Sound Lounge’s dynamic duo of emerging sound talent, Assistant Mixers Pablo Ancalle and Natalie Cordero, made a powerful impression at the 2025 Camp Kuleshov competition, earning first and second place in the East/Southeast Sound Design competition.
Designed to foster the next generation of creatives, Camp K challenges up-and-coming artists to stretch their skills, learn from industry mentors, and reimagine classic films. The competition recognizes excellence across Editing, Sound Design, Music Score, and Graphics.
Ancalle, who has spent the past two years honing his craft at Sound Lounge, took first place for his inventive reimagining of The Driver.
“This is such a bizarre scene: you have the main character intentionally destroying a car while he is inside it, so I decided to make the car its own character,” recalled Ancalle. “With AI being such a topical subject in our industry, it made perfect sense to turn the car into an overly reactive AI, and the project naturally evolved into an anti-AI piece.”
Once his concept was set, Ancalle focused on shaping the car’s vocal identity.
“Natalie was kind enough to lend me their voice,” said Ancalle. “I treated their performance with a plugin called Valhalla Space Modulator, often used in 80s rock to create a rich, artificial texture, so the car would feel like an advanced AI that mimics human intonation.”
Cordero, who also recently celebrated two years at Sound Lounge, earned second place for their comedic reinterpretation of Blow Out.
“I love Blow Out, but the scene I chose has always bothered me because it’s so inaccurate: trying to record wind outdoors with an uncovered mic is always going to sound like garbage,” said Cordero. “The whole idea started as a joke, and then I thought, ‘why not lean into it?’ I challenged myself to make it sound as bad as possible while still keeping the final piece listenable, and finding that balance ended up being a really fun creative puzzle.”
Throughout the process, Cordero relied on inventive, low-tech methods to craft intentionally flawed audio and comedic transitions.
“My goal was to play with perspective, meaning how the world sounds versus what is being recorded, and use that shift for comedy,” explained Cordero. “It took a lot of experimenting with sensitive mics and homemade paper fans to get the distortion just right. Being funny is hard, so I felt really proud when I got such a positive reaction at the Camp K screening.”
The double win highlights Sound Lounge’s commitment to empowering emerging audio talent and delivering cutting-edge sound design across film, advertising, and beyond.
“From day one, Pablo and Natalie have shown an eagerness to learn and a drive to showcase their skills,” said Partner and Mixer Justin Kooy. “Developing talent from within has always been a cornerstone of our philosophy, and we’re proud to see them carry that tradition forward.”
Assistant Mixer Pablo Ancalle’s winning submission for Sound Design at Camp Kuleshov
