Working under the direction of Supervising Sound Editor Erick Jolley for this Hallmark Channel presentation, Boon was in charge of more than simply creating the sound of winter. Yes, it takes place in Utah so there is that component but just as importantly, she was in charge of what can only be referred to as “ear candy.” Her work created an ambience that is subtle but distinguished with creative details. YuXin explains, “My favorite part of working on ‘Enchanted Christmas’ was exploring creative details to provide a three-dimensional background for the audience. I essentially filled the background with sound from multiple directions of things that were not visible in the shot. It’s a very creative role. For example, for scenes in which the family is decorating the Christmas tree in the living room, I put sounds of distant traffic from the right window, campfire from the fireplace at the left, and a clock ticking at the back. None of these were shown in the scene. By overviewing the outside shot from the house and the kitchen shot in the same house, I found that there was a fireplace between the living room and kitchen. Headlights were visible in the window from a passing car. Based on the props I found in different scenes of the same house, I recreated the background of the scene with visible and invisible details. With creative editing, I built a believable living room scene for the audience. Most of us take these background and peripheral stimuli for granted but it’s my job to make sure they are there so you can take them for granted.”
Of course there’s the sound of Winter. The story takes place in Utah during winter so there would be no believability if the sounds of the season in this climate weren’t present. Based on scenes and camera angles, Boon created the cold winter background from different perspectives whether from a distant view or close shot. Jolley asked her to do some sound design for the surround sound and add the ambience that would work for the scenes. To impart the blustery winter wonderland, YuXin focused on sound libraries. Achieving the proper sound often required combining several specific wind and air ambience recordings. Boon found herself making presets for certain scenes of the same locations (in the film) and then adding creative components such as a dog barking, birds chirping, etc. based on the movements and time presented in the scenes. Her work subconsciously communicates a subtext to the viewer. Boon describes, “When the shot of main character’s house changed from outside to inside, I used the same traffic and wind sounds to state that two scenes were shot in the same neighborhood. But I processed the traffic and wind with equalizer to cut the high frequencies in order to make them sound as if they were coming from the other side of the wall. I utilized the same method on the scene of dance performance when the characters walked from the main stage to the back stage. I used an equalizer to reduce the high frequencies and panned the ambience to the right (because the main stage was behind a curtain and at the right side of backstage). I created the sound of the scene that characters talked in the backstage while the performance was still going on at the main stage.”
The alertness and attention to detail in the actions of a scene is a requirement in her profession and Boon performs it with an astounding level of detail. Her approach in sound editing is to see three perspectives of the same scene: the action you focus on, the background action, and the action taking place off screen. To illustrate, for the construction scenes at the hotel in “Enchanted Christmas” she overviewed the workers movements and assigned particular construction sounds to each of them like sawing, drilling, and hammering. For the scenes which depicted the workers walking around with their tools but not actually working, she still layered electric sawing and drilling ambience (with an EQ), but at a lower volume, to sound as if they were coming from off in the distance. For one exterior construction scene, minor details like a truck engine sound at the rear speakers encourages the audience believe that there are workers unloading the truck behind them, tough they are never seen.
In the magical realm of TV and Film, everything is important in transferring believability. The work of YuXin on this production and every production in which she is involved may not be the most obvious or attention getting but that is the most vital part of it. For a naturally detail oriented individual like YuXin the fun of her work is noticing that which might easily be overlooked. She basks in finding the right air and room tone ambience for similar scenes and giving different textures to these scenes. The lodge in which much of the story takes place has several halls and rooms that required distinguishing to show the difference in room size, spaciousness, and location. The main lobby is larger in size with a tall ceiling, marble floor and less furniture. Using a sound library, YuXin matched the room tone with a big hall for more reverberation and echo. For a conference room, she chose the ambience of a middle size room to contrast the dryer and more solid hall because that room had carpet and more furniture. This time-consuming process requires constant comparison to discover the exact template to be used.
“Enchanted Christmas” is just as much about the love of dancing as about love itself. The two lead actors are professional dancers (as are many of the other performers in the film) and the requirements on the Foley artists and Boon were quite substantial because of this. Recorded over ten days at DPS studio, Foley artist Steve Walter copied the twist, drag, and thread moves exhibited onscreen by the actors. Boon spent a week editing all the Foley like cloth, props, and footsteps. While the dancing is integral to the story of “Enchanted Christmas” it’s just one part of the many auditory aspects that editor YuXin Boon contends with in order to give every viewer the complete experience of being in the world of Laura Trudeau.