Typhoon Day
Typhoon Day is an original film created as my graduation project at Beijing Film Academy. It tells the story of a high school girl handling her relationship problems during Typhoon season.
As the sound director, I oversaw every aspect of the audio process—from pre-production planning to on-site recording, and through to post-production, including ADR (dubbing), Foley recording, sound editing, and mixing for 5.1 surround sound. The excerpt submitted in my portfolio is from this project.
Sound design for Typhoon Day involved extensive effort and consideration. In the excerpt alone, over 30 environmental sound tracks were layered and positioned throughout the 5.1 surround space to create a vivid auditory experience.
The typhoon's progression follows several stages. Initially, it's introduced as a sense of foreboding—realistic wind and rain soundscapes capturing an impending storm. In the classroom scene, subtle tension builds as the atmosphere becomes fragile and charged. Later, the storm reaches an emotional climax, with high-frequency water sounds suggesting both the volume of rain and a crystalline ambiguity in their connection. Finally, upon the way returning home, the storm fades to a nighttime ambiance dominated by insects and distant vehicles, leaving just a hint of rain dripping in the background.
For instance, at 0:19, around seven layers of wind and rain sounds are blended carefully, considering their position and depth. To ensure smooth transitions between scenes, I handled sound effects with great care. At 0:41, as the camera moves from outdoors to indoors, I retained the low-frequency ambiance while reducing distinct raindrop sounds (which were primarily high frequencies). This was achieved using a high-cut EQ and narrowing the stereo width. I also sometimes used sounds like thunder to make these transitions smoother.
During the video rehearsal scene at 1:10, I switched from location dialogue to studio-recorded ADR to hint at a shift in space when the film shifts perspective to the video camera. I also redesigned the dialogue audio, enhancing mid-high frequencies while cut both low and high frequencies, and minimizing reverb to give it the characteristic sound of a DV tape. A similar approach was used at 2:48 to adjust the rain ambiance in the same DV perspective.
Creating Typhoon Day was also a cross-cultural experience. As the sound supervisor, I worked with a location recording team of four members from China, Italy, and South Korea. It required a lot of coordination and understanding across different working habits, but our professionalism and mutual respect brought us together. I'm proud to say that we successfully recorded on location, with over 80% of the film's dialogue being captured directly on set.
Typhoon Day represents a significant breakthrough for me, as I took a leading role in producing a complete film. The film was presented to an audience of over 500 people and submitted for an original film award. I hope you enjoy this excerpt.
