When Creative Vision Dictates Technical Reality
Netflix’s critically acclaimed series Adolescence has emerged as a landmark production, defined by a bold and uncompromising creative vision. Director Philip Barantini’s choice to film each of the four hour-long episodes in a single, continuous, unedited shot created what the audio team described as an incredible “high-wire act”. This audacious approach placed an unprecedented burden on the sound department, tasked with capturing flawless audio in a live, real-time environment with no possibility of fixing mistakes with a simple cut. The core audio team, comprised of Production Sound Mixers Rob Entwistle and Kiff McManus, Supervising Sound Editor James Drake, and Re-recording Mixer Jules Woods, was uniquely prepared for this challenge, having previously collaborated on Barantini’s single-shot feature film
Boiling Point—an experience that proved invaluable in planning for the series.
Capturing the Uncapturable: On-Set Strategy and Technology
The logistical complexity of recording production sound for a continuous take that moves through numerous distinct locations was immense. The on-set strategy required a fusion of meticulous planning and technological ingenuity. Every actor with a line of dialogue was fitted with a radio microphone, demanding a massive channel count and flawless frequency coordination to avoid interference as the cast and crew moved through different environments. This was supplemented by a team of three or more boom operators who had to move in perfect, balletic synchronization with the camera operators, capturing clean dialogue while remaining unseen.
The gear selection was a testament to the scale of the production. The team relied on industry-standard microphones—Schoeps CMITs for exteriors and Sennheiser MKH-50s for interiors—but deployed a fleet of Sound Devices mixers (the 633, 688, 888, and Scorpio models) that were strategically positioned in various locations. As the continuous shot progressed from one set to another, entire mixing rigs were simply left behind, necessitating a vast inventory of equipment.
The technological linchpin that made this entire endeavor possible was the use of 32-bit float recording. In a conventional shoot, a sound mixer constantly adjusts gain levels to accommodate dialogue ranging from a whisper to a shout. In a continuous take with such a huge dynamic range—from quiet family moments to a chaotic police raid—this would be impossible. 32-bit float recording provided the crucial safety net, allowing the mixers to set a single gain level that could capture the full spectrum of sound without any risk of digital clipping or distortion. It was the key that unlocked the director’s creative vision.
The production of Adolescence effectively dissolved the traditional barrier between the production and post-production departments. In a normal workflow, sound issues captured on set can often be addressed in the subsequent post phase through ADR or creative editing. However, in a continuous shot, there are no edits to hide behind. Every sound captured on set was part of the final, unchangeable performance, meaning a single audio error could jeopardize an entire hour-long take. Recognizing this, the post-sound team of James Drake and Jules Woods were present on set during filming. They monitored the audio feeds in real-time, providing immediate feedback and assuring the production mixers that the captured recordings were clean and usable, even when gain levels seemed unusually low to accommodate loud scenes. This represents a paradigm shift in workflow, where post-production is not a later stage but a fully integrated, real-time partner in the creative process from the moment the camera rolls.
The Mix Philosophy: Embracing Rawness and Reality
The philosophy guiding the final mix of Adolescence was not to create a polished, “perfect” Hollywood soundtrack, but to preserve and enhance the raw, immersive, and often brutal reality that was so painstakingly captured on set. The goal of the sound design was to carefully shape the authentic soundscapes to propel the story forward, often in subtle ways that a viewer might feel rather than consciously notice.
This approach is powerfully demonstrated in the series’ final scene, an emotionally devastating moment that reportedly left the production team in the control van in tears. The mix focused entirely on the raw, visceral emotion of the performance, creating an experience described as both “extraordinarily beautiful and a brutal scene”. This project stands as a powerful counterpoint to a prevailing trend in modern media towards “hyper-cleaned” dialogue. Some industry professionals have noted that excessive noise reduction can strip dialogue of its life and context, making it sound sterile and artificial. The entire aesthetic of
Adolescence was built on authenticity and realism. The final mix, therefore, had to embrace the natural ambience, the subtle sonic imperfections, and the raw texture of the real-world locations. To over-process the sound would have been a direct betrayal of the film’s core artistic principle.
Adolescence champions a different philosophy: that “clean” is not always better, and that sometimes, the story is found in the sonic dirt.