We Are Lady Parts is an exuberant music comedy following a Muslim female punk band – called Lady Parts – who are on a mission to find a lead guitarist and maybe, just maybe, get a proper gig. Following the success of the pilot, halo were tasked with the post-production for the series. “We were so excited to work with Working Title and the exceptionally talented Nida Manzoor (Creator, Writer & Director) again and knew that it was going to be a really special project, especially from a sound perspective,” comments Dave Turner (Head of Film and Drama), “it’s a unique, bold and inventive comedy that provided us with some exciting creative opportunities, especially with the sound design.”
Jay Price (supervising sound editor) explains how Nida came with “loads of creative and original concepts for the sound and was also eager to explore and experiment with ideas, both in the edit and the mix. Never taking itself too seriously, the sound and music were used throughout to exaggerate humour and to pick out individual moments across the series. This established and highlighted the comedic, irreverent tone, especially within the stylised imagination sequences. One of the logistical challenges of working through a lockdown was recreating a crowd of 100 people, singing along and chanting when we were limited to recording with one person in a room at a time. After a lot of trial, error and layering we managed to build a crowd that was full, natural and authentic, which was no small feat. Mixed by Sam Castleton in halo’s Studio 5.
“I’ve had such an awesome time at Halo,” commented Nida following the completion of the final mix, “an amazing team! The sound guys are phenomenal“.
Scott, the Flame online editor, also really enjoyed working on this series. “Several dream-like sequences had to be incorporated into the show using subtle speed changes and transitions within Flame to hopefully carry the viewer along into those ‘fantasy’ worlds whilst not interrupting the flow of the story’” Scott remarks. “There were, as always, the usual online issues to deal with such as things that are in-shot that shouldn’t be and things that are not in-shot that need to be, but if you can’t see what we’ve done it must have worked!” The filmic look of the show was further enhanced with the addition of 2.35:1 letterboxing.
We Are Lady Parts airs Thursdays at 10PM on Channel 4 and the full series is available as a Box Set on All 4.
Post production by halo. The halo team include:
Dubbing Mixer: Sam Castleton
Supervising Sound Editor: Jay Price
Sound Editors: Dario Swade and Tom Foster
Online Editors: Scott Hinchcliffe and John Bentley
Post Producer: Karen Kavanagh
Sales executive: Dave Turner
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Creator, Writer & Director: Nida Manzoor
Producer: John Pocock
Exec Producers: Surian Fletcher-Jones, Mark Freeland, Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner
Distributed by NBCUniversal Global Distribution
Watch the teaser here