Avengers: A sound expert in the final phase explains how you felt the click

The Marvel film universe does not end in beauty, but in the blink of an eye. As far as the Avengers sound: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, the biggest job was to turn such a tiny noise into a huge moment of emotion.

I contacted Juan Peralta, the re-recording mixer of Skywalker Sound, to discover how the sound of a movie and music are combined to help tell the story. During his 25-year career, Peralta has worked on everything from Marvel films to animation films like Wall-E and TV series such as House of Cards. As a re-recording mixer, his job is to mix the different sounds heard in the film, finding the levels where the audience can clearly hear what they have to do every moment.

On big movies like Endgame, there are two re-recording mixers. One takes care of dialogue and music, the other of all: effects, everyday sounds called "Foley" and background noise. Peralta took over the latter, which meant that he was responsible for this famous slamming.

Infinity War and Endgame are for characters who change the universe in a snap of fingers. It's a simple, everyday sound, but it's also the shocking outcome of the emotional roller coaster of the MCU.

"We needed it to be an event," said Peralta. "We wanted to make sure the snap was felt and heard."

To maximize the impact of this relatively low noise, filmmakers have surrounded it with a moment of intimacy. After explosive explosions and the dramatic music of the last battle of Infinity War, Thanos is impaled by Thor's ax and his voice chokes. It's a moment of calm.

Then only Thanos clicks on his fingers.

Sound designers have added a metallic note to the sound to reveal the metal of the Thanos Infinity Gauntlet. We see a bolt of lightning and hear a roaring thunder as Thor shrieks in horror, then the music fades so that the only sound is the desolate wind … scattering our heroes to dust.

Endgame is a surprisingly intimate superhero movie, but the show and action of Infinity War has made Peralta's work even more painful.

"I was very conscious of making sure that the public was not hit by the head," he says. "When we got to Endgame, it was refreshing to start the movie with a lot of character development and a lot of emotions."

End of Game sound designers David Farmer and Nia Hanson and their crew recorded or created the various sounds of the film from scratch. This gave the mixing consoles their catalog of audio elements that allowed them to decide on the size, power, and lifespan of each sound. They also determined how much serious noises should be heard during fists, shots and explosions.

It's much more than a question of volume. "I'm here to help tell the story," said Peralta. "I'm not here to make loud sounds … I want kids to enjoy them without being afraid, some movies have been hateful in the past and I try not to do it."

Re-recording mixers can also make individual sounds come from different places around you by adjusting what comes out of the speakers around the theater. Mixed films in multichannel Dolby Atmos The system has 24 speakers, which allows filmmakers to control the quality of the movie's audio very precisely. For example, if you hear a noise coming from the speakers to your left and that it gets louder when you pass through speakers located to the right, this can enhance the feeling of movement on the screen .

Peralta works on a mixing stage, which essentially consists of a mixing desk in the middle of a room the size of a movie theater, equipped with a large screen and several speakers.

Unfortunately, we can not all experience movies in such an ideal environment.

"Yes, it's a little sad," laughs Peralta, "we are working very hard to make these films sound so that we hope to be great, and when you go to the theaters of the world, that's not represented as you are used to. "

He enjoys theaters that play audio at the right level, but he is frustrated that many lower the volume so that it does not run in other screens.

"There is not really a solution for that," he says. "My job now is to make it as detailed and clear as possible, so if you play it a little lower, you still get the sound and the story."

Looking at the end of three hours, Endgame is about 11 rolls long, according to Peralta. Sound designers have not worked with real Reels of tapes for years – everything is done digitally – but the term has remained to divide the film into more manageable parts.

"Being constantly attentive to every sound of the day can be, believe it or not, a bit grueling," he laughs.