Riot5

Riot5 is a short film that follows the Starboard City RIOT5 roller derby team as they face their heated rivals in a decisive match—and then experience something going terribly wrong.

I served as the teacher and supervisor on this project, overseeing re-recording sessions and guiding the final mix in Dolby Atmos, while also mentoring the sound students from Sonic College as they built the sound design for the film.

• I supervised the re-recording (dialogue, crowd ambiance, effects, foley) to ensure clean, emotional takes ready for immersive mixing.

• In the Atmos mix, I guided spatial placement of sounds—skates, collisions, ambient crowd, internal perspective sounds—to reflect the kinetic energy and moments of tension.

• A major focus was ensuring that dynamic shifts (from loud crashes to quieter internal moments) felt coherent and supported the drama.

• We also iterated downmix checks (stereo / 5.1) throughout, so that in less immersive playback environments, the emotional impact is retained.

• I worked side by side with the sound students from Sonic College as they crafted the film’s sound design: from layered crowd atmospheres, skate-rolling, mechanical squeals, impacts, room-tone transitions, to more subjective internalized sounds.

• I held regular review sessions—listening to drafts, offering critique, suggesting spatial logic (which channel, what height, when to compress vs expand) and asking probing questions to challenge their storytelling via sound.

• A core part of the teaching was pushing them to ask: What is the listener’s attention at this moment? and How does spatialization reinforce tension or release?