Little Old Lady is a short black comedy and the fourth film by Ninja Milk which I've worked on. In the film we meet Doris and Edna, two elderly actors who find themselves constantly competing for the same role of 'little old lady'. Whilst sitting in a waiting room together before a TVC audition they realise they're the only two options for the role and so starts the bickering.

As location recordist for the film, I wanted to capture the sound for the waiting room as cleanly as possible in order to create a very quiet and sterile sonic environment. Use of well placed radio mics and booming helped to minimise any unwanted background noise. Part of the film is the TVC, which contains no dialogue, so when shooting it I captured as much of the action sound as possible in order to use later in the sound design. This included capturing various wild takes in order to give myself as many options as I could.

As sound designer and mixer I created a very sparse soundscape for the waiting room in order to emphasise the awkwardness and tension between the two characters. Use of specific and well timed SFX, such as chair squeaks and a ticking clock, further add to the comedy and tension of the scene. For the TVC I wanted the sound to juxtapose with the rest of the film and so is very lively and full of character. Careful selection and mixing of SFX in the TVC again adds to the comedy of the film.