Buy Now! The Shopping Conspiracy reveals the hidden tactics and covert strategies employed by the world's top brands to trap consumers in an unending cycle of purchasing, regardless of the environmental, health, or financial costs.
This case study explores how the film’s unique narrative was brought to life through innovative sound design, which played a pivotal role in shaping its tone and enhancing its storytelling. The sound design was crafted at Splice by in-house Sound Designer Michal Maletz in collaboration with freelance Sound Designer Daniel Nolan, with the final mix completed in Splice's flagship Dolby Atmos Suite, Sound 1, by the company's Head of Unscripted Sound & Senior Re-Recording Mixer, Gary Kelly.
Together, their work created a rich, immersive auditory experience that added depth and nuance to the film’s storytelling.
Setting the Tone
Buy Now! blends traditional documentary elements, playful animation, and the dramatised inner life of a fictional AI assistant (SASHA). Thus the film required a nuanced approach to sound, which was vital in creating the soundscape from which the bigger story could be told. The dark comic tone and serious subject matter posed an ongoing challenge; getting the correct mix of audio elements was essential to executing the film’s rapid tone shifts.
The initial challenge was finding the right voice for SASHA. Various AI voices were experimented with, but most were too realistic and lacked the super-flat, uncanny tone imagined. A voice with minimal emotion was eventually chosen to provide a great counterpoint to the documentary contributors. Once a close enough digital voice was found, it was enhanced with various audio filters, effects and re-timed with subtle, unnatural edits to add a layer of disjointedness. Panning SASHA’s voice across different channels, breaking the convention of centre-channel dialogue, further emphasised her detachment from tradition and norms. An additional detail of SASHA’s voice was its pitch dropping in tone when warning of things that could threaten the ambition of what she was instructing. These moments gave her a much more sinister feel and symbolised the tactics employed by big corporations when their profits are threatened.
With the AI Assistant's voice established, work on creating the ‘world’ around it began. This was a multifaceted soundscape featuring actuality, animation, stark VFX, abstract reconstructions, and distorted stock footage, each with its own tailored sound approach.
An early start on sound design during the picture edit phase allowed the audio team to provide the director Nic Stacey and offline editor Samuel R Santana with elements that could help shape the edit and establish a sonic aesthetic aligned with Nic’s vision.
Creating a Bespoke Sonic Palette
A key component of the sound design process was capturing bespoke EMF recordings using Elektrouši electromagnetic sensors and a Zoom H4n Pro recorder. This created a library of unique sounds sourced from common household items such as TVs, dehumidifiers, fans, microwaves, and other mass-produced electronics items tied thematically to the film’s depiction of electronic waste.
Recording in 96kHz allowed for extreme pitch shifting while maintaining the integrity of the original audio, providing greater flexibility in the sound design process. These recordings proved invaluable when tackling the distorted stock visuals and provided a foundation for the creation of glitch effects that were woven throughout the film.
Designing Dystopian Soundscapes
Sound design for the film’s striking VFX sequences focused on intensifying the dystopian world being portrayed. A noticeable lack of human presence was amplified by adopting sparse, haunting atmospheres as the backdrop, while spot effects focused on the mountains of waste products overtaking recognisable locations.
The audio team sought to impart the sheer volume of this waste by multi-layering and multi-panning a great number of sound effects (many of which were original recordings) to illustrate the overwhelming scale of the problem being described. A good example of this is the sequence travelling through New York, with trainers falling from the sky and clothes filling the streets. A variety of footwear made from differing materials was sourced and recorded being thrown and landing on the ground. These recordings were then layered and panned to match the wave of footwear seen on screen, building out the world beyond the edges of the frame. A similar method was adopted with various items of clothing being dragged, thrown, and dropped to create the sound of clothing moving through the air and along the ground. The Sound Particles plug-in was also an essential tool when tackling these sections. It allowed for the creation of sounds with the appropriate textures and materials (rubber, plastic, textiles, etc.) for each specific pile of waste while also matching the scale seen on screen. The result was a realistic, dynamic soundscape that maintained variation and motion throughout.
The animations had a more fantastical sonic character, with vibrant and colourful effects adopted to bring the illustrations to life. Careful consideration was given to the score in these sequences, with effects often having a musical tone. The best example of this was the animation depicting the amount of products produced by fast fashion companies, where the hangers sliding along the rails were edited in time with the music and even in the same musical key, creating an additional percussion bed that complemented the music.
Bringing Fictional Characters to Life
The film also included constructed scenes centred around a selection of fictitious characters telling a story. With these sections firmly based outside reality, where talking lightbulbs, trainers, and crisp packets serve as narrators, the team wanted to conjure exaggerated sound palettes to reflect their quirky and abstract nature. Full utilisation of the Dolby Atmos sound stage helped make these as immersive as possible, heightening their otherworldly quality.
The Time Machine sequence is a good example of this, where the Sound Particles plug-in was again very effective, generating 7.1.2 Atmos-ready sound files that added depth and spatial movement. Another element of this sequence that required special attention was the voice for the lightbulb. To give the voice a distinct effect, the team used Cargo Cult’s Envy, blending various electricity-related sound textures. These sounds follow the amplitude and spectral envelope of the voiceover, creating a subtle but fitting “electricity” layer beneath the voice. A further subtle nod to this story of ‘obsolescence’ can be found throughout the film, with the light switch noise used to punctuate the astons as they appear and disappear off screen.
Balancing Reality
When it came to the actuality in the film, a much more naturalistic approach was adopted, but in keeping with the wider narrative of the film, it still focused heavily on non-degradable materials. A great variety of plastic, rubber, and metal sounds underscore the action to amplify the message of waste and ensure it is felt aurally as well as seen.
An Immersive Auditory Experience
In conclusion, the sound design for this film was a complex, multi-layered process that demanded both creative vision and technical precision to fully convey its themes and emotional tone. By integrating unique sound elements, the team crafted an immersive auditory experience that perfectly complemented the film’s blend of dark comedy and serious subject matter.
This cohesive and innovative approach to sound design elevated the storytelling and reinforced the film’s message. Each distinct visual element - whether actuality, animation, or dystopian VFX - was matched with meticulously crafted sound, making the narrative both heard and felt. This submission highlights the dedication to creating an impactful, memorable auditory experience that solidifies the film’s unique voice and powerful message.
Buy Now! The Shopping Conspiracy was produced by Grain Media, with full post-production supplied by Splice, and is now streaming on Netflix.