5.1 – Sara Pinheiro

rent boy

Sound Design

5.1

ambiances

editing

foley

mixing

post-production

short-fiction

2024 – 10′ – USA/NY

Rent Boy drama short film written and directed by Trey Chapman.

Driven by ambitions of being a concert pianist, a young sex worker violates a client’s privacy, triggering unexpected consequences.

The film stars Devin Druid (13 Reasons Why, Louder Than Bombs).

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SLAM

Compositions

2023 – 20′ – CZ/PT

SLAM, “sounds like a movie”, is a fixed-media acousmatic composition for 5.1 Dolby Theatres made of film sounds. It plays with a sense of cultural memory by referencing well-known films in a stream of sonic associations in a format that is the standard approach of multichannel sound in cinema. In that sense, the composition questions a few assumptions that established themselves during the years of film sound history, namely the patterns that define that history.

SLAM puts forward an idea of collective memory in film culture in a semi-historical approach of film sound as a story-telling tool. The composition hops from film to film in a chain of personal associations, either driven by the sound itself or by the film per se.

Occasionally, it makes use of the common strategies of 5.1 spatialisation to emphasise the fictional qualities of the scenes in use – sometimes by maximising their atmospheres, other times by highlighting a certain aspect of the sonic data in an attempt to emphasise the content in the original sources. Along this process, the sounds unfold different layers of understanding: from evoking the materiality of the period in which they were created (analogue textures, old school compressions, digital characters) to the process that a reduced listening experience pertains to. It occupies the space between what “sounds like” something that is collectively recognized, individual memories and, as always, a sonic liberation of narrative constraints. SLAM is an étude au cinema as much as an ode to film sound while being, literally, cinema for the ears.

The original 5.1 version has been adapted into a 30 channel installation to be exhibited at GHMP, Prague.

For an extended program note (in Portuguese), please visit here.

Screenings:

21 June 2024 @ Cinemateca Portuguesa, Lisbon
17 February 2024 @ Eletroacoustic Music Festival, Bangor – Wales, UK
30 November 2023 @ Ponrepo, Prague (premiere)

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white by night

Sound Design

2023 – 15′ – SA

dir. Elan Gamaker

June, 1986. Township princess Patience must step in as domestic worker at her mother’s employers’ house. But all is not as it seems in the mansion, where so many of her predecessors have given their lives to the house.

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time metalurgist

Sound Design

2023 – 20′ – CZ

a film by Tomáš Rampula.

The experimental film Time Metallurgist works with found footage materials (photographs, excerpts from newspapers, letters) from the life of Eadweard Muybridge, attempting to reconstruct what happened in the second half of the 19th century in California. It describes the influence of these events on our present. It uses artificial intelligence to process all this material.

premiered at the RAIN Film Festival 2024
screening at the 19th Prague shorts Film Festival, February 26 – March 2 (2025)
screening at the 27th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival, March 6 – March 16 (2025)

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thieves

Sound Design

2023 – 30′ – UK

a film by Michelle Williams Gamaker.

premiered at South London Gallery

More info here.

sra pinheiro · The Bang Straws - sound trailer

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redux

Sound Design

2022 – 90′ – IS

a feature directed by Heimir Bjarnason. Sound Design and Mixing by me.

Playing in Iceland’s cinemas from July 20th;
Screening at
- “Festival of NYC” (August 12th);
- Castellabate Film festival (September 26th);
- Torino Underground Cinefest (September 29th);
- Japan (November, date TBC)

sra pinheiro · Redux - sound trailer

Redux (2022) - Official Trailer #1 from Stepanska Films on Vimeo.

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the bang straws

Sound Design

2021 – 18′ – UK

writer/director: Michelle Williams Gamaker.

The Bang Straws was nominated for the BFI LFF Short Film Award, receiving a special commendation from the jury. The Award recognises short-form works with a unique cinematic voice and a confident handling of chosen themes and content.

See also Williams Gamaker’s Jarman Award 2020 winner’s statement.

sra pinheiro · The Bang Straws - sound trailer

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rosewood ledge

Sound Design

2018 – 15′ – NY/USA

A short-film by Trey Chapman. Fully available here. Trailer below.

OFFICIAL SELECTION
Fargo Film Festival 2019
SCAD Savannah Film Festival 2019
Ridgefield Film Festival 2019
Blow-Up Chicago Arthouse Film Festival 2019
Los Angeles CineFest 2019
NOVA Film Festival 2019