"The Ritual is Tonight!" is a short surreal comedy film that follows the 'Tria Prima' on their way to an exclusive ritual.
Driven by the constraint of using zero on-set audio, we rebuilt the entire sonic world from scratch, replacing standard dialogue with gestural synthesizer performances. Many performances were intentionally reshaped in post-production through retiming, clip speed manipulation and gestural re-synchronisation, allowing comedy and rhythm to be engineered directly within the edit.
The project became unexpectedly cathartic. Building something intentionally absurd allowed ideas to flow freely, and seeing a concept that had existed in my head for nearly a decade finally materialise was a surreal experience.
The Challenges
- Reconstructing an entire sonic environment without sync audio
- Performing intelligible "dialogue" using synthesisers
- Maintaining comedic timing through retimed footage
- Managing cross-software sync between Resolve and DAWs
- Building cinematic dynamics around -27 LUFS delivery
A mantra and ethos we established during early pre-production was 'janky is good'. This deliberate embrace of a lofi, idiosyncratic aesthetic informed all of our technical choices.
Gestural Dialogue
Rather than recording spoken dialogue, character voices were performed using synthesisers, pitch wheels and a physical wah pedal. By manually shaping filter sweeps to mimic vowel sounds, dialogue became a gestural musical performance synchronised directly to the edit.
Spell VFX
Magic elements were drawn via the After Effects pen tool and animated using trim paths. Grounded in foundational animation principles like "squash and stretch" and heavily treated with motion blur, the spells sit tangibly within the raw footage.
Ungraded
Graded
Colour Grading
Using DaVinci Resolve, we implemented an industry standard node workflow separating primary corrections from secondary stylistic edits. This unified disparate, low-budget location footage into a cohesive surreal world.
Broadcast Compliance & Dynamics
Rather than pursuing the heavily compressed loudness typical of commercial music, the mix was built around cinematic dynamic range. Targeting a dialogue loudness of -27 LKFS/LUFS allowed quieter atmospheres and exaggerated foley impacts to breathe, giving the physical comedy greater weight and contrast.
Production Pipeline
The project was managed through a cross-platform post-production workflow spanning DaVinci Resolve, After Effects and multiple DAWs. Shared cloud storage and strict version control were essential for maintaining synchronisation across editing, ADR, foley and gestural sound design sessions.
Outcome & Future Direction
The project proved that our unusual post-production approach could genuinely work, with sound design, foley and gestural synthesis directly shaping the rhythm and comedy of the edit. Working across editing, ADR, VFX and sound simultaneously also pushed us into developing a much broader practical skillset than either of us had previously used on a single project. At the same time, the production highlighted the importance of clearer role separation during post-production, particularly during the foley and ADR stages where responsibilities often overlapped.
Key Influences
Inspired by the physical absurdity of Buster Keaton, the frantic montage language of Edgar Wright, and the deliberately rough surrealism of Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace and The Mighty Boosh.