached it more as the overall arc of the film rather than any particular thing. I know that creating the sound of the rope was a bit of back and forth because it’s real hide and trying to get that authenticity did take a while. 

Mackenzie: What we call “the piano banjo duel,” or as Jane called it, “the ugly duet.” Kirsten had to learn how to play the piano, and Benedict had to learn how to play the banjo. Marrying those two recordings was a challenge. That banjo overdub session was done almost like an A.D.R. session. We had David Ward as a banjo player, and he had the picture in front of him and could see Benedict’s hands. Not only would he have to overdub in sync where Benedict’s playing on the neck of the banjo, he also had to fill in everything in between for that whole piece and then end in sync with that final strum. It was incredible how he ended up in sync nearly every time. 

Flynn: It’s such a pivotal moment in the film in terms of setting up the relationships, the emotions, and the tension. In the final mix, it feels like what cinema should really be all about, immersing you in something that you really feel.

How did you all balance the sound design with Jonny Greenwood’s score? 
Mackenzie: Jonny worked in a similar way to how we supply sound — [it happens] really early on whilst they’re still [editing] cutting. We’re working through the sound design, doing it concurrently with the edit, rather than waiting for the cut to be locked, and then starting, so Jane could have conversations with us and Jonny simultaneously. The score and sound design go hand in glove because Jane’s tailoring what we are doing to what Jonny’s supplying and vice versa. 

In The Power of the Dog, there’s a lot of space in the score: It’s [often] one cello with guitar, double tracked with [played over] a small backing string section. That leaves a lot of room for us to weave the winds and all those details [from the landscape] in the background with the music. Often in other films you need to get out of the way of the music or vice versa. But because of the process [Jane employed here], you can hear the fingers on strings, you can hear the emotion of a performance. You can hear the detail in the sound as well.