Audio efficiency for TV

Post, April, 2002 by David John Farinella

Can you imagine a David Letterman "Top Ten" list of the things audio post professionals hear while working on television shows of all types: 10) Need it sooner, 9) need it Cheaper. 8) need it better...well, you get the idea. Rather than bucking those trends, today's mixers, editors and supervising sound editors are looking for solutions by turning to faster technology and personnel that are more efficient.

Tom deGorter, who is the supervising sound editor on Alias at Todd/Soundelux in Hollywood, says the fun is in the challenge. "In this case it's fun because of the hurry-up rush while also maintaining that level of quality and that level of creativity," he reports. All the while deGorter has to keep his ear as it were, on what's important when it comes to audio post for television. "That is such a hard call because I think it's the total package," he explains. "You can't really isolate one small bit. It's incredible the amount of work that goes into a show, and you can't say it's just the music or it's just the effects or just the dialogue; it has to be a cohesive blend of all of them."

Dave West of Burbank's West Productions points out that a successful show, audio post-wise, is not just a handful of people. "Everything I do is a concerted effort by a group of individuals," he says. "When you look at the big picture, that individual thing is 300 to 400 people, from the crew, to the production end to the post production end. So, at my facility, the way I make these things happen is to start at the very beginning and do it right."

With that in mind, Post asked a handful of audio post pros about some of the challenges they've faced, how they've found solutions, tips for the rest of us and what truisms they've discovered.

WEST PRODUCTIONS FACES X-TRAORDINARY CHALLENGES

The West Productions (www.westprod.com) team in Burbank, CA, has been posting The X-Files, now in its final season, since the show started airing on Fox, which has given them the opportunity to create a bevy of interesting soundscapes and environments. The company's CEO, Dave West, reports that in general there's one challenge facing audio post houses right now: "To do the impossible in an incredibly short period of time for nothing," he says. "The X-Files has been a blessing in that it's given us a little more freedom in getting it done and giving it some time, but in today's environment the most difficult problem with all of this stuff is getting it done based on the picture not being ready or the events surrounding the script or the show not being completely done before you have to go on air."

CHALLENGE AND SOLUTION: "Every show is especially challenging on The X-Files," West says. An episode that sticks out in his mind was one of the first ones they posted for this season with Lucy Lawless. "It really came out of the gate as a big expectation." he reports. "This is a year that everybody wanted to do their best on." For one show, West and company had to come up with an environment where people had to spend a lot of time underwater. "We wanted to go with a new sound and come up with a better way of doing it We went through a variety of different audio tracks and ways of manipulating it to come up with this environment that made the super soldiers able to survive underwater." he says. To find a solution they turned to an array of sound effects, organic sounds and ambiences that were pitched beyond recognition. West used tools such as the AMS Neve Logic 7 console, a TC6000 box and Eventide Orville to get the sounds just right and allow him to put a thumbprint on sound. "I've always tried to come up wi th a texture to our tracks that kind of says. 'Hey, this guy did this.' You like it or I hate it and I think every sound studio and mixer has a style, and if you can make your style noticeable, all the better."

TIP: "I really enjoy taking organic audio and playing it backwards or processing it in such a way that it becomes something else," reports West. "That, stylistically, is the way that I overcome a lot of my obstacles when people need to have a familiar sound that becomes something else. My tip is to start backwards and start slowing it down. I think in a lot of cases, for the spooky environments that we need to create, the tension that we look to build, there's nothing better than taking some animal and slowing it down and running it backwards and have that spook up your track."

TRUISM: "I think, with what we do, we will always be presented with problems, and great people can usually fix the problem with or without technology. Now that we have technology, it makes it even easier for us to come up with really remarkable audio tracks. There really is a huge advance in what people can hear at home and in the theatre, and think we've got George Lucas to thank for 99 percent of that."

WRESTLING WWF'S SMACKDOWN

Stanford, CT-based WWF post mixer and sound designer Chris Argento works in an extremely high pressure situation: he posts the two-hour show Smackdown, as well as a handful of packages, promos and spots for the WWF. The show is taped on Tuesday nights and is completely posted for air on Thursday nights, 52 weeks a year. "We turn out nine hours of programming a week," he says.