Audio for film: for film mixers, its all about getting big sound onto the big screen - Audio

Post, Sept, 2003 by Christine Bunish

If you think audio postproduction is not prone to change compared to the rapidly-evolving fields of nonlinear video editing, visual effects and graphics and animation, then think, again.

In days gone by, re-recording mixers brought tracks they had recorded on the set to the dub stage and mixed them, essentially re-recording what they had done before, But today, "we're responsible for taking thousands of raw elements and blending them to make things sound real and draw out emotions," says Ron Bartlett, re-recording mixer at Warner Bros, Studio Facilities in Burbank.

His colleague, re-recording mixer Mark Smith, believes the position is analogous to that of cinematographer in "using technical processes to achieve an artistic endeavor."

The Smith and Bartlett team has many movie credits, including Eminem's 8 Mile, which posed challenges in dialogue and music. "The entire score is based on the Academy Award-winning song, 'Lose Yourself,' that Marshall [a.k.a. Eminem] wrote, beginning with a concept which his character developed during the course of the movie," Smith reports. "We had to start with the music sounding very rough, then develop and hone it as he did. Director Curtis Hanson wanted an almost documentary sound to the film; it takes an incredibly slick job to make something sound unpolished."

They also strived to keep scenes of club performances intimate while working hard to make dialogue intelligible, maintain the casual feel of guys hanging in Detroit and talking over each other.

Smith and Bartlett's stage, like all the mixing stages at Warner Bros., is equipped with an AMS Neve DFC console. "We installed time first one," Bartlett recalls; the team was instrumental in contributing ideas on the design of a viable feature film desk to Neve engineers building the console.

INDIE WORK

Although Paul Michael may officially be called a recording engineer at New York City's Magno Sound & Video (www.magnosound), he performs mixing, sound editorial and sound recording on a day-to-day basis. "There are no clear" delineations between job categories here at Magno," he explains. "It's always been that way, but lately time lines have become more and more blurred," especially when he's working on independent features with budget constraints--some of which may have been crafted by inexperienced filmmakers who haven't planned for audio post,

"It's a rude awakening for a lot of people," Michael says, "They tilt their budgets toward preproduction and production and don't realize what happens at the end. They're out of money and time, and although they may have beautiful, well-edited visuals, what do they do about the sound that holds the whole project together?"

With no formal job categories to restrict him, Michael is able to take an "all-encompassing" approach to audio post that efficiently manages filmmakers' time and money, and holds one person--him--accountable, Ideally, he likes to meet with filmmakers early on to de-mystify the audio post process. He'll team with Vito Hughes from Magno's video side who can field questions about telecine, editing and the conform--disciplines whose jobs remain distinct.

Michael's Dolby-certified Studio C boasts a custom 160-channel SSL Avant console, a 48-track Digidesign Pro Tools, a 16-track Sonic workstation with NoNoise, a 35/16mm film projector and large-screen video projection, a full complement of outboard equipment and vintage gear from Magno's 52-year history.

Michael recently worked closely with Chiaroscuro Pictures' Elizabeth Dimon on her independent thriller Private Property. With Michael's help, Dimon did as much audio post as possible during her Avid edit; she cut music and dialogue, added room tone and sound effects.

"Elizabeth almost did a pre-mix," he explains. "When I got the OMF I just leveled out the voices and smoothed dialogue transitions so the mix time--the higher-priced session--could be kept to a minimum."

Michael often teams with a sound designer, but on Private Property he performed sound design functions himself. When he got to the last few minutes of the film, which had no dialogue, he questioned why there was only music and no ambiance or sound effects. Michael was told that no sound man had been available that day. So he did Foleys to replace the missing sound--water, feet splashing in the surf and running in the sand, zipping a jacket--in Studio C's iso booth.

NO BOUNDARIES

England's Reel Sound Ltd. (011-44-778-5572-307) and New York City's Sync Sound (www.syncsound.com) shrank the globe and linked continents when they teamed on lt Runs in the Family, featuring three generations of the acting Douglas family ... the legendary Kirk, his son Michael and Michael's son Cameron.

"This film was different from any other I've done," notes Reel Sound supervising sound editor Max Hoskins, who had previously worked with the film's director Fred Schepisi on Last Orders and Fierce Creatures. The picture was shot in and around New York City and Michael Douglas, who produced with brother Joel, preferred to remain in New York for the audio post. But Schepisi was eager to reunite with Hoskins whose Reel Sound operates from England's Pinewood Studios and Shepperton Studios.