THE SOUND OF UNEASE: HOW ALEKSANDRA TASIĆ IS BUILDING A WORLD YOU CAN FEEL
From Belgrade to Berklee, CALIBRATION's Sound Designer and Final Mix Artist explores the invisible architecture of psychological tension.
POST PRODUCTIONCOLLABORATIONSCREW
10/23/2026
AN INTERNATIONAL, ALL-FEMALE CREATIVE COLLABORATION
CALIBRATION is being developed by an international, all-female creative team, bringing together specialists from different cultural and professional backgrounds.
For Aleksandra Tasić, the opportunity to contribute to this environment carries both creative and personal significance.
"I think it is important to create spaces where women can support one another, exchange ideas, and bring their individual perspectives into the creative process."
Her background, spanning film education, experimental music and interdisciplinary sound production, adds another distinctive perspective to the production.
It also reflects a broader philosophy within Serani Studio: assembling experienced creative professionals whose individual disciplines contribute to a coherent directorial vision.
THE FEELING THAT REMAINS
Ultimately, Aleksandra hopes the audience will leave CALIBRATION with something more enduring than a memory of its images or dialogue.
She wants sound to become part of the viewer's experience in ways they may never consciously recognise.
"I would love for them to have a lingering feeling or a sense of unease that stays with them, perhaps without being able to identify exactly where it came from."
It is perhaps the most revealing description of what CALIBRATION is attempting to achieve.
Not every disturbance needs an explanation.
Not every silence is reassuring.
And sometimes, the most unsettling thing about a world is that nothing appears to be wrong.
ABOUT CALIBRATION
CALIBRATION is a near-future psychological drama directed by Serani Hunyi and produced by Serani Studio in association with Bottomline AI. Set in Prague in 2040, the film explores the fragile boundaries between human emotion, technological intervention, and institutional control.
The original short screenplay was recognised at the Austin International Film Festival, received Official Selection at the Sofia World Film Festival and was a nominee at the Carmel Internation Film Festival.
THE SOUND OF UNEASE: HOW ALEKSANDRA TASIĆ IS BUILDING A WORLD YOU CAN FEEL
From Belgrade to Berklee, CALIBRATION's Sound Designer and Final Mix Artist Aleksandra Tasić explores the invisible architecture of psychological tension.
Some of cinema's most unsettling moments have very little to do with what we see. A barely perceptible change in atmosphere. A familiar sound that suddenly feels unfamiliar. A silence that arrives a fraction too soon.
These are the details that interest Aleksandra Tasić, Sound Designer and Final Mix Artist on CALIBRATION, the forthcoming dystopian psychological drama directed by Serani Hunyi.
Set in Prague in 2040, CALIBRATION presents a future that remains disturbingly recognisable. Technology has evolved, institutions have become increasingly sophisticated, and the boundaries between individual autonomy and institutional authority have quietly shifted.
For a film built on psychological restraint rather than spectacle, sound is not simply an accompaniment to the images. It is an essential part of how the audience experiences the world.
AN EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH TO SOUND
Aleksandra Tasić began developing her cinematic language at the Academy of Arts in Belgrade, where she studied Music Production and Sound Design within a film-focused educational environment.
Her training provided a foundation in film theory and an understanding of how sound contributes to character development, atmosphere and narrative.
She subsequently pursued Music Production, Technology and Innovation at Berklee College of Music in Valencia, expanding her practice through experimentation and interdisciplinary collaboration.
"I see sound as a way to communicate what a character might not be able to express through words, revealing their inner world and shaping how the audience experiences the film."
Her master's project, Techno Balkanico, brought together techno, her Balkan heritage and the Spanish cultural influences she encountered while living in Valencia.
The project reflected an approach that resists rigid creative boundaries, combining seemingly unrelated influences to discover new sonic possibilities.
That curiosity now informs her work on CALIBRATION, where the challenge is not to create an extravagantly futuristic soundscape, but to make the ordinary feel subtly, inexplicably wrong.
CREATING TENSION WITHOUT ANNOUNCING IT
In CALIBRATION, the most significant disturbances are often internal.
Freya, the film's protagonist, experiences her surroundings through an unusually heightened awareness of patterns, details and sensory information. Her perception of the world is central to the film's psychological language.
For Aleksandra, the challenge lies in allowing audiences to enter that subjective experience without resorting to familiar cinematic shorthand.
"Rather than relying on obvious effects or dramatic cues, I would approach tension through small shifts in ambience, frequency, texture, or rhythm."
It is an approach that closely reflects Hunyi's directorial philosophy: allowing discomfort to emerge gradually, without instructing the audience how to interpret it.
The intention is to build a sonic environment in which the smallest alterations can influence the viewer's emotional and physical response.
Rather than announcing that something is wrong, the sound may simply allow the audience to sense it.
PRAGUE 2040: THE SOUND OF A RECOGNISABLE FUTURE
One of CALIBRATION's defining creative decisions is its refusal to portray the future as an unfamiliar science-fiction spectacle.
Prague remains Prague. Its architecture, public spaces and everyday environments retain their recognisable character. The transformation lies in the systems operating within them.
For Aleksandra, this presents an opportunity to explore how the familiar might evolve.
"Instead of creating an obviously futuristic soundscape, I would explore how familiar environments and everyday sounds might evolve subtly over time."
The distinction is important.
CALIBRATION's future is not intended to astonish audiences with technology. It is designed to feel plausible enough that its underlying unease becomes more disturbing.
Sound will play a critical role in maintaining that credibility.
THE POWER OF WHAT WE DON'T HEAR
Silence occupies an important place in CALIBRATION's cinematic language.
Where conventional thrillers frequently rely on musical cues to signal danger or emotional intensity, Hunyi's approach favours stillness, observation and the gradual accumulation of tension.
For Aleksandra, silence is not simply an absence. It is an active dramatic choice.
"When sound has been building tension, its sudden absence can make a moment feel even more intense."
The relationship between sound and silence becomes particularly important in a film where characters frequently communicate more through their behaviour than their dialogue.
An environmental sound may become unexpectedly prominent. An established rhythm may disappear. A familiar space may suddenly feel different, even though nothing visible has changed.
"Sometimes, removing sound can communicate far more than adding another layer to the soundscape."
SHAPING THE FINAL EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE
Working as both Sound Designer and Final Mix Artist gives Aleksandra continuity across the film's sonic development, from its initial concepts to the final balance of dialogue, environmental sound, music and silence.
For CALIBRATION, that continuity is particularly valuable.
The performances depend on emotional precision. Sound must support the actors' naturalism without competing with it, preserving the tension between what a character expresses and what an audience senses.
Her philosophy is that every sonic element must earn its place.
"Dialogue should remain natural and emotionally clear, while environmental sounds, music, and silence can subtly shape the atmosphere around it."
It is an approach that places the audience's psychological experience at the centre of the sound design process.
One of the film's digital sets where the story really begins
Prague's 2040 dystopian underground
Prague's 2040 is still recognizable
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CALIBRATION is produced by Serani Studio (Prague), in association with Bottomline AI (France)
