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Production Sound, Video Engineers & Studio Projectionists

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Features

The Studio

by Buck Robinson CAS

Seth Rogen and Ron Howard

From the get-go, I realized that my job as Production Sound Mixer on Apple TV’s streaming series The Studio was going to have some distinct filmmaking challenges. The technical aspects were many, and I’ll dive into some of those challenges as we go, however, looking back at what we accomplished during Season 1, it struck me that the overwhelming success was due as much to relationships and professional collaboration as it was to technical prowess.

I got a call from UPM/Co-producer Shawn Dyrdahl back in early 2024. He was calling on behalf of Producer Jesse Sternbaum. They were set to do an Apple TV show with Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. Jesse and Shawn are longtime friends of mine, and they wanted to get me in for an interview. I had just wrapped three seasons of Physical and Season 1 of Palm Royale with them, among many other shows over the years. They consistently put together some of the finest film crews in Hollywood. I had no doubt I would be surrounded by the best in the business in every department. I was very excited about the opportunity. I wanted in!

I was anxiously optimistic about my interview with Evan and Seth, but having never met them before, I called Jesse for any advice he might have. He replied, “I don’t really think there’s any secret formula. They’re nice guys. Just be yourself and talk to them.”

My Zoom interview was set up for early February of 2024. I got online with Seth, Evan, as well as Producers Pete Huyck, Alex Gregory, and Frida Perez. They explained a bit about the project, concept, shooting style, and pacing. Warner Bros. Studio would be our home and double as our fictitious studio. Then they casually mentioned several world-class Sound Mixers they had previously worked with, so the level of expectation for their sound department was understood. It was a very pleasant, funny conversation. It was also the first of what would become many memorable times I would experience the “Seth Rogen Laugh” in person!

Chase Sui Wonders

There were only about two real sound-related notes. First, there was not going to be a lot of coverage. A good deal of time we were going to be shooting scenes in single-camera oners. Other times we would shoot multiple cameras simultaneously, but there would be little in the way of traditional “setup by setup” coverage of the scenes. In essence, multi-camera oners.

Martin Scorsese

The second note seemed more like an afterthought from Seth, but I realized the importance he placed on it. “I don’t like for an actor to ever get to set ready to shoot and then find out they are in a costume that can’t be wired.” I triple checked that. Years ago on another show, David Fincher once told me, “Buck, it’s really easy. Just do what I tell you to do.” Mental note filed away.

The call was cordial, but I didn’t get a real read on my prospects, one way or the other. Here’s where another established relationship factored in. I decided to touch base with my friend, Cinematographer Brandon Trost. Brandon and I did several films together and he had an extensive history working with Evan and Seth. He was currently in London on a very long feature project. I texted him. “Hey man, just interviewed with Evan and Seth and would really love to land this gig. Do you mind putting in a word for me if you can?” Thirty minutes later, Brandon texted me back. “Just dropped the dudes a text singing your praises. Hope it helps!” Less than five minutes later, Evan responded to Brandon, “He was a dope meet.” We both assumed that was a good response and the next morning Shawn called and said, “Welcome aboard!” I got an NDA to sign, then I got a script, and that’s when I began to realize the adventure this crew was in for.

As I got deeper into the scripts, and with an understanding of the length and complexity of planned camera movement, I knew I was facing some unique challenges, more suited to a large budget feature than a television series. We were going big on this one in scope and style.

The show revolves around Seth Rogen’s character, Matt, as he ascends to Studio Head at Continental Studios. Matt is an avid film lover. He sets out to navigate the world by separating artistic films and commercially successful movies. His executive circle includes Ike Barinholtz as Sal, Chase Sui Wonders as Quinn, and Catherine Hahn as Maya. Catherine O’Hara stars as ousted Studio Head Patty, and Continental Studios CEO is played brilliantly by Bryan Cranston. Cameos included Charlize Theron, Ron Howard, Steve Buscemi, Zoe Kravitz, Zac Efron, Anthony Mackie, Ted Sarandos, Dave Franco, and the legendary auteur Martin Scorsese.

We would be filming across the historic Warner Bros. Studio Lot in Burbank, as well as iconic Hollywood locations like Musso & Frank Grill, The Château Marmont Hotel, The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, a Golden Globes broadcast at the Beverly Hilton, the Wilshire Ebell Theatre, and several John Lautner architectural masterpieces.

Buck and Producer Jesse Sternbaum on
The Chateau Marmont’s penthouse balcony.
Buck Robinson CAS and Trevor Tordjman at Warner Bros. Studio in Burbank, CA.
The sound crew (L-R): Cole Bluma, Add’l Boom Operator; Nick Allen, Boom Operator;
Buck Robinson CAS, Production Sound Mixer; Rachel Schroeder, Utility Sound Technician;
Evan Hare, Video Utility

This was going to be a fast-paced show, shot on the move. Long oners, golf cart chases across the lot, free-driving cars, you name it. The challenge was accepted.

My biggest concern right out of the gate was that my longtime Boom Operator Cole Bluma would not be available for large bits of the production schedule. As anyone who knows me can attest, Cole has been my knowledgeable and reliable right-hand man for many years.
While debating Cole’s replacement as primary Boom Operator, I called my friend Nick Allen. Nick is an accomplished Sound Mixer whose reputation in the sound community is second to none. He had done a ton of music playback and second unit mixing work for me previously, and we have a great rapport. We got together for coffee. I explained the show and its complexities, then I made my unorthodox pitch. I calculated that, at times, this gig might require two full sound carts or bag rigs or a playback cart, in any variety of combinations. I needed someone who was extremely versatile. Earlier in his career, Nick had a reputation as a top-notch Boom Operator on epic shows like Heat, The West Wing, and True Lies. Would he even entertain partnering with me on The Studio? After a few days of consideration, Nick jumped on as our primary Boom Operator, Second Unit Mixer, Playback Operator, and RF expert extraordinaire. Cole was available as our additional Boom Operator. We would also be backed by stellar Utility Sound Technicians in Rachel Schroeder and Kelsey Nie. We had our production sound crew!

Nick and I continued to analyze the scripts. The most unique aspect of the shooting style would be how we break the scenes up into big chunk one shots. Each individual camera shot propels the story forward in real time, connected occasionally by a whip pan stitch to another big chunk. As the sound department, we had to look at getting each scene right in the master. We needed to be as perfect as possible on every take, in case that was THE take for performance and camera. If they played it wide, that was it. If they were jumping to a moving vehicle and criss-crossing the Warner Bros. lot, we had to get it. The wires always had to be right. The gear had to work. RF signal flow would be critical. Between Nick and I, we knew we had all the gear. The trick would be how we implemented it.

From that first Zoom interview, we knew that good wires were a must. Thankfully, Evan and Seth value lavalier mics not only as backups to the boom, but as the primary line of attack, they sometimes need to be. Through reading the scripts and aware of the fluid camera movement that DP Adam Newport-Berra wanted to utilize, as well as dramatically wide vista shots at location, we understood that radio mics needed to be our most reliable weapons.

Sarah Polley, Catherine O’Hara, and Seth Rogen on “The Oner”

Our first step was establishing a line between our wiring experts Rachel Schroeder and Kelsey Nie, and our very talented costume department. I was delighted to learn that our Trailer Costumer Suzanne Block was someone I had worked with on the series The Affair. Our first rule of thumb was the mandate set by Seth. We should never have an actor arrive to set in a costume to then learn that the costume cannot be wired. Suzanne and the Set Costumers were instantly on board. Constant communication between Rachel, Kelsey, and the costume department would be essential. They were instrumental in bringing to our attention future costumes that might be problematic or need special preparation.

Despite everyone’s best efforts, one costume that could not be wired, landed on set in Episode 105, “The War.” That particular afternoon, we arrive at location, an interior scene in a small vintage townhouse in Hollywood, with a two-story living room and upstairs landing leading to a bedroom. We set up outside in the courtyard and Nick went inside to check out the apartment, returning less than five minutes later looking grim. The Grips already had a crane set up in the living room. Nick got a head’s up from the Grips and our friends in the camera department. Evan, and the DP Adam planned to shoot the scene with no coverage, in one fluid shot utilizing minimal whip pans to “stitch” multiple shots.

Ike Barinholtz and Seth Rogen

The action between Chase’s character Quinn and her boyfriend Miles starts with the couple in the throes of passion in Quinn’s bedroom. The camera then pulls back with her through a doorway to show Miles left sitting on the bed and Quinn now at the bathroom mirror. The boyfriend, then steps forward to her, and after a brief exchange at the bathroom door, the camera whips and lands on a crane arm, then drops with the actors as they proceed from the landing outside the bathroom down the stairs and through the apartment living space and kitchen. After a blocking rehearsal, one thing was clear, there would be very little that Nick could accomplish on the boom.

Here’s the kicker. Miles would not be wearing anything more than jockey briefs. The Costumers shared that per our directors, he would not be putting on a T-shirt either. I looked at Nick, it was time for a meeting with Seth and Evan.

We explained our concerns to them and let them know it was a radio mic shot. Although they were receptive, they were pretty adamant that they didn’t want the boyfriend wearing a shirt. In preparation for this very response, we offered a solution. What if Rachel gets together with the hair department and rigs a Countryman B6 into the actor’s shaggy hair, with the flesh tone lav run down the back of his neck to a Lectro SSM mic pack that’s stuck to the skin between his shoulder blades with Kinesiology tape? We realized from the blocking that he would be facing camera more than 90% of the time and the pack would be unseen. Our VFX crew led by Supervisor Sandro Blattner was phenomenal. How about they paint out the pack in the brief moment he faces away from camera outside the bathroom?

Seth Rogen, Catherine O’Hara, and
Zoe Kravitz at the Golden Globes

There was a long pause while the directors looked at each other, finally Evan shrugs, “Yeah, why not?” Seth nods his head, “Sure.” And that is my friends, how we wired the actor with the one costume that couldn’t be wired.

I honestly believe this illustrates a trait that makes Evan and Seth such successful filmmakers. They are willing to adapt to the needs of the crew who are working to achieve their vision. They are not afraid to hear suggestions and use all the tools at their disposal.

Our main concern when it came to reliable wireless would be proximity antenna placement and frequency coordination for lav mics, booms, IFB’s, Comteks, and camera coms, whether it be the friendly confines of our two-story office set on Stage 23 or out on location.

Fortunately, under the guidance of longtime Warner Bros. RF wizard Ara Mkhitaryan, we knew we would be in good hands with frequency coordination on the lot. Off the lot, unfortunately, we were not a part of the formal location scouts, but our veteran producers indulged in a very unique request, by allowing Nick to have “RF prep days” at a few select locations. He would travel to a chosen spot and dial in a frequency chart, and scout antenna placement, prior to landing on the shooting day. With little room for error, and the fast nature of shooting, any RF pre-calculations were invaluable.

We used a Ronin camera rig and there were shots planned where camera could start handheld, move to a golf cart or Grip Trix mount, travel across the lot, and become a “walk and talk” at a different location. Our crack “A” Camera Operator Mark Goellnicht, a tank of a man fresh off Mad Max: Fury Road, could either finesse or brute force the camera exactly where our directors and DP wanted it. Right off the bat, we realized that the big feature, yet documentary style, would yield a lot of opportunities for bag rig work as we would need to travel shoulder-to-shoulder with camera. We established our good rapport with Key Grip Adam Kolegas and crew to ensure there would always be a seat for us on the Grip Trix cart, or in a follow golf cart, ensuring close proximity to talent and camera. My rule of thumb was if Focus Puller Lucas Deans was in a moving vehicle, I should be seated next to him. The Grips were also instrumental in assisting the secure mounting of antennas to these moving rigs.

After we left the lot, the shots got even more complex. In Episode 104, “The Missing Reel,” on a night exterior scene in Hollywood, we started with the camera high up on a crane, as the camera then drops to the ground where it lands on the car on a “hostess tray” type side rig. Seth and Ike then whip a U-turn on Sunset Boulevard and end up parked on the opposite side of the street up the driveway of the Château Marmont. They then exit the car and continue inside the hotel entrance. In that shot, there was a redundant bag rig in the car while we were squirreled away with the sound cart at the top of the driveway in the side garage. Our Wisycom LFA antenna cables were remote one hundred and fifty feet from the driveway to the edge of Sunset Boulevard. These were split with Nick’s RF Venue Diversity Fin antenna on my cart. We were playing zone coverage with our receivers and recorders.

Sometimes these situations required a method I learned many years ago on a few reality TV stints, like The Osbournes and Top Chef: Masters. We called it “catch and release” whereas multiple bag rig mixers would all be receiving talent redundantly, on their individual rigs. This gave us the flexibility to stick with a specific camera operator but dial in different talent mics as they came and went in our camera zones. We implemented this strategy several times throughout the show; either carrying the actors with a bag rig to within the range of the cart or vice versa, mixing a scene on the cart and having the bag rig cover them as they travel. A notable example of this came when we filmed the now infamous “The Oner,” Episode 102.

Before I explain the technical side of the “The Oner,” it is imperative that I mention another collaboration that was paramount to our success on this location heavy series. Shooting at both “Silver Top,” the iconic John Lautner residence perched high above Silverlake, but also the other many breathtaking locations high in the hills. I’ve had the good fortune to do many shows with the transportation department, led by Keith Fisher and Captain Doug Weaver. Doug called me up two weeks before the show began to discuss load-in. We had come to realize on our past shows together that working from a Shorty 40 truck with liftgate was preferable to being in a trailer, as it could drop us right at the front door of many locations without skipping from a trailer to a stake bed, even if the Shorty 40 would have to be moved farther away during shooting. That would have utmost importance as we filmed at houses with tiny driveways, high above the city in the Hollywood Hills, miles from base camp.

Additionally, a great captain like Doug Weaver understands the significance of the pecking order as to who lands at set and when. This would never be more crucial than in The Studio. Not only were many of these locations very difficult to get in and out of, they were also chosen for their magnificent 360° views of the city. Once you got to these sleek mid-century modern houses of glass, there was very little room to hide anything. This was made all the more difficult by the shooting style, which dictated we would almost always eventually see everything.

Sometimes where you end up in or around a house can make or break your shooting day. It was especially true on “The Oner.” Over the course of the season, we pulled every trick, and favor up our sleeves to achieve a work spot at these locations. Transportation would get our sound and video truck up to the location in the first couple of runs. This would allow my team, and Local 695 Video Playback Operator Alfred Ainsworth Jr. and his assistant Evan Hare, to hit the ground right behind the camera department and get the layout of the land. Alfie and I would usually do a quick walkaround and formulate a plan for the sound cart, video playback cart, director’s monitor, and video village placement. I pride myself on good spatial awareness and knowing where things should be set up, but with his thirty-five-plus years in the film business, there seems no one better than Alfie Ainsworth at rapidly sussing out a plan for working a location. We were a good team.

Occasionally, I could gain key access to off-limit spaces through my relationships with our fantastic location department, led by Stacey Brashear-Rodriguez. Having worked many shows with us, they can trust and speak to my reliability to safeguard delicate spaces for the owner. At one house, our Dimmer Board Operator, Kyle Boorman, had the electric pre-rigging crew “hold” a spot for me next to his by staging gear there that would later go away upon our arrival. In mentioning the electricians, I must also point out the hyper-professional crew run by our talented Gaffer, Russell Ayer. I never had to look more than ten feet for power the entire show. They are Old School in their need to get to you before you’ve asked, stellar group top to bottom.

The episode setup of “The Oner” is familiar to every experienced film crew. Commonly known in our lingo, a “oner” is a camera move that carries the action through an entire scene with no edits or cutaways, in one individual shot. Famous examples can be found in films like Touch of Evil, Goodfellas, and Boogie Nights. Where our premise veers slightly are that our entire episode would be a oner (stitched occasionally) capturing our fictitious crew, filming this oner. To complicate matters, this would take place entirely in that little sliver of window approaching sunset, called “magic hour.”

Most of the location logistics and RF prep had been figured out ahead of time on one of Nick’s RF scouts. The use of editorial stitches would not only give the illusion of a complete oner for the episode but also allow us to break the work into three shooting days to keep the filming time of day in an acceptable few hours mimicking magic hour. The opportunity at stretching my definition of “catch and release” would happen right off the bat.

The episode opens with execs Matt and Sal driving and conversing, up winding streets through Silverlake in Matt’s convertible. At the culmination of the drive, the car stops parking outside the front door of the set in the “Silver Top” home’s driveway. At this point, our Camera Operator takes the camera from the car rig and carries our two actors, handheld as they exit the car, they are greeted by a PA, and lead inside the house to video village and meet with Director Sarah Polley, where the scene continues until a whip pan stitch.

To complicate the long driving part of the shot, the car would be free driving with no tow, lead, or pursuit vehicles, covering many blocks of streets leading to the house. Our real video village/command center would be hidden away inside the house for the entirety of the shot. We knew that we could zone cover the action by placing a bag rig in the convertible’s trunk to record the actors over the course of the long drive. As the car parks in the front driveway, the actors will come into range of my set antennas and I will be able to play the entire walk and talk, and video village portion from my cart.

Quite the memorable guest cast for this scene!

The puzzle to solve would be getting any kind of Comtek or IFB feed for the director’s village inside the house from the moving car, at such a great distance.

I conferred with Video Playback Operator Alfie and found out that he had been in contact with Greg “Noodles” Johnson, owner at RF Film Inc. If you work in Hollywood and need to get an RF signal from point A to point B, Noodles is the go-to guy. Alfie was planning to use Noodles’ long-range modified Wave Central transmitter system called a “PICO” to broadcast image from the car up to the house. I checked with his transmitter technician and Local 695 RF Operator Shan Siddiqi, and learned that the system was capable of transmitting embedded audio. We would therefore feed a mix track from the bag rig to the PICO transmitter mounted on the hero car. The transmitter would then send the picture and embedded audio to Shan’s receiver at set, at which point Alfie would pull his video signal for monitors, and I would pull the mix track audio signal to a channel on my Cooper CS208 mixing board. This allowed me to record the car driving dialog mix track simultaneously from the beginning of the take at my cart in the house, redundant to the bag rig recording in the car. It would also give me a clean signal for Comteks, IFB’s, and camera comms at the house from the start of the shot. It was one of the few instances where sound and image capture were truly working in sync. The system worked flawlessly and from the sound perspective was nearly fail-proof operationally. If the PICO signal dropped out, that part of the take would be no good for image and sound simultaneously at village. If it was bad for us, it was also bad for camera. Fortunately, a few test runs ironed out most of the kinks, and the entire system performed as intended on the day. After three days of filming, the company achieved what we set out to achieve, and “The Oner” was a great success.

I’d also like to mention Episode 108, “The Golden Globes,” as it was a stunning tribute, not only to Hollywood’s awards season, but to the technical abilities across the entire Local 695 community.

The producers wanted to closely mimic the actual look and feel of the Golden Globes. Our regular cast and incredible cameo stars would be working with all the elements of a real broadcast, with glorious lighting, massive video walls, live PA, and audience participation.

Much the same way that Sal Sapperstein became the star of the Golden Globes in our fictional universe, IATSE Local 695 crews were stars in the making of “The Golden Globes” episode.

Seth Rogen driving his convertible

There was a great amount of 695 representation for a television series. In addition to our four-person sound crew and Alfie’s video playback and monitor crew, we had a 24-frame video/graphics playback team. Matt Brucell was Video Supervisor, Justin Edgerly and Justin White were the Video Engineers, with David Santos doing video playback for them.
This episode was filmed at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. We started with a limo arrival and grand entrance across the red carpet, into the hotel, and then through the lobby to the theater where our Golden Globes show would take place. Cole Bluma boomed the arrival lobby sequences, with me mixing, and Kelsey Nie filling the utility sound role. Nick Allen was inside the auditorium prepping the stage “Oscar Mic” and PA system for the following day’s work. The next few days, we moved into the auditorium and shot the actual award sequences. Nick boomed, Kelsey wired, and Cole operated the onstage “Oscar Mic” and PA system. Although our stage design didn’t allow for the telescoping stage mic that retracts into the floor, our esteemed Property Master Andrew Siegal was able to source the mic in a floor base model.

All the many elements came together beautifully in the end, and it was truly spectacular, loaded with pageantry. As was the entirety of The Studio; stolen moments at the Golden Globes, the search for a missing reel, a clandestine wrap party, or a fateful meeting with a director, the series spins a journey through the cinematic landscape and has been called Seth and Evan’s love letter to Hollywood. Getting to be part of a project that pays homage to our own work as filmmakers has been a fabulous opportunity. Being able to accomplish it with such fine professionals in every position was an absolute joy. We all look forward to more adventures in Season 2!

A Boom Operator, Boomman, Boomperson, Boomwoman,1st Assistant Sound

by Randy Johnson

A very well-known director once characterized what a Boom Operator is. He said, “I’m not sure people really understand what a unique and critical role the Boom Operator occupies on a film set. Not only is this person responsible for capturing one of the most crucial aspects of a performance (under circumstances that are never ideal), they have a physically intimate relationship with every speaking cast member.

“In order to apply a mic, they have to touch them, often in ways that require privacy, and a Boom Operator without the social skills to deftly manage that process is an unemployed Boom Operator. Additionally, I don’t know any other crew member so close to the action whose attempts to do their job well are continually challenged. (Do you really have to be there?! Your mic almost dipped into frame! etc.) Often by people who should know better. Navigating this sort of negative attention and staying focused is another level of skill set.”

In earlier days on the set, long before wireless mics were prevalent or viable, the boom was the collector of the dialog. Hard light was the norm, which added an extra layer of stress. You had to capture the performances; there was no other option. So, with shadows and reflections showing up frequently in the shot, the Boom Operators’ requests for cutters and shelves at critical moments were crucial. With the advent of softer light digital filming, the challenges are still there, but more manageable.

When I started in the ’70s, the Fisher boom was the normal tool to use on every set, with the exception of certain tough locations where we employed the fishpole. It was (and still is) a great tool and at the time recognized by all crew as an integral part of the equipment on the set. I don’t exactly know when that perception changed. Maybe it was in the ’80s, when an influx of young Boom Operators and a lack of older operators were not doing their due diligence in teaching the inner workings of a great tool. Once that perception changed, even with a Fisher sitting on the set, many young boompeople would opt for the fishpole. However, we know that all things evolve. Since wireless mics have advanced so much, the industry’s “time is money” perspective has brought the use of wireless mics to the forefront.

Now, the norm (at least in television) is to wire every speaking actor. My personal experience with a number of feature directors is that they still want the boom mic sound, and will strive to help the production sound team achieve that. Wireless mics are certainly used in some circumstances, but are not the norm.

Still, in all narrative efforts, I’m pretty sure that all production sound teams are striving every day to preserve the boom track. The life and air around the dialog should be essential to the auditory and visual experience. However, people on the set sometimes see it as either/or.

A couple of years ago, I worked on a show booming a scene that employed a 40-foot Technocrane. Between the second or third take, we took a moment to make some lighting changes. One of the PA’s came out and asked me what I was doing forty feet out with camera at the end of the crane, when video village and everyone was so far back. I said, “Just doing my job.” He said, “Aren’t the two actors wired?” “Yes,” I said, “but since we have a moment, I’ll explain. Yes, the two actors have wireless mics on. However, because the lady getting out of the truck has a noisy wardrobe and the other actor is leaning his chest against the truck, the boom will sound much better.” He said he always thought it was one or the other.

My production sound opinion might be contrary to some, but I think post sound is somewhat complicit in this movement to wireless.
I worked on some reshoots for a show a couple of years ago. Two cameras, two actors. Medium close-up of both. The Production Mixer and I agreed that using two booms was the way to go. We thought we turned in quality tracks. A week later, the Production Mixer was inundated with questions from post, asking, “Where are the ISO’s?” To which the Mixer replied, “Those are the ISO’s!” Post said, no, the iso’s should be the wireless mics! That was the redundancy that they were looking for because that’s what they’ve been used to.

So, as we move forward in our ongoing daily attempts to capture the performances with whatever means necessary, the key will always be clarity of the spoken word, of course. That said, with my possibly dinosaur-ish affection for the boom track, I know what I’ll be lobbying for.

Roll sound!

The Bear

by Scott D. Smith CAS

The Bear stage sign

The challenges of managing kitchen chaos
Back in 2021, I received a call from a Unit Manager whom I had previously worked with, inquiring if I wanted to do a pilot for a little FX show that was based on running a take-out sandwich shop. “Sure,” I said, without really thinking of what might be waiting for us. I had done other shows which involved restaurant and kitchen sets. I mean, how difficult could it be? Little did I imagine what it would morph into four seasons of a top-rated TV show that would go on to win multiple Emmy awards for the cast and crew, along with some highly unusual challenges presented to the production sound crew.

Episode 208
Joe Campbell rocking the Fisher Model 2 for season four, episode eight, Dream sequence
Table Sound Cart
Season 3, Episode 8, sound crew:
Back row L-R: Michael Capulli (Boom), Nick Ray Harris (Mixer), Nicholas Price (Utility), Joe Campbell (Boom), Uriah Brown (Utility). Front row L-R: Katie Campos (Playback), Sharon Frye (Utility), Scott D. Smith (Mixer)

The Show
The Bear began life as a fast–paced family drama revolving around the travails of running a Chicago-based sandwich shop, which had come into the possession of a pair of cousins (played by Jeremy Allen White and Ebon Moss-Bachrach). It was immediately clear these two characters did not see eye-to-eye when it came to running a restaurant, resulting in frequent clashes, involving shouting matches, kitchenware getting tossed around, and general mayhem. Right away that meant we couldn’t use our usual approach to recording dramatic dialog. Overlapping dialog, kitchen chaos, and a dynamic range that would go from a whisper to shouting within a single shot were going to be the norm. Oh, and multiple cameras, with few rehearsals…

The Set
The kitchen set used for the pilot was an actual restaurant kitchen that had been shuttered, located in a commercial building on the north side of Chicago. Since we were free from the constraints of an operating kitchen, we were mostly able to control the noise in the immediate kitchen area and adjacent front-of-house. However, the producers’ plan was to have a kitchen that was actually functional, which presented a few problems. To begin with, actors would be shuttling skillets, pots & pans, utensils, and plates all over the set. Secondly, commercial stoves and ovens were operating in the scenes. Ventilation exhaust fans had to be working, which is essentially the equivalent of a Pratt & Whitney turbojet engine running three feet above the actors. And then there was all the shiny stainless steel surrounding the entire set, with practical lighting to boot. A boom operator’s nightmare…

Of course, wireless mics don’t work too well in an environment that blocks RF, not to mention all the multipath issues caused by RF bouncing off multiple steel surfaces. Additionally, the decision had been made to use much of the existing practical kitchen lighting (all on SCR dimmers), which further trashed what little RF bandwidth we had left to operate in (Note: Chicago is an RF hellhole).

So, armed with nothing more than a stack of wireless mics, a seasoned Boom Operator (Jason Johnston) and a prayer, we jumped in. Thankfully, when the show was cut, the editors managed to avoid the worst of the problems that plagued us. That, along with some masterful work by Dialogue Editor Evan Benjamin and Re-recording Mixer Steve “Major” Giammaria, led to a finely honed pilot.

Table mic setup
wide shot
Table mic setup – detail
Table mic setup
underside

Season 1
The world of television pilots is a fickle one. Dozens of TV pilots are pitched to the networks every season, but most never go before the cameras. Of the few that do, fewer still get green-lit for a full season. I had no reason to think that a show involving a restaurant and feuding cousins would ignite much interest on the part of the viewers.

So, I was surprised to receive another call from the same unit manager in November of 2021, asking if I would be interested in doing a full season of the show. Having already experienced the pitfalls of the pilot, I was a bit more wary when it came to doing a full season. Where would we be shooting? Was it going to be all practical sets again? How many cameras? How many actors? The only firm answer was in regard to the restaurant set, which is based in part on an actual sandwich shop called Mr. Beef, located in the River North section of Chicago. I was assured this would be built as a stage set at Cinespace Studios in Chicago. What wasn’t mentioned was that it would be an exact replica of the restaurant itself. Same kitchen, front entry area, same counter, same practical lights, and same working neon signs.

In other words, the show set would present identical constraints and issues we had encountered during the pilot. The only major concession was that the exhaust fan required for stove ventilation would be moved to the roof area of the stage but would not be a variable speed fan. With the cooperation of the SFX department, however, we were able to convince the powers-that-be to install a system which was higher air intake and lower in velocity than what would typically be used in a commercial kitchen. While not completely silent, it did at least reduce the noise to a level that was manageable for many scenes.

What we didn’t anticipate was the plan to shoot one episode (EP 7 “Review”) in a single continuous 18-minute take, which contained multiple complications for every department. Thanks to some incredible boom work on the part of my crew, we made it through, with virtually no ADR.

RF Constraints
Like some other major metropolitan areas in the post-repack era, Chicago is a nightmare when it comes to the UHF spectrum. When looking at the region in its entirety, the band from 470mHz up to 604mHz is occupied by UHF TV channels with a signal strength that varies from lakefront to the suburbs. The only band left is a small slice of 470mHz, which at best will allow about eight channels of wireless, depending on modulation. Further, when working on the stages, we share the spectrum with three other shows shooting in the same stage building, making RF coordination a real challenge.

To overcome these obstacles, we move whatever non-critical systems (IFB’s, coms, etc.) we can to frequencies which won’t cause intermod issues with the primary talent and boom wires. We employ both digital and analog systems, so it’s crucial to keep on top of differences in modulation schemes.

When moving to various locations around the city and suburbs, wireless assignments need to be changed to accommodate the spectrum available, so it’s not unusual to have to re-tune a dozen or more channels of wireless to avoid problems in a given geographic area.

In addition to RF spectrum issues, there were complications caused by the stage lighting system controllers, along with two neon signs, part of the design at the original location used for the show. The signs were a frequent source of wideband RF noise and EMI. Despite attempts at reducing the noise caused by the high-voltage transformer, it was virtually impossible to contain the RF spray generated by the signs themselves. In situations where the signs needed to be left on, iZotope was our friend. To aid the post crew in working around these issues, we recorded samples of just the interference (minus any set noise), providing a clean signature track that could hopefully be used to cancel the interference in the actual dialog tracks.

Season 2
When it was announced that the show would be picked up for a second season, this gave us the opportunity to address a few of the issues that had plagued us during Season 1. This included a better multiple-antenna RF system, installed in and around the stage set, which aided us in covering scenes that moved from the kitchen to front-of-house and back again. We were also able to arrange for the electrical department to set up a separate set of controls for all the refrigeration equipment on set, which is frequently used to store actual prop food during shooting. All the food seen on the show is edible; its preparation is supervised by the Showrunner’s sister, Coco Storer, whose experience working in high-end kitchens inspires some of the storylines.

We were also able to finesse the placement of mics on some of the talent, mostly to accommodate both aprons and “street clothing” costumes. In a few instances, mics were placed in the actors’ hair to avoid situations where the mics might be completely blocked.

Episode 1 of Season 2 starts off with a bang (literally), as the staff of “The Original Beef” take hammers and crowbars to the set. Yes, they are actually doing the real demolition of the set, which we initially thought would be filmed as an insert shot separate from the dialog. Another surprise…
And, as in the first season, the finale of Season 2 features yet another continuous take which takes us from the kitchen to the front-of-house, and back again. The episode ends with Carmy being accidentally locked in the walk-in refrigerator on opening night of the restaurant.

Scott at Main Stage cart
Console setup for season four, episode seven, Zone Mic System

Season 3
Season 3 of the show (“Tomorrow”) as aired, is a montage set to music which serves as a recap of Carmy’s life up until now. Primarily backed by a needle-drop music track, interspersed with snippets of dialog, we track Carmy’s torturous beginnings during his apprenticeship at the French Laundry restaurant, up until the present-day realities of a kitchen cleanup. Overall, this season is much quieter than the two previous seasons.

Befitting the general emotional tone of the season, there are also scenes filmed at a Michelin-starred Chicago restaurant (“Ever”), operated by Chef Curtis Duffy. This restaurant incorporates some of the best sound treatment I’ve ever encountered for a front-of-house dining area. With absolutely nothing that would clue the average diner as to how the room was treated, I had to look very carefully at the walls and ceiling areas to figure out how the architect and builders had treated the surfaces. At the end, I remarked to Chef Duffy, “I would eat here based on the acoustics alone, even if the food was terrible.” I wish every location where we shoot could be as good as that one.

Season 3 ends with a farewell dinner, marking the closing of Ever, where Carmy is reunited with his former colleagues, along with the hateful chef (David Fields) who we’ve seen previously. The episode ends as a cliffhanger, with many unresolved questions facing Carmy, including whether the restaurant will survive.

Most problematic from a sound standpoint was Episode 3 (“Doors”), which featured a number of scenes that were guaranteed to ignite PTSD for anyone who has ever worked in a restaurant. Dishes stacked up in the sink, orders gone wrong, someone’s hand being cut with a utility knife, shouting matches and physical altercations. With frequent overlapping dialog, this episode was guaranteed to have the Dialogue Editor order up a 100-tablet bottle of Xanax.

Season 4
Season 4 of The Bear opens with an episode (“Groundhog”) similar in tone to that of Season 3, with a flashback sequence that takes us to Carmy’s time with his brother, Mikey. Subsequently, we see snippets of The Chicago Tribune restaurant review that ended Season 3, which leads to a lot of soul-searching on the part of Carmy and the staff.

The generally quiet and introspective tone of the season doesn’t last for long, however.

16 Actors Under a Table? No Problem…
One particularly challenging scene for sound takes place in Episode 7 of the season. This episode revolves around a reception for the wedding of Richie’s ex-wife, Tiffany, to her new beau, Frank. It also features nearly every member of the Berzatto family. Predictably, this results in some moments of high drama. Midway through the episode, we see Richie and Tiffany’s young daughter crawling underneath a huge table of food and drink, in an attempt to escape the impending “stepfather-daughter” dance with Frank. Richie soon follows and does his best to assuage her fears. Before long, most of the Berzatto family and a few other guests are under the table in a free-for-all group therapy session focused on the fears of each of the characters.

The scene presented unique hurdles for the Sound Department. While we could employ the usual approach of slapping a lav mic on each of the actors, we knew that the actors would be jostling around under the table, crouched over, with wardrobe selections that were sure to be the enemy of good sound. And while we might be able to get a boom mic underneath the actors on close-ups, wide shots would show the entire floor and underside of the table. There were no easy options here.

The only solution was to figure out a way to employ mics hidden on the underside of the table, which was composed of ¾ inch plywood, and aged down with a light faux stain finish. The standard approach of PZM mics attached under the surface was going to be a non-starter, even if they were recessed to be flush with the underside of the table. In addition, there was the issue of actors and objects bumping into the table, which would be transmitted into the plywood and subsequently picked up by the mics. Hardly an ideal scenario for dialog recording.

After considering all the options, the only approach that seemed workable was to employ small mics embedded in the underside of the table. Fortunately, for the scenes that took place with the actors under the table, the tabletop itself would not be seen on camera (Insider scoop: The tabletop shown in the reception scenes was a second table laden with the usual food and drink set dressing).

The next problem was to figure out how to hide the mics from camera view, as well as isolating them from any vibration that might be induced from the plywood surface. The most straightforward approach was to drill holes in the table surface and insert small diameter lavalier mics with foam to isolate them from the plywood. The art department was not particularly enthralled with this approach, but after we assembled a mock-up of the table with mics and foam in place, and aged to match the wood surface, they relented.

So, now we had sixteen more mics to deal with, in addition to lav mics on the actors and a boom mic. Since the actors would move around during the scene, we only had a rough idea of what mic(s) might pick up their dialog for any given part of the scene. The only answer for this was an additional 16-channel mixer, with a separate mix track consisting of just the zone mics for the Picture Editors to work with.
In the end, we maxed the channel capabilities on the Sound Devices Scorpio recorder that we employ for most of our stage work, with all the mics isolated, and two mix tracks. Needless to say, the Dialogue Editor (Evan Benjamin) was rather astonished when he received thirty-two channels, which was well in excess of even the most complicated scenes we had done to date. Soundminer was his friend in helping to sort out all the tracks, along with a plot of the table showing mic positions as a roadmap.

One Actor, Five Mics
This was not to be the end of pain for Season 4, however. Next up was Episode 8 (“Green”), which includes a mysterious dream sequence with Sydney acting as the chipper host of a cooking show that quickly takes a turn into a kitchen nightmare. This includes wind and water flooding the set, cabinets banging open and shut, and general mayhem, all of which were actual on-set effects, as opposed to CGI. Given the improvisational nature of the dialog, the goal was to get as useable a track as possible.

It’s not easy to overcome the noise from a Ritter fan six feet away from set, combined with rain FX, hydraulics, and other assorted noise. But since the set was portrayed as a TV cooking show set, we were able to convince the director that a studio mic boom would be something that would typically be found in this scenario. Consequently, we had the advantage of using a Fisher boom AND include it as part of the set dressing. However, as this was to be a one-take shot, we didn’t want to risk it to a single mic. So, in addition to a Sennheiser MKH-415 on a Fisher Model 2, we also had a mic on the actress, two mics rigged above the table, and a mic hidden in the tabletop. Somehow, the post sound crew was able to extract something usable from all these sources, without resorting to ADR.

The Bear is definitely not your typical run-of-the mill episodic TV show. Major challenges for both the production and post-production sound team are routine.

Many thanks to my crew for some stellar work over the run of the show.

Joe Campbell – Boom Operator
Michael Capulli – Boom Operator
Nicholas Price – Utility
Sharon Frye – Utility
Eric LaCour – Utility
Nick Ray Harris – Boom and Additional Mixer
Uriah Brown – Utility
Nick Fabellai – Utility
Blake Scheller – Utility
Mikey Wilson – Utility
Tim Edson – Utility
Jason Johnston – Boom (Pilot)
Carly Perkins – Utility (Pilot)

Jaws at 50

A Personal Journey Through Film and Sound

by Peter J. Devlin CAS

In 1975, I was a thirteen-year-old living in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The conflict known as “The Troubles” was in its sixth year, casting a shadow over daily life. Amidst the unrest, one exhilarating thought preoccupied my mind: when would I finally get to see the most anticipated film of the year, Jaws. As we approach the 50th anniversary of its release, it’s astonishing to reflect on how this film has woven itself into the fabric of my life, ultimately guiding me on a journey that ignited my passion for movies, led me to work in production sound, and allowed me to meet some incredible individuals involved in its creation.

Roy Scheider as Martin Brody filming Jaws;
Jaws movie poster courtesy of © 1975 – Universal Pictures.
JAWS, 1975

During that time in the UK, it was common practice for films to be released up to six months or more after their debut in the United States. This frustrating delay no longer exists, but it created an atmosphere of excitement and anticipation for movies in the 1970s. Jaws, now hailed as the first true blockbuster, was released in the U.S. in June 1975; yet, I had to patiently wait until April 1976 to experience its magic for myself. I vividly recall the day I left school with my cousin, Joe Torney, to catch a weekday screening at the ABC Cinema in Belfast City Center. From the very first haunting notes of John Williams’ score—those two ominous cello notes, E and F—through to the final credits, I was utterly transfixed and soon became obsessed with the film. I hurried home, practically buzzing with excitement, to tell my mother that I simply had to see it again. She looked at me with a bemused smile, but after my third viewing within just two weeks, I was gently informed that the funding for this trip to see the same film would have to come to a halt.

The true turning point for me came with the purchase of the book The Jaws Log in 1977, written by Carl Gottlieb, who chronicled the tumultuous production of the film and included incredible behind-the-scenes photographs. It captured not just my interest, but my imagination as well. The tales of the challenges faced during filming opened my eyes to the artistry and teamwork required to bring a film to life. Although sound wasn’t my primary focus as a teenager, learning about the various crafts involved in filmmaking profoundly changed how I viewed every movie I watched. I didn’t stop at merely watching the film, while I was on a school trip to Paris, I eagerly purchased the soundtrack, scooped up multiple film magazines and developed an increasing fascination with its young director, Steven Spielberg.

Jaws became the largest-grossing film of 1975 and went on to win three Academy Awards for Composer John Williams, Editor Verna Fields, and the sound team of Production Sound Mixer John R. Carter, Re-recording Mixers Robert Hoyt, Roger Herman, and Earl Madery. When looking at the credits, there is no mention of the complete production sound team or sound editorial. IMDb lists twelve individuals who are uncredited. One of those was Thomas Allen, whom I knew when I worked in Florida. Tom never spoke to me about working on the film until many years later when he told me he was the Cable Person, unfortunately, it was in a casual comment on the phone. I couldn’t believe I had missed an opportunity to speak with him at length. Tom has since passed away, but he had a significant career and worked for Universal on many shows, becoming the Mixer of choice for actor Peter Falk on the Columbo series.

Jaws behind the scene photos are courtesy of the following:
Flickr/Pinterest/Britannica/Wikimedia Commons/IMDb
https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/jaws-behind-the-scene-photos/
https://www.moviestillsdb.com/movies/jaws-i73195

In 1992, I worked on a TV series, Key West, for Fox, and one of the directors was James Contner, who came up through the Camera Department. He was the focus puller on Jaws, and I remember being in awe of someone who had worked on the film. Not only was he a great director, but he also cared about production sound. I had a Zoom call with Jim recently, and we reminisced about the episode of Key West and his experiences on set in Martha’s Vineyard. He continued his connection to great white sharks when he became the Director of Photography on Jaws 3D, in 1982.

I was in New York in 2001 for a film called Bad Company for Disney, and got into conversation with our UPM, Jonathan Filley. We talked about our favorite films when he proceeded to tell me about his short-lived acting career. He was in the opening scene of Jaws and was that character “Tom Cassidy,” who luckily didn’t make it into the water, passing out on the beach as his partner, “Chrissie,” continued into the ocean to meet the Great White!

The next Jaws connection for me was the director himself. I was working on Michael Bay’s film Transformers in 2006, and Steven Spielberg was one of the producers. I handed him a pair of Comteks when he came to set and I couldn’t help but think of the journey I had taken into sound, which all started that day thirty years earlier in a cinema in Belfast in 1976. I would have loved to share that story with him, but I was sure he had heard many such stories!

A few years later, I learned that my wife Maureen had a colleague at her school whose father won an Academy Award for the sound on Jaws, I couldn’t believe it. It was Re-recording Mixer Robert Hoyt, and through this connection, I was able to meet Robert’s widow, Judie. This meeting, in turn, led to the Cinema Audio Society displaying Hoyt’s Oscar at the 50th CAS Awards in 2024. Robert Hoyt was one of the original CAS founders and its first CAS President. Now you see the interweaving connection here.

Judie said originally, Robert was not going to attend the Oscars, as he believed the award would not go to a film whose soundtrack was in mono.The other nominated films were The Hindenburg, Funny Lady, The Wind and the Lion, and Bite the Bullet. He believed that the frontrunner was The Hindenburg, especially given its six-track 70mm release. Fortunately, he was persuaded by his family to attend the Oscars, and he went up on stage to receive his Academy Award alongside his fellow team member Roger Herman, Earl Madery, and John Carter. In 2023, the Academy Museum hosted Jaws Production Designer Joe Alves. He was kind enough to sign my original Jaws soundtrack album with the most amazing signature and illustration. Joe captivated the audience as he shared his memories from 1974 in Martha’s Vineyard, connecting me once again to the film.

Robert Shaw’s son, Ian Shaw, brought to Broadway the production of The Shark Is Broken, in 2023, which chronicles the making of the film in Martha’s Vineyard. The setting was the boat the Orca I couldn’t believe how much Ian looked and sounded like his father, as “Quint,” and the play is still continuing to entertain audiences who are fascinated with the film, and the behind-the-scenes drama between the three principal actors: Robert Shaw, Roy Scheider, and Richard Dreyfuss.

Steven Spielberg and Bruce in Jaws (1975)
Photo by mptvimages.com
Image courtesy mptvimages.com

However, I leave the production sound connection for last, which, for me, is the “motherlode.” Last year, I was texting with Re-recording Mixer Jon Taylor, inquiring if he knew anyone I could contact at Universal regarding the equipment used on set. His response was epic: He said my Mix Tech, Bill Meadows’ father, was the Boom Operator on the film. You can imagine how elated I was. I called Bill, and sure enough, he told me that his dad, Frank Meadows, worked on the film and that he himself had worked on several restorations. A meeting was set up with both of them, and I can honestly say it felt like a full-circle moment.

Sitting down with Frank and Bill, I discovered that there were two production sound crews on the film. The first was John Carter and Boom Operator John McDonald, and Sound Recordist Bill Griffith, but because the film went over its shooting schedule, Production Mixer Albert D. Cuesta and Frank Meadows came in to finish the film. Frank was able to tell me that he boomed the iconic line from Roy Scheider, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat,” as well as the Indianapolis speech from Robert Shaw. Bill told me that during that scene, you can see the boom reflection in the cabin window behind Robert Shaw, but that was digitally removed in the subsequent restorations.

Hoyt family residence with Robert Hoyt’s Best Sound Oscar
2024 CAS Awards
Meeting Jaws Boom Operator Frank Meadows and son, Bill
Robert Shaw’s son, Ian, meeting fans after a performance of The Shark Is Broken on Broadway

Frank was also an avid photographer, pre-NDA days. He used his skills to capture some wonderful photos on Ektachrome, beautiful behind-the-scenes images. Recently, he donated this slide collection to the Academy, where it can be viewed by students and academics. After Jaws, Frank went on to become the Production Sound Mixer on many television shows, including Little House on the Prairie, Hunter, and T.J. Hooker. He also served as Business Agent in Local 695.

Frank’s father was Roy Meadows, who worked as an Engineer in the Universal Studios Sound Department from 1929 till 1933. In 1933, Roy moved into production sound, first as a Boom Operator and then as a Mixer at RCA/RKO Studios from 1933 till 1948. From 1948 until his retirement in 1974, he went independent and worked as a Sound Mixer for Universal, Paramount, Disney, and Fox. Roy, Frank, and Bill represent three generations working in sound, and Bill’s son, Samuel, has expressed a strong interest in the “family business” that could be four generations!

Regarding the sound equipment; Frank said that they used a Nagra 4L, two Sennheiser 816’s, two 415’s, four Vega radio microphones with Sony ECM 50’s and a four-channel Perfectone mixer that was modified by Universal Studios. They lost a Nagra in fifty feet of water, which was recovered but was no longer usable. Steven Spielberg tells a story of the boat, the Orca sinking, with Production Mixer John Carter holding his Nagra high in the air as production rushed to get everybody off the boat, with no attention being paid to John’s predicament!

Jaws album from 1976 signed by Production Designer Joe Alves

Listening to the production track in 2025 on the restored and remixed 4K version, I can honestly say I am in awe of the abilities of the production team working with a mono Nagra and a Perfectone mixer. In my earlier days, I mixed to a mono track, but today we are spoiled for choices when embarking on a project. Mixers John, Albert, and Boom Operators John and Frank raised the bar in what was possible in those days, and they go down in history for recording sound on a film that has endured for fifty years and will continue to influence future filmmakers.

Signed playbill from Ian Shaw’s award-winning play, The Shark Is Broken

In September of this year, the Academy Museum will commemorate the 50th anniversary of Jaws with a unique exhibition dedicated to the film. It is the first of its kind to focus entirely on the film in an exhibition. Needless to say, I am incredibly excited about what will be a popular destination for Jaws lovers from around the world.

In reflection, this film’s influence on my life has been profound, guiding me to a career in film production and fostering connections with many of the industry’s finest talents. This year, I celebrated my thirtieth year in Local 695, and as we celebrate Jaw’s 50th anniversary, I invite our membership to join in commemorating its extraordinary legacy and soundtrack, a motion picture that continues to inspire future filmmakers and movie lovers. It speaks to the enduring power of cinema and to a true classic that changed the industry forever.

2025 Primetime Emmy Nominations

For Outstanding Sound Mixing 77th Primetime Creative Arts EMMY Awards

Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie

Adolescence
Episode 1

Jules Woods CAS, Re-Recording Mixer
Kiff McManus, Production Mixer
Rob Entwistle, Production Mixer
Adam Méndez, Foley Mixer
Additional Production Sound Team:
Kiff McManus 1st Assistant Sound,
Tom Pallant, Kyle Pickford, Ash Sinani 2nd Assistant Sound, Joanne Barcik, Chi Limpiroj, 3rd Assistant Sound Hannah Bracegirdle

Black Mirror
“USS Callister: Into Infinity”
James Ridgway, Re-Recording Mixer
Stuart Piggott, Production Mixer
Adam Méndez, Foley Mixer
Sam Okell, Scoring Mixer
Additional Production Sound Team:
1st Assistant Sound, Stephen Lee,
2nd Assistant Sound Madeleine Quarm,
Trainee Olly Ballantyne

Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story
“Blame It on the Rain”
Jamie Hardt, Re-Recording Mixer
Laura Wiest, Re-Recording Mixer
John Bauman, Production Mixer
Mehrnaz Mohabati, ADR Mixer
Additional Production Sound Team:
Ace Williams, Boom Operator,
Kris Wilcox Utility Sound

The Penguin
“After Hours”
Rich Bologna, Re-Recording Mixer
Andy Kris, Re-Recording Mixer
Christof Gebert, Production Mixer
Julien Pirrie, Foley Mixer
Additional Production Sound Team:
Boom Operators Gideon Jenson,
James Appleton,
Sound Utility John Sember, Andrew Benz

Zero Day
Episode 6
Pete Elia CAS, Re-Recording Mixer
Jason Coleman CAS, Re-Recording Mixer
Ken Ishii CAS, Production Mixer
Michael Perfitt, Scoring Mixer
Additional Production Sound Team:
Peter Deutscher, Boom Operator,
Ethan Goldberger, Sound Utility/2nd Unit Sound Mixer, Max Stein 2nd Unit Boom Operator

Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Comedy Or Drama Series (Half-Hour) and Animation

The Bear
“Doors”
Scott D. Smith CAS, Production Sound Mixer
Steve “Major” Giammaria,
Re-Recording Mixer
Patrick Christensen, ADR Mixer
Ryan Collison, Foley Mixer
Additional Production Sound Team:
Joe Campbell Boom Operator,
Michael Capulli Boom Operator,
Nick Price Utility, Eric LaCour Utility,
Sharon Frye Utility, Uriah Brown Sound Intern

Mid-Century Modern
“Sour Pickleball”
Peter Nusbaum, Re-Recording Mixer
Whitney Purple, Re-Recording Mixer
Jeff A. Johnson CAS, Production Mixer
Additional Production Sound Team:
Boom Operators Doug Shintaku, Ross Deane, Recordist Elyse Pecora,
Armen Allen Maintenance

Only Murders in the Building
“Once Upon a Time in the West”
Mathew Waters CAS, Re-Recording Mixer
Kyle O’Neal CAS, Re-Recording Mixer
Joseph White Jr., Production Mixer
Alan Demoss, Scoring Mixer
Additional Production Sound Team:
Kira Smith Boom, TR Boyce Utility/Boom

Shrinking
“The Drugs Don’t Work”
Earl Martin, Re-Recording Mixer
Anna D. Wilborn CAS, Production Sound Mixer
Alex Jongbloed, Foley Mixer
Trino Madriz, ADR Mixer
Additional Production Sound Team:
Boom Operator Douglas Shamburger,
Yvette Marxer Sound Utility/2nd Boom,
Alexis Schafer

The Studio
“The Golden Globes”
Lindsey Alvarez CAS, Re-Recording Mixer
Fred Howard, Re-Recording Mixer
Buck Robinson, Production Sound Mixer
Ron Mellegers, Foley Mixer
Additional Production Sound Team: Nick Allen
Boom Operator/2nd Unit Mixer/Playback Operator, Cole Bluma Additional Boom Operator, Rachel Schroeder & Kelsey Nie Utility Sound Technicians, Evan Hare Video Utility

Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Variety Series Or Special

The Daily Show
“Jon Stewart & the News Team Live at the Chicago DNC”
John Neroulas, Audio Engineer
Patrick Weaver, FOH Mixer

The 67th Annual Grammy Awards
Thomas Holmes, Production Mixer
John Harris, Music Mixer
Eric Schilling, Music Mixer
Jamie Pollock, FOH Music Mixer
Jeffrey Michael Peterson,
FOH Production Mixer
Michael Parker, Monitor Mixer
Andres Arango, Monitor Mixer
Juan Pablo Velasco, Pro Tools Mixer
Aaron Walk, Pro Tools Mixer
Christian Schrader, Supplemental Audio Mixer
Eric Johnston, Playback Mixer
Doug Wingert, VO MIxer

The Oscars
Paul Sandweiss, Production Mixer
Tommy Vicari, Orchestra Mixer
Steve Genewick, Orchestra Mixer
Tom Pesa, Orchestra Monitor Mixer
Biff Dawes, Music Mixer
Pablo Munguia, Pre-Recorded Music Mixer
Kristian Pedregon, Post Audio Mixer
Patrick Baltzell, FOH Mixer
Michael Parker, Monitor Mixer
Christian Schrader, Supplemental Audio Mixer
John Perez, VO Mixer

SNL50: The Anniversary Special
Robert Palladino, Production Mixer
Ezra Matychak, Production Mixer
Frank Duca, FOH Production Mixer
Doug Nightwine, FOH Production Mixer
Christopher Costello, Music Monitor Mixer
Caroline Sanchez, FOH Music Mixer
Josiah Gluck, Broadcast Music Mixer
Jay Vicari, Broadcast Music Mixer
Tyler McDiarmid, Playback Mixer
Geoff Countryman, Supplemental SFX Mixer
Devin Emke, Post Audio Mixer
Teng Chen, Supplemental Mixer

SNL50: The Homecoming Concert
Thomas Holmes, Production Mixer
Christian Schrader, Supplemental Audio Mixer
Eric Schilling, Music Mixer

Lawrence Manchester, Music Mixer
Dan Gerhard, FOH Production Mixer
Jason Crystal, FOH Music Mixer
Jamie Pollock, FOH Music Mixer
Juan Pablo Velasco, Pro Tools Mixer
Anthony Lalumia, Pro Tools Mixer
Mike Bové, Monitor Mixer
Cesar Benitez, Monitor Mixer
Talia Krause, Monitor Mixer
Al Theurer, Playback Mixer

Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Nonfiction Program

Beatles ’64
Josh Berger, Re-Recording Mixer
Giles Martin,
Re-Recording Music Mixer

Music by John Williams
Roy Waldspurger,
Re-Recording Mixer
Christopher Barnett CAS,
Re-Recording Mixer
Noah Alexander, Production Mixer

100 Foot Wave
Chapter III – “Cortes Bank”
Keith Hodne, Re-Recording Mixer

Pee-Wee as Himself
Johnny Mathie, Production Mixer

Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary
(Music Box)
Tony Solis, Re-Recording Mixer
Paul Stula, Production Mixer
Barry London, Production Mixer

Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Reality Program

The Amazing Race
“Series Body of Work”

Jim Ursulak, Lead Production Mixer
Allie Boettger, Production Mixer
Paul Bruno, Production Mixer
John Buchanan, Production Mixer
Dean Gaveau, Production Mixer
Ryan P. Kelly, Production Mixer
Marcus Lominy, Production Mixer
Richard Chardy Lopez, Production Mixer
Mickey McMullen, Production Mixer
Sean Milburn, Production Mixer
Paul Orozco, Production Mixer
Simon Paine, Production Mixer
John Pitron, Production Mixer
Jeff Zipp, Production Mixer
Troy Smith, Re-Recording Mixer
Ryan Gerle, Re-Recording Mixer

American Idol
“Grand Finale”
Patrick Smith, Production Mixer
Randy Faustino, Music Mixer
Michael Parker, PA Mixer
Manny Barrajas, Monitor Mixer
Christian Schrader, Suplemental Audio Mixer
Jesse Dunham, Music Playback

Barry Weir Jr., Re-Recording Mixer
Adrian Ordonez, Re-Recording Mixer

Deadliest Catch
“My Brother’s Keeper”
Jared Robbins, Re-Recording Mixer

The Voice
“Live Finale, Part 2”
Michael Abbott, Production Mixer
Randy Faustino, Music Mixer

Tim Hatayama, Re-Recording Mixer
Christian Schrader, Supplemental Mixer
Carlos Torres, Playback Mixer
Andrew Fletcher, FOH Mixer
Shaun Sebastian, Monitor Mixer
Kenyata Westbrook,
Reality Supervising Audio Mixer
Colin Bonney, Reality Audio Mixer
Servio Escobedo, Reality Audio Mixer
John Koster, Reality Audio Mixer
Robert P. Matthews Jr., Reality Audio Mixer
Marlon Moore, Reality Audio Mixer

Ryan Young, Re-Recording Mixer

Welcome to Wrexham
“Down to the Wire”
Mark Jensen CAS, Re-Recording Mixer


Disclaimer: The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS) does not award Emmy statuettes or nomination certificates to those listed under “Production Sound Team”

Names in bold are Local 695 members

Interview with Joe Aredas, Jr.

by Mark Ulano CAS AMPS

Joe Aredas, Jr., Assistant Business Representative for IATSE Local 695, is an essential partner of the team representing the union members the Local since 2012. He works closely with Business Representative Scott Bernard and Co-assistant Business Representative Heidi Nakamura. Joe, himself, a long-standing member of our union, also has also served the Local as an elected member of the union’s Executive Board since 2006 and he continues to make important contributions on the Industry Safety Committee, working to keep our members safe at work.

MU: Joe, I’m curious about your basic responsibility. as a rep? How long have you been serving members?

JOE: I’ve been a rep for, let’s see, going back to 2012. So I’ve been a representative since then, before with Local 700, of course. And then I’ve been a Board member since 2006. Right off the bat, let me say that Scott, Heidi, and I all work in unison representing our members at the Local, at the IATSE, and at the political level. It is a solid team covering all the bases.

MU: Didn’t you serve as president in another local in a prior period of your life?

JOE: That is correct, Local 683.

MU: There’s depth to the kinds of information and knowledge you bring to the table. That’s important, I think, for people that they have that going on behind the scenes. What would you say is the most common service you provide?

JOE: I would say interpreting the contract for members because a lot of people have questions.

MU: That’s a key point. I remember in my time working with you that of anyone on the staff, you were most likely to have direct memory of language in the variety of contracts that we must service and enforce.

Can you describe a typical day or week of your job?

JOE: I’m a person who plans for the most part. I like to plan out my week and then leave time in the week for anything that I need to respond to. I try to plan for at least a couple of days for set visits each week. I try to schedule those in advance. I also must constantly check my emails for any questions that may come in.

A great thing that’s been going on for a while is we have a general rep email that questions go to. This way, Heidi, Scott, or I can look at that. One of us will usually answer and cover copy each other so all of us are aware, again, keeping our team fully informed.

MU: Visits? You mean production sets and fixed facilities? Is that the answer?

JOE: Yes, that is correct. There may be something problematic, but a lot of the time I am just checking in on our members, their well-being, connecting, and generally just checking in with production and fostering relationships with producers if I can, and to make sure that when I take a position, if there is an issue, that it’s easier to address with someone that you are trying to partner with.

MU: Do you have any special skills or history that really help you with your support for members?

JOE: I think my family history would be important. Being around my father, I learned a lot from him about how to get the job done.

MU: And your brother Steve, too. He’s an important part of the IA’s West Coast Office team in the field. Your dad, Joe Aredas, Sr., has special history in more ways than as a member. Joe, Sr. was a longtime rep here at Local 695, then became the head of the IATSE West Coast Office for many years. He’s been in leadership for many years, former head of the West Coast Office, now retired and for me personally was a very important mentor and guiding spirit at the very beginning of my and my wife’s coming into the union.

JOE: Was that in the ’80s?

MU: Yes, it was 1983 to be exact.

How would you describe your relationship with the members?

JOE: I would say I strive to connect with our members professionally. I really attempt to connect personally. It’s important to remember who they are and what is going on with them if I have that information, you know, like their family may just have had a kid. Or they are not working as much and how can I help them? That kind of stuff. I try to genuinely connect with our members the best I can.

MU: Do you continue with ongoing training for different aspects of the work?

JOE: I have taken all the IA training that I could for organizing. I strive for safety training myself. I just finished the OSHA 30. [Editor’s note: OSHA’s 30-day safety training course.]

I try to think of safety all the time. I am on the Contract Services Safety Committee and working with developing their bulletins. I was lucky enough to be involved with the ergonomic long, takes bulletin. [Editor’s note: These guidelines protect Boom Operators and other crew members subject to unsafe extended takes. The bulletins are agreements between labor and management that define safety protocols for the industry and are supposed to have the teeth of enforcement.]

MU: Yes. We have some history together serving on the Safety Committee for several years. I know you were the front end of the Local for that journey. And it took a while, but it bore fruit by having that become a proper bulletin as opposed to the lesser guidelines. That was a very important moment, a real achievement.

JOE: I always hope that the members learn about that kind of stuff and read about that stuff. It’s all available online now. It’s all changed since I started. And sometimes we’re bringing up things that we think need to be in a safety bulletin.

As the changes take place, the Safety Committee will make changes as well.

MU: Can you give me a little bit of information about the OSHA 30 training that you’ve just completed and what it brings to the membership?

JOE: Well, there’s an OSHA 10 class and an OSHA 30 class. I thought I have been on the Safety Committee; I really need to commit to this training. A lot of it was very important to listen to. Right now, they’re coming out with a new safety advisor position. This is a new law in California, so a lot of people were taking this training to try to qualify for that position. The training went through pretty much every facet of safety that we could go through and in great depth. Other topics are certainly included like sound hearing protection, fall protection, harassment training, including bullying.

MU: What does the 10 versus the 30 numbers mean for the OSHA training? [Editor’s note: OSHA stands for: Occupational Safety and Health Administration, a US Department of Labor agency.]

JOE: The 10 is for 10 hours and 30 means 30 hours,

MU: When a member calls and needs help, depending on what the need is, what’s your process? How do you deal with that as it’s coming in?

JOE: I will speak with a member, read what they say, and open a track on my computer. Sometimes it’s a black-and-white situation that I’m able to answer. And sometimes there’s a little bit of interpretation required. It depends.

MU: Can we talk a little bit about Weingarten Rules? There are situations where you must represent members. Can you describe a little bit of that for me, and what a member can expect or ask for if they feel they’re having a problem or a crisis at work?

JOE: I will represent at a moment’s notice or talk to the company about scheduling any meetings. Any type of meeting that must take place. And there’s been a change in the last, I’d say, six or nine months with meetings. Years ago, you would never, an Assistant Business Agent or a Business Agent would never meet with human resources slash employee relations. There’re times when we’re included in those meetings. It used to be I would just deal with a labor relations person. But in the last six or nine months, there’s been meetings. And I think for the better, to be able to attend those meetings. To structure different employee relations or human resources.

MU: What do you think caused that change?

JOE: I think it’s an employer who is looking at things differently now. I do think it’s better for safety. I think more things are openly discussed or any type of investigation goes deeper. They’re looked at and explored. Things are addressed now. I think the employers are addressing a lot.

MU: It sounds like it’s a good thing in motion. These are troubled times on a lot of levels and in other arenas, but what you’re describing is not a small move forward, having a deeper collaboration in terms of representing the members with the employer. I’m glad to hear it.

You just explained that you’ve been in training with OSHA and other things. How does that turn into something practical when you’re dealing with individual members?

JOE: It could be anything from, “Hey, we don’t have a bathroom anywhere near us,” or “Hey, we’re working in a junkyard today and it’s kind of scary.” We will address any safety concerns, and they do need to be investigated. After the recent passing of a Local 728 member, I think there’s a heightened sense of making sure our members are safe.

Accidents do happen, but we need to make sure that we are doing our best to prevent and respond to these safety concerns.

MU: It’s common for working members to forget that movie and TV sets are industrial work sites and they have a variety of areas which can create danger if you’re not aware and trained how to deal with concerning situations.

JOE: Film workers for the most part do feel a sense of calmness and like this is what we do.

MU: In my life experience, I’ve witnessed death and severe injury on sets from accidents and other things that are traumatizing and yet very educational about what you need to do to be on guard for your own safety beyond even training. Sometimes there’s that sixth sense, that third eye, to be aware of something that may not be immediately obvious and over time become aware. I think your job probably brings a kind of connection to that awareness. For example, if you visit a set, and there’s an issue you recognize that might not have been apparent to others, it’s time to speak up. That’s a very important educational moment for members and management, I think, very important.

JOE: I’ve shown up saying, “Hey, I’m part of the Safety Committee and I just wanted to look into this to make sure.” That is something I take very seriously.

MU: What would you say is the most difficult part of your job? Not in a negative sense, but one of the bigger challenges?

JOE: I’m looking at a couple of scenarios. Let’s see. One is when someone outside of our Local is performing our work. That’s a thing I don’t like to deal with it, but it’s so problematic.

The other one is member-on-member conflict, whether it’s just member-on-member bullying or worse. I hate that more than anybody.

MU: I went through the training that the International provided over such issues and the special protocols required when we have members versus members in a conflict situation. Respect is required for A, the person making the allegation, and B, the person who’s being alleged against. It’s important to stay in the information and neutral mode when looking at that. We’ve got to protect everyone’s rights.

JOE: Or it could be a producer or anyone too, so we must really take care.

MU: What’s your vision for the future? What may be coming down the pike that’s important for us to know about?

JOE: Well, I like to see us all working together and with our sister Locals, and I think that is going on in Hollywood right now, where building relationships, I think Local 695 does enjoy a good relationship with all the locals in the IATSE.

MU: You bring an optimistic voice in these times.

JOE: I am optimistic about that.

MU: What advice can you give to anyone considering entering a career like yours as a rep?

JOE: I think that it’s a navigational job to me. You must navigate and listen and focus on the real problem that you’re listening to. You’ve got to whittle things down.
MU: You just described a successful negotiation. My training has been along the lines of the HARVARD Negotiation Project. [https://www.pon.harvard.edu/category/research_projects/harvard-negotiation-project/] This is when the opposite sides of an issue adapt to working together to solve the issue, instead of seeing each other as the enemy. Psychologically, it’s the first step toward conflict resolution. Joe, you’re on the front lines of that work.

I’m wondering if you have a sense that mentorship enters your work? Do you find yourself in some way mentoring others?

JOE: Oh, yeah, I am mentoring others, not full time, but anyone who asks me a question, I’m always willing to give my point of view and guidance.

MU: That’s beautiful.

It’s hard to have perspective when you’re under economic duress. The industry has gone through cycles of boom and bust for all the time it’s existed, and this is one of those. The business models are reshaping because they’re not functioning the way they’re intended. People tend to think everything’s running away to another region, but in fact, all the regions are seeing a severe contraction of work right now.

JOE: That is one hundred precent right, Mark. I’ve heard from people talking to me going, “Well, a bunch of it’s in New Mexico with Netflix.” But in reality, the IATSE reports that overall production was down and there were two low-budget features and one series shooting in that state. Just a few projects running over there. One show and two low budgets that are shooting for thirty days.

MU: Even Europe is very down in its production schedule.

JOE: Oh yeah, that was the other thing. Well, “England took it all.” No, that’s not true. Not true. They’re going through some of the same things we are.

MU: Do you like what you do? Are you happy in your work?

JOE: I’ve never been more satisfied at a job in my life. That’s key. I felt that I kind of fell into my groove after a while and enjoyed it to the fullest.

MU: One last question. What, if any, message or comment or expression would you like to express to members?

JOE: I think that we’re in a cycle, My father, Joe Sr., has said everything goes in cycles, and our business goes through cycles as well. It’s a strong business and it’s here to stay. There are always changes and cycles and morphing that goes on, but we will go forward…

Weingarten Rights are the legal protections for union members to have a union representative present during an investigatory interview with management where they could reasonably believe discipline or other adverse consequences may result from what they say.

Mixing Hacks

by Jim Lakin CAS

Mixing Hacks has been one of the best experiences of my twenty-plus-year career as a Local 695 Mixer in Los Angeles. I first want to thank Boom Operator Ryan Fee and Sound Utility Claire Mondragon for joining me on Hacks, as well as several other shows. Department continuity helps even the most technically challenging days to move smoothly; and we’ve definitely had our share of curveballs during Hacks. In my opinion, the joyful attitude Ryan and Claire bring to set every day is seldom matched in this business, and I’m very fortunate to call them my friends and my colleagues. A huge thank you to the brilliant creators and showrunners Lucia Aniello, Paul Downs, and Jen Statsky. To say Hacks is a heavy on-location series or that it has a lot of moving parts would be a huge understatement. Lucia, Paul, and Jen have created an environment where every department can thrive, and I think it translates to the screen how much the entire cast and crew puts into this show and enjoys the process of making it. I would also like to thank our post sound team of John Cook, Ben Wilkins, Brett Hinton, and everyone else for their incredible work and tremendous communication over the seasons.

During my career, I’ve mixed shows on everything from a Nagra 4.2, Fostex PD4, and all the way through the HDD/SSD multitrack transition. The Deva II, being my first recorder, and back in those days, I was mixing on a PSC M8. After a brief time with the Fostex DV824 and then the Sound Devices 788T, I had moved over to the Sound Devices 688/CL-12 combination with great results. After going over the scripts I got prior to starting Hacks, and having conversations with our showrunners, it was clear that the 688 may be just a touch short on tracks for a comedy series where everyone was to be wired at all times for improvisation and last-minute adds that didn’t slow down production. I’ve enjoyed Sound Devices products ever since my first 442, 702T, 788T, and beyond, so the choice was easy for me. Knowing that we would have stage performances, music playback, and dialog playback into earwigs, as well the usual number of Comtek, Video Assist, Boom Operator, and Utility Sound feeds, I was excited to see how the Scorpio/CL-16 combination worked.

Photo by Jake Giles Netter

While most digital recorder/controller systems have input and output routing flexibility without the need to re-patch, I was very impressed by the CL-16 interface. It was easy for me to quickly assign multiple sources (any combination) of pre-fader, post-fader, or fixed level to any of the twelve busses, and also assign any of those busses to any of the twelve analog outputs. Surely this is overkill for the needs of many shows out there, but we all love having the extra channels, tracks, Dante I/O, and flexibility, don’t we?

I purchased my upright-style sound cart from Harrison ‘Duke’ Marsh (thanks Duke!) back in early 2020 when none of us really new how bad this COVID thing was going to get. I decided years ago that I liked the vertical carts, especially given how so many multichannel wireless systems are designed to go in racks as are more and more monitors. My cart consists of the Scorpio and CL-16, a Sound Devices MixPre-10T backup recorder, four Lectrosonics Venue 2 systems for twenty-four channels of wireless, a Ferrofish Pulse 16 DX 16×16 Dante Interface, two Comtek BST 25/216 TX’s, four Lectro IFB TX’s, a retractable 1RU 17” monitor, some lights, and a hotel-style call bell. I also use two iPad mini’s on the front of the cart for the Scorpio and backup recorder. Below the Scorpio and CL-16 is a Remote Audio Meon LiFe and Meon Extra LiFe (EL40) for a total of 60 amp hours of LiPo battery power. On the back of the cart, I have small wheels on the top handle so that the cart can be laid on its back (thanks again Duke!). I also have multiple BNC and XLR patch bays so I can easily patch in and out whatever audio or video source I need. I also have two rows of dual BNC connectors that can be used to bring multiple UHF antenna signals in or out. I bring in the antennas to my Venue’s, and the outs to either remote a Boom or Utility IFB antenna, or remote a Comtek Phase-Right antenna for use with earwigs, or closer to the village if we are separated deep in a building. I’m a big fan of landing the cart and moving it as few times as possible.

We primarily use Schoeps CMIT 5U’s, mini-CMIT’s, and Sennheiser MKH50’s for booms, and a combination of DPA 4060 and DPA 6060’s, Sanken COS-11’s, and Countryman B6’s lav mics depending on the costumes, which run quite the gamut. I use Lectrosonics for cast and sound department, SMWB’s and SSM’s on cast, HMA’s for booms and large plants.

Set Costumer John Ostrander and Utility Claire Mondragon working with Randy Newman.
Jim Lakin’s cart
Boom Operator, Ryan Fee

We began filming Hacks in the fall of 2020 with COVID still running rampant, and of course, had daily testing for everyone in Zone A. Our first season was at Paramount, and no food nor beverage could be enjoyed while on stage. I will always remember those days when I opted to mix from outside the stage, just so I could have a snack or some caffeine without having to leave my cart. Our video village had the same problem, and was always a little farther from set than anyone would have liked, and thus, the VOG came into play for every day and every scene. We went through a few iterations over the seasons, with changes only to the powered speaker itself. A request to have two VOG PTT transmitters available every day was made prior to the start of production, as either one for the director, and one for the supervising director, or for the AD. This was a good job for my Lectrosonics UM400a units and an SRC receiver. We had other options available, including wireless handheld mics, but the village seemed to like the walkie-style PTT mic with the UM400a combo. I’m currently using the JBL EON One and enjoying the long-lasting battery operation (Ten hours with one battery that is also swappable with easy access), multiple inputs, built-in mixer, good sound quality and power for the size/weight. It’s Bluetooth functionality helps, as well with last-minute non-sync music requests.

(L-R): Boom Operator Ryan Fee, Claire Mondragon, Sound Utility, and Sound Mixer Jim Lakin celebrating sound roll 100 during season four.

As more and more episode scripts came my way, I was happy to see that we would have plenty of live stage comedy work, a good bit of interesting non-stage locations, and even a little singing, which turned into more and more singing throughout the seasons. I chose my cart based on its solid build quality and knowing it could fit through any doorway in LA that was built to code (and many that aren’t), and I’m really glad I did as Hacks has been a heavy trailer and stakebed show. We’ve been to dozens of theaters and comedy clubs all over LA, as well as rooftop bars, Hollywood nightclubs, subterranean restaurants, sidewalks, theme parks, golf courses, hotels, pickle ball courts, and even an active cruise ship. The ability to lay my cart on its back came in handy during some of our golf course days when the only vehicles available to run us up and down the courses were gators.

Claire Mondragon booming a scene at the Grand Canyon

One of the highlights of the show for me has been working with our wonderful cast of talented performers and just really great people. Our leads, Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder, keep us laughing at the sound cart, and are also some of the kindest people I’ve ever worked with. The opportunity to work with Jean doing her stand-up comedy scenes has been a one-of-a-kind experience. We laugh a lot on this show, and then some days, we also get to play with sound reinforcement in a legendary L.A. or Vegas venue or some hole in the wall comedy club.

Jean had requested that her mic be live for all stand-up work, and who am I to tell Jean no? After some discussion with post and our showrunners, we landed on the understanding that Jean needed to hear herself, the audience in larger venues needed to hear her, and that we wanted as little of the “house system” getting into her microphone as possible. Fortunately, Claire has years of live sound experience and along with Ryan did an incredible job at positioning speakers so that they could work for various camera angles and lenses while giving Jean and the audience all they needed by keeping the bulk of the house out of Jean’s microphone. We chose standard dynamic mics (Shure and Sennheiser) when we were shooting with a cabled look, and Lectrosonics HHa, and even UT400 mics when shooting a wireless handheld look. We typically set up four to six plant mics (Sanken COS-11’s and Sennheiser MKH50’s) for the audience depending on size to help post with timing.

A typical day on Hacks finds us with all cast wired and working with one or two booms depending on how giving the frames are. We have a wonderful camera department, and Ryan works well with our operators in finding solutions even if we have four mirrors and five glass doors in a shot, and yes, that’s happened.

Midway through the first season, both sound and camera suggested that perhaps we were making a show about mirrors. We’re a three-camera show, and often that precludes running a second boom, but, when necessary, Claire jumps in and kills it every time. A Sound Utility with refined boom skills is a huge asset, so hats off to Claire. My favorite days are when we are double swinging old school and I barely ever get past fader #2. Even with all the help from the camera operators, there are plenty of instances when the lavs just need to work. We always make a point of getting to know our costume department as early as possible and start making plans for anything that may require some additional work. Everyone on the Hacks costumes team has gone out of their way to help us work things out, and I believe the cast appreciates that as much as Post does. A big thank you to our Set Costumers Janet Jensen and John Ostrander.

On season two, episode four, “The Captain’s Wife,” we had singing and earwig work planned on Jean’s impromptu stage takeover. Jean is drinking at the bar and hears the pianist/singer on stage begin to play “Natural Woman” and being a bit tipsy, she heads to the stage and “borrows” the mic and proceeds to finish out the song. We shot for two days on an active (though docked) cruise ship for the episode, but thankfully, this scene was at a large hotel bar near Disney in Anaheim, and thus a little easier to load into.

The original plan had been for the entire performance to be pre-recorded and played back for the pianist/singer and Jean. That all changed fairly close to our shoot date and we recorded it all live.

The pianist (and eventually Jean) would sing into a Lectro HHa, and I had everything I needed for tracking the piano, but unfortunately the piano lid was closed for camera purposes, so plant mics and specialty instrument mics were used instead. I used a combination of DPA 4099’s, Shure Beta 98’s, and MKH50’s to bring the piano to life. We had lavs on Jean, the pianist, the featured cast, and six professional singers spread throughout the forty-plus background to help everyone singing stay in key. We did plenty of takes, and Jean left it all on the stage that day. It was very satisfying to mix all of the performance elements on location, and I was so happy the first time I was able to see and hear it finished in a theater at the premiere. I know the Post Team labored especially hard on episode four with so many difficult locations and so much going on between stand-up and musical performances. My hats off to John Cook, Ben Wilkins, Brett Hinton, and the entire Post Department for their top- notch work.

Ryan Fee working the boom

There was interesting work in multiple seasons where we see young Deborah Vance (played by Olivia Boreham-Wing) doing stand-up comedy and some commercials. For all of those scenes, we pre-recorded Jean’s dialog and played it back for young Deborah via earwig to recite lines against green screen or occasionally in front of a live audience as well. We always had Playback Operators and/or Music Recordists come in. Big thanks to “Z”—Jeff Zimmerman, Ryan Pederson, and John Lakin for coming out on our playback and musical performance days. Given the fluidity of our schedule, I kept a modest amount of playback equipment and earwigs on the truck, as well as a 688 bag with an Octopak just in case we need to get portable. Video Assistant Josh Levy was also a great help in locating scenes that he could feed to me and I could then feed to a speaker on set or earwig if there was a last-minute request for the other side of a multi-person phone call requiring the proper timing.

In season four, we finally got to spend some time on the Late Night set at Universal Studios. We spent about ten or twelve days shooting the Late Night scenes, most of it was straightforward, though we did have several walk-and-talks that required the bag given the depth and geography of the backstage hallways. We had exposed mics on cast who were appearing on the Late Night show and hidden lavs on all cast that weren’t. We hung audience mics for our BG reactions and used a Lectrosonics HHa for our guest comedians and crowd warm-up man. We had “Z” run playback for our show opens, commercial breaks, and closes.

Toward the end of our season, we had musical guest Randy Newman with a backing band on the Late Night set and Ryan Pederson was kind enough to come in and handle that. I rarely take on the task of recording full band performances on any of the shows I mix, so it was a lot of fun, especially getting to focus on the cast while Ryan worked his magic recording the band. That day was definitely one of the season’s highlights for the entire cast and crew.

You never really know how long a show is going to run, especially these days. When I got the call for Hacks, I knew it was going to be fun, and I certainly knew it could go for several seasons. After four seasons, I still can’t believe how great the show is, and how much fun it is to work on. This will always be special for me, and fingers crossed I’ll be a part of anything even approaching the caliber of this cast and crew in the future.

Running Point

by Russell White CAS

RUNNING POINT. Kate Hudson as Isla Gordon in Episode 110 of Running Point. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2025

Pregame

When the Executive Producers behind Running Point shared their vision and show’s plot, I was equally intrigued and excited. A few years back, I joined their crew for Mel Brooks’ much anticipated History of the World, Part II. That experience was epic, truly once-in-a-lifetime (Mel Brooks!) and pushed me into that challenging, yet adrenaline filled territory as an orchestra conductor capturing perfectly timed dialog and song, while collaborating across departments. Anything new, stemming from this hilariously brilliant team, could only be great and of course, filled with energy, heart and lots of laughs.

If you haven’t had a chance to catch Running Point on Netflix or missed the story-behind-the-story, it’s loosely inspired by Jeanie Buss, her family, THE legendary basketball team (if it must be named, it rhymes with “Bakers”), and her underestimated talent for game strategy, player dynamics, team leadership, risk taking, and problem solving on every level, with a dose of humility, sibling rivalry, a few surprises, and managing unexpected situations.

RUNNING POINT. Chet Hanks as Travis Bugg in Episode 103 of Running Point. Cr. Kat Marcinowski/Netflix © 2024

As I became familiar with the scripts and the cast, who would bring a fresh take on one of the most storied teams in NBA history, I realized that the show’s creators had locked in a ridiculously talented ensemble. It was now my responsibility, along with my incredible crew (more on them below), to tackle the audio challenges across live-action basketball, glass-enclosed sets, rapidly flowing dialog across multiple people, high-energy setups that balanced hundreds of background, and small groups of principals and everything in between. I couldn’t wait to start on something where every character was memorable in their own way. I found myself truly invested in a flawed family that loved too much and cued every basketball pun ever, with several of their own “buzzer beater” moments.

RUNNING POINT. (L to R) Kate Hudson as Isla Gordon and Jay Ellis as Jay in Episode 108 of Running Point. Cr. Katrina Marcinowski/Netflix © 2024

Three-Point Challenges

Show prep and planning were pretty seamless, thanks to my experienced and knowledgeable crew, Sound Utility Chloe Sizemore (also Second Boom), and Boom Operator Tony McCovey. We have been working together since Insecure, so we know each other’s process very well. The all-glass set was the first challenge, so we had to learn every detail of the set due to crazy reflections. They saw everything! We also shot all over Los Angeles Center Studios in Downtown Los Angeles from the parking garage to the roof. It was also essential to build close relationships with every department. The show also shot with three cameras which was super fun. To keep our team one step ahead, one thing that helped us in the past with shows was to build two carts and one mobile bag. This enabled incredible agility and responsiveness. My main cart utilized a Scorpio, CL-16 and sixteen Sound Devices A20-RX and the smaller, more mobile second cart using a CL-12 with a Sound Devices 888 and eight A20-RX. I also built a small ENG bag specifically for the main character, Isla (Kate Hudson). The ENG bag was a 633 Sound Devices with a hard-lined Neumann TLM 103 mic placed on a stand, for impromptu scratch VO (helpful for post when the director joins the editing process).

Watching the lunar eclipse at lunch and we kept wearing the glasses all week
Finally finding a spot that won’t be filmed

While the actors have crossover plot lines, basketball is also a key character. The basketball action is deftly managed as a hybrid chorus (Greek tragedy anyone?) and a thread that ties a straight line between Isla and her current destiny. Most importantly, it needed to look (thank you to our DP, Marco Fargnoli, and the camera department) and sound authentic. Shoe squeaks, ball movement, player sounds, coaching directions, and crowd yips and squeals are part-and-parcel to the basketball experience. Sweaty players and breathable, thin jerseys, while perfectly normal, are a bit more of a challenge when it comes to sound mixing. Chloe is incredibly talented with wiring actors! We used DPA 6060’s on everyone and believe it or not, I think we only had one break during the whole season. Plant mics played a huge roll as well. For the wide shots, a lot of scenes in the locker room were not boomable. Our go-to is the DPA MMC4018 hypercardiod capsule with the preamp wired for Lectrosonics transmitters.

Our team prevailed in planting mics, booming, and talent wires. The daily challenge is where do I live on set. Much of the time my cart was far away and since we were very wire heavy, scanning everyday was essential.

The Waves won, and everyone got wet and sticky. I’m still finding confetti. The gift that keeps on giving.

We also tried to keep each ISO as clean as possible, and had an incredible ally in the property department that brought out “prop balls” sometimes called stunt basketballs to save the day. These obviously produce sound, but it’s not as deep and doesn’t vibrate as much as real basketballs. They were used for wide shots for the main court and on the practice court, located inside the Waves’ administrative office floor. Isla, her Chief of Staff, Ali (Brenda Song), and her brothers Ness (Scott MacArthur), Sandy (Drew Tarver), and half-brother Jackie (Fabrizio Guido) are constantly running from office-to-office, and in the background you’ll see and hear the practice court in full action. Authenticity was key, and getting clean lines during walk-and-talks, often at an accelerated pace, with costumes that included suits, ties, and jackets for the men, and layered suits or multi-piece outfits for the women was critical.

Isla’s oldest brother, Cam, played by Justin Theroux, is core to the storyline and has a signature piece of clothing in a highly fashionable scarf. Chloe led creative wiring with the “usual” principals and problem solved for Cam. Creative wiring can include everything from hiding in one’s hair all the way down to wrapping a pack on one’s ankle (unless you’re wearing basketball shorts and a tank top jersey).

RUNNING POINT. Marissa Reyes as Sofia in Episode 105 of Running Point. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2025

Going Full-Court Press

Shooting the basketball scenes was a new and fun experience; using Sanken CL-3 mics, at the court’s four corners, four voice-of-God mics (routed through my board) for the AD department and director, at least six wired players and another six for the principals, MKH50’s for the crowd, and both Chloe and Tony on their booms. This was a five-day sequence and included intense and simultaneous coordination between game play, the crowd, the players themselves, the players and the coach, and the principals. On a daily basis, inclusive of this sequence and general filming, we typically had at least ten actors wired per scene. Costumes ranged from the players’ uniforms, street clothes, three-piece suits and ties, wet clothes and no clothes (more on that later).

One of my favorite scenes was Sandy (Drew Tarver) playing acoustic guitar live in the basketball arena set. We originally pre-recorded this, but myself and Drew wanted to try it as a live performance. The scene was about expressing love, in the truest sense, and the live energy would be essential to further support the creative vision of this scene.

Seeing Jay Ellis on set for the first time, who plays the Waves Coach. We knew him as “Lawrence” on Insecure for six years.

The arena was packed with fans, about one hundred-plus background and the mic was set up for the National Anthem. The set was large and naturally noisy, including arena-style bench seating, tall ceilings, and a very reflective floor.

Our work included a Lectrosonic HHa with a DPA 2028 capsule, which was hot to the house PA system and wiring Sandy with a DPA 6061, our six principals, all the players and coaches, and specific actors embedded in the crowd. We mic’d the crowd via six zones with Sennheiser MKH50’s, and running all sound through the house. We also set up a PA that surrounded the basketball court. As Sandy played live and crooned his tune, we captured the crowd-based actors’ lines and as well as the person who won Sandy’s heart as he ran toward an embrace. The director and actors let us know that they felt the thrill and energy of being in a real sports arena, especially as the sound system focused attention on Sandy and his musical number, and when the crowd roared and cheered for the lover’s reunion, it sounded huge.
The cherry on top was a celebratory scene that included a ton of ‘champagne.’ Tony and Chloe were amazing team players who were poncho’d up and booming, as champagne showered down.

Crossover

When we weren’t on stage, we shot throughout Los Angeles at multiple homes and an event location for Isla’s engagement party. There was a surprise that no one saw coming: frogs. Frogs are cute, but they’re not that cute when there are seemingly hundreds like it’s mating season, it sounded like a million frogs at once. It’s funny to reflect on it, but at the time, it was causing heartburn. While we couldn’t solve the problem at the moment, we’re grateful to the Post Production team. They worked miracles on what some may call “the second plague.”

This scene also included an old-fashioned “someone, fell into the pool” stunt followed by multiple people. While the actors were concentrating on their marks and cues, Tony and Chloe stepped into position to boom it perfectly.

As we moved along to other practical locations, something equally annoying reared its head, barking dogs. We first heard the dogs when we were shooting at the home used for Isla’s house. Of course, we checked all of the usual boxes; location went to the neighbors, we paused the dialog for a few moments, but as the barking persisted, I realized that we were being played. A neighbor had a recording of barking dogs playing it through speakers. On one hand, you want to give them credit for creativity, on the other hand, it impacted real-time sound recording and performance bringing another challenge to our Post Team.
At another location, we had a shower scene in a medium-wide shot with the actors backs to the camera. The shower had two walls of glass and two walls of stone, with important dialog. We used a plant mic and got the wild lines after the scene concluded. The remainder of the scene was boomed, as Sandy was only dressed in a towel—no clothes.

Final Buzzer

While every setup was uniquely challenging, I focused on set layout, costumes, and what was most comfortable for the actors and the creative integrity of each scene. Sound Mixers come with a lot of equipment, all sorts of mics and supplies for any type of scene situation and challenge. What I enjoyed most about this opportunity was my personal challenge of using only what was necessary to move quickly to deliver the cleanest tracks possible. I couldn’t be prouder of my team and the opportunity to work on something that the audience loves, so much so that Netflix has greenlit a second season! There are a lot of great shows to watch but people are choosing Running Point—there’s no better feeling than that.

Sound Awards 2025 61st CAS Awards

The awards for outstanding sound mixing in film went to:

MOTION PICTURES – LIVE-ACTION

Honoree Tod A. Maitland speaks at the 61st Annual Cinema Audio Society Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA on Saturday, February 22, 2025 (photo: Al Seib/ABImages)

A Complete Unknown
Production Sound Mixer – Tod A. Maitland CAS
Re-recording Mixer – Paul Massey CAS
Re-recording Mixer – David Giammarco CAS
Scoring Mixer – Nick Baxter
ADR Mixer – David Betancourt
Foley Mixer – Kevin Schultz
Additional Sound Team:
Jerry Yuen – Boom
Terence McCormack Maitland – Utility
Pro Tools Playback – Derek Pacuk

MOTION PICTURES – ANIMATED

Richard Duarte, Gary A. Rizzo CAS, Leff Lefferts and Kenneth Gombos attend the 61st Annual Cinema Audio Society Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA on Saturday, February 22, 2025 (photo: Alex J. Berliner/ABImages)

The Wild Robot
Original Dialogue Mixer – Ken Gombos
Re-recording Mixer – Leff Lefferts
Re-recording Mixer – Gary A. Rizzo CAS
Scoring Mixer – Alan Meyerson CAS
Foley Mixer – Richard Duarte

MOTION PICTURES – DOCUMENTARY

Roy Waldspurger attends the 61st Annual Cinema Audio Society Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA on Saturday, February 22, 2025 (photo: Alex J. Berliner/ABImages)

Music by John Williams
Production Mixer – Noah Alexander
Re-recording Mixer – Christopher Barnett CAS
Re-recording Mixer – Roy Waldspurger

NON-THEATRICAL MOTION PICTURES or LIMITED SERIES

Shane Stoneback, Duncan McRae, Thor Fienberg,Tim Fraser, Sean Moher, Randy K. Singer and Michael Minkler attend the 61st Annual Cinema Audio Society Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA on Saturday, February 22, 2025 (photo: Alex J. Berliner/ABImages)

Masters of the Air: S01 E05 Part Five
Production Sound Mixer – Tim Fraser
Re-recording Mixer – Michael Minkler CAS
Re-recording Mixer – Duncan McRae
Re-recording Mixer – Shane Stoneback
Scoring Mixer – Thor Fienberg
ADR Mixer – Sean Moher
Foley Mixer – Randy K. Singer CAS

TELEVISION SERIES – ONE HOUR

Arno Stephanian CAS, Steve Pederson and Greg P. Russell attend the 61st Annual Cinema Audio Society Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA on Saturday, February 22, 2025 (photo: Alex J. Berliner/ABImages)

Shōgun: S01 E05 “Broken to the Fist”
Production Sound Mixer – Michael Williamson CAS
Re-recording Mixer – Steve Pederson CAS
Re-recording Mixer – Greg P. Russell CAS
ADR Mixer – Takashi Akaku
Foley Mixer – Arno Stephanian CAS
Additional Sound Team: Don Brown – Boom Op
Darryl Marko – Boom Op
Jenna Gouchey – Sound Assistant
Rob Hanchar – 2nd Unit Mixer
Marin Mitchell – 2nd Unit Boom Op
Patou Lauwers – Unit Sound Assistant

TELEVISION SERIES – HALF HOUR

Steve “Major” Giammaria, Scott D. Smith and Rob Browning attend the 61st Annual Cinema Audio Society Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA on Saturday, February 22, 2025 (photo: Alex J. Berliner/ABImages)

The Bear: S03 E03 “Doors”
Production Mixer – Scott D. Smith CAS
Re-recording Mixer – Steve “Major” Giammaria CAS
ADR Mixer – Patrick Christensen
ADR Mixer – Kendall Barron
Foley Mixer – Ryan Collison
Foley Mixer – Connor Nagy
Additional Sound Team: Joe Campbell – Boom Operator
Michael Capulli – Boom Operator, Nick Price – Utility
Eric LaCour – Utility, Sharon Frye – Utility, Uriah Brown – Sound Intern

TELEVISION NON-FICTION, VARIETY or MUSIC – SERIES or SPECIALS

Josh Berger attends the 61st Annual Cinema Audio Society Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA on Saturday, February 22, 2025 (photo: Alex J. Berliner/ABImages)

Beatles ’64
Re-recording Mixer – Josh Berger
Re-recording Mixer – Giles Marti

CAS FILMMAKER AWARD

Honoree Denis Villeneuve attends the 61st Annual Cinema Audio Society Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA on Saturday, February 22, 2025 (photo: Alex J. Berliner/ABImages)

Director Denis Villeneuve

CAS CAREER ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Honoree Tod A. Maitland attends the 61st Annual Cinema Audio Society Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA on Saturday, February 22, 2025 (photo: Alex J. Berliner/ABImages)

Production Sound Mixer
Tod A. Maitland CAS

STUDENT RECOGNITION AWARD

attend the 61st Annual Cinema Audio Society Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA on Saturday, February 22, 2025 (photo: Alex J. Berliner/ABImages)

Kat Frazier of Ohio University
Tejumoluwa Olarewaju
Savannah College of Art and Design
Guillermo Moya
Full Sail University
Aidan Jones
Savannah College of Art and Design

AMPS AWARDS

Dune: Part Two
Production Sound Mixer – Gareth John
Supervising Sound Editor – Richard King
Re-recording Mixer – Ron Bartlett
Re-recording Mixer – Doug Hemphill
Additional Sound Team:
Tom Harrison – Key 1st AS
Freya Clarke – 1st AS
Mátyás Tóth – 2nd AS
Jordan
Tarek Abu Asmar – 2nd AS
UAE
Jad El ASmar – 2nd AS
2nd Unit
Levente Udud – Sound Mixer
Balazs Varga – Technical Support
Fanny André – 1st AS
György Mihályi – 1st AS

L-R: Gareth John, Ron Bartlett
Photo: Kate Davis

BAFTA

LONDON, ENGLAND – FEBRUARY 16: Gareth John and Ron Bartlett, winners of the Best Sound award for “Dune: Part Two”, pose backstage during the EE BAFTA Film Awards 2025 at The Royal Festival Hall on February 16, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Dave Benett/BAFTA/Getty Images for BAFTA)

Dune: Part Two
Production Sound Mixer – Gareth John
Supervising Sound Editor – Richard King
Re-recording Mixer – Ron Bartlett
Re-recording Mixer – Doug Hemphill

Photo: Dave Benett/BAFTA/Getty Images

OSCAR

Gareth John, Richard King, and Ron Bartlett pose backstage with the Oscar® for Sound during the live ABC Telecast of the 97th Oscars® at Dolby® Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday, March 2, 2025.

Dune: Part Two
Production Sound Mixer – Gareth John
Supervising Sound Editor – Richard King
Re-recording Mixer – Ron Bartlett
Re-recording Mixer – Doug Hemphill

Gareth John, Richard King, and Ron Bartlett pose
backstage with the Oscar® for sound.
Photo: Etienne Laurent/The Academy/©A.M.P.A.S.

Education & Funding: Navigating the State-Funded Grant Process

by Casey Weiss

2024 was an extremely busy year for Local 695’s Education & Training Department. Class was in session sixty times, which was a 300% increase to prior years. Four hundred and forty-nine members broadened their skill sets and most excitingly, we celebrated a first in Local 695’s history: being awarded a training grant with the state!

This grant did not come to fruition quickly. The incredibly arduous process began in May 2022, in development with the BRIC Foundation. This organization specializes in training within the entertainment industry and was pioneering a state-funded grant not yet to be available for the world of filmmaking. “Break, Reinvent, Impact, and Change,” or BRIC, coordinates with government agencies, education partners, and industry organizations to create inclusive opportunities for those who are traditionally underrepresented, and incumbent workers seeking career advancement. During their pursuit for the first grant of its kind, BRIC identified both IATSE unions and entertainment workforce affiliates to provide skills training and/or on-the-job training within the industry. This grant was novel, as California has historically only funded formal apprenticeships like you would see with welding or public electricians. This is a drawn-out model that is not typically conducive for the state’s third-largest economic contributor. Developing a brand-new program to support the initiative was necessary, and with Local 695’s Y-16A Training Program already nationally recognized, implementing a new curriculum that could deem us eligible to participate was right up our alley. The grant process was no easy feat. There was ample red tape as officials came to better understand our gig lifestyle. The process required numerous iterations of proposals, budgets, and ever-evolving qualifications. We were all learning about this new blended world together, with the commitment to making this a success for the participants apparent on both sides.

We submitted our finalized Scope of Work, then waited. And waited. A year later, in August 2023, BRIC announced the approval of this grant, partnering with the California Workforce Development Board to launch the Arts, Media, and Entertainment – High Road Training Partnership (AME-HRTP), a trailblazing grant intended to support participants over the course of a multi-year initiative. Then came even greater news: Local 695’s Education & Training Department was to be among the first registrants of this grant, being awarded $108,817.00 from the state for training! With an on-the-job training program already established in-house thanks to the Y-16A Training Program, Local 695 recognized the growing need for training in our ever-evolving technologies. With this grant, we now had the opportunity to offer a unique program to the membership in the developing field of virtual production.

The moving pieces of the grant were finalized in early 2024, and we could officially move forward on implementation. One of the requirements for the grant was to train eighteen participants in an established cohort for the duration of three or more physical training courses. The time requirements were going to be lengthy, and the state had additional requirements participants had to meet. An open call to the Local 695 membership was sent out, seeking those either in the early stages of their careers interested in virtual production, or esteemed members seeking to change directions, or expand on prospective work opportunities. There were more than fifty initial interviews, where expectations and requirements were explained before we could move on to the next step of the application process. This rigorous verification process resulted in multi-series meetings with each applicant, and finally our cohort of eighteen was established! The first LED Video Wall cohort was now onboarded with the state’s database and represented a mix of sound and video members and Y-16A Trainees. The shared goal was to become certified in three training modules designed around Local 695’s virtual production jurisdictions.

The first was an intensive two-week course using the Unreal Engine, mirroring on-set exercises to play back content to large displays, such as interlocking video panel walls.

Unreal Engine has existed since the late 1990’s and was developed by Epic Games as a tool for first-person point-of-view video games. It soon became a popular choice for game development due to its capacity for high-quality visuals and comparatively easy to user interface. Each new generation of the program brought improvements in visual fidelity and a wealth of new features that made it more appealing for a wider variety of game genres. When Unreal Engine 4 was unveiled in 2012, it was able to achieve near photorealistic environments and, for the first time, the film industry realized the opportunity it created. Films like 2013’s Oblivion had started experimenting with virtual production by stitching images from front-screen projectors together to simulate environments that could be captured in camera instead of using a green screen to composite scenes together in post-production. Unreal Engine took this process to the next level. Rather than shooting environmental plates, it was suddenly possible to play back virtual environments rendered within a video game engine to create realistic scenery on a film set.

Today, Unreal Engine stands as the most popular game engine in the world and is used on virtual production sets around the globe. In late May 2024, the Local 695 BRIC Grant cohort met at the Mo-Sys offices in Hawthorne to begin learning the ins and outs of this system. The classes were primarily taught by Local 695 member Eric Rigney, who currently serves as the Global Director of the Mo-Sys Academy training program. Both Eric and Mo-Sys were incredible partners throughout this process and were incredibly generous with both their time and the support of our members.

As many of the participants within the cohort are new in their careers or come from other areas of the craft, it was important to start out with a foundational overview of signal routing, video engineering, and computer networking. These are foundational skills in the field of virtual production, and anyone interested in learning more about this area of the industry is encouraged to spend time on LinkedIn Learning (all IATSE members have access to a free LinkedIn Learning account through the union). With that done, the course shifted gears into how Local 695 members would utilize Unreal Engine on set.
Virtual production is a complicated crossroads of crafts, requiring input from the art, lighting, camera, and video departments to implement the final scenes. It is important for members to understand where their jurisdiction begins and ends on set. For example, Local 695 members are not responsible for creating an Unreal Engine environment, but they do need to be able to set up a project, import an environment, and manipulate it so that the image being played back is correct for the scene being shot. This means everything from adjusting the 3D viewer to see the right part of the virtual map to adjusting the size or lighting of objects in the scene to adding graphics or effects to an existing map to create a specific look.

After their two weeks with the Mo-Sys Academy, the cohort moved onto training modules with Lightning LED, facilitated by Local 695 members Shahrouz Nooshinfar, Seth Fine, Storm Flejter, and Connor Solomon.

On the first day of the second training module, students were given an intensive overview of how LED walls work, down to the circuit level. By starting with basic electrical engineering and going through the nitty-gritty of tile management, maintenance, and replacement, participants were exposed to a variety of panel types and workflows so that they would be prepared to start on any production, regardless of its particular LED infastructure.

Then the group moved onto WATCHOUT. Virtual production often requires sending video signals to many displays at the same time, with very large video walls sometimes being made up of dozens of individual panels. WATCHOUT is one of several media-server products that allows video engineers to map images in a multi-display environment. Both the second and third modules of the BRIC Grant training revolved around this platform in separate two-day training sessions, with our training partners conducting the classes at their facility in Santa Clarita, CA. As Local 695 video engineer members who actively do this work on set, the team went above and beyond to ensure the participants were set up for success. They even graciously coordinated additional half-day training for participants who needed the extra support. The first WATCHOUT module was academic, focusing on a common framework of understanding, terminology, and on-set communication.

For the final module of the training, the cohort was able to put all their training together. The group struck a magnesium LED wall build, built an aluminum wall (where each panel was approximately seven pounds heavier), and then mapped images across the panels to create and simulate a true virtual production environment.

All in, the participants spent almost a month focusing solely on Local 695’s virtual production workflow jurisdictions, resulting in certifications for the entire cohort!

The goal of this training has always been to leave the cohort with the skills to begin working in virtual production workflows, but the work is not yet done. While Local 695 is one of the first BRIC Grant partners to complete its cohort training under the grant, we are dedicated to supporting the cohort over the remaining two years of the grant with trainings specific to building upon the tools they learned in the three initial modules. As representatives for the virtual production field under Local 695, this community will continue to help educate the industry and serve as an example as to the caliber of what Local 695 members are capable of. With time, we hope to be awarded more grants so we may continue to develop skills training for many more members, protecting jurisdictions and work in California.

A huge congratulations to the cohorts for their hard work and accomplishments thus far. They devoted themselves to something entirely new and have certainly raised the standard. After so many intensive days together, the cohort has organically become a community of dedicated, supportive, and good people. They consistently asked excellent questions, keeping the instructors on their toes, and tapped into their unique skill sets or expertise to aid one another and the development of the curriculums. This shared level of ingenuity and curiosity is what continues to spur on the advancements of virtual production, and we are pleased to represent a cohort of incredible workers adding value to this field. A big thank you to our training partners for their shared mission in furthering the expertise that has garnered Local 695 its reputation for excellence. Finally, thank you to the BRIC Foundation and all the associated affiliates that made this grant possible. As work picks up with the start of the new year, we look forward to interfacing with more productions on virtual production solutions and expanding our goal for industry security.

Teradek + Frame.io—Accelerating Production

by James Delhauer

In the modern day, communication workflows continue to accelerate. Brought about by the globalization of production and changes in the ways that audiences consume content, current projects require an infrastructure that allows both stakeholders and key creatives to collaborate in real time despite potentially residing across multiple time zones. It is now common for teams on multiple continents to put eyes on content mere minutes after it has been shot and, in the case of live events, for that content to be edited, repackaged, and distributed to social media within just a few more minutes of that. That is why Local 695 has partnered with Teradek and Adobe company Frame.io, and on December 11, 2024, held a workshop on accelerating production.

Both these companies are well established and regarded entities in their own right. Teradek is best known for its wireless video transmission and live streaming solutions. Their products are widely used throughout the film, television, and live-production industries to provide reliable, high-quality video transport. Their innovations in these areas of tech have made them an industry standard on sets across the globe.

Frame.io, on the other hand, is a cloud-based video collaboration platform used to streamline the review and approval process for video content. It allows creative teams to upload, organize, share, and comment on video files in real time for efficient communication and feedback. Since being acquired by Adobe Systems in 2021, the platform has been integrated with the various apps of Adobe’s Creative Cloud software suite.

The integration of Frame.io and Teradek products offers a game-changing solution for modern production workflows. Together, these tools enable seamless collaboration, reduce latency, and enhance the efficiency of live and post-production processes.
Teradek Prism is a line of high-performance video streaming encoders and decoders designed for real-time video transmission. Boasting low-latency streaming, 4K HDR support, H.265 compression, and a variety of connectivity options, Prism serves as an IP-based streaming multi-tool for based video signals. The device comes in three form factors, each suited to distinct purposes and use cases.

The Prism Mobile is a compact module designed to be mounted to the back of a camera unit and connected via either 12G-SDI or HDMI 2.0 in order to stream compressed files directly from the unit to the cloud (though an onboard SD card reader does allow for local capture as well). These units offer either 5G or LTE cellular support, allowing for dual SIM profiles to split upload workloads for sustained real-time streaming regardless of location. This makes signal transmission possible, even in the most challenging of network environments. Devices can be configured locally on the unit itself or can be managed remotely via the network.
This is where it becomes important to understand the role that jurisdiction plays in these discussions. Teradek, as a company, is best known for its array of camera peripherals. Local 695 does not hold any jurisdiction within the camera department itself and therefore is not permitted to physically set up camera accessories. This is true even in the case of wireless video transmitters or cloud transmission tools that directly facilitate work that does fall within our jurisdiction, such as video playback and off-camera recording. However, once a device attached to a camera joins a wireless network, responsibility for network configuration and video engineering processes should be managed by a Local 695 member. Similarly, once a signal has been transmitted from the device, that signal and its continued use in the production pipeline fall into video engineer territory and Local 695’s jurisdiction on set.

The Prism Flex performs the same functions as the Prism Mobile but is designed with flexibility in mind, catering to both field and studio environments. Unlike the compact, camera-mounted Prism Mobile, the Prism Flex is a standalone device that connects to video sources via 12G-SDI or HDMI 2.0, making it an ideal choice for setups where mobility isn’t a priority, but adaptability is essential.

The Prism Flex excels in multi-camera productions, live streaming, and scenarios where video sources are stationary, such as interviews, live panels, or events filmed from a fixed location. It supports a wide range of connectivity options, including Ethernet and Wi-Fi, in addition to cellular modems for redundancy. Its compact design makes it suitable for placement in various setups, from a simple tabletop arrangement to a fully integrated production rack.

For productions where scalability is key, the Prism Flex shines. Its ability to integrate seamlessly into complex network environments allows Local 695 members to manage signal routing, quality control, and cloud-based workflows effectively. With its remote management capabilities, the device can be monitored and adjusted in real time through Teradek’s web-based interface or mobile app, ensuring uninterrupted signal quality and transmission.

The Prism RU (Rack Unit) is the heavyweight champion of the Prism family, designed specifically for broadcast-grade workflows and high-demand production environments. Housed in a standard 1RU or 2RU rack-mountable chassis, the Prism RU is built for productions that require the highest levels of reliability, scalability, and performance.

Unlike the Mobile and Flex models, the Prism RU is tailored for centralized control rooms, production trucks, and permanent studio installations. It supports up to four simultaneous video channels, making it an excellent choice for multi-camera productions or setups that require multiple streams to be encoded and transmitted concurrently. This capability is invaluable for live sports broadcasts, concert productions, and other events where multiple perspectives need to be captured and distributed in real time.

The Prism RU also supports robust connectivity options, including dual power supplies for redundancy, ensuring uninterrupted operation even in the most critical scenarios. Its advanced configuration settings allow Local 695 members to fine-tune streaming parameters, integrate with other on-set systems, and ensure seamless compatibility with downstream workflows.

At its most basic, Prism can allow users to provide clients with real-time monitoring of production feeds, allowing them to view live feeds from anywhere in the world with a stable internet connection. Prism’s H.265 compression ensures that high-quality video streams are transmitted efficiently without overwhelming bandwidth, an essential feature for remote collaboration. Teams can monitor footage in real time, identify issues, and make decisions on the fly. These capabilities not only reduce logistical challenges but also minimize travel costs, making productions more efficient and budget-friendly. This is a feature that has grown in demand as decentralized production infrastructures have become the norm.

However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. IP-based video signals are routable and by taking advantage of SRT video protocols, Teradek Prism devices can stream content directly to IP-based recording platforms such as Pronology’s StreamFile Core platform—which can then re-encode signals in edit-friendly codecs such as Apple ProRes or Avid DNx.

Additionally, assets can be streamed directly to platforms such as Frame.io, making it possible for content to be uploaded to the cloud the moment it is shot. This enables instant review, feedback, and approval without delays or cumbersome file transfers. This integration not only accelerates production timelines but also enhances team communication across geographical boundaries. Frame.io’s real-time capabilities mean that stakeholders, whether in the next room or on another continent, can begin reviewing footage almost instantly.

Prism & Frame.io have already been used in several network challenging environments. For example, the NBA’s Golden State Warriors utilized this workflow to publish game highlights to social media within three minutes of when they actually occurred—which is nearly unheard of in terms of turnaround times. At the Laax Open in the Swiss Alps, DropIn-TV was able to send full-quality media directly to editors despite the 2km elevation altitude and poor network conditions. Then, during the Baja Aragón, Faraway Films was able to send racing footage from motorcycles and drones to their production team over an hour away, allowing both production management from a distance and the creation of daily social media highlight reels.

The combination of Teradek Prism and Frame.io represents a significant leap forward for production workflows. By addressing the challenges of decentralized teams, tight schedules, and high-quality demands, these tools empower creatives to collaborate more effectively and deliver exceptional results. For Local 695 members, embracing these technologies creates an opportunity to stay competitive in an ever-changing landscape.

As the industry continues to adapt to new technologies and methodologies, partnerships like the one between Teradek, Frame.io, and Local 695 will play a vital role in shaping the future of production. Whether in film, television, live events, or corporate video, these tools offer the speed, efficiency, and innovation needed to meet the demands of modern audiences.

An Interview with Steven Morrow

by Richard Lightstone CAS AMPS

The Billy Preston Band set

2024 proved to be a busy release year for Steven Morrow and his team with three feature films, Juror #2, Joker: Folie à Deux, which as of this writing made the Oscar shortlist for sound, and Saturday Night.

Steven wanted to talk about his long working relationship with Director Jason Reitman and their fifth collaboration on the film Saturday Night.

Steve: I was very lucky in that I was Jason Reitman’s first mixer on his first movie. At a certain point, he said, “That’s it, I’m going to bring you anywhere I go.” It’s the same for Eric Steelberg, his cinematographer, so we’ve all worked on all these movies together, we just know each other and work together really well. I went up to Canada for Ghostbusters: Afterlife, and Atlanta for The Front Runner and again for Saturday Night. So, he likes what he likes. He understands and he really appreciates production sound on his movies. He doesn’t like to loop anything. The interesting thing, Jason always likes his headphones hard-lined, so he gets a direct cable from us so he can listen to what we’re hearing, which is nice.

Steve Morrow’s working setup
Bryan Mendoza and Michael Kaleta ready to wire the cast

PS&V: The film took quit a while to get in production.

Steve: Jason talked to me about this movie back in 2020. The original idea was to be one big continuous shot. We weren’t going to cut, we’d roll for an hour and ten minutes, and then we would just stop and reset and do it again the next day. A lot of people told him he was kind of crazy for thinking that would be a good idea. But I had been planning to do it that way. Then about nine months before we started shooting, I heard that we’re now shooting on film, and I realized we can’t shoot continuously for that length of time. But there were going to be a lot of oners. We kind of broke it down and thought, okay, what’s the biggest scene that we have, and how many actors are in that scene? What do we need to cover? The biggest scene was thirty actors, plus some live music.

Every day it’s going to be a variation of that, but the maximum is going to be up to thirty actors, with speaking roles, and some without. However, anytime we have an actor with a number on a call sheet, they’re going to get a mic. The way that Jason likes to shoot movies is he’ll add dialog here and there, and just give somebody something to say. Or we’ll just tell the actor, hey, you’re in character, speak, talk, and if the actors are “gun-shy” they might say, “I don’t want to overlap dialog.” But we’ll tell them, you overlap, do whatever if you’re in this scene, don’t pantomime or don’t whisper your dialog, because that’s weird. People don’t do that. You just talk, and we’ll record it.

Just be natural, and we’ll record it and make sure that everybody’s covered. So that was the setup. We’re gonna have an assembly line in the morning, the actors are gonna come to us, and then they’re gonna go to props, or vice versa. We’ll have thirty actors, and Bryan Mendoza, Utility, and Michael Kaleta, Boom Operator, came up with a system where we put thirty spaces on a table for the thirty different microphones. Every day I would label, say, Track One is ‘Lorne,’ and radio mic one is ‘Lorne,’ and we’d have a little Velcro sticker on it. When they would put the radio mic on Lorne, we’d take the Velcro sticker off and put it on the table as spot one, so we would know which is Lorne’s mic.

We’d lay out all the lav mics dangling over a wardrobe rack, with all the different straps that you would need because you can’t roll them up and make them pretty every day and then take them out. Then it would just be an assembly line. Michael would start putting a mic on, Bryan would go down to the ankle, start wrapping it on the ankle, and after the first day or two, you’d figure out what every actor likes, and what they prefer. The AD’s were great, I’ve worked with them a couple different times, and we told them, please don’t bring all thirty actors to us at one time. We can do two or three at a time, and that’s it. So, bring them in batches, and then we’ll take care of them.

PS&V: How was your interaction with the costume department?

Steve: Danny Glicker was the Costume Designer, and he’s done most of Jason’s movies and, we’ve worked together for years. He knows what fabrics are noisy and what’s not. Besides, there was only one set of costumes as the film covers the two hours before the first broadcast of Saturday Night Live. We had a great wardrobe department that understood what the goal was. There wasn’t one scene in the movie where we’d question, who’s getting radio mic’d? Everybody is getting radio mic’d. There are no exceptions in this movie.

For example, Rosie’s blouse was a very silky, floppy blouse. The first day, we placed the lav on her bra, but it was kind of noisy. We thought let’s put it through the buttonhole and let’s see how that works, and then it was like magic, it worked perfectly. So, there’s always time needed to figure out what works best for what outfit.

PS&V: What lavalier mics and wireless do you use?

Steve: Everybody got DPA 6061’s. We had sixteen Sound Devices A20 minis and fourteen Lectrosonics SSM’s. The A20’s were for the first sixteen actors, and then everybody else would get the SSM’s. We were fortunate that we were on the same stage at Trilith Studios the entire time. The whole set was beautiful. It was a two-story set with a stairwell that connected to the hallways upstairs so we could do long complex and continuous shots.

When we coordinated the frequencies, that was it, they were locked in and we never had to think about it again. I had two Midas M32R consoles tied together, because even though each has thirty-two inputs, they are on two layers, and I didn’t want to have to switch between fader layers. So, I put them side-by-side, with channels 1 through sixteen in front of me, and seventeen through thirty-two on my left.

The way I see it is, you look at the sides and okay, Lorne is gonna talk first, then Rosie, then Chevy Chase, then you’d lay it out one, two, three, four. It would change every day, depending on what the scene was, but the reality is you would do that so that the first spoken lines of dialog you would know exactly where they were coming from and you could see what the camera was doing and then decide where everybody else was gonna be.

With the M32R, the actors were on the first layer of both mixers. The second layer of the second mixer was for music, ambisonics mics, surround mics, different feeds from all the live televisions. We pulled all those audio feeds so that the editor would have them. I recorded on two Sound Devices 970’s, and I think we hit fifty-eight tracks. That was when we had the musical guests playing, which Jason wanted to do live.

Jason and I have worked together for years and when we did The Front Runner, Jason wanted to shoot it with overlapping dialog.He wanted it to sound like All the President’s Men. I said let me just have everybody talk and we’ll track everybody. We got up to twenty-two microphones in a scene and we had them all talk and overlap each other. After the first day of shooting, I said I’m going to send this over to post as I wanted to make sure we’re not messing up the whole movie. Our Post Supervisor looked at it and said, yeah, this is perfect, it’s going to work great. So, we did the entire movie that way.

Later, when Bradley Cooper watched The Front Runner, he asked, “How did you guys do that? How did it sound so real? I want to do that for Maestro.” I said we just mic everybody, you have everybody talk all at once and you go for it. Bradley said, “All right, we’re going to do that for all the party scenes and all the big scenes.” When Jason saw Maestro he asked, “How’d you guys record the orchestra live? I want to do that for Saturday Night, I want to do all the music live. I said okay, sure. In the script, it says they complain about the sound quality of the band. “Hey, this sounds like crap,” and the sound engineer on camera says, “one band, one mic, that’s all you get.” So, to match the story, we ended up having to hide a ton of microphones.

PS&V: Talk about Jon Batiste as Billy Preston and the film’s score.

Steve: Jon Batiste came in with his band four weeks into shooting, so we had time to run a digital stage box and Bryan Mendoza could set up mics for the Billy Preston sequence. We had a kick drum mic in plain view but stuffed inside of a blanket. We hid DPA 4099’s, and placed mics on the café lights hanging over the set to get a wider sound. We took direct feeds from the guitars, the keyboard, and put two mics behind the Leslie speaker, and Jon sang into a Shure SM58.

We also put a DPA 5100, a 5.1 surround mic up in the rafters of our set, Studio 8H, to get more of a wide ambient sound of the entire space, to give more options for post-production.

The other interesting part of the story is that Jason said, “I want you to record the score of the movie on set.” “Well, we’ll wrap early on the week that Jon Batiste and his band is here.”

We gave them time to set up and then we came back to record. We had a headphone splitter, so everybody had on headphones in case anything changed. Jon Batiste would give us beats per minute to give them a click and then they would listen and then they would all start playing in time. Jason and his editor would come in and say, “Hey, okay, here’s a scene that we’ve already cut together. What do you think?” Jon would watch with his band and then Jon would give us a beat, let’s say 90 BPM. Then he’d just start pointing and he’d give them a rhythm or something or a note like here’s, pa pa para pa, and they would do that.

I had Noah Hubbell come in. Noah is a Local 695 member, as well a music editor. He ran Pro Tools so that everything was covered and sounded good. The whole work process was different for everybody. Noah has recorded scores. He was a huge help because it’s a lot to wrangle.

Jason would ask, “Let me hear that piece real quick,” or the next day, “Can you give me a clip of that?” When we were back shooting, Noah would be there with his headphones on preparing some downmixes and some edits and give them to Jason and the editors so they could cut picture to it.

My team and I, we came up with a good system of laying out the tracks, and where they’re going to live. It just kind of flowed, and because the script was so good, it flowed nice. When the script is well written, the dialog flows and it all makes sense, and your mix is easy. The entire experience was a lot of fun.

The A20-Nexus placed high above the set
The Ilamas, ready to be petted and admired

Mixing A Complete Unknown

(L to R) Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro) & Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet)
Photo by Macall Polay

by Tod A. Maitland CAS & Terence McCormack Maitland

From the moment Timmy Chalamet and Jim Mangold announced we were recording all the music in this film live, I felt the weight of what we were about to undertake without the safety net of prerecords, earwigs or even a click track. Every day, we were recording an album, and not just any album, a piece of history. This is a film about sound and music, in which 98% of it was recorded live, in a multitude of challenging locations and scenarios; sixty live pieces of music and one hundred and thirty cues. It’s raw and real, I don’t know of any film that’s had more live music.

Microphone choice and microphone technique was the first piece of the puzzle and would become a major factor to the success of the sound in the film. During the pre-shoot rehearsals, I watched the way Timmy held the guitar, similar to Bob, with the body of the guitar very high up, where a wireless lav would normally be placed. At that moment, I realized the only way to record his nonperformance music pieces would be by micing Timmy in his hair, putting a wireless mic inside his guitar and deploying a multitude of strategically placed ambience mics. For the performance pieces, we used more than forty-two period practical mics all chosen for specific venues to add a different texture and quality to each performance. Period mics from the early ’60s had a specific sound, they were quite mid-rangey, they got warmer year by year. For the audiences, we had a robust speaker system with microphones dedicated to recording that amplified sound. We also had live monitor mixes on stage for the live performers. Add to that the standard boom mics, wireless lavs, ambient and effects mics and about five crowd mics and you had a creative potpourri of sound. Most of the time, we were mixing all the above all the time.
We mixed the entire film as if it were a live performance. Jim wanted the energy of the music happening all the time; during dialog, street scenes, phonographs playing, radio, TV. He wanted real sounds over everything so the actors would feel like they were truly in the environment, living it, and sound became a huge component in that. For example, with the Cuban Missile Crisis scene, we played sound from every TV we saw on the set. We added sirens, newscasters, anything to help add to the panic of the scene. For protest scenes, the protests were all happening over the dialog. For the Greenwich Village scenes, all the street musicians were fully live. We stashed speakers playing music in basement club doorways as you walked by, and of course, vintage cars. My team, Jerry Yuen and Terence McCormack Maitland, have a passion for finding sound elements to record. We keep four shotgun mics on armature wire and transmitters ready to deploy at any moment, and they go out all the time. We strive to give post as many sounds and perspectives as possible. The true challenge recording in this live environment style is to capture each element as cleanly as possible. You can imagine how difficult that was.

Director James Mangold describing the shot he would like. Photo by Macall Polay


The essence of Bob’s (Timmy’s) voice was another challenge and required every trick in the book. Not only for his forty live pieces of music, but for Bob’s complicated voice. Bob had four different voices: He was a known mutterer (always fun for those of us trying to record them), there was his normal talking voice, which he rarely used, then his low-level twang and his over-the-top, sarcastic, ear-piercing twang. Both Timmy and Edward Norton used nasal plugs that restricted air giving them that folk twang.

The idea of getting an actor’s voice in your head as a Production Mixer is nothing new, I always explain it to people that it takes twelve weeks to shoot a film but you watch it in two hours. The voice quality has to remain the same no matter what the situation, acoustics, background noise, wardrobe, whatever. But to get four voices in your head for one actor is another thing. That’s in addition to all the other actors.

The most challenging and complicated part of the film for us was Newport ’65. We filmed the master shots for the entire closing scenes end to end in one 23-minute take. Starting with The Railroad Gang, the MC’s, Bob and his band going electric for the very first time, to the chaos offstage, and Bob’s acoustic with the final farewell sing-along with everyone onstage. We had more than thirty mics and forty total channels for that 23-minute scene.

Mixing this film was one of the most complicated, challenging, and rewarding experiences of my career. The level of quality and artistry that this film was built on at every level and every department required constant attention to detail and excellence. It is a movie about sound where sound is up front and never lets up. My hat is off to Timmy for his desire and courage to push the film to be live. At one point before we started doing performance scenes, Timmy said to me, “I worked 5½ years to become Bob Dylan, we’re not doing playback!” And we never did. Timmy even played to all the other actors when he was off camera. When have you ever seen that?

I would say that one of the greatest accomplishments of this film is how we established sound as a character in the film. It’s real, raw, not polished. It’s great when that happens, it doesn’t happen often. I was so happy with the post mix on this film. The post team of Paul Massey, Don Sylvester, Ted Caplan, David Giammarco and Nick Baxter killed it.

Tod Maitland CAS and Terence
McCormack Maitland at the sound cart
Tod and his crew wiring Timothée
Chalamet. Photo by Macall Polay

Terence McCormack Maitland

Utility Sound Technician
Let’s get the elephant in the room out of the way: Yes, I am the instantly recognizable “Sound Recordist” seen on the courthouse steps early in A Complete Unknown. A truly dazzling tour de force performance, I know.

Tod Maitland, Production Mixer, (and my uncle), Jerry Yuen, Boom Operator, and I, have had the pleasure of working on several music-based movies in the last decade or so. Each one presents their own particular challenges and joys. We knew going into A Complete Unknown that we would be recording live singing, but we didn’t know just how lively it would prove to be.

Mic Tests & Rehearsals

Tod has been doing lavalier microphone tests before we start shooting any movie for a while now, but it’s especially important on the music-based films that have become a bit of a specialty for us. The test itself is pretty straightforward: We line up six lavalier mics of various makes and models and one Sennheiser 416 as the control. We have the actors go through some spoken dialog and singing at different levels. Tod then listens back to each person’s voice, A/B testing between the lav and 416 to see how each voice matches, and then trying to match that to what they sound like in in person. We’ve found each mic accentuates or attenuates different parts of each voice and sometimes we end up preferring different microphones for speaking versus singing

On A Complete Unknown, we were able to sit in on weeks of rehearsals with the cast, the music team, and our Director, James Mangold. This time proved to be invaluable as we could see how the actors inhabited their roles, including their postures while playing guitar or in a duet, for example, and it was an opportunity to reinforce good onstage microphone practices. It was also a good time to get these lavalier tests done in an unobtrusive way.

The rehearsals were also when we first got the chance to test the dozens of period vintage mics we used over the course of the movie. These were sourced by and cared for by our excellent property department, led by Michael Jortner, and Joshua Lutz, the operator of JML Studios, an encyclopedia of vintage microphone knowledge, and the owner of most of the mics we used. We did our absolute best to use the accurate microphone for each performance, with only a few substitutions to either get better sound or because the size of the wind protection they used was intrusively large.

This was when our collaboration with Mangold began in earnest. He made it clear to us that we should try to keep everything we do as accurate as possible, while not getting in the way of the actor’s performance or the movie at large. We learned that when we put as many microphone stands and mics out for the first rehearsal as there were seen in some of the reference photos of the Newport Folk Festival. It looked very cumbersome and busy. This made sense for the sound people who were running the live show back then, but they would not help us tell this story.

Photo by Macall Polay

Meet your Heroes

One of the earliest scenes in the movie, when Bob Dylan as embodied by Timothée Chalamet, visits his hero, Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy), in his hospital room, the first song we hear Dylan sing in the movie is “Song to Woody,” which is just him and his guitar, and yet for a song as seemingly simple as this, we had five mics going. One DPA 6060 on Timothée, a 416 from overhead, me on another 416 from below, a COS-11 inside the guitar, and another 416 hidden on the far side of the room to catch ambience and slap if the wire ended up being the best option.
On the first take or two, my job was to try and mostly get the guitar, but as the scene progressed, it became clear that Bob’s somewhat introverted and shy playing position (performing for your idol can’t be easy) was such that it would a: be impossible for me to avoid Timmy’s voice, and b: that, from below, I would have the best shot at getting in front of his mouth. Then the job became trying to balance the sounds of the guitar and Timmy’s voice. Between you and me, I love this kind of booming: Mixing with the 416 is a kind of three-dimensional auditory puzzle that is so rewarding when you nail it. Different parts of the guitar produce very different sounds: The sound hole is more bassy and boomy, wherever the strings are plucked can have a lot of finger noise and be quite harsh, the frets lose the bottom end and can over-emphasize the sound of the fingers moving between the frets. The twelfth fret is usually the sweet spot, or at least a good place to start. I found myself with the tip of the 416 somewhere around the tenth fret pointing back toward the twelfth and up at Timmy’s face. After a little searching it clicked, and sounded great, of course we kept all the other mics for safety and in case he looked up suddenly, Jerry would be there, matching my distance to ease the transition.

On top of all this, we recorded a clean guitar pass with our Music Producer, Nick Baxter, playing, and some impulse wave sweeps using the same mic placements. This way they would have more elements and options to help maintain the same sound and feel across different angles.

Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning) and Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) on set. Photo by Macall Polay
Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) ready to ride off into the sunset. Photo by Macall Polay

Newport

At the Newport Folk Festival, we had a lot to figure out; live singing, amplifying it for the crowd and the musicians, recording general ambience, and a whole bunch of characters in the wings having side conversations and the occasional brawl. It was also a ton of cabling. With this in mind, we were able to secure a permanent spot in an on-camera tent behind the stage. But this also meant that when we were doing sound checks, the board was on the wrong side of the speakers and too far to make any quick adjustments or mute a channel while you’re working on it. I ended up setting up a small Wi-Fi network to be able to control the Allen & Heath SQ-5 mixer via the SQ MixPad app on my laptop. This made a huge difference in my daily check to make sure nothing got unplugged and more importantly, meant that Tod could set some basic speaker levels and EQ’s while the speakers were actually pointed at him.

Since Timmy never wore in-ear monitors, the on-camera monitor wedges had to be fully functional, and this was one of the crucial examples of collaboration across departments. Our Production Designer, Francois Audouy, had construction build custom speaker cabinets for our wireless QSC speakers. Thankfully, they also fit the tube amplifiers for the pair of Neumann M582 mics we used for the main vocals and guitars throughout the festival. Normally, the playback operator would have control of the speakers, but since there wasn’t any playback at all, we took control of the monitor speaker outputs so Tod would be able to give Timmy the levels he needed to sing and perform fully while not overpowering what we were trying to record. The SQ-5 was an ideal board for us on this project. We were moving channel strips around between takes as new cast gained or lost lines in scenes, all while being able to control the outputs to the monitors on the same layer.

In addition to the vintage stage mics, the wires, and our booms, we always had several FX mics out. We’d set up multiple ambient mics to capture the crowds, especially as there were many sing-along moments throughout the movie. We also made sure to capture what the speakers were putting out so they could add that in at will in post as the camera either got further from the cast or included the speakers.

We always have four Shure AD4Q racks totaling sixteen wireless channels installed on the cart, with more available on the truck to single out interesting sounds, car mufflers, inside motorcycles, EFX mics, mics for the speaker effect.

Terence’s Columbia Studio signal-flow and cabling diagram

Columbia Studios

I was really looking forward to the scenes at Columbia (CBS) Studios. They were the last thing we shot and were in many ways, a culmination of everything we’d learned and established from the beginning of the job. Since we were recording a number of different songs over a number of years for Dylan, we had to prepare many mic setups. In all the studio scenes, we used more than twenty different vintage mics. We had thirteen hardline ins, seven outs, in addition to the wireless booms and lavaliers that went out each day

For larger installs like this, I often create signal flow and cabling diagrams. Making these diagrams is for me to think through the routing before we get there and to help the rest of the team know where we’re running cables. Half the time, the actual install is very different but at least I can build the SQ-5 board setup on my laptop before we get there. One thing we had to figure out was how to make the meters move in the control booth. I have to admit that this is a bit of a pet peeve for me as there is little that pulls me out of a movie faster than when I see the meters stationary or not match the action on screen. We hardlined new mixes out of the SQ-5 into the various meter setups. This way, we could send separate feeds for voice, guitar, and whatever else as the scene demanded. We ended up daisy chaining and splitting those three mixes to high heaven as there were dozens of components like compressors, the custom-built prop board with its VU meters and reel-to-reel recorders that all required signals. I even mentioned to DOP, Phedon Papamichael, and our Gaffer, John Alcantara, that the VU meters were all functional so they could dim them to their liking.

What stands out about our time at the Columbia set was the cast/band would stick around during setups, and if they have an instrument in their hands, they’re gonna play it. And play they did! We ended up rolling sound through a lot of the “downtime” on set while they jammed away. It was really fun to watch them, Timmy included, play and sing out for the joy of making music.

Soundplant and Playing Back More Than Music


Another highlight of working on this movie and working with Tod, Jerry, Playback Operator, Derek and our Music Team, Nick and Steven, was that our first priority is always getting good and clean recordings. This movie features “live” performances, but also “lively” performances, and not just during the music scenes. When we are on set when possible, we create a realistic soundscape for the cast. Actors can give a better performance in a real set experience rather than in front of a green screen. Therefore, we think giving actors immersive sound on set helps their performances.

In order to do this, we used many tools, but the newest one for us is Soundplant, a deceptively capable app that turns one’s computer keyboard into triggers for sounds. For example, there was a scene where Bob is in a diner, as the crescendo of the Cuban Missile Crisis is unfolding around him. There is panicked dialog happening among the staff of the diner and the TV is on with newscasters describing the situation. I was given recordings of Cronkite and brought some other sound effects to create a layered soundscape by using a separate speaker outside the set for a police siren to pass by on cue. These sounds all ducked and dived around the on-camera dialog and were used as prompts for the actors.

Soundplant allows for a sort of live performance that can also be recorded. This meant that once I got a timing that worked out, I was able to reproduce that exactly, every time. We actually did this a lot as we were aiming for “Live” in more than just vocal performances. We wanted a live(ly) immersive sound environment for the actors and for dailies.

The sheer amount of music in this movie is daunting, with several scenes, including multiple layers of music going on at once. We were able to create different zones with different songs in each. When Bob storms out of the Kettle of Fish, and walks past multiple venues, each had a different wireless speaker playing different and overlapping music; there were also people singing, “Puff, the Magic Dragon,” and a man playing a tabla and singing. We heard all of it on set, and recorded the people performing live. It’s important to try to make as much of what’s happening in the script possible on the day. It doesn’t always work out, but that’s the goal. I’m totally aware that much of this work won’t be heard in the final mix. We’re telling the story in more ways than the Dolby Atmos sources moving around a 3D space in the theater. We strive to open up and create depth in setting to help ground performances.

Tod Maitland and Script Supervisor Sheila G. Waldron enjoying some levity.
Photo by Macall Polay

Recording Sound with Atmos in Mind

We built our current main cart for West Side Story (2021), and we’ve been loving and adding functionality to it for more than five years. The Shure wireless system and the SQ-5 have both been dreams to work with. I’m able to create a robust RF coordination that lasts us the day, and sometimes several blocks of reception from packs worn on an ankle

Tod’s cart with the four AD4Q receivers (with two more on the truck) have allowed us to have a lot of fun singling out effects as they occur. On a period movie like this, we try to get as many tracks of cars and motorcycles as we can. So after we get through the critical work, we give post options, thinking about the Atmos mix while we’re recording on the day.

A Complete Unknown is a film we are immensely proud of, and one I’ll remember for a very long time. I’m proud of our work as a team and the crew at large. We all worked very hard every day to make this movie an experience for you all to see.

CAS Award Nominees

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND MIXING FOR 2024

The Cinema Audio Society announced the nominees for the 61st Annual CAS Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for 2024 in seven categories


Motion Pictures – Live-Action

A Complete Unknown
Tod A. Maitland–Production Sound Mixer
Paul Massey–Re-recording Mixer
David Giammarco–Re-recording Mixer
Nick Baxter–Scoring Mixer
David Betancourt–ADR Mixer
Kevin Schultz–Foley Mixer
Additional Sound Team: Jerry Yeun Boom, Terence McCormack Maitland Utility, Derek Pacuk Pro Tools Playback

Deadpool & Wolverine
Colin Nicolson–Production Sound Mixer
Lora Hirschberg–Re-recording Mixer
Craig Henighan–Re-recording Mixer
Peter Cobbin–Scoring Mixer
Bobby Johanson–ADR Mixer
Peter Persaud–Foley Mixer
Additional Sound Team: Kian McClure Key 1AS,
Pete Blaxill 1AS, Amelia Haynes 2AS,
Mishael Holdbrook GEI Sound Trainee

Dune: Part Two
Gareth John–Production Sound Mixer
Ron Bartlett–Re-recording Mixer
Doug Hemphill–Re-recording Mixer
Alan Meyerson–Foley Mixer
Additional Sound Team: Tom Harrison Key 1st AS,
Freya Clarke 1st AS, Mátyás Tóth 2nd AS,
Jordan: Tarek Abu Ghoush 2nd AS
UAE: Jad El Asmar 2nd AS
2nd Unit: Levente Udud Sound Mixer, Balazs Varga Technical Support, Fanny André 1st AS, György Mihályi 1st AS

Gladiator II
Stephane Bucher–Production Sound Mixer
Paul Massey–Re-recording Mixer
Matthew Collinge–Re-recording Mixer
Alan Meyerson–Scoring Mixer
Filipe Pereira–ADR Mixer
Rob Weatherall–Foley Mixer
Additional Sound Team: Josselin Panchout Key Boom Op, Stephane Malenfant 2nd Key Boom Op, Luke Brickley Sound Utility
Malta Unit: Kevin Bourgin 1st Assistant Sound, Mark Sansone
2nd Assistant Sound, Ajay Oakley Sound Trainee
Malta 2nd Unit: Kevin Bourgin Sound Mixer, John Bartolo
Boom Op, Jonathan D’Alessandro Sound Trainee
Morocco Unit: Brahim Ait Belkas 1st Assistant Sound, Mohamed Waaziz 2nd Assistant Sound, Nouhaila Ayari Sound Trainee
Additional Photography: Tom Williams Production Sound Mixer, Loveday Harding 1st Assistant Sound Floor, Gwendolen Sena 1st Assistant Sound Miking, Alex Langner 2nd Assistant Sound, Alia-Lauren Cla Sound Trainee

Wicked
Simon Hayes–Production Sound Mixer
Andy Nelson–Re-recording Mixer
John Marquis–Re-recording Mixer
John Michael Caldwell–Scoring Mixer
Jason Oliver–ADR Mixer
Mikel Parraga-Willis–Foley Mixer
Additional Sound Team: Arthur Fenn Key 1st Assistant Sound, Robin Johnson 1st Assistant Sound, Josh Winslade On-Set
Pro Tools Music Editor, Taz Fairbanks Sound Coordinator 2nd Assistant Sound, Tom Barrow 2nd Unit Sound Mixer


Motion Pictures – Animated

Inside Out 2
Vince Caro–Original Dialogue Mixer
Ren Klyce–Re-recording Mixer
Stephen Urata–Re-recording Mixer
Warren Brown–Scoring Mixer
Doc Kane–ADR Mixer
Leff Lefferts–Foley Mixer

Moana 2
Gabriel Guy–Original Dialogue & Re-recording Mixer
David Fluhr–Re-recording Mixer
David Boucher–Scoring Mixer
Doc Kane–ADR Mixer
Richard Duarte–Foley Mixer

Screenshot

Mufasa: The Lion King
Doc Kane–Original Dialogue Mixer
Onnalee Blank–Re-recording Mixer
Greg P. Russell–Re-recording Mixer
Chris Fogel–Scoring Mixer
David Boucher–Scoring Mixer
Gary Turnbull–ADR Mixer
Mikel Parraga-Willis–Foley Mixer

The Wild Robot
Ken Gombos–Original Dialogue Mixer
Leff Lefferts–Re-recording Mixer
Gary A. Rizzo–Re-recording Mixer
Alan Meyerson–Scoring Mixer
Richard Duarte–Foley Mixer

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
Will Norie–Original Dialogue Mixer
Chris Burdon–Re-recording Mixer
Gilbert Lake–Re-recording Mixer
Simon Rhodes–Scoring Mixer
Nick Roberts–ADR Mixer
Adrian Rhodes–Foley Mixer


Motion Pictures – Documentary

Elton John: Never Too Late
Jae Kim–Production Sound Mixer
Elmo Ponsdomenech–Re-recording Mixer
Teddy Salas–Re-recording Mixer

I Am: Celine Dion
Irene Taylor–Production Mixer
Lora Hirschberg–Re-recording Mixer
Tim Oliver–Scoring Mixer

MUSIC BY JOHN WILLIAMS, exclusively on Disney+. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights

Music by John Williams
Noah Alexander–Production Mixer
Christopher Barnett–Re-recording Mixer
Roy Waldspurger–Re-recording Mixer

Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story
Austin Plocher–Production Sound Mixer
Greg Gettens–Re-recording Mixer
Steve McLaughlin–Scoring Mixer
Daniel Nicholls–Foley Mixer

The Blue Angels
Sean Peterson–Production Sound Mixer
Lindsey Alvarez–Re-recording Mixer
Forest Christenson–Scoring Mixer


Non-Theatrical Motion Pictures or Limited Series

Screenshot

Baby Reindeer: E07
Jake Whitelee–Production Sound Mixer
James Ridgway–Re-recording Mixer
Keith Partridge–Foley Mixer

Screenshot

Masters of the Air: E05
Tim Fraser–Production Sound Mixer
Michael Minkler–Re-recording Mixer
Duncan McRae–Re-recording Mixer
Shane Stoneback–Re-recording Mixer
Thor Fienberg–Scoring Mixer
Sean Moher–ADR Mixer
Randy K. Singer–Foley Mixer

Screenshot

Ripley: E03 III Sommerso
Maurizio Argentieri–Production Sound Mixer
Michael Barry–Re-recording Mixer
Larry Zipf–Re-recording Mixer
Michael Perfitt–Scoring Mixer
Scott Cannizzaro–ADR Mixer
Matthew Kay–Foley Mixer
Additional Sound Team: Andrea Dallimonti Boom Operator,
Alberto Padoan Boom Operator, Michela Cuppone Utility

Stax: Soulville, USA Ep. 2 Soul Man
Andre Artis–Production Sound Mixer
Tony Volante–Re-recording Mixer

Screenshot

The Penguin: E01 After Hours
Christof Gebert–Production Sound Mixer
Andy Kris–Re-recording Mixer
Rich Bologna–Re-recording Mixer
Mark DeSimone–ADR Mixer
Additional Sound Team: Gideon Jensen Boom, James Appleton Boom, John Sember Sound Utility, Andrew Benz Sound Utility, Jason Stasium Music Playback


Television Series – One Hour

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Fallout: E01 The End
Tod A. Maitland–Production Sound Mixer
Steve Bucino–Re-recording Mixer
Keith Rogers–Re-recording Mixer
Mike Marino–Foley Mixer
Additional Sound Team: Jerry Yuen Boom, Terence McCormack Maitland Utility, Luke Laciofano Utility, Derek Pacuk Pro Tools Playback

Shõgun: S01 E01 Broken to the First
Michael Williamson–Production Sound Mixer
Steve Pederson–Re-recording Mixer
Greg P. Russell–Re-recording Mixer
Takashi Akaku–ADR Mixer
Arno Stephanian–Foley Mixer
Additional Sound Team: Don Brown Boom Op, Darryl Marko Boom Op, Jenna Gouchey Sound Assistant, Rob Hanchar 2nd Unit Mixer, Marin Mitchell 2nd Unit Boom Op, Patou Lauwers 2nd Unit Sound Assistant

Slow Horses: S04 E06 Hello Goodbye
Andrew Sissons–Production Sound Mixer
Martin Jensen–Re-recording Mixer

True Detective: Night Country: S04 E06
Skuli Helgi Sigurgislason–Production Sound Mixer
Howard Bargroff–Re-recording Mixer
Mark Timms–Re-recording Mixer
Goetz Botzenhardt–Scoring Mixer
Nick Kray–ADR Mixer
Keith Partridge–Foley Mixer

Yellowstone: S05 E14 Life Is a Promise
Andrejs Prokopenko–Production Sound Mixer
Brad Zoern–Re-recording Mixer
Josh Sieh–Re-recording Mixer
David S. DiPietro–Re-recording Mixer
Additional Sound Team: Brad Jennings Boom Op,
Carlos Garcia Boom Op, Jorge Almaraz Sound Utility


Television Series – Half Hour

Curb Your Enthusiasm: S12 E09 Ken/Kendra
Chuck Buch–Production Sound Mixer
Earl Martin–Re-recording Mixer

Hacks: S03 E09 Bulletproof
Jim Lakin–Production Sound Mixer
John W. Cook II–Re-recording Mixer
Ben Wilkins–Re-recording Mixer
Fernanda Domene–ADR Mixer
Jacob McNaughton–Foley Mixer
Additional Sound Team: Ryan Fee Boom Operator,
Claire Mondragon Boom Operator

Only Murders in the Building: S04 E06 Blow Up
Joseph White Jr.–Production Sound Mixer
Kyle O’Neal–Re-recording Mixer
Mathew Waters–Re-recording Mixer
Alan DeMoss–Scoring Mixer
Rodrigo Galvan–ADR Mixer
Erika Koski–Foley Mixer
Additional Sound Team: Kira Smith Boom,
TR Boyce Utility/Boom

The Bear: S03 E03 Doors
Scott D. Smith–Production Sound Mixer
Steve “Major” Giammaria–Re-recording Mixer
Patrick Christensen–ADR Mixer
Kendall Barron–ADR Mixer
Ryan Collison–Foley Mixer
Conor Nagy–Foley Mixer
Additional Sound Team: Joe Campbell Boom Op, Michael Capulli Boom Operator, Nick Price Utility, Eric LaCour Utility, Sharon Frye Utility, Uriah Brown Sound Intern

What We Do in the Shadows: S06 E05 Nandor’s Army
Rob Beal–Production Sound Mixer
Diego Gat–Re-recording Mixer
Christina Wen–Re-recording Mixer
Caitlin McDaid–ADR Mixer
Judah Getz–ADR Mixer
Alex Jongbloed–Foley Mixer
Additional Sound Team: Toban Mills Boom Op,
Camille Kennedy Sound Utility


Television Non-Fiction, Variety or Music – Series or Specials

Beatles ’64
Josh Berger–Re-recording Mixer
Giles Martin–Re-recording Mixer

Formula 1: Drive to Survive: S06 E08 Forza Ferrari
Doug Dreger–Production Sound Mixer
Steve Speed–Re-recording Mixer
Nick Fry–Re-recording Mixer

Jim Henson: Idea Man
Tony Volante–Re-recording Mixer
Dan Timmons–Re-recording Mixer
Ryan Collison–Foley Mixer

The 100th: Billy Joel at Madison Square Garden
Brian Ruggles–Production Sound Mixer
Brian Riordan–Re-recording Mixer
Phil DeTolve–Re-recording Mixer

Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary
Paul Stula–Production Sound Mixer
Barry London–Production Sound Mixer
Tony Solis–Re-recording Mixer
Maverick Yadao–Re-recording Mixer


THE ASSOCIATION OF MOTION PICTURE SOUND (AMPS) AWARD NOMINEES

Excellence in Sound for a Feature Film

A Complete Unknown
Tod A. Maitland–Production Sound Mixer
Paul Massey–Re-recording Mixer
David Giammarco–Re-recording Mixer
Additional Sound Team: Jerry Yuen Boom,
Terence McCormack Maitland Utility, Derek Pacuk
Pro Tools Playback

Conclave
Valentino Giannì–Production Sound Mixer
Ben Baird–Re-recording Mixer
Additional Sound Team:
Davide D’Onofrio 1st Assistant Sound,
Alessandro Piazzese 2nd Assistant Sound

Screenshot

Dune: Part Two
Gareth John–Production Sound Mixer
Ron Bartlett–Re-recording Mixer
Doug Hemphill–Re-recording Mixer
Additional Sound Team: Tom Harrison Key 1st AS,
Freya Clarke 1st AS, Mátyás Tóth 2nd AS
Jordan: Tarek Abu Ghoush 2nd AS
UAE: Jad El Asmar 2nd AS
2nd Unit: Levente Udud Sound Mixer, Balazs Varga Technical Support, Fanny André 1st AS, György Mihályi 1st AS

The Substance
Emmanuelle Villard–Production Sound Mixer
Stephane Thiebaut–Re-recording Mixer
Victor Praud–Re-recording Mixer
Additional Sound Team: Claire Bernengo Boom Operator,
Margot Peyre, Leslie Gaborieau, Clara Zillox Additional Boom Operators, Lou Jullien, Solal Coulon Sound Trainees

Wicked
Simon Hayes–Production Sound Mixer
Andy Nelson–Re-recording Mixer
John Marquis–Re-recording Mixer
Additional Sound Team: Arthur Fenn Key 1st Assistant Sound,
Robin Johnson 1st Assistant Sound, Taz Fairbanks Sound Coodinator/2nd Assistant Sound, Harry King, Emily Compton 3rd Assistant Sounds, Tom Barrow 2nd Unit Sound Mixer


OSCAR SOUND NOMINEES

Motion Picture

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A Complete Unknown
Tod A. Maitland–Production Sound Mixer
Donald Sylvester–Supervising Sound Editor
Ted Caplan–Supervising Sound Editor
Paul Massey –Re-recording Mixer
David Giammarco –Re-recording Mixer
Additional Sound Team: Jerry Yuen Boom,
Terence McCormack Maitland Utility,
Derek Pacuk Pro Tools Playback

Screenshot

Dune: Part Two
Gareth John–Production Sound Mixer
Richard King–Supervising Sound Editor
Ron Bartlett–Re-recording Mixer
Doug Hemphill–Re-recording Mixer
Additional Sound Team: Tom Harrison Key 1st AS,
Freya Clarke 1st AS, Mátyás Tóth 2nd AS
Jordan: Tarek Abu Ghoush 2nd AS
UAE: Jad El Asmar 2nd AS
2nd Unit: Levente Udud Sound Mixer,
Balazs Varga Technical Support,
Fanny André 1st AS, György Mihályi 1st AS

Emilia Pérez
Erwan Kerzanet–Production Sound Mixer
Aymeric Devolderi–Supervising Sound Editor
Maxence Dussere–Supervising Music Editor
Cyril Holtz–Re-recording Mixer
Niels Barletta–Re-recording Mixer

Wicked
Simon Hayes–Production Sound Mixer
Nancy Nugent Title–Supervising Sound Editor
Jack Dolman–Supervising Music Editor
Andy Nelson–Re-recording Mixer
John Marquis–Re-recording Mixer
Additional Sound Team: Arthur Fenn Key 1st Assistant Sound, Robin Johnson 1st Assistant Sound,
Josh Winslade On-Set Pro Tools Music Editor,
Harry King & Emily Compton 3rd Assistant Sounds,
Tom Barrow 2nd Unit Sound Mixer

The Wild Robot
Randy Thom–Supervising Sound Editor
Brian Chumney–Supervising Sound Editor
Gary A. Rizo–Re-recording Mixer
Leff Lefferts–Re-recording Mixer


BAFTA SOUND NOMINEES

Motion Picture

Blitz
John Casali–Production Sound Mixer
Paul Coterell–Re-recording Mixer
James Harrison–Re-recording Mixer
Additional Sound Team:
Chris Murphy 1st AS, Jake Chilcot 1st AS,
Michael Ling 2nd AS, Tija Skvarciute LSA Trainee

Dune: Part Two
Gareth John–Production Sound Mixer
Ron Bartlett–Re-recording Mixer
Doug Hemphill–Re-recording Mixer
Additional Sound Team: Tom Harrison Key 1st AS, Freya Clarke 1st AS, Mátyás Tóth 2nd AS
Jordan: Tarek Abu Ghoush 2nd AS
UAE: Jad El Asmar 2nd AS
2nd Unit: Levente Udud Sound Mixer,
Balazs Varga Technical Support,
Fanny André 1st AS, György Mihályi 1st AS

Gladiator II
Stephane Bucher–Production Sound Mixer
Paul Massey–Re-recording Mixer
Matthew Collinge–Re-recording Mixer
Danny Sheehan–Supervising Sound Editor
Additional Sound Team:
Josselin Panchout Key Boom Op, Stephane Malenfant 2nd Key Boom Op, Luke Brickley Sound Utility
Malta Unit: Kevin Bourgin 1st Assistant Sound,
Mark Sansone 2nd Assistant Sound,
Ajay Oakley Sound Trainee
Malta 2nd Unit: Aleks Bundalo Sound Mixer,
John Bartolo Boom Op, Jonathan D’Alessandro
Sound Trainee
Morocco Unit: Brahim Ait Belkas 1st Assistant Sound, Mohamed Waaziz 2nd Assistant Sound,
Nouhaila Ayari Sound Trainee
Additional Photography: Tom Williams Production Sound Mixer, Loveday Harding 1st Assistant Sound, Gwendolen Sena 1st Assistant Sound, Alex Langner 2nd Assistant Sound, Alia-Lauren Clain Sound Trainee

The Substance
Emmanuelle Villard–Production Sound Mixer
Stephane Thiebaut–Re-recording Mixer
Victor Praud–Re-recording Mixer
Valerie Deloof–Supervising Sound Editor
Victor Fleurant–Supervising Sound Editor
Additional Sound Team: Claire Bernengo Boom Operator, Margaux Peyre, Leslie Gaborieau, Clara Zillox Additional Boom Operators, Lou Jullien, Solal Coulon Sound Trainees

Screenshot

Wicked
Simon Hayes–Production Sound Mixer
Andy Nelson–Re-recording Mixer
John Marquis–Re-recording Mixer
Nancy Nugent Title–Supervising Sound Editor
Additional Sound Team: Arthur Fenn Key 1st Assistant Sound, Robin Johnson 1st Assistant Sound,
Josh Winslade On-Set Pro Tools Music Editor,
Taz Fairbanks Sound Coordinator/2nd Assistant Sound, Harry King, Emily Compton 3rd Assistant Sounds, Tom Barrow 2nd Unit Sound Mixer


Names in Bold are Local 695 members

Matlock

by Ross Levy CAS

“Game Face” — Coverage of the CBS Original Series MATLOCK, scheduled to air on the CBS Television Network. Photo: Michael Yarish/CBS ©2024 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

It was March 2023 and my historic run on NCIS: Los Angeles, thirteen years and over three hundred episodes, was finally coming to an end. The martini shot was complete and it was an official series wrap at Paramount Studios.

There were hugs all around as we said our goodbyes. I’m not going to lie; it was very emotional. I took a moment to reflect on such an amazing run with a strong sense of accomplishment. It dawned on me that these very sets will soon be gone and a new production will be moving in. I never dreamed I would be returning to these same stages on my very next show: Matlock.

I had the pleasure of working with actor Eric Christian Olsen for those thirteen years on NCIS: Los Angeles playing series regular, Marty Deeks. Eric is an amazing human on all levels and praised me and the sound team; Boom Operator Ben Wienert and Utility Sound Technician Jonathan “Jono” Hong, for the lack of ADR.

I was looking forward to working with Eric again on the new CBS series Matlock where he is an Executive Producer and coincidently, both shows are produced by CBS Studios. The pilot was shot in Toronto and the WGA and SAG strikes commenced soon after. As we all know, many new projects were shelved indefinitely due to the long negotiations. Fortunately, Matlock did not suffer that fate and was scheduled to start principal photography, March 2024.

Maximizing my workflow
The indefinite work stoppage during the strikes was a perfect time to focus on and maximize my workflow. The two areas that needed improvement were RF performance and a crew comms system. Dante is already integrated into my cart and I use Lectrosonics DSQD receivers. I wanted to build a Dante deploy mini-cart housing the DSQD’s to work close to the set to eliminate long antenna cable runs and antenna gain. The goal was to pad down the powered/filtered Lectrosonics ALP690 antennas to -6 Db and run the DBSM TX at 25 MW to mitigate RF noise. The deploy cart was an easy build since I already owned most of the equipment. I just needed a custom cage with a patch bay that I could drop on my PSC Euro cart. The cage lives on the Euro cart, powered by the Eurostar LiFe DC power distribution. I had Ron Meyer at PSC to modify one DC output to 6A which powers the cage. Inside the cage, a PSC Triple Play II BDS distro powers three DSQD’s, a Comtek BST-75, a Lectrosonics SMV 944 band TX, Cisco Business 250 series managed Gigabit Switch, and Lectrosonics DNTBOB88.

The Dante cage can easily be remoted and powered by a PSC pelican LiFe, or plugged into AC if needed. I already owned a Lectrosonics DNTBOB88 Analog to Dante box that wasn’t getting much use, and I thought it would be slick to build the DNTBOB88 into the cage. The BOB has up to 8 Dante I/O. This workflow came in clutch on Matlock (more on this later).

Matlock is set in New York City but primarily shot on stages at Paramount Studios. We go on location roughly one day per episode. The Jacobson Moore Law firm set where Madeline Matlock works, is built up to the fire lanes on the stage and divided by clear glass walls separating the rooms. After a couple days filming, I learned very quickly there’s just no place on set to hide without having to move after most setups.

The Dante cart simplified this. I found my spots on stage that were out of the shot and deployed the Dante cart up to three hundred feet away. Running the CAT5e cable on the outside of the set ensured it would never be in the shot. I also added the Accsoon Cineview SE 2.4/5.8 MHz wireless video system eliminating the need to be tethered to the Non Record Video Assist cart.

Next came the moment to shine! We were on location at a park, doubling as New York’s famous Central Park. It was an easy day on the call sheet, just a couple scenes near the water. I positioned my cart on a hill overlooking the set avoiding a flight of stairs. The scene was an actor seated on a park bench on the phone. “Easy,” I thought to myself. Seconds before we rolled, the first AD asked, “Do you have earwigs? The Director would like to read off-camera dialog from video village.” I responded, “No problem!” My current recorder, the Aaton Cantar X3 equipped with Dante+ and auxiliary options, made this a breeze. I assigned the Director’s Lav ISO (Dante input 16) to Sub Group 2 (S2). I assigned S2 to the Dante Output BOB4 at the deployed Dante cart for the earwig base station transmitter. Lastly, I assigned S2 to the top Slider 9 on the X3 for level control. The last hurdle was range. The Director was at video village, a good two hundred fifty feet away from the actor. I was behind the Director about fifty feet. The Dante cart was three hundred feet from me. I used 100-foot XLR out of patchbay (BOB4) to get the earwig base station close to the actor. It worked great!

Ben Wienert and Jonathan Hong double booming.
Two booms in action

Having the flexibility of eight assignable Dante outputs works great for playback or VOG. I haven’t used the BOB Dante inputs, but they would be slick if the Director wants to hear video playback in his Comteks/IFB, as an example.

GMRS radio comms
With the limited UHF RF spectrum availability for talent wireless, I wanted to avoid using those coveted frequencies for comms. Lower end FRS (Family Radio Service) radios are an option yielding mediocre results. I needed better range, fully programmable and an SMA antenna radio. GMRS (Global Mobile Radio Service) checked all the boxes. I settled on the BAOFENG UV-82C dual band radio. This model is FCC compliant operating in the 462/467 MHz and VHF 136-164 MHz frequency bands. An FCC GMRS license was required, which will cost $35 for ten years and the license was easy after navigating the archaic FCC website. The UV-82C is programmed with Chirp software and proprietary USB programming cable.

I uploaded twenty legal GMRS and eleven VHF frequencies for my region. Finding the best frequency for your area to avoid ham radio repeaters is essential. Range performance covering Stages 8 and 9 at Paramount was impressive and also penetrated exterior stage walls to reach restrooms and most importantly, Craft Service.

(L-R): Beau Bridges as Senior, Skye P. Marshall as Olympia, and Jason Ritter as Julian. Photo: Sonja Flemming/CBS ©2024 CBS Broadcasting

The setup; the GMRS radio installed on the sound cart. Line out of the radio into the L3 (line input 3) of the X3. I created Sub Group (S15) with L3 and assigned S15 to slider one of the X3 for level control. My crew monitors S15, mix track and PL with Lectrosonics rla’s in the 944 MHz band. The cheap PTT surveillance mic kits included with the radios sound great. I cut off the earpiece since they monitor from the rla. A Nagoya UT-72 magnetic mount antenna with SMA adapter for the sound cart GMRS radio increased range.

(L-R): Skye P. Marshall as Olympia Lawrence, Kathy Bates as Madeline Matlock, and Jason Ritter as Julian Markston. Photo courtesy CBS Broadcasting

My team
I have worked with Ben and Jono close to one hundred episodes on NCIS: LA so any discussion about a setup is pretty quick—we all share the same philosophy. Production sound is a collaborative process to figure out the right approach for success. Matlock comes from the brilliant mind of Jennie Snyder Urman and has her signature wall-to-wall dialog, so Ben has very little time off from the law firm set. Reflection and shadows are a constant challenge and it’s common to run two booms to eliminate crossing lights or to hide reflections. It can be tricky, but we always come up with a creative way to get what we need. We do very little ADR on this show and everyone seems very happy. Ben’s ability to negotiate, and his people skills have been top notch. Jono takes care of wiring talent so Ben can watch the set. The actors trust Jono’s wiring skills, which is a valuable aspect of capturing good sound. Jono not only runs point on the wires but keeps up with multiple wardrobe changes during the day. Jono also switches microphones when needed, deals with Comteks, second boom, and laying carpets.

Kathy Bates as Madeline “Matty” Matlock.
Photo: Sonja Flemming/CBS ©2024 CBS Broadcasting

The Sanken COS-11D does most of the heavy lifting. We use DPA 6060 to poke through button holes and DPA4097 and Eastwind Audio TX-Flex Omni Gooseneck microphones for courtroom plants, the Sennheiser MKH50 for interiors, and Sennheiser MKH60 for exteriors.

Matlock has been one of those dream jobs. It’s been an honor and an aspiration come true to work on such a well-written, produced, and acted one-hour drama. It has been a true pleasure and privilege to work with Kathy Bates and the entire cast. The responsibility of capturing such emotional and dynamic performances is what keeps my passion growing as a Production Sound Mixer.

(L-R): Boom Operator Ben Wienert, Rob Rogers, 24F Playback & Graphics, Sound Mixer Ross Levy, Non Record Video Assist Leo Montero, and Jonathan “Jono” Hong, Utility Sound Technician
Kathy Bates as Madeline “Matty” Matlock.
Photo: Sonja Flemming/CBS ©2024 CBS Broadcasting

An Interview With Willie Burton CAS

Captain America: Brave New World poster; Courtesy of Marvel Studios/Disney+
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F poster;
Courtesy of Netflix

PS&V: You did two very different projects, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F and Captain America: Brave New World. But first tell me about working with Eddie Murphy.

Willie Burton: It’s always nice to work with Eddie. I’ve done four or five films with him, so it’s like a family getting together again, and it was a nice project to work on. I had my ace team, Douglas Shamburger and Adam Mohundro, which makes my life a lot easier. I get to sit back a little bit more and let them do their thing.

I’ve worked with Eddie enough that we have to be prepared to boom a lot. He does not like wireless microphones, especially if he knows you can use the boom. So, if you just put a mic on him, just to put a mic on him, he’ll say, no. You use the boom for the shot. What we try to do is anticipate. Fortunately, he wore a jacket the majority of the time. So we wired the jacket.

We get the jacket, put the transmitter in, and the microphone under the collar. It’s all nice and clean. No clothes rustle. All that good stuff. But then he’s wears another jacket, and we wire that okay, he’s got two jackets wired. We’re fine. Then Fetteroff Colen, Eddie’s personal costumer, comes to the set with another jacket. Now there’s three jackets. Wait a minute, where’s the other two? Well, he left them in the dressing room.

Now we have to send somebody back to the dressing room. In the meantime, Eddie comes to the set, ready to work, ready to roll. So you have to be ready. We wire a third jacket. Okay, we’ve got it covered, right? Well, then a fourth jacket shows up. I mean, there were a half a dozen jackets. We needed to wire as many jackets as we can with Eddie because when it’s a cut and print, Eddie wants the wire off of him. He just doesn’t want to be bothered.

In the driving shots, we planted mics in the cars and we put mics on the actors. We do everything to make it work. On Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, there were challenges here and there just like in every movie, but it’s not the most difficult thing in the world to work on a movie like this. It was a fun film to work on and the majority of the film was shot in LA, so being home was really nice.

PS&V: How do you prep for a show?

WB: The most important thing for me is to read the script to figure out if there are any difficult scenes for sound or are there scenes with a large number of wires or scenes in the water or is there playback music and if there is, will there be live singing or is it going to be just playback or combination live and playback?

I look for all those things as I break the script down. Will I need additional sound equipment? Once I do that, then I’m pretty much ready to go, except scouting locations. I like to scout location to see if we are going have any problems with certain locations or will the generator be parked too close to set or are there air conditioners or kitchen refrigerators on. Anything that will impact the sound recording.

During production, my whole team and I watch rehearsals, and then we figure out how we are going to do it. That’s it. I don’t go home and think about the next day, I just like to be surprised on what’s going to happen in each shooting day. That’s how I approach it.

PS&V: Let’s move on to Captain America: Brave New World.

WB: We shot in Atlanta, at Trilith Studios, and Washington, DC. Once again, we had a good cast, and the most important thing for sound is that you have the cooperation of the Director, Julius Onah, and the cast, Anthony Mackie, Harrison Ford, and Danny Ramirez, to name a few, who care about sound and give you a little bit of time to make adjustments and do the things that you need. Work in general on film sets is always a rush, and sound is the last department they want to wait on.

There was quite a bit of green screen and visual effects. We wired Captain Marvel’s costume ahead of time. My team works with wardrobe on the best way to mount the microphone in the costume, which was a little bit of a challenge.

We need to get quality sound, and the cast and the director do not want to loop (ADR). So, that gives us a better shot at it. When you have the cooperation from everyone involved, it makes our job so much easier. Especially wardrobe, they were always very helpful, as well as set props.

PS&V: Did you need to “paint out” wires or the booms?

WB: We didn’t have to paint out wires on the actors, but we painted out the booms a lot. We put the boom in and we would check with visual effects and we let them know that we really need to boom this shot as there’s so much going on. There are lots of special effects and mechanical noises that we needed the booms to be right there to get great sound, plus they have wires on as well. The visual effects team were very professional, and they know that they’re painting out so many other things anyway that to paint out a microphone is not a big deal. They had to paint out lots of stuff. I had Adam Mohundro on boom (Doug Shamburger wasn’t with me). We had Jennifer Elsinger as a local Utility Sound Technician, and Adam worked out nicely.

PS&V: After so many films, do you still get nervous?

WB: As a Sound Mixer, I think the most important thing is just to be prepared. We know what we have to do, you just need to prep, and make sure you’re ready to go. My biggest fear, more than anything when I start a project, is that something will happen to the equipment, and it doesn’t work on the first day. But other than that, I’m fine, people ask me, “Are you nervous? Are you nervous the first day?” No, I’m not nervous the first day. I’m more concerned about if my equipment works, and I’ll get through the day. Once you get the first scene in the can, then you’re cool. It’s okay, everything is working, the mics are all working.

God forbid you go into some location where the wires are not working well. You’ve got a four- or five-page dialog sequence and you’re beating your head against the wall. When I see the first day on the call sheet, I say, “Let’s hope it’s not the biggest scene of the movie.” Let’s hope it just starts gradually and eases into it, and majority of the time, that’s how it works.

Wicked

by Simon Hayes AMPS CAS

Pro Tools rig, Simon Hayes on the right

Like so many US and UK filmmaking collaborations, it started with a Zoom meeting. I was speaking to Jon M. Chu, who was in Los Angeles whilst I was in our music room in London’s Pinewood Studios, where I was just finishing Disney’s Snow White.

After a quick introduction, Jon got straight down to business. He said, “My instinct tells me this has got to be live; we have two actresses who are absolutely incredible singers and are completely used to performing live as they are also recording artists in their own right, but, this film is going to be SO big. Everything about it is big, the sets, the scale, the choreography, the stunts, the number of cameras I intend to use. Do you think it’s possible to record live under those circumstances?”

I responded to Jon that those are exactly the kind of scenarios that me and my crew are used to working in and that I had no doubt we could deliver live singing. The secret is in the prep: the collaboration with other departments, the symbiotic filmmaking relationships we make during those months of preparation. The analytical breaking down of the script to discover exactly what unique challenges each song would have with regards to costumes, dancers’ footfalls, wire rigs, manufactured wind and shooting style, and the way each department would work together to capture all the vocals live.

I spoke about my experiences with the live process and musicals in general, both of us bonding over our passion for the genre. Jon is an incredibly easy guy to be around; warm, welcoming with his obvious enthusiasm for cinema and performance driving the conversation. “OK, final question, how many earwigs do you carry?” Jon asked. I answered: “Seventy-five but we have access to more if required.” A smile broke out over Jon’s face and he said, “I think you understand how big this is going to be!”

Rewind five years. I was on the set of Mary Poppins Returns and was introduced to Producer Marc Platt. I knew that Marc was responsible for the stage show of Wicked and how successful it was. There were rumours that he was considering a movie version. I said to Marc, “You know I love making musicals. If you make a movie of Wicked, I’d love to be considered.” Marc gave me a wry smile and said, “Watch this space.” Over the next few years, I’d work with Marc on multiple projects and on each film, we got to know each other better and a trust developed. It was Marc who asked Jon to meet me and was instrumental in me being considered for the biggest musical in movie history.

Three booms on Wicked

The next day, I was officially offered the project and with absolutely no hesitation I accepted. I knew I had a monumental task in front of me after Jon had explained the size of the sets and the special effects that would be involved in the filmmaking process. That same afternoon, I got into talks with Line Producer Joan Schneider who explained that Producer David Nicksay was exploring building a music recording studio from the ground up to service all pre-records on the film. Despite the fact that it was Jon Chu’s instinct that we would record the vocals live on the movie set, we still needed to pre-record the songs for a bunch of different reasons: choreography rehearsals where the actors would not be present for, second unit, and background element shoots, extreme wide shots so we could save the actors’ voices for the closer performances that their live vocals would be used for, and as a safety in case the unthinkable happened and an actor got a sore throat or a cold that affected their voice.

The sense behind wanting our own recording studio on the lot was that we were going to be based at the newly built Sky Studios Elstree, which is an hour from Central London. David Nicksay felt that Cynthia and Ariana’s schedules would be so compressed, it would be too time-consuming to have them making the journey across London, amongst their rehearsal time, costume fittings, and all the other pre-production responsibilities they had. He could ease the load by providing a recording facility on site so that they could do their pre-records without having to leave the world of Wicked.

I was one hundred percent onboard with this plan from the get-go. It just so happened that the Music Supervisor I was working with currently on Snow White, Maggie Rodford, was also going to be joining me on Wicked, so we started to formulate a plan. Maggie’s background is in the music industry, so she sourced contacts who could supply specs for the studio build at Elstree. I made a suggestion: My longtime 2nd Unit Sound Mixer Tom Barrow, who has been with me across many musical films, also comes from a studio engineering background in the music industry, so he was brought into liase between Maggie, the construction department that would build the studio to music industry specs, and Greg Wells, who would be the Music Producer. Maggie and Tom sourced the equipment that Greg likes to use, and Tom worked with the construction department. While building the studio, Tom was cabling it up. It was quite an incredible feat and after a couple of months, we had a world-class fully functioning music recording studio built to Greg Well’s exact specs which Cynthia, Ariana, and Jon M. Chu could visit whenever they wanted.

Prep

During prep, we started to have a lot of Zoom meetings with the music & sound department. When I mix a musical, I try to create a workflow that puts the music & sound departments together into one collaborative team. We all have the same overall goals and responsibilities; delivering the best soundtrack for the movie possible: Wicked was no exception. I was introduced to the Broadway Musical Director and Arranger Stephen Oremus, who would be joining us on the movie as Executive Music Producer and one of his team, Dominick Amendum, who would be the Music Supervisor. My longtime colleague Ben Holder, Music Associate, also joined us, as well as Supervising Music Editor Jack Dolman and Music Engineer Robin Baynton, who would be working alongside Tom Barrow and Greg Wells in the music studio. Jon Chu was present in most of the meetings to guide us and describe how he envisioned each number.

In those early meetings. we devised the music strategy for Wicked. Rather than look at an overall workflow for the entire film, we looked at each number and how best to deliver that song while considering each unique challenge it presented.

Reducing footfall
Wicked custom-built Pro Tools cart alongside production sound cart

There was quite a lot of concern from everyone about footfall noise the choreography would have, as there were so many cast members dancing in many of the numbers.

As the meetings progressed, we arrived at a road map that would be our starting point throughout the movie. If the actors wanted to sing live, we would support them and implement that on all solo lines. We would also assess each chorus and try to capture them live too, but we were aware that often the choruses were occurring at the same time as big dance numbers, so we were prepared to use pre-records.

In solo vocals, there is emotion and character in the voice, which is golden, and should absolutely be preserved and delivered to the cinema audiences. The solos contain the original breathing patterns and vocal efforts of the actor which will match exactly what their character was doing physically as they sang. However, when the whole cast joined in the choruses, there would more likely be choreography footfall, and unlike our main cast members. there was no guarantee that hundreds of chorus members would be accomplished singers. We found out that often the choruses benefited from being sung live with some footfall and non-singers singing as it added to a sense of rawness and reality that is hard to achieve in pre-records. A great example of this is “No one mourns the Wicked” where all the villagers join in singing with the cast.

We developed a process for capturing those big live choruses with hundreds of background artists. After feedback from Music Associate Ben Holder, who ran the rehearsals, we would decide who were the best singers and they would be assigned the seventy-five earwigs. We would then surround the set with subwoofers so that anyone not wearing an earwig could stay in tempo with the music. The thumper track would be removed in sound post. We were able to get some wonderful huge vocal performances within the acoustics of the sets that added a reality that is incredibly difficult to reproduce with a loop group in post. We were getting hundreds of villagers singing for real with all the raw emotion and effort in their voices. The really big chorus’s like “No one mourns the Wicked” reminded me of a football chant: It was beautiful but also a bit frightening hearing that many people singing with such gusto and emotion. On that sequence, we were using thirty-six kilowatts of subwoofers playing the thumper rhythm. It was quite unprecedented!

Jon Chu was really supportive of another workflow, allowing us to do a sound FX pass of the environmental noise we had tried to minimise, so that if Jon, Andy Nelson, John Marquis, and Nancy Nugent Title decided in the final mix, they would like to hear more of that set ambience, they had an FX track to reintroduce to the clean live vocals. We achieved this with earwigs on the smaller numbers and added thumper tracks to the bigger set pieces to be able to deliver ‘sync choreography’ FX.

We would then surround the set with subwoofers so that anyone not wearing an earwig could stay in tempo with the music. The thumper track would be removed in sound post. We were able to get some wonderful huge vocal performances within the acoustics of the sets that added a reality that is incredibly difficult to reproduce with a loop group in post.

In case any of our actors did not want to sing a particular number live, or their vocal cords got tired during the working day, we would have a pre-record for them to lip sync to. As part of this insurance policy, I also suggested a workflow which I have been using for a number of years: recording the pre-recorded vocals with the same boom and lav mics we would be using on the set, along with the Music Producer’s choice of mics. Greg Wells used a combination of Telefunken and Neumann vocal mics for those sessions and joining him and the music studio staff was my Key 1st Assistant Sound (Boom Operator), Arthur Fenn, who would fit a DPA 4061 lavalier mic to the actor and also rig an overhead Schoeps CMC6/MK41 boom microphone in the same position he would later use when shooting close-ups. Having Arthur in those sessions rigging the lavaliers on the actors also had an incredibly important impact on trust and relationship building before shooting as he will be the person who rigs their lavs on the shoot.

This would give Re-recording Mixer Andy Nelson the ability, if required, to blend from live vocals seamlessly into a pre-records if for any reason, it had been unachievable to deliver live vocals on the film set. Our mantra through the whole prep period was to make sure that Jon Chu, Cynthia, and Ariana had complete support and could make a decision at any point to sing live or not. We needed to be completely ready for issues beyond anyone’s control that would prevent live performances. What we didn’t know at that point was just how incredibly motivated all three filmmakers would be to capture every single performance live once we started filming! It quickly became evident on the very first day that Cynthia and Ariana were absolutely determined to sing live all day, every day. Despite the action sequences during the songs, the incredible vocal stamina required to do that was not just within their capabilities but they thrived on it.

This unwavering determination to sing live was so infectious, it gave all our other cast members the confidence to sing live as well. This was quickly becoming an absolute dream job for me and although we had the safety of the pre-records in our back pockets, every morning we would have the IEM’s out, ready to go, and capture those wonderful onset vocal performances!

When Jon Chu and Marc Platt let me know that Andy Nelson was the Re-recording Mixer on the project, I was overjoyed. Andy and I had formed a very close and special creative bond on Les Miserables. We spent many hours discussing the tracks I had delivered, his approach to his musical mixes, and everything in between. I have learned so much from Andy on what he requires and how I should deliver. Working as a team with Andy again, filled me with confidence. He made the trip out to London from LA to visit the set, and we also had regular catch-ups throughout shooting where I could bounce ideas off him and give him the latest developments. I absolutely knew that Andy would get the very best from my production tracks and his skill and dexterity with live vocals, knowing how to immersively work them into the score, along with the sound FX so that all the elements blended seamlessly as the musical DNA is unparalleled.

We decided that we would have a keyboard always available, routed to Pro Tools. If the actors needed to waver from the original musical tempo during their live solo either for emotional or performance reasons, or the camera move required them to, then Ben Holder could accompany them. We would be able to weave in and out of keyboard and locked Pro Tools music pre-records to their IEM’s during a take whenever required.

My crew on main unit would be the same 1st AS duo who have been with me for my entire career: Arthur Fenn and Robin Johnson. Arthur’s additional responsibilities alongside boom operating is liasing with the costume department regarding lavalier rigging and then during the shoot rigging cast radio mics. Robin’s additional responsibilities are everything technical from software through to hardware, including frequency coordination with other departments and our own department’s frequency plots. We were using more than fifty frequencies on Wicked every day in our department alone. Robin is also responsible for interfacing between Pro Tools, Live Keyboard, Lighting Desk, Video, and my production sound cart, as well as running the induction loops we prefer to use for earwigs.

Taz Fairbanks joined us again for 2nd AS duties which includes assisting all of us in our specific roles, rigging the Voice of God (VOG), the Music PA, and carpeting sets to reduce footfalls on a shot-by-shot basis. She always had Harry King, our 3rd AS, to assist her (the JBL PA speakers we use are a two-person lift). We had twenty-four of them at our disposal to ensure that however large our sets were, we had enough kilowatts of sound reenforcement to fill the space.

We rig our Music PA and our Voice of God systems as separate entities. The Music PA speakers will be positioned as close as possible to our actors to reduce tempo delay. When the cast is preparing for the camera, to roll it can be distracting and fatiguing to hear the 1st AD giving loud instructions to the crew over the VOG system.

Off-board receivers 100 metres from sound cart up high looking over Shiz University
Dancers’ earwigs

Our Pro Tools On-Set Music Editor, Josh Winslade, was a new addition to our main unit team, having worked with us on our previous film Snow White, as a 2nd Unit and rehearsals Pro Tools Operator. We were impressed with Josh and when the position became available, I asked him to join us on Wicked. We also decided to use me and my team’s experiences on the last five musical films together to completely redesign our Pro Tools rig. This was an excellent step forward as each film had taught us more about the unique requirements of Pro Tools on musicals, and I wanted to build a rig specifically for the challenges of Wicked, and one that was future-proof.

It was time to start technical recces, and the Heads of Department (HOD’s) made our way to a vast farm about twenty-five miles outside London where our exterior sets were being constructed. I cannot put into words just how awe-inspiring and massive these sets were. I’ve been working on movie sets for thirty-plus years and have never seen anything on this scale before. They were beautiful but absolutely huge. There was a whole village. Shiz University included a boating river and fountains. It was clear that we were going to have to be extremely progressive with our RF acquisition. It wasn’t just a case of moving the sound cart closer when you are attached to Pro Tools, a keyboard and distributing PA and VOG feeds. We decided that we would off-board our RF receivers in each location so we could set up a sound & music base camp out of two trucks on the edge of the set and simply move the RF receiver cart closer to the action when required rather than disrupt the entire sound & music rigs which would have cost us valuable time. Our receivers and antennas could be rigged high up overlooking the huge sets and we had one hundred metres of AES cable drums so that the vans could park alongside each other outside the set. Van 1 was Production Sound, van 2 was Pro Tools, and live keyboards with huge 50-inch monitors so every nuance of the performance could be seen to provide absolutely seamless frame-accurate cueing for Pro Tools and keyboard. The one hundred metres of AES cable meant our antennas and receivers could follow the cameras and cast around the huge, expansive backlot sets.

I contacted the brilliant Gaffer, David Smith, and asked about his plans for generator placement. I have worked with David many times in my career, and he supports production sound and will always provide helpful solutions to difficult circumstances. The issue on the Wicked location build was that due to the size of the set, David would need multiple generators supplying power to a different area of the set. All the generators would need to be running to provide the whole set with light. David said, “I’m going to have a gennie in each corner of each set. How far do they need to be away for you not to hear them and whatever distance that is, we will run cables and cable bridges if necessary.” I asked that each genie to be one hundred yards from the edge of the set and that is what David and his fantastic electrical crew delivered! Amazing, we were surrounded by genies, but we could not hear them.

Next, we started thinking about the earwig requirements. It was me and Arthur Fenn’s opinion that because Ariana and Cynthia were used to wearing cabled, full-range in-ear monitors (IEM’s) on stage, the bandwidth and quality of a hidden earwig would not be sufficient enough for them. Earwig systems are adequate when they are simply being fed an electronic keyboard as the frequencies they are required to reproduce are mainly within the midrange. Having listened to Greg Wells’ music mixes for the backing tracks, they were extremely deep in the bass and complex musically. I also figured that like an IEM mix on stage, Cynthia and Ariana would want to hear their own voices in their IEM’s and would require individual mixes. I contacted Pablo Helman, the VFX Supervisor, who instantly made me feel at ease. Pablo is an extremely collaborative filmmaker who completely understood why our actors would need full-range IEM’s. It helped enormously that Pablo is also a musician who plays in a band in his downtime. A plan was made to get Cynthia and Ari custom-made, skin-tone matched full-range IEM’s that could be used as one-ear mono or two-ear stereo units, and Arthur would work closely with hair and makeup to hide cables and be sensitive to Pablo’s paint out by making the IEM’s as low profile as possible.

We still decided to get all these cast members earwigs too, so they had a choice and if they decided to, sing live with a keyboard backing. We could offer them their earwig instead to help Pablo. Both IEM’s and earwigs would be custom moulded to each actor’s ear canal for three reasons: A custom fit device is more comfortable to wear all day, it is also easier to hide as it sits a little deeper in the ear canal, and third, it is less likely to fall out on a dance number.

We have been working with Deke Frickey at Puretone IEM’s since Les Miserables and he has become used to working with myself and Arthur, liasing with production in prep to schedule Deke and his audiologist the task of taking ear impressions and skin-tone photographs of each actor to enable personal IEM’s and earwigs to be manufactured. We have this process down to a fine art nowadays and I can’t thank Deke and Puretone enough for their unwavering professionalism and support.

Sky Studios Elstree was a hub of activity despite the fact we were still months away from shooting. The recording studio was finished, and Tom Barrow and Robin Baynton were assisting Music Producer Greg Wells, who was starting to pre-record Cynthia and Ari in between their rehearsal time. Arthur Fenn was rigging their mics, and Josh Winslade, our On-Set Pro Tools Operator, started to work alongside the choreography department, providing music playback on the big group dance routine rehearsals with a 10kw JBL PA system to really create an immersive atmosphere in the rehearsal space. Often it sounded like a rave was going on in there! This time was incredibly helpful for Josh to give him a couple of months to get very familiar with the songs, the routines, and potential cue points. He would also be part of each presentation of the routines to Jon Chu and his longtime Choreographer Chris. Josh would have a pretty good idea of how Jon was planning to shoot sequences, which, informed him of potential requirements on each number for Pro Tools

As we approached the start of principal photography, I reached out to Jon Chu’s longtime sound post team, Supervising Sound Editors John Marquis and Nancy Nugent Title. The collaboration between production and post sound is something I have promoted since the early stages of my career and I wanted to make sure I was going to deliver exactly what Jon and Nancy required and check with them that my creative choices, workflow, and track designation worked for them. Nancy and I jumped onto a Zoom call where I described the workflow I had designed for Wicked, alongside screen sharing my workflow document. I made sure that anything that Nancy asked for was delivered and I adjusted my workflow to include anything she wanted. I described my use of Schoeps Super CMITS in high background noise situations on both interior and exteriors, explaining exactly how the processed track of the mic worked and set her mind at ease, letting her know I would always record the unprocessed “CMIT” track too, so she had a choice on each boom mic. I also explained that using two lavaliers on an actor was standard operating procedure for me on musicals to deal with either noisy costumes (two different mic positions) or extreme dynamic range (two different transmitter gain levels). Nancy was one hundred percent supportive of my suggested workflow. I also gave her a breakdown of my 32-track dailies delivery to Picture Editor Myron Kerstein and 1st Assistant Editor Lara Khachooni; I would designate seven of my Scorpio tracks to what I felt were the most important stems from Pro Tools, so that editorial had that information within the ISO tracks. They would have immediate access to those stems before Josh Winslade delivered the day’s Pro Tools sessions on a separate drive. This meant that Myron had a streamlined system and could start cutting the music immediately as the synced rushes were delivered.

These tracks were:
Music Left
Music Right
Vocal Only
Music Timecode
Click Track
Mono Music
Live Keyboard

All the above tracks were delivered at zero gain.
My musical workflow uses two mix tracks: Mix track one contains a mix of dialog and live vocals. Mix track two contains mono music, with gain adjusted to an appropriate level so that when mix one and mix two are played together in mono, the vocals and music work together. Most Picture Editors nowadays are working at an absolute minimum in stereo in Avid, but many, Myron included, are working in Dolby 5.1

If I presented a mono mix track containing live vocals and music, it would require picture editorial to go back into my ISO tracks and completely remix the vocal mics to have clean vocals to add to the 5.1 music in the Avid.

For dailies uploaded on internet platforms for Director, HOD’s, and studio executives, mix tracks one & two are mixed so that they inhabit both L&R speakers on laptops and iPads, which gives the dailies viewers a completely mono mix of live vocals and music playback (or live keyboard) with appropriate gain levels so everything can be heard. It is a system I designed for musicals and always works extremely well.

Silent Wind

I contacted our Special Effects Supervisor, Paul Corbould. He knew exactly what I wanted to talk about having collaborated with me in the past: Silent Wind. He invited to me to the huge workshop where his team was based on the studio lot. I met Paul at his office, and he asked me to follow him down to the manufacturing floor. When we walked in there were about ten of his team with a collection of different devices lined up for a show-and-tell. Paul explained to me that as soon as he knew it was a musical and I was mixing it, he suspected we would be recording live. He told me that for SFX, there were a number of very challenging sequences that required wind and for that reason, he had asked his team to build about five different-sized Silent Wind systems based on his designs. The basic premise of Silent Wind is to keep the motorised fans away from the set and pipe in the wind though ducts that could be aimed and operated by the SFX team. Paul had taken different strategies based on previous designs and built some systems which were bigger and placed the huge squirrel fans outside the studio walls, with large diameter ducts coming in through the elephant doors or cable holes in the studio wall. If the elephant doors were used, he was also having construction fabricate soundproofed “bungs” which sealed around the door and the ducts to recreate an acoustic seal. He also had his team build smaller units where the squirrel fans would actually be inside the studio walls but outside the sets themselves. These devices used smaller diameter ducts, but were extremely mobile and did not require much pre-planning or pre-rigging. The fans were placed in soundproofed ply boxes on castor wheels so they could be moved incredibly fast by his team and get to areas that needed Silent Wind when a last-minute request from Jon Chu or Alice Brooks, our fantastic DP, decided a shot would benefit from wind that had not been originally planned.

The five different systems were all variations of this theme that gave the SFX team the correct tool for any requirement, including those last-minute requests for wind that can so often have a negative effect on the production sound tracks. Paul and his team had thought of everything, and I realised just how fortunate I have been in the relationships I have built up over the years with our fantastic UK SFX Supervisors. They have completely embraced the Silent Wind workflow and have made incredible progress on every movie.

Principal Photography

Onto the shoot and one of the huge collaborations filling me with gratitude was with Costume Designer Paul Tazewell and his team. On a film of the scale of Wicked, we have to plan for flawless lavalier tracks at all times. Although I love the booms and have the ability and staff to run three booms at all times, there isn’t always going to be the ability to get the booms close enough on a 3-camera shoot. It is never my intention to try and negotiate with Directors on films this size for close boom coverage. If it happens, that’s great and we will be ready to deliver those tracks, but if the Director and DP’s strategy is to shoot sizes that do not complement the boom, then me and my team are absolutely ready with high-quality lav tracks. One of the very first lessons I learned when testing for Les Miserables was that when recording live singing, unlike dialog, it is not flattering to have any air or width around the vocals. Camera perspective is irrelevant, the vocals need to be closely mic’d otherwise, the shift in perspective creates an uncomfortable attention to the picture editing process for the audience. For this reason, I needed to have two lavaliers on Cynthia and Ariana at all times. This was for different reasons. Cynthia was wearing a witch’s hat in a lot of the scenes where she was singing live. By rigging the brim of her hat with a DPA 4061 lavalier which was about an inch above her eyebrows, we had an absolutely outstanding close lav position that sounded as good as a close boom. Not only was it in perfect proximity to her mouth but it also followed her, just like a boom, on her head turns. However, over the years, I have learned that although hat rigs are great, there is a risk that the actor will want to remove their hat at any point during a scene and it is my absolute redline not to try and negotiate or influence an actor’s instinctive performance in any way. I am there to support the cast. For this reason, I knew that we also needed a body mic on Cynthia as well, which we could immediately cross-fade to if and when her hat came off.

For Ariana, the reason we needed two lavs was slightly different. Her beautiful Glinda dresses were often low cut and frilly. We needed to go into a position that exposed the lav to the least amount of clothing rustle. That often meant placing the mic on the side of her dress. This sounded great if Ariana was looking directly forward, but the pickup pattern would fall off severely if she turned her head to the side her mic was not on. So, we put a mic on both sides of her dresses, in the mirror image of each other. This meant that Nancy, the Dialog Editor, could cut between the two mics depending on where Ariana was looking as she spoke or sung. It also had the added benefit of giving Nancy two choices on dialog or vocals where she could pick the lav with the least amount of clothing rustle. It was a win-win!

Whenever we needed to place the lavs in positions to avoid clothing rustle that caused unusable or poorer quality production sound but was now slightly visible to the cameras, a quick collaborative chat with Pablo Herman, VFX Supervisor, resulted in an immediate agreement that he would disguise the mic in VFX. I am not saying we put the mics in full view like Les Miserables (well, maybe a couple of times!), but we knew the mics were edgy visually and could be seen on some angles on close-ups. Pablo’s support resulted in our costume department having complete confidence that everyone had their backs and that working together as one big team would ensure that no lavs would be seen in the finished film. Jon Chu was completely supportive of this workflow. The first time he noticed Ariana’s lavs, I remember distinctly Jon said, “Hey, I can see Ari’s mics” to 1st Assistant Sound Arthur Fenn, who was usually right next to him on the set. Arthur replied, “We’re all good sir, Pablo is dealing with them.” To which Jon just said, “OK, great,” and never mentioned seeing lav mics again.

Madame Morrible’s mic

During the filmmaking process, every day was a magnificent insight into remarkable talent. From Jon’s incredible energy and his ability to make his cast feel supported by building an atmosphere of playfulness. He encouraged them to try different things as they performed. He was ready to hear their suggestions and to collaborate fully with his film crew. His DP Alice Brooks has been working with him for a long time and the respect and understanding they have for each other really helped create a unique atmosphere on the set where, as a cohesive filmmaking team, we were encouraged to explore many possibilities. When I made suggestions to Jon, he was always open to my requests, but at the same time, steered this monumental ship called Wicked, with a steady and experienced hand. It was as if this project was completely meant to be under his leadership; he created an openness and trust on the set that was inspiring.

Behind the scenes on Wicked, a key process of our entire team facilitated the ability to support not only the cast’s live performances but also camera moves and lighting cues. This was an extremely close and symbiotic relationship between Ben Holder, who played the keyboard during performances that were free of tempo and full of emotion, and Josh, who would seamlessly cue the Pro Tools music tracks to blend with Cynthia and Ari’s IEM’s from live keyboard to pre-recorded music.

Arthur, the 1st AS, was on the edge of frame on our live sound & music comms whispering positional cues to myself as I was mixing the live vocals. We worked as one to give the actors unwavering perfect musical accompaniment, but also to ensure the vocal mix was in perfect sync with the camera moves and cues of the filmmakers.

The Challenges

Each shooting day threw up more challenges. One of them was the Wizard’s head that needed to talk in real time with real visual head movement to our cast. We had been planning to trigger the Wizard’s head with a pre-recorded vocal and timecode but it became evident during the rehearsal that Jon wanted more fluidity and an ability to riff with the dialog. We put a DPA cheek mic on the SFX technician who was controlling the Wizard’s head and lips with a joystick ‘drone’ type controller, and put his voice though the same plug-ins and FX in Pro Tools that we had used to create the booming, bassey, and synthetic Wizard’s voice in pre-records. He could then speak in real time to the cast through 10kw of JBL speakers, his voice completely synthesised with Jon Chu’s approved “Wizard” voice.
During their duets, Cynthia and Ariana’s voices complemented each other, the harmonies were breathtaking. Whether we were in the studio or at the huge ‘backlot’ set outside of West London, their live singing was incredible. One of the technical innovations we were using for our boom microphones was the new Schoeps CMD42 digital preamp, which takes the performance into the digital domain in the mic itself. On ninety percent of the movie, we used booms with AES cables back to the mixer. When we would get the booms into close-up positions on the more intimate and emotional vocal performances, it delivered spectacular results. On some of the massive exterior builds, Alice and David Smith (Gaffer) were using multiple soft suns on cranes above the set which meant we used our Schoeps Super CMITS to provide a level of off-axis cancellation of unwanted background noise, but of course, we always provided both ‘processed’ and ‘unprocessed’ tracks to Nancy Nugent Title, the dialog editor. I am a great believer in delivering choices, not just for the Director, but for all of my colleagues in sound post, too.

One of my lasting memories of Wicked will be recording Cynthia Erivo’s performance of “Defying Gravity.” Throughout the shoot, there had been behind-the-scenes conversations between me, the music department, SFX, the grips, the stunt department, and the whole shooting crew which focussed on the fact that we were going to spend a week flying Cynthia on wires in extremely dynamic and athletic movements as she sang.

Everyone would say to me, “Surely we can’t do that live?”
“How would you capture it if she’s twenty-five feet up in the air flying from one end of the stage to the other?”
“You know, we need big wind in her cape.”
“It will be too athletically demanding for her to sing as she’s doing somersaults on wires,” etc., etc.

Silent Wind being piped through the set with the fan positioned outside the set to provide noiseless wind.
Live vocal capture: 1st AS Arthur Fenn booming Cynthia Erivo as she sings,
“Defying Gravity” live by flying on wires with carefully aimed and focused
Silent Wind hitting her cape but not the mics

The problems and preconceived doubts and issues kept coming in my direction. All I could say was, “Guys, we have to be ready for anything. Don’t assume this will be a pre-record. I know it looks difficult, but we’ve got to be ready to support Cynthia and if she says she wants to sing live, I don’t want anything to restrict her.”

Carefully, we were a huge supportive film family ensuring that we were making everything as quiet as possible. From the stunt team and its incredibly complex wire rigs, to the grips and their camera cranes, which were tracked at speed moving in and pulling out, to the SFX department that rigged all of their various silent wind strategies.

Finally, the shoot day arrived. Cynthia had been rehearsing the athletic movements of flying with the stunt department and as she was rigged with her wires, she exuded confidence in the process. Jon Chu asked her if she’d like to sing live and Cynthia’s response was simply, “Of course!” There was an exchange of looks amongst all of us in the crew, as it instantly became clear we had done exactly the right thing rigging the Silent Wind and putting in the preparation work to facilitate live singing on an incredibly complex stunt sequence. SFX technicians brought the Silent Wind hoses onto the set and skillfully positioned them so that wherever Cynthia flew in the huge stage, she would have a jet of directional wind hitting her costume to open her cape.

We had the DPA 4061 in the brim of her hat and we also had 1st AS Arthur Fenn on a Schoeps Super CMIT wireless boom with a digital Zaxcom 743 transmitter that could send both processed and unprocessed AES signals back to the sound cart. The boom pole was covered in a blue sleeve, and we were using a Cinela Piano zeppelin to protect the mic from the wind which was also covered in a custom-made Bubblebee high-wind cover in chroma key blue fur. Making the boom pole and mic completely blue and putting it on a radio link gave Arthur the ability to follow Cynthia in close-up at all times and capture at least seventy percent of her live singing on the boom. The DPA in her hat also had wind protection and sounded absolutely superb. Again, we were able to deliver choices to sound post. Cynthia’s ability to sing perfectly again and again as she looped the loop and did somersaults was nothing short of extraordinary. Although she was pitch perfect in every take, there was also a truth and reality in her delivery and breathing patterns although subtle, sounded like she was singing as she flew rather than stood still recording in a vocal booth. This was so successful that it just made the sequence sound so visceral and exiting. There was an element in her vocal that just brought the scene to life!

Thank you to my team, without you, it would be impossible: You’re the very best. –Simon Hayes AMPS CAS

There were too many moments on Wicked that were unique, but the one element threaded through our experience was the respect for capturing live production sound on the movie set despite the fact we were shooting on one of the biggest, most extravagant and immersive movies ever made.

Jon M. Chu, Marc Platt, and their incredible cast were completely supportive of the premise that original performance, whether that be dialog or sung vocals, were to be lovingly nurtured and preserved. No matter what the challenges were for the sound & music team, we were treated as creative collaborators, part of this huge team who were brought together to make something truly special.

The set was such a happy place to work. There were times when we had all the background dancers in, and as the end of the day approached, Jon would quietly say to Arthur, “let’s hit some tunes on wrap.” When Jack Ravenscroft, our 1st AD, said, “That’s a wrap,” we would have some drum and bass lined up on Pro Tools and the set would erupt into something similar to a huge Ibiza-style outdoor rave with all the professional dancers instantly freestyling their best moves, and Ari, Cynthia, and Jon Chu vogueing in the middle, all having a crazy party, supported by a sound system that was louder than many clubs with the subwoofers banging the bass. On more than one occasion, I had production staff saying, “We’ve got to turn the music off, this set needs turning around with a swing gang overnight and we’ve got to get the cast and crew out of here.”

No one wanted to go home!

No matter how much I try and articulate the filmmaking relationship, nothing can express the magic and fluidity of this “dance” we do on set each day when all factors are in a beautiful rhythm. This is filmmaking in its most raw and fragile state. One poorly timed element and the dance loses lock step. This is the “dance” that myself, Arthur, Robin, Ben, and Josh performed again and again with integrity and flare. Blink and we’re behind, be too cautious, and we’ve lost the magic. That dance is what gets me up in the morning, that dance is why I work in this crazy business!

Main Unit
Arthur Fenn, Key 1st AS
Robin Johnson, 1st AS
Josh Winslade, Pro Tools Music Editor
Taz Fairbanks,
2nd AS/Sound Coordinator
Harry King, 3rd AS
Emily Compton, 3rd AS

2nd Unit
Tom Barrow, Sound Mixer
Alan Hill, Additional Sound Mixer
Ben Jeffes, 1st AS
Ash Sinani, Pro Tools Music Editor
Billy Hayes, 2nd AS
Jamie Scott, 3rd AS

Splinter Unit
Simon Norman, Sound Mixer
Billy Hayes, 1st AS
Jake Hickey, 2nd AS
Zak Ferguson, 3rd AS
Jake Elliot, Pro Tools Music Editor
Dan Leigh, Pro Tools Music Playback

Music
Stephen Oremus,
Executive Music Producer
Dom Amendum, Music Producer
Greg Wells, Music Producer
Jack Dolman, Supervising Music Editor
Maggie Rodford, Music Supervisor
Ben Holder, Music Associate
Robin Baynton, Music Engineer

Sound Post
Andy Nelson, Re-recording Mixer
John Marquis, Re-recording Mixer and Supervising Sound Editor, and Supervising Sound Editor Nancy
Nugent Title

The names above are all one team in complete and utter collaboration. Music & sound together on a journey of support, sensitivity, creativity, and exploration. All completely in tune and playing together like an orchestra.

WMAS: Next Generation Wireless

by Ryan Pedersen

The last two decades have represented a seismic shift for our RF environment. In 2008, the FCC sold off the 700MHz frequency band to the highest bidder with only a few small parts reserved for emergency services. Then again in 2017, they sold another large chunk of spectrum. TV stations and all other existing UHF users were relocated to the lower end of the band. Another auction saw the 616MHz to 698MHz bands sold, with a majority of it being bought by T-Mobile for cellular telephone expansion. Wireless microphone users were relegated to the gaps between TV stations and the very few other open frequencies of the spectrum. Our current bands to operate in with either no license or a Part 74 license are as follows:

VHF 174-230MHz
UHF 470-608MHz
UHF Guard Band 614-616MHz
UHF Duplex Gap 653-663MHz
STL Band 940-960MHz

Most of the UHF band is clogged full of TV stations, especially in major metro areas such as Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago. A few major cities also lose spectrum to the T Band, which is reserved for emergency services. In Los Angeles, that covers 470MHz-488MHz and 506MHz-512MHz. This link provides a list of all cities with T Band deployed frequencies and what those frequencies are: https://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/UHF-T_Band.

So, for production sound specialists, the question becomes how do we fit higher channel counts into this ever-shrinking RF world even with the more spectrally efficient digital systems?

One way is to lobby the FCC for other areas of the spectrum. This is currently happening, with companies like Shure being a leading voice for the wireless community.

The other way is to use the spectrum more efficiently through new advances in RF technology. I was afforded the opportunity to sit down with Jason Waufle from Shure to discuss this new technology and hear where it will take us in the near future.

Wireless Multichannel Audio Systems (WMAS) is a technology neutral approach to broadband digital transmission defined by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to employ new wideband modulation techniques to support the transmission of multiple audio links in one single wideband radio channel. In other words, it’s the next evolution in wireless transmission that can allow higher channel counts in the same amount of spectrum than we can currently achieve using narrowband transmission. It is essentially, a multichannel carrier system using different codecs or algorithms to decode the individual channels. Even though this technique is new for wireless audio transmission, it is not a new idea. This wideband transmission scheme has been used for many years for Wi-Fi, cellular, and wireless comms in the 1.9 GHz DECT and 2.4 GHz bands.

Before we get into WMAS digital systems, let’s cover what a traditional narrowband digital microphone system entails because the technology behind WMAS is all based on digital transmission schemes. Digital wireless systems convert the analog audio to a digital signal that modulates a radio carrier in discrete steps (ones and zeros). Unlike companded analog radio signals, a digital signal reaches the receiver unaffected by the radio link. This allows digital wireless systems to operate with less noise, closer to the noise floor, and with few to no artifacts. WMAS takes advantage of all these benefits and expands it to a new regulatory framework.

Narrowband transmission uses a single radio carrier per channel that is no more than 200KHz wide. WMAS would allow a wider carrier up to 6MHz wide in the TV bands in the United States, but requires that wider carriers transmit no less than three channels per 1MHz or eighteen channels per 6MHz. WMAS is not a technology, but a regulatory framework that manufacturers must adhere to when developing technology and products that use WMAS transmission. It defines the spectrum emission mask and minimum system performance requirements.

Many of the questions you might have about WMAS fall to the manufacturers’ implementation of WMAS and not to the regulatory framework itself. For example, you might need to know how many channels can fit into one carrier? What happens if there is interference to the wideband channel? Would I lose all of my channels or just a few if there was interference? Do I have to use an entire 6MHz TV channel for each WMAS deployment or can I use a smaller section of spectrum? What is the audio quality of each channel? How much delay or latency can I expect? How much range does the system have? The answers to all of these questions would be dependent on how the framework is deployed by a given manufacturer.

However, the WMAS standard can answer what frequencies can be used and maximum output power specifications. WMAS will still operate in the current available spectrum bands, including the AFTRCC 1.4 GHz band. One limit to WMAS frequency use is that each radio must only occupy one TV station (6MHz) and cannot overlap to adjoining TV channels. For example, if you have the upper 3MHz clean in TV channel 21 and need 6MHz total, you cannot use the clean, lower 3MHz of TV channel 22. In the AFTRCC 1.4 GHz, where up to 30MHz is permitted, users could operate one 20MHz WMAS system and one 10MHz WMAS system, or two 15MHz WMAS systems, etc. Unlicensed users are allowed a WMAS max system power of 50mW up to 1MHz wide and 100mW when your carrier is 1-6MHz wide. Part 74 licensed users are allowed the same power levels as narrowband carriers, typically 250 MW. Different manufacturers will implement this power in different ways.

As with any new technology, there are pros and cons to the WMAS framework. On the positive side, WMAS has the potential to offer much better spectral efficiency than we currently have with narrowband carriers. It also offers the opportunity for physical hardware efficiency as well. The ability to do more with less hardware can reduce the need for large racks of equipment, saving both space and weight for audio departments on production, on tour, and on live events. The hardware designs will be manufacturer dependent, but WMAS offers the potential for a major shift in the need for rack space.

A major advantage is the ability to deploy a high channel count. Large events such as major sporting events, large conventions, live theater, and reality TV—which all typically need hundreds and hundreds of wireless channels—will benefit greatly from the increased spectral efficiency that WMAS offers. When using traditional narrowband digital wireless in higher efficiency modes with sub 3ms delay, it’s possible to reach up to forty-seven channels in 6MHz. WMAS can offer even higher channel counts in that same space. Channels can be as wide as 6MHz in the U.S. and 8MHz in Europe. A system is not required to use a 6MHz wide carrier, meaning a manufacturer could design a system that uses only a 2MHz or 3MHz wide RF carrier as long as it adhered to the minimum channel count of three channels per 1MHz. It may even be the case in the future that a WMAS system is manufactured that could be scalable based on the needs of the user.

Another benefit that WMAS offers is bi-directional communication. While this is also going to depend on each manufacturer’s implementation, a system could transmit IEM’s and also transmit the talent microphones all within the same 6MHz carrier without any frequency separation typically created by a frequency coordinator. Frequency coordination is simplified because there is only one carrier to coordinate. While this doesn’t eliminate the need for frequency coordinators or even properly choosing a clean frequency, it puts the coordination of each individual channel in the hands of the hardware. I know a lot of us don’t like frequency coordination and it can be difficult in congested places like Los Angeles, so letting the box handle all of that will definitely make your RF life easier.

Everyone who has coordinated wireless microphone systems is familiar with intermodulation or intermod. All wireless microphone systems, whether they are analog or digital, create intermodulation. Digital microphone systems have extremely linear components in addition to transmitting at lower power outputs. Thus intermod is kept to a minimum. Intermod created by digital wireless microphone systems is typically below the noise floor. WMAS systems allow engineers to stack the transmitted signals in a system with improved emission masking and filtering, and place the intermod on the ends of the wideband carrier. Intermodulation is therefore not a factor to the end user of a WMAS system.

All these benefits sound excellent, so let’s explore some of the limitations to a WMAS system and explore why a user still might consider using a narrowband system. Due to the wideband carrier of WMAS, you will need to have a fairly clean area of spectrum to place your wideband carrier. It could require a carrier up to 6MHz wide. This may be challenging based on location and spectrum availability. You can’t place this carrier, for example, in the very small sections between digital TV stations or, if needing a full 6MHz, in the guard band. A full 6MHz wide system will be difficult to deploy in most major markets in the U.S. unless using it in the duplex gap or in the STL band or having the ability to use smaller wideband carriers.

Another limitation to WMAS is the redundancy factor. These devices will typically be built with high channel counts into one physical box. Certain things like power and the audio interface are easy to make redundant, but if the entire box went down, it would affect all of your wireless channels. Users will need to ask themselves, “How many eggs should I put in one basket?” Manufacturers will need to develop extremely robust systems, as well as offer redundancy in their ecosystems, especially for mission critical applications.

“A major advantage is the ability to deploy a high channel count. Large events such as major sporting events, large conventions, live theater, and reality TV—which all typically need hundreds and hundreds of wireless channels—will benefit greatly from the increased spectral efficiency that WMAS offers.”

An area of WMAS systems that could both be a benefit as well as a limitation is the lower RF power. Lower RF power is beneficial because it allows more systems to be physically closer together utilizing the same TV channel than a higher power system, but it probably won’t be able to have the reach that a higher power narrowband system could offer. If your circumstance requires a longer distance transmission, then a narrowband system may still offer a greater benefit than a WMAS system.

One area of development that I believe to be important is how the system deals with RF interference. If you experience interference on a narrowband system, it would typically only affect one or two channels at a time. A WMAS system has all channels sharing a single RF carrier, so the concern for interference is much greater. A potential user of WMAS will need to understand how each manufacturer’s system deals with interference. The need for a system to be able to deal with RF interference will be an important factor in the use of a WMAS system. How many interference events a system can take, how it heals itself, and how resilient is it to RF noise will all be important factors in a WMAS deployment.

Manufacturers have already started to design, test, market, and release WMAS systems. Each system will have its own design, specifications, and features. Unlike Wi-Fi products that are all compatible with each other, WMAS systems will likely not be compatible across manufacturers. Each manufacturer will have their own proprietary system based on their interpretation of WMAS and based on their own codecs and algorithms.

Shure recently announced their first WMAS product, the Axient Digital PSM, will available in January 2025. I’ve had the opportunity to explore what the WMAS deployment entails in this new product and it’s very exciting. Axient Digital PSM is a single-space rack mount digital IEM system that has both four stereo narrowband carriers, as well as four WMAS wideband carriers in the unit. Each of the four WMAS carriers is 800KHz wide with four stereo channels in each carrier. This allows the unit to have up to sixteen individual stereo IEM mixes in one RU. In combination with an AD600 spectrum manager and AD610 Showlink access point, the unit will be able to manage frequency deployment and interference events. Within each 800KHz carrier are four 200KHz wide subcarriers. If an individual subcarrier experiences interference, the other three subcarriers will not be affected by that interference. For more information, you can visit Shure’s website.

There is still a lot to learn about WMAS. It offers so many possibilities for the future of RF systems and will only continue to develop as technology advances. Each manufacturer will have their own approach, but that will just provide more tools in the toolbox to choose from. We live in challenging times for wireless microphone systems but one thing that this framework encourages is that we should all be good RF neighbors.

The Stream Team

by James Delhauer

The Stream Team at the Inter-Union Solidarity Rally on March 3, 2024.

Communication has changed drastically in recent years. Though the internet age had already seen an acceleration in this field, the COVID-19 pandemic forced an exponential leap forward as social distancing requirements and remote contact became necessary parts of day-to-day life. Though life has more or less returned to normal following the pandemic, many of the innovations that resulted from it have remained. Video conferencing, event streaming, and distant participation are all here to stay. That is where groups like the Local 695 Stream Team have made their mark, continuing to innovate on developments brought about by lockdown.

When the pandemic hit, labor unions across the country had just as much of a responsibility to regularly meet with their members and keep them informed despite distancing requirements. Though not unheard of beforehand, remote membership meetings went from being more of a novelty to an absolute necessity. Local 695 hosted its first remote membership meeting in the spring of 2020 and, like most at the time, took advantage of the Zoom video conferencing platform to do it. This worked well, but as the pandemic gradually lessened and normal in-person events resumed, there was a desire to “return to normal.” Many felt that the social and community aspects of General Membership Meetings had been lost in a remote environment. At the same time, remote meetings had increased accessibility for many members. Attendance had increased dramatically since their implementation. Thus, a hybrid format meeting—where members could attend either in person or via a remote platform—was necessary.

(L-R): IATSE International VP Michael Miller, Tristen Poliseno, Cameron Broadbent, Brandon Boldroff, Zak Holley, IATSE International President Matthew D. Loeb, and James Delhauer.

This was a more difficult demand than it might initially seem on the surface. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has strict guidelines on how unions must conduct their General Membership Meetings and, in July of 2022, IATSE International President Matthew Loeb sent a memorandum to all Locals on how hybrid meetings needed to be implemented to be compliant with labor law. It outlined how all members, whether in person, or remote, had to be able to participate equally in all meeting business. This meant that remote participants needed to be able to see what was taking place in person, while in-person participants needed to be able to see everyone on Zoom. All remote participants would be required to keep their cameras on at all times and take steps to ensure the meeting remained private from nonunion family members. Most importantly, members needed to understand that participating in membership meetings while at work is a violation of federal laws.

These stringent rules, particularly regarding equal participation and the ability for all parties to see one another, necessitated careful planning. Many Locals, both in and outside of the IATSE, viewed them as prohibitive or impossible to implement. In essence, they meant that every membership meeting would need to become a full-on production.

But production is what we do.

It started with several multi-hour meetings and phone conversations between Local 695 President Jillian Arnold and me, where we both mapped out potential workflows. Both of us had come up in broadcast television environments, so the restrictions in place were a challenge we were dead set on overcoming. Once we had a general idea, we set about building our team.

For the video component of the meeting, we tapped Holley Video, a boutique video consultation company that crews many Local 600 and 695 members and that is owned by Local 600 & 695 dual card member Zak Holley. His team specializes in remote solutions, and they helped pioneer several social-distancing protocols that were essential to live-broadcast productions during the pandemic. Having provided live remote services on everything from award shows such as The Oscars, Emmys, and Grammys to competition shows like The Voice, Dancing with the Stars, and American Idol, they were a natural choice. Holley Video would come in and provide a four-camera setup that would be integrated into a live switcher, which would then be integrated into a Zoom meeting so that all remote participants would be provided with a live feed of the membership meeting, complete with real-time camera cutting to whomever was speaking at any given moment. They would also provide two 55-inch televisions, each of which would be connected to a computer that was logged into the meeting. This would allow in-person members to view the Zoom gallery, regardless of where they were sitting in the venue.

For audio, we approached Bill Kaplan of On Tap TV. Bill is a Live Broadcast Sound Mixer who has been a member of Local 695 for more than twenty years and is best known for his work on more than five hundred episodes of The Late Late Show with James Corden. Each speaker on the Local 695 dais would have their own microphone and a floor mic would be provided for in-person members of the audience to use when asking a question. These lines would all be taken into a mixing console, which would then be integrated into the Holley Video team’s host system for the membership meeting. The microphones in the room would allow remote participants to hear what was being said in person, while the speakers would allow in-person participants to be heard on Zoom. Bill would be assisted by Oscar Alva, a member of Local 695’s Y-16A Training program, who would receive on-the-job training while participating in union activity.

For administrative purposes, Local 695 Director of Education (then Senior Systems Manager) Casey Weiss and I would facilitate the Zoom meeting itself. This would involve confirming membership status and admitting those participating online, as well as working with the Local’s then Sergeant-at-Arms, Chris Howland, to ensure members on Zoom were complying with the requirements set forth by President Loeb’s memorandum and the NLRB.

After weeks of planning and preparation, Local 695 held its first hybrid membership meeting on July 16, 2022. While I have not been able to confirm that we were the first IA Local to do so, we were certainly among the first. The initial Stream Team consisted of Zak Holley, Local 695 member Tristen Poliseno, Bill Kaplan, and Oscar Alva. The meeting was a success and, with the concept proven, we all began devising ways of improving the workflow for next time.

The real challenge came in January of 2023 when Local 695 held a vote to amend its Constitution & Bylaws. Legally, such a vote requires an anonymous balloting system, and any electronic ballot requires a level of integrity verification not possible on the Zoom platform. This meant that a third-party online balloting service would be necessary. What’s more, we needed to ensure that only members in attendance participated in the vote, meaning that we couldn’t send out voting credentials prior to when the vote opened in the middle of the meeting. After much research and several pitches from companies that could not meet our needs, Local 695 enlisted the services of Survey and Ballot Systems. Theirs was the only service we were confident could meet the precise timing needs of our meeting.

During the meeting, all members who were participating at that moment, regardless of whether they were in person or remote, were emailed a unique login credential so that they could cast their votes on the new amendments.
I cannot stress how stressful this process was, as a failure to conduct the vote or an improper voting procedure would violate our Local’s existing Constitution & Bylaws, which set forth that amendments must be voted on after being read at two consecutive membership meetings. If members didn’t receive their credential emails or there was some irregularity with the process, it would have been a real problem.

But the vote went off without a hitch. Once again, I cannot confirm that Local 695 was the first union to conduct an NLRB-compliant vote in a hybrid format, but we were certainly among the very first.

I also cannot praise Casey Weiss enough for taking charge of administering the voting process and working with Direct Vote to ensure everything went smoothly. She has since gone onto advise the IATSE and other Locals on this process so that they can emulate our workflow.

In the two years since we began doing hybrid meetings, the Stream Team has refined the process tremendously. The group has grown to include Local 695 members Cameron Broadbent, Garret Vander Leek, and Brandon Boldroff on the video side and Patrick Simon and Rylan Sedivy on the audio side. I’d like to make special mention of Local 695 Mixers Steve Weiss and David Cook, who have both stepped in to mix our meetings when Bill Kaplan has not been available.

The Stream Team has even gone onto support other Local unions, including IATSE Locals 44, 705, 706, and 728, as well as Teamsters 399. In March of 2023, the Hollywood entertainment unions held a joint rally in Woodley Park in advance of the 2024 negotiations with the AMPTP. With members across the country, the IATSE enlisted the Stream Team to livestream the entire event straight to YouTube. This ended up becoming the largest “hybrid meeting” imaginable for the team, as more than two thousand members of the entertainment guilds turned up in person and more than six thousand joined in online. Following negotiations, the group was again tasked with facilitating communications for the IATSE, conducting a multi-Local membership meeting where leadership from all thirteen Hollywood Locals and the IATSE West Coast Office directly addressed members on the new terms and conditions of their bargained contract.

I am immensely proud of this group and the role that I have had the privilege to play within it. It has pioneered solutions to very modern problems and helped expand both accessibility and transparency of the union for its members. But more importantly than that, I can’t recall a time I have ever worked with a more generous or more professional crew. Every single person involved is the sort of person you’re lucky to know in your life. So, if you need remote streaming solutions for your membership meetings or live events, I wholeheartedly recommend you contact Holley Video and On Tap TV. They are the Stream Team.

What’s Next for the California Film Incentives?

by Ryan Pedersen & James Delhauer

We have been making movies in Hollywood for one hundred fourteen years. It began in 1910 with the release of D.W. Griffith’s Western short film, In Old California, and by the 1920s, nearly 90% of all films were produced in California. Throughout the twentieth century, the entertainment industry helped grow the state’s economy into one of the largest in the world. However, times have changed. Filmmaking is now a global industry with annual revenues between $90 billion to $100 billion. Every locality is trying to capture a bite of that pie, luring productions to film in their regions with large tax incentive programs that offset the cost of producing movies and television. This has led to a drought of work in California. Tens of thousands of workers and their families are struggling as the industry has migrated to other areas. So, let’s talk about the California Film & Television Tax Credit Program.

In order to combat runaway production, California introduced its first incentive program in 2009. It offered $100 million annually in tax credits based on qualified expenditures to help keep productions in the Golden State. The program was expanded in 2015 to Program 2.0 which increased the allocation to $330 million annually, as well as introducing a competitive application process. In 2020, Program 3.0 increased the program’s scope to appeal to a broader range of productions. This program was set to expire in 2025, but in 2023, California labor unions lobbied to expand the program for an additional five years. This secured funding through 2030 and introduced additional refundability provisions.

The California Film & Tax Credit Program is managed by the The California Film & Tax Credit Program is managed by the California Film Commission (CFC). This group oversees the application process, eligibility requirements, and allocation of tax credits to film and television productions. The CFC also helps producers navigate the program requirements. They work in conjunction with the California legislature and other state departments to ensure that the program is meeting its goals. The Tax Credit Program is rather extensive and contains many provisions that would take pages and pages to explain in this article so for your sake and ours, we will give the basic highlights of the program to aid in your understanding in what the tax credit does and how it works.

The current program offers a 20%-25% credit on production spending and up to 30% on labor costs. A production must spend at least $1 million in the state and each project has a tax credit cap of either $20 million or $25 million. To qualify for a tax credit, a production must have 75% or more of their total principal photography days occur in California, with exceptions for capturing backgrounds, VFX, action and/or crowd scenes by second; stunt; or VFX units. They must also spend 75% of their production budget for goods, services, and wages within California.

In an economic study assessing the impact of the program between 2015 and 2020, the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation found that the Film & Television Tax Credit Program had created over one hundred and ten thousand jobs in the state. The study further found that for every dollar spent, the program generated $1.07 in direct tax revenue, $8.60 in labor income for middle-class workers, $16.14 in state GDP, and $24.40 in labor activity.

Despite these successes, work continues to leave both California and the U.S. The same LACEDC study showed that revenue from 67% of productions that applied for a tax incentive and were denied relocated to other jurisdictions, resulting in losses of $1.9 billion to other states and more than $2 billion to other countries. In total, this resulted in a loss of 7.7 billion in economic activity, 28,000 jobs, and more than $350 million in direct tax revenue for the state. As of the time of this article’s writing, 40% of film and television workers in California are unemployed. This does not include workers from businesses that are adjacent to the industry that are struggling as well. Restaurants, catering companies, hospitality services, thrift shops, vendors who supply raw materials for set and costume construction, and so many others have been impacted as well.

The ripple effects of these losses should be clear. The loss of economic activity and tax revenue from the entertainment industry means a loss of state revenue for vital programs such as healthcare, education, transportation, environmental protection, and social services. These losses have the potential to cripple working-class families across the state and fuel the already out-of-control unhoused population crisis.

Thankfully, there is cause for hope. On October 27, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced his support to expand the Film & Television Tax Credit Program with a proposal to more than double its value with an annual investment of $750 million. The press conference announcing this possible expansion was heavily attended by union leaders, with the governor inviting labor to participate in making this proposal a reality. “This is a proposal, and we’ll need all of your help shaping it to work for our state’s film industry.”

As a result, the California IATSE Council—our union’s political action group in the state—has mobilized to work with elected officials in Sacramento, the Entertainment Union Coalition, and the studios to revise our existing program into a competitive, forward-thinking one that will endeavor to bring film and television work back home; not just for the good of film and TV workers and their families, but for the good of all families that participate in our state’s economy.

The governor also announced that the new program would be championed in the State Assembly by Assemblyman Rick Chavez Zbur, who has already begun working with our union leaders and other legislators to make this bill a reality.

There are also plans for a Federal Incentive Plan as well. Four days after Gov. Newsom’s announcement, U.S. Congressman Adam Schiff (who California elected to the U.S. Senate on November 5), wrote a letter to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis requesting data on employment trends within the film and television industries, stating that “In order for the U.S. to maintain its standing as a leader in the film and television production industry and spur more American jobs, we must create competitive labor-based incentives for U.S. production.” Congressman Schiff’s letter cited Australian and Canadian policies in which both their federal governments and state/province governments offer incentives that can stack with one another, noting that “major blockbuster productions have chosen to shoot in these countries rather than in the U.S, bringing with them all of the employment opportunities and investments in local economies that productions bring.”

The IATSE, which endorsed Congressman Schiff in his bid for the United States Senate and hosted his campaign kickoff event at the offices of Local 80 in Burbank, joined the congressman in urging the Bureaus of Labor Statistics and Economic Analysis to gather and release data on the impact of foreign-production incentives on U.S. jobs and local communities. “The proposal to implement a federal incentive would level the playing field and address this imbalance,” said IATSE International President Matthew D. Loeb. “We support the concept of a federal incentive for the creation of film and TV, provided the plan also has mechanisms to uphold labor standards. We are committed to saving America’s entertainment industry, and we look forward to working with our members, local unions, allies, and lawmakers at all levels to get it done.”

Many of you have been reaching out asking what can be done to help push a bill through to support incentive programs that will bring work back home. The very first thing to do is to have patience. This is the hardest part of the entire process, especially for those who are hurting from extended periods of unemployment. Following the election, the new legislative session will not begin until after the new year and once it has convened, the legislators and leaders will need time to craft specific provisions and language for the bill.

Once the bill has been written, we will need everyone’s help to write to and call their legislative representatives and tell them to support this bill. You can share your stories with them on why this bill is needed and why it will be good for California. The California Locals will be working to put together letters to state officials urging them to support expanded incentive bills. Once those become available, anyone interested in keeping and/or expanding production work in California is encouraged to reach out to your district legislators. If you choose to write your own message, Local 695 encourages you to keep your urging polite and engage in urgent, but civil discourse. After all, very few people respond well or want to help someone who is yelling at or insulting them.

We will need to show up over the next few months and the next few years as we rebuild our state’s industry. In her presidential election concession speech, Kamala Harris said, “This is not a time to throw up our hands. This is a time to roll up our sleeves. This is a time to organize, to mobilize and to stay engaged for the sake of freedom and justice and the future that we all know we can build together.” Those words are inspiring, especially given the circumstances in which she said them. At times it will seem easier to just give up and move on, but we love what we do. In order to continue on, we must continue to push forward.

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IATSE LOCAL 695
5439 Cahuenga Boulevard
North Hollywood, CA 91601

phone  (818) 985-9204
email  info@local695.com

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