Features

Congratulations to the Los Angeles Dodgers Winners of the 2025 World Series

Featured is the audio crew for Game 1 in Toronto for the performance by Pharrell Williams, and the Voices of Fire Choir for the US & Canadian National Anthems. ATK deployed 500 RF IEM’s for the choir, 24 Shure PSM1000 RF IEM’s for the crew, and four additional Shure PSM1000 IEM’s for the principals.

The Audio Crew

Mike Abbott A1
Andrew Fletcher FOH Mixer
Andres Arango project manager, Monitor Mixer
Kirk Powell front house tech
Luis Montes RF Tech
Craig Robertson system tech
Josh Manville Ear Tech
Dave Ingels Monitor Tech
Damon Andres band A2
Mike Cruz Production A2
Alex Hoyo Production A2

Lisa Piñero and The Lost Bus

by Richard Lightstone

America Ferrera as Mary and Matthew McConaughey as Kevin

The Lost Bus is the story of school bus driver Kevin McKay, played by Matthew McConaughey, and schoolteacher Mary Ludwig, portrayed by America Ferrera, who saved twenty-two children during the 2018 Campfire in Paradise, California. The Campfire was one of the deadliest disasters in the state’s history, killing 85 people and destroying more than 150,000 acres.

Directed by Paul Greengrass who also co-wrote the script with Brad Ingelsby, is based on a portion of Lizzie Johnson’s book of 2021, Paradise: One Town’s Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire.

The key to working with Paul Greengrass is being very flexible and able to adapt to changes quickly because that’s how he works and his style is what makes his films so exciting. He’s the master of this kind of filmmaking.

Matthew McConaughey ‘driving’ through the fires on the Gordon Studios

Lisa Piñero: I always wanted to work with Director Paul Greengrass, it was on my bucket list. My regular crew of Randy Johnson and Eva Rismanforoush were not available, and I’m at the point in my life where if I cannot get the crew I love to work with, I’d rather not do the project. But the script resonated with me and as I said, it was an opportunity to work with Paul Greengrass. Most of the time I’m traveling to work. I hardly ever work here in Los Angeles. I lucked out and the crew I assembled was Boom Operator Mike Scott and Sound Utility Emily Jane Price, and for the last few weeks of shooting, Eva came in at boom to cover the last few weeks for Mike who unfortunately experienced an ankle injury on the show.

I really enjoyed Paul, he’s one of those directors who you run through walls for. He’s the kindest guy, very collaborative and, very good with the crew. He shoots in a documentary style but with multiple cameras swinging in every direction to capture all the action. It may look haphazard but Paul and his DP have spent time carefully choreographing how to capture the actions and emotions necessary for the scene.

1st AD Cliff Lanning instructing the kids

Richard Lightstone: The school bus is also a major character.

LP: Yes, the bus is a character all in itself and we shot many, many days on that vehicle, more than half of the film takes place in and around it.

Our DP was Pål Ulvik Rokseth, who’s a lovely guy, a Norwegian cinematographer, and very easy to work with. Pål was operating most of the time, so it was him and two other operators. With three cameras in a tight space, it was very challenging for Mike Scott to get a boom mic near the action. Of course, the cast was wired, and we planted mics all over the place to pick up interior ambience from the kids. We generally knew who was going to speak but it changed from take to take. Paul Greengrass would tell us who he wanted talking, so Mike and Emily would move body mics around from child to child.

I sat in the back of the bus with the focus pullers. We were all scrunched down below the seat backs in order to stay out of shots. While on the bus, I usually worked off the Sound Devices 888 recorder with Shure wires and Mike Scott on the boom behind the cameras picking up whatever he could. We also had a speaker on the bus so Paul, using a Shure handheld wireless, could talk to the actors and crew from a follow vehicle.

We filmed all over New Mexico; Ruidoso, Santa Fe, Española, Truchas, and Glorieta, to name a few. It was incredibly dusty, and we had big Ritter 502 fans running full time to recreate the huge one hundred mph winds that drove the fire. It was like a blizzard of dust and smoke.

When I initially spoke with Producer Greg Goodman, the plan was to shoot all this on a stage at the Garson Studios lot in Santa Fe. ILM would build a volume on one of the stages there where we would shoot all the bus scenes with the kids. We’d be two or three weeks on location in Ruidoso and then we’d be eight weeks or however long it took on the lot and stages.

As the show progressed, the scheduled morphed into less time on stage and much more time on practical locations. Matthew really wanted to drive the bus. A big part of getting his performance was to actually drive the bus and experience the practical effects. So that’s what we did.

We shot a lot of scenes on the bus while driving through some very narrow streets, in the woods and all over the place, far more than anyone expected at the beginning. For Matthew and America, this style of shooting felt more real, and the kids also responded well. We had twenty-two kids, and they were really good.

Our 1st AD, Cliff Lanning, set up the schedule, so that if we were in Santa Fe, we’d start the day shooting on stage, maybe with our number one and number two cast, or we’d get all the kids on the bus. After lunch, we’d move outside to film scenes around the lot. Our AD team was well organized and very supportive of the crew. Paul would make changes and things would move very quickly. Cliff gave us the time to make adjustments which I appreciated very much.

RL: There are parts of the film that have a documentary feel to them

LP: Paul Greengrass got his start working as a journalist for the UK ITV program World in Action. Although he uses enormous crews and loads of the latest technology on his feature films, he is still focused on creating a realistic “you are here” aesthetic in his films. He gives his cast a realistic environment to react in. The practical special EFX help create a lot of that realism during the shoot, then the VFX team led by Charlie Noble are on the scene to take what is shot to the next level for the audience. For all the movie magic in this film, I think the audience will find itself feeling immersed in the moment and on the edge of their seats as this story unfolds.

Paul had many of the people who experienced the Paradise fire play roles or guest shots in the film. Many of the firefighters featured in the film were the actual firefighters who fought the fire in Paradise. They also worked closely with Paul and the crew to help us understand what they and the town’s residents experienced during the fire. We had set visits from Kevin McKay and Mary Ludwig during the shoot. Paul brought them in so they could experience the production process and meet with the actors. I think they may have wished their story could be told using Paradise as the location, but moviemaking doesn’t always allow that.

RL: What about the sets, were there also standing sets on stage?
LP: Yes, there were many all over the Garson lot, and more sets built in Santa Fe and surrounding areas. The production secured a large church camp facility in the Glorieta area. We spent more than three weeks there. We went north and had access to shoot on a Native American reservation for some of the firetruck road work. We had sets in Santa Fe for a school, and the Glorieta camp had buildings that we used as school sets. Greg Goodman’s been around the block a few times and he and Paul settled on some great locations and put them to good efficient use.

RL: What was your wireless count for the show?

LP: In preproduction Paul said, “I will never ask you to mic more than twelve people at one time on this show.” I carried twelve on the cart and eight on the bus. I maxed out the 688 based bag with four ADX5D dual receivers. My main cart is Cantar X3 based with three racks of Shure Axient Digital AD4Q receivers and AD 600 Spectrum Manager. All the frequencies were matched so we could drop the bag and go to the cart seamlessly.

While filming in the bus, we would swap transmitters putting plants in different places and then hoping that the kids were going to do what they were supposed to. Paul had a great relationship with the kids, they all performed really, really well. We would do a take and then stop the bus or, if we’re on the bus in the stage, Paul would come on and say, okay, this time I want you to do this and you to do that. So, Mike and Emily would be swapping transmitters to get what we needed.

On the bus work, we used walkies with Comteks rather than a talk-back IFB system. It was so much more efficient as we had much better range. You can reach the utility and boom no matter where they are.

RL: What was the most challenging scene for you?

LP: It was the scene where the bus finally reaches the Evacuation Center. Paul wanted the bus to drive down a long block, then down a driveway and pull into in a very large parking lot, where all the parents, CAL FIRE, and first responders were all waiting.

There were cameras inside the bus, on the road, and in the command area. It was a long sequence with action throughout over a long distance. The bus would finally come to a stop and then they would all get out and the kids would come off the bus to be reunited with their parents.

There were several times when we had a four-person crew, and on that day, we had two extra people, and we needed them. We were able to find a safe spot for the cart. Paul was in a van with video assist, and the DIT. I had to be near Paul’s van, but we were on foot, I was using my main cart. Eva was with us then and she deployed our antenna distribution system. She ran out additional antennas to pick the bus coming down the street and around the corner. We had four antennas out in a very widespread. We ended up getting it all on the Cantar, and it was great. We were all thrilled. I am really proud of what our sound team (production and post) delivered. It was a tough project, but in the end, we got what Paul wanted, we had some fun and the film sounds great!

Utility Sound Technician Emily Jane Price with lots of timecode slates and wire

Avatar: Fire and Ash

by Julian Howarth & Tony Johnson

Julian Howarth

Seven years in the making, across two continents and with sound departments in the United States and New Zealand, this film was one huge undertaking for everyone involved. I headed up the set in the U.S. and Production Sound Mixer Tony Johnson (TJ) covered all things in New Zealand.

Ideas, methodology, equipment and a lot of sweat were shared throughout this process. I have asked that TJ join me in the writing of this as we have shared everything else during our time on this film, so why not? We filmed both The Way of Water and Fire and Ash during this time.

L-R: Ben Greaves, Julian Howarth, and Tony Johnson testing live-action camera systems at Manhattan Beach Studios

The plan was for all performance capture to take place in the U.S., at Manhattan Beach Studios, and then, once completed, the film would move to NZ to add the live-action components. In theory, the two would then combine seamlessly on screen.

Most scenes involving a human component were filmed twice, once on the Perf Cap Stage in the Manhattan Beach Studios, and then again on the live-action set built on The Stone Street Studios Wellington, New Zealand. Digital and physical sets had to match in scale and how they were lit. The human actors had to interact with Na’vi that were digitally rendered into the camera as a live image. Ryan Champney, our Virtual Production Supervisor, oversaw this process with elegance and command. His assistance and knowledge guided my every move throughout filming.

None of what I will describe would have been possible without my team. Ben Greaves’ (1st AS) contribution cannot be overstated. His problem solving, work ethic, and attention to detail made this entire collaboration possible. He has worked alongside me for so long now, we have a shorthand and way to work. He is my closest friend and ally.

We had many other team members, Kayla Croft, Scott Solan, Yohannes Skoda, Zach Wrobel, Tim Salmon, Jamie Gambell and Iris Von Hase, playing parts in utility, additional boom and comms. All of them brought their A-game and again without them we would not have been able to navigate this herculean task.

Oona Chaplin discusses movement and song beats with the troupe and Julian Howarth.
(L-R) Oona Chaplin, Devereaux Chumrau, Alicia Vela Bailey, Courtney Chen, Kevin Henderson, Jamie Landau, and Kevin Dorman

As a Production Sound Mixer, I understand that sound is not merely an addition to the visual experience—it’s a critical component that can transform a simple scene into a captivating narrative. The production of Avatar: Fire and Ash exemplified this. Throughout the filming process, our team implemented various techniques to ensure that every auditory element complemented the film’s immersive experience on set, as well as in the final product. In the world of filmmaking, production sound plays an instrumental role in crafting the final product, often going unnoticed by audiences but essential for fully engaging them in a story. The philosophy was simple: capture truth in the moment. Not just dialog, but the emotion behind it. Not just sound, but story.

This was a theatrical experience on a performance capture stage.

When filming on a performance capture stage, multiple cast members and background actors inhabit the same space, often interacting in complex ways. Capturing sound becomes a delicate balancing act of technology and artistry. From the outset, I knew this was going to be a unique experience—bigger, deeper, and more demanding than anything I’d ever worked on.
Jim wanted every breath, every reaction, every word—improvised or scripted—captured in real time. The scale of the sound team’s responsibility reshaped my understanding of what production sound could be. Each scene was played and directed like in theater, everyone talked. With the versatility of performance capture and the nature of Jim’s direction, it could be everyone’s close-up during one single take.

Every actor wore a helmet that holds the face camera, and we affixed DPA 4071 microphones onto each helmet. We used around fifty in total, and rigged every helmet beforehand. The mics were placed on the camera arm to the side of the mouth ensuring the elimination of any plosives that could affect the resulting performance and a corresponding transmitter connected at the offset. I was using Lectrosonics transmitters but swiftly changed to the Astral system as the NEXUS control protocol made changes simple and quick. The range of dynamics in the performances demanded versatility and the simplicity of gain structure that the Astral system gave us, its 32-bit float system made this possible with little or no interruption to the actors on stage. Every time an actor entered the Performance Capture Stage, we assigned a TX and changed metadata to correspond to their track. Editorial had to cope with an extraordinary number of tracks, and they needed this metadata to be exact and precise. With twenty actors in any scene at a time, we had one mix track for editorial purposes, two booms and then twenty ISO’s relating to each actor. The final twenty-fourth track was used as reference for any playback (music or FX) we had.
On average, we had around fourteen witness cameras that filmed every nuance and expression so that Jim could review immediately after each take. Video playback was undertaken by Shahrouz Nooshinfar and Dan Moore who I provided with mix tracks to go alongside the video matrix they created for Jim to review. All our systems, virtual and live, had to sync up with each other. We spent at least thirty minutes at the start of each day running sync tests to ensure that happened.

Ambient FX and musical cues were piped in live, either through stage speakers or personal earpieces. Actors heard the world they were meant to inhabit, and their responses became more visceral. With Assistant Editor Ben Murphy, I developed real-time soundscapes played through Pro Tools, running on a MacBook Pro and Focusrite 4i4 interface. Audio throughout was via Dante to the main cart.

It wasn’t just noise, it was narrative. Such effects help actors react instinctively, allowing their performances versatility and reactive to a world enhanced by our playback. For instance, the sound of a menacing helicopter hovering overhead can shift the energy of a scene, enabling actors to channel the environment into their portrayals organically.

For specific cues, like a sudden explosion, beeps from machines, breeching Tulkun, gunfire, etc., I used Ableton Live to trigger these effects. The use of live sound effects on set further enhanced the performance quality and gave real-time reactions to real-time sonic events; much better than an AD shouting BANG!

Jim was always five steps ahead and to keep up we had to be prepared for everything at any time. Playback, earpieces, rapid cast, and environment changes. We are there to service Jim’s vision, and we could never rest on our laurels thinking we had the day covered. Something new and challenging would always present itself and we had to be ready to meet those challenges. We had to stay sharp, prepared for anything. There could be no second chances. Sound had to be clean, immediate, and seamless.

Beyond dialog, we recorded entire musical sequences: tribal songs, dances, ceremonial drums all performed live. These were captured with help from Simon Franglen, Composer and Dick Bernstein, Music Editor. Earpiece playback ensured clean vocal takes. Performers like Zoe Saldaña, Kate Winslet, and Oona Chaplin delivered haunting, powerful renditions. It was honest and raw. While recording to my Cantar, audio was sent via Dante to the Pro Tools rig to record side by side.

When we moved into the water work, things got really interesting. We had two tanks: one small, circular one for singular performances and testing, and the main stage tank, which was 90x40x20 ft (27.4x12x6 m), holding around nine hundred thousand gallons of water. It was so big that operations had to be conducted from a flight deck at the surface and a bridge that would span the sides. The water environments were dynamic—wave machines, adjustable floors, even a water turbine system that could simulate a river with current up to five knots. It could be a beach, a swamp, a river, the reef shallows, the back of a Tulkun or out in the deep ocean. Anything Jim could dream up.

Simon Franglen and our amazing troupe recording one of the many tribal songs and chants, with Phonak earpieces and playback from Pro Tools.

Performance capture in water is an entirely different science. Reflective surfaces disrupt optical tracking and bubbles confuse capture cameras. The solution? Thousands of translucent plastic balls to break the water surface while allowing light through. The problem was they made a LOT of noise. How would we solve this? We always have a couple of boom mics near the surface but as with the stage volume, and the nature of the performances, we really needed a mic on each helmet. Signal-to-noise ratios would always determine what the best method was.

We mounted Lectrosonics WM transmitters on the helmets, with antennas carefully positioned above the waterline. Even at shallow submersion, water kills RF signal, so mic and transmitter placement became a fine art. For underwater action with no dialog, we used an Ambient Soundfish ASF-1 Hydrophone which captured sound effects but also used it to monitor the underwater comms too. If there was ever an issue with the comms, we would know immediately and could fix it.

The real challenge is depth. At thirty feet, even waterproof lavaliers buckle under pressure. The diaphragm collapses, just like a human eardrum. We couldn’t risk losing the moment when a character bursts to the surface, gasping, those moments carry the emotional core of a scene.

We innovated adding a secondary diaphragm, a latex membrane to absorb pressure and shield the capsule. Placement had to be perfect to prevent turning the helmet microphonic, so Ben constantly made small modifications to ensure everything worked as we needed. The Lectrosonics WM transmitters were also tested to their limits in terms of the depth they were taken to and the punishment they endured. They performed way beyond the limits of what they were designed for.

For delicate surface scenes, ADR was off the table. Jim was adamant. “We’re using production sound.” The plastic balls were too noisy. I spent quite some time trying to find a solution to this issue, and it came to me from my son, who was playing with his NERF gun at the time. The projectiles were foam balls. When one hit me in the head, I had my Eureka moment, they were soft, silent, and exactly the right size. I decided to take them to work to test out. They degraded quickly in chlorinated water, so we decided to only use them for specific and intimate moments. It took time to set up when we used them but the difference in dialog quality was everything. I was in constant contact with Gwen Whittle, Supervising Sound Editor, throughout the whole process, and she did incredible work cleaning up what we recorded, and you hear the results in the film.

We also developed waterproof mic cases for live underwater recording—depth proof and timecode stamped. Live-action diving masks allowed us to hard line to the surface or record onboard. After each take, we’d swap the packs, off-load the SD cards, and send audio directly to editorial. The whole process, from water to QTAKE to Avid, took under two minutes. It was tight, intense coordination across departments. Everyone knew what needed to happen; everyone delivered.

Sound and communications on the tank served many purposes. We had speakers surrounding the tank, including underwater and floating units. Jim could speak directly to actors in real time so that he could give notes and adjust moods. During the tank work, Jim would wear a PTT mic. The speaker system served as VOG for instructions, but also as a means of playback for music and atmos. We used immersive audio environments to set scenes: swamp ambiences, open ocean. We played music cues for festivals or underwater dances. Simon and Dick were, again, there with us, ready to adapt to anything Jim wanted. All playback was controlled through our Pro Tools rig.

The comms system was also piggybacked to our dive supervision and safety team. They had to perform countdowns for breath holds, communications to underwater rigging and safety teams and should the situation arise (which it didn’t, thank goodness), coordinate rescue procedures.

The Avatar family was our fortress. It protected us, uplifted us, and challenged us to go further than we thought possible. The scale was massive. The expectations even bigger. Working on Avatar felt less like making a film and more like building a world with a family. To make something of this scale work, you have to be completely integrated with other departments: Editorial, Virtual Production, Video Playback, Environment Design, Production Design, Motion Builder (the system that controls all virtual aspects), Props, Costumes, and more. We relied on each other constantly, syncing our efforts to bring Jim’s vision to life. That kind of collaboration creates bonds that go deeper than the usual set relationships. It becomes something personal, every team member worked tirelessly to support each other at work and at home.

The family attitude is what made this film, cast, and crew alike. Over the years, I watched the younger cast grow into remarkable adults. We shared birthdays, breakthroughs, and plenty of long, exhausting days. I grew to love this Avatar family of mine.

Producer Jon Landau embodied this spirit. He was always there, listening, encouraging, and setting the tone. He made the big machine human. I’ll never forget when filming had paused during the pandemic in the U.S., and everyone was scattered, I got a call. “Julian, it’s Jon. Are you okay? How’s your family? Do you need anything?” He didn’t have to call but he did. That’s who he was. A leader not just with vision, but with heart. Jon passed away in July 2024. I miss him dearly, but in every frame, I still feel his presence.

John Refoua and David Brenner, two brilliant Editors, passed during this journey. They shaped the world of Pandora in more ways than most people will ever know. They were artists. They were friends.

Finally, what stays with me is the people.Their integrity, their spirit, their belief in the story we were telling. And that, in the end, is what sound really captures—not just what was said, but what was felt.

Tony Johnson

As Julian was completing the performance capture work in Los Angeles in 2019, I flew over to pick his brain and establish what I needed to prep for the live-action shoot in New Zealand.

They were filming tests on Spider (Jack Champion) in Manhattan Beach, and it was a good time to get a sign-off on the placement of Spider’s lavalier mic. Spider was bare-chested for the entire shoot, so the dreadlocked wig was the only place suitable. We had costume and hair help make a space for the Zaxcom ZMT3 in the back of the wig which was hidden by the dreadlocks. We then threaded a DPA 6061 through a dreadlock at the side of his head and that never changed for the entire shoot. It was a great win and the hair helped as a wind cover as well.

A normal day: Cantar X3, Astral ARX16, two Lectrosonics DSQD receivers all linked via Dante to the playback rig running Pro Tools, Ableton Live on Focusrite Scarlett with Icon control surface and Akai Advance 25 controller”

When we filmed the human actors on Pandora, they all wore oxygen masks with prop oxygen packs on their waists. There was a tube connecting to the mask so with Jim’s blessing, we would thread a lav up through the tube and bring it out through the rubber shroud around the mask, it was seen on camera. However, the glass lens of the mask was going to be added in VFX later, so it was easy to paint out the lav too. The Zaxcom ZMT4 transmitters went into the oxygen packs which were hollowed out for our benefit and were just big enough to house the TX. I could also get Zaxnet reception through the pack, which was great as I had full gain control from my desk.

This became a go-to as we had thirty lavs wired into oxygen masks for the duration. It was then easy to just plug a TX in and go. Katie Paterson was 2nd AS and she was in charge of managing this process, working with Prop Mask Head Richard Thurston. It was an ongoing upgrade to when we started in 2019; then we were using ZMT3’s and a mixture of B6 and DPA 6061’s. From 2022 on, we went to ZMT4’s and all DPA 6061’s. Funny to have a job last so long that technology upgrades with you on the way.

After the first Avatar, Jim wanted a better way for having accurate eyelines between humans and Na’vi characters in the same scene, something other than the tennis ball on a pole method. It needed to be a way where the Na’vi and humans could walk and talk, and move around, while maintaining an accurate eyeline, remembering the Na’vi are more than nine feet tall.

What came next was an ingenious eyeline system comprising of a four-axis cable cam with a wire tower and motor on four corners of the set. Where a camera would traditionally be mounted, instead, we had a tablet for the image of the Na’vi character, and a small battery-powered Bose speaker and a Lectrosonics LR receiver. Editorial would make up the clip of a character from performance capture, such as Stephen Lang’s Quaritch, that Julian had recorded, and was transmitted to the tablet. The sound was routed through my desk and transmitted to the LR and speaker. Jim did not want earwigs as he wanted the dialog to come from the same place as the characters’ image. I mixed the playback and live-action dialog while the actors would look at the image of Quaritch on the tablet. The cable cam movement would allow the actors to see Quaritch as he walked and interact with him all at the correct height. The cable cam had electric motors on the four bases and fortunately, the noise was something post could remove. The Bose speaker was perfect as it projected the sound in an omnidirectional way which meant the actors could hear the dialog from anywhere on the set.

The audio clips included breaths and effort as well, as the dialog. This would often clash with the live-action dialog, so I had to drop it out. This meant I had to have the playback track routed to the right-hand side of my headphones, pre-fader so I could know when to fade the extraneous sounds out. I had to trust that I had the lavs, booms, and any external issues sorted before we shot, as my monitoring was compromised. A big shout-out to my 1st AS, Corrin Ellingford, who did every shoot day with me over a five-year period on A2 and 3. His contribution was immense.

My crew setup for Avatar was like no other. We realized early on we could not have a traditional four-person crew because we only used one Boom Operator on most setups. I needed a 1st AS beside Jim Cameron and Maria Battle-Cambell, our 1st AD all the time, for the flow of information and any last-minute changes. The sets were huge, and I was a long way away from the action.

Sam Spicer was our main Boom Operator, and on one very memorable occasion, he arranged for a cherry picker to take him out over the Matador boat on a giant motion base to get the boom right over Scoresby’s head for the pivotal scene. Scoresby was dowsed in water seconds before we went for a take which consisted of a bucket of water being tipped over him. This rendered the lavs useless and with the pressure of the situation and what was at stake to get the shot, this moment stayed with me and reinforced my ethic of teamwork and never giving up!

A huge thanks to the New Zealand sound crew: 1st AS Corrin Ellingford, 2nd AS Katie Paterson, Boom Operator Sam Spicer, and Sound Interns Benny Jennings and Hayden Washington Smith. Second Unit was handled by Mixers Chris Hiles and Steve Harris. We had up to six people in our department on any given day.

For the live-action underwater shoot, we took Julian’s lead from his underwater experience, and used Countryman B3’s inside the masks. We had Ocean Technology Hi Use connectors for all underwater audio cabling and it was 100% reliable. We also used Julian’s method of putting latex over the capsule even though it was in a mask as the pressure at five meters (sixteen feet) down would be too much otherwise.

One of my most memorable experiences on Avatar was when we had Jemaine Clement’s (Garvin) underwater having a conversation with Scoresby, who we had shot previously on the ship. The original idea was someone would read the off-camera lines through a VOG to the underwater speaker. At the last minute, Jim wanted to use Scoresby’s dialog from the scene he had in the Avid on set. I was given the file minutes before a take to download to the Ableton, so I could have each line on a separate key and play them on Jim’s cue underwater to Garvin. The idea of playing dialog from a keyboard to an underwater speaker so Jemaine could perform the scene five meters below surface, reminded me of how cool my job is.

On Saturday, July 6, 2024, while the crew was prepping the Motion Base shoot, the mood turned very heavy as we were called into a huddle where it was announced that Jon Landau had passed. We knew he was unwell, but the outpouring of grief and emotion was all laid bare. We had lost our guide, the man everyone loved. Jon was an incredible person and leader for the Avatar family, and it was acutely felt in Wellington, New Zealand, where he spent so much time. Jon was known widely around the city as he became a big part of the community.

During the pandemic, with all of the local food truck holders in the city out of work, Jon employed them to provide our second meal at the studios. They would have several hundred hungry crew to feed and stay in business, just one of the many things he did here in NZ that will always be remembered.

2025 Creative Arts EMMY Sound Mixing Winners

OUTSTANDING SOUND MIXING FOR A LIMITED OR ANTHOLOGY SERIES OR MOVIE

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

OUTSTANDING SOUND MIXING FOR A COMEDY OR DRAMA SERIES (ONE HOUR)

Severance
“Cold Harbor”
Bob Chefalas, Re-recording Mixer
Jacob Ribicoff, Re-recording Mixer
David Schwartz, Production Mixer
George Lara, Foley Mixer
Additional Sound Team:
Boom Operator Graham Gardner,
Sound Utilities Dave LaVenture
& Christy Illius
Pro Tools Playback John D’Aquino

OUTSTANDING SOUND MIXING FOR A COMEDY OR DRAMA SERIES (HALF-HOUR) AND ANIMATION

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 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 NONFICTION PROGRAM

Beatles ‘64
Josh Berger, Re-recording Mixer
Giles Martin, Re-recording Music Mixer

OUTSTANDING SOUND MIXING FOR A VARIETY SERIES OR SPECIAL

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 Mixe

OUTSTANDING SOUND MIXING FOR A REALITY PROGRAM

Welcome to Wrexham
“Giant Killers”
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.”

Editors’ note: We make every effort to contact the Production Mixer of each nominated show and request the names of the Production Sound Team. However, we do not always receive that information.

Names in bold are Local 695 members

IATSE 70th Quadrennial Convention

A Diary: by Whit Norris CAS

Honolulu, Hawaii
July 26–August 1, 2025
Education Session: Building Resilient Local Unions

On Saturday afternoon, July 26, I attended an education session titled “Building Resilient Local Unions.” This session focused on how Locals can adapt and thrive during times of change—whether that shifts in technology, economic challenges, or evolving industry structures. The discussion highlighted practical strategies for strengthening member engagement, improving communication, and creating long-term stability. I found it particularly valuable to hear how other Locals are addressing similar issues and to think about ways we might apply those ideas within our own. It was an inspiring way to kick off the week and a reminder that resilience isn’t just about responding to challenges—it’s about preparing for the future together.

Delegate Orientation and Saturday Evening Events
Before the convention officially began, I attended the Delegate Orientation on Saturday evening. This session was designed to welcome Delegates, explain the structure of the week ahead, and outline how the convention operates—from committee work to voting procedures and floor discussions. It was a helpful refresher and a good opportunity to meet fellow Delegates in a more informal setting before the busy week kicked off.

After orientation, I stopped by two evening gatherings—one hosted by the Art Directors Guild Local 800 and another for the Young Delegates. Both were laid-back and welcoming, giving everyone a chance to connect, share stories, and build new relationships before the convention officially got underway.

District Meetings
The District meetings were held on Sunday, July 27, and they really set the tone for the week. It was a chance for Locals from all over to come together in one place and have honest conversations about what’s happening in our regions. We shared updates, compared notes, and talked through some of the challenges we’re each facing—things like organizing, legislative priorities, and how we’re training the next generation.

One of the more meaningful parts of the day was reviewing and accepting resolutions. Even though the work is procedural, it’s where we make decisions that help guide what we focus on moving forward. I always appreciate these meetings because they remind me that, even though our Locals may deal with very different day-to-day issues, we’re united by common goals. That shared purpose—and the collaboration it sparks—is what makes the District meetings so valuable.

That evening, I attended the Political Action Committee (PAC) Fundraiser for IATSE International at the Sheraton Waikiki pool. It was a relaxed and enjoyable event with a serious purpose—raising funds to support legislative efforts that protect and advance workers’ rights. It also offered a great chance to connect with members and leaders from across the country in a more informal setting, all while supporting the important political work that helps strengthen our union’s voice.

Convention Overview
The Quadrennial Convention officially kicked off on Monday, July 28, at the Sheraton Waikiki. Walking into a room with more than 950 Delegates was something to take in—the energy, the conversations, and the collective purpose were all palpable. It was the largest IATSE convention ever, and the theme, “Solidarity, Security, Prosperity,” was front and center in nearly every speech and discussion that followed.

The lineup of speakers was impressive and inspiring. Hawaii Governor Josh Green and Congresswoman Jill Tokuda spoke passionately about the importance of labor in their state. Liz Shuler from the AFL-CIO and Sean O’Brien from the Teamsters gave powerful calls for unity—a reminder that, as labor organizations, we’re stronger when we stand shoulder to shoulder.

There were also deeply thoughtful conversations from Annette Bening and Joseph Benincasa with the Entertainment Community Fund, and a broader look at the international landscape from Bea Bruske of the Canadian Labour Congress and Johannes Studinger from UNI Global. Russell Hollander and Lesli Linka Glatter of the DGA shared great insight into how collaboration across crafts is essential to the future of our industry. Hearing from Tino Gagliardi and Bruce Raynor helped put into perspective the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for the labor movement.

A key point that kept coming up—and one that stuck with me—was the push for a national film and entertainment tax incentive. It’s something our industry desperately needs, and the fact that it was echoed over and over again made it clear that this is going to be a major focus for IATSE moving forward.

As the week went on, the schedule continued to reflect the depth and importance of the work being done. Thursday was a significant day, as it included the nomination of officers—a process that underscored the democratic foundation of our union and the trust we place in our leadership.

Friday, the final day of the Convention, was devoted to celebrating our members and their contributions. Several honors were presented, including the Retired Officers Award, the International President’s Award, the Outstanding Young Leaders Award, and the Outstanding Women’s Leader Award. These moments highlighted the dedication, leadership, and hard work that keep IATSE strong.

The Convention concluded with the obligation of officers, followed by closing remarks from all those newly elected. The atmosphere was one of optimism and unity as we looked ahead to the challenges and opportunities before us. With a motion to adjourn, the 70th Quadrennial Convention officially came to a close—leaving everyone with a renewed sense of purpose and solidarity.

The convention floor with President Loeb and the International Vice Presidents on stage

Motion Picture Caucus & Industry Outlook
One of the most insightful sessions for me personally was the Motion Picture Caucus led by International Vice President Mike Miller and his team. They walked us through the current state of the industry—the impact of corporate mergers, how streaming continues to reshape production, and why certain projects have slowed.

What was most encouraging was their confidence in our union’s position. Despite all the changes, IATSE continues to maintain strong jurisdiction in both the U.S. and Canada. And while the next round of negotiations will certainly present challenges, it was reassuring to see how thoroughly the International is preparing. I left that session feeling optimistic about where we’re headed.

Building Solidarity & Connections
Outside of the meetings and speeches, one of the most rewarding parts of the week was the chance to connect with members and leaders from other Locals. The President’s Reception and Official Family Reception offered space for conversations that don’t always happen on the convention floor—talking about shared challenges, exchanging ideas, and even just getting to know the people who are working toward the same goals in other parts of the country.

Exhibits and Industry Partners
One of the things I really enjoyed during the week was spending some time at the exhibits set up outside the main Convention Hall. There were booths from the Entertainment Community Fund, Classic Incentives, Honest Ballot, several IATSE committees, the IATSE Education Department, MPI, the National Benefits Fund, Union Plus, and the Hollywood Commission, among others.

It was a great chance to chat with the people behind these organizations and learn more about the services and support they offer our members. We work alongside many of them in one way or another throughout the year, but getting to meet them face-to-face and put names to those connections made it feel more personal and meaningful. I would also like to thank our Business Representative, Scott Bernard, for introducing me to one of our representatives from MPI—that connection was both helpful and informative.

Memorable Moments & Final Reflections
There’s one moment from the week I won’t forget: the tsunami scare on Tuesday. Thankfully, it ended up being nothing serious, but it was a vivid reminder of how quickly things can change. What impressed me most was how calmly everyone handled the situation—Delegates supported one another, checked in on colleagues, and stayed focused. It was solidarity in action.

As I look back on the Convention, I feel proud—proud of our union, proud of the work we’re doing, and proud to have been part of these important conversations. Every time I attend one of these gatherings, I come home with a renewed sense of purpose and a clearer understanding of the role we all play in shaping the future of our industry and our union.

In Solidarity,
Whit Norris, member of 695 & Delegate of Local 479

Ric Rambles

by Ric Teller

Jerry Lewis and Paul Sandweiss Sunday music rehearsal Telethon 2007

Happy holidays to all of my fellow 695 members, families, guests, and other assorted readers. I hope each of you will find joyful things to celebrate, especially family. Of all the holidays, my favorite is Thanksgiving, but today as I write this, it is Labor Day. It’s our day. Since 1894, when President Grover Cleveland signed the bill making Labor Day a national legal holiday (more than half the states were already officially celebrating it). The day has been popular for parades, picnics, and exuberant rallies. It always falls on the first Monday of September, a couple of months after July 4th, and a couple of months before Thanksgiving. Growing up in Hastings, Nebraska, by the end of August, Little League baseball games were finished, the Adams County Fair had presented all its blue ribbons, Wayne Huntley had taken the checkered flag at the fairgrounds quarter-mile dirt track in the final stock car race of the season, and Dad closed the drive-in theater until spring. When I started playing in popular bands around the Midwest, that holiday weekend was our last chance to play a three-er (one more than a two-er), before moving on to homecoming dances. In the background of whatever Labor Day weekend chazerai was trying to attract my attention, the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon was always on our television. Many of Jerry’s films played in Dad’s theaters (IATSE projectionists, of course). I turned 9 years old in 1961, the perfect demographic for those wonderful, ground-breaking comedies. Jerry Lewis taught a lot of us about funny. Under his tutelage, we attempted a pratfall, or a double take, or mimicked dialogue from one of his wonderful movies like these lines from Scared Stiff with Dean Martin.

Jerry: I can’t go in there and fight that whole mob. They got guns.
Dean: You can get a gun.
Jerry: They got blackjacks.
Dean: You can get a blackjack.
Jerry: They got big strong muscles.
Dean: You can get a blackjack.

That picture was filmed in my birth year, actually around my birthday (a union holiday). It features the last movie appearance of Carmen Miranda, the first Hollywood writing credit for Norman Lear, and a role played by George Dolenz, whose son became a Monkee. As a small-town kid in the ’50s and ’60s, my access to this humor came from the wealth of films, both first-run and matinee double features (including a cartoon and a Three Stooges comedy). And of course, once a year, we were treated to Jerry running amok on live television, as the host of the Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon. When I was young and trying to perfect my spit-take, I couldn’t have imagined that someday I would enjoy the privilege of working on that amazing show. In trade for giving him the autonomy to make pictures his way, Jerry provided Paramount with a lot of revenue. Over the years, my Labor Days have been celebrated by working in Dad’s theaters, playing gigs, and eventually, joining the crew on Jerry Lewis’s Telethon.

We did local MDA Telethon cut-ins while I was at KTLA, but in 1990, I received a call from the much admired Packy Brown of Las Vegas, asking me to work on the national show, which would take place that year at the Aquarius Theatre in Los Angeles. I did the show and became a regular part of the crew for more than twenty years. The Telethon moved to The Sahara in Las Vegas the next year, where for the price of a beer or two, I could sit in the lounge with Joe Kendall and listen to Sam Butera and the Witnesses. For years, Sam played tenor sax with the legendary Louis Prima. In 1995, the show went to CBS Television City. Fortunately, I was left off the crew list.

Wait. What? By that time, I considered myself to be a regular member of the Telethon crew, but when the call came for another show and I hadn’t heard from the MDA folks, I agreed to go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame opening concert at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. The show, thirty years ago as I write this, went on for about seven hours. We flew to Cleveland on Wednesday. From the time we arrived on site at 7:30 the next morning, until we traveled home, we were on continuous call. Thursday 7:30am-2:30am, Friday 7:30am-2:30am, and Saturday 7:30am-5:30am. We got out of there just in time to shower and head to the airport. I started listening to rock and roll in Jim Casteel’s garage, probably 1956. He played an Elvis record for my lifelong friend, Dennis, and me. We were hooked. The first 45 I owned was “Hound Dog,” flip side “Don’t Be Cruel.” Highlights of that opening Hall of Fame concert? Too many to single out. So, here ya go.

Hiking on Mount Charleston 1991: Paul, Murry (or Kenny?), Joe, Ric, Bart, Jeffrey

SET LIST FOR 1995 CONCERT FOR THE HALL OF FAME

Chuck Berry with Springsteen/E Street Band “Johnny B. Goode”
John Mellencamp “R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.”
John Mellencamp and Martha Reeves
“Wild Night”
Bon Jovi “With a Little Help From My Friends”
Eric Burdon with Bon Jovi “It’s My Life,”
“We Gotta Get Out of This Place”
Melissa Etheridge “Be My Baby,” “Love Child,” “Leader of the Pack”
Dr. John “Blueberry Hill,” “What’d I Say”
Al Green “Tired of Being Alone,”
“A Change Is Gonna Come”
The Pretenders “My City Was Gone,”
“The Needle and the Damage Done”
Johnny Cash “Folsom Prison Blues”
Johnny Cash with John Mellencamp “Ring of Fire”
Jackson Browne “Redemption Song,” “Tracks of My Tears”
Jackson Browne and Melissa Etheridge
“Wake Up Little Susie”
Aretha Franklin “I Can’t Turn You Loose,”
“(You Make Me Feel Like) a Natural Woman”
Aretha Franklin with Al Green “Freeway of Love”
John Fogerty “Born on the Bayou,” “Fortunate Son”
Soul Asylum and Iggy Pop “Back Door Man”
Lou Reed with Soul Asylum “Sweet Jane”
Gin Blossoms “Wait,” “I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better”
Sheryl Crow “Let It Bleed,” “Get Off of My Cloud”
George Clinton and the P-Funk All-Stars
“Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin),”
“I Want to Take You Higher”
The Kinks “All Day and All of the Night,” “Lola”
Heart “Battle of Evermore,” “Love Hurts”
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
“Shake, Rattle and Roll,” “Bo Diddley,” “She’s the One”
Jerry Lee Lewis with Springsteen/E Street Band “Great Balls of Fire,” “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On”
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band “Darkness on the Edge of Town”
Natalie Merchant “I Know How to Do It”
Robbie Robertson “The Weight”
Bruce Hornsby “I Know You Rider,” “Scarlet Begonias”
Bob Dylan “All Along the Watchtower,”
“Just Like a Woman,” “Highway 61 Revisited”
Bob Dylan with Springsteen/E Street Band “Forever Young”
Booker T. and the MGs “Green Onions”
Sam Moore “When Something Is Wrong With My Baby,” “Hold On I’m Comin’”
The Allman Brothers Band “Blue Sky,”
“One Way Out”
The Allman Brothers Band with Sheryl Crow “Midnight Rider”
Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora “Imagine,”
“Give Peace a Chance”
Slash and Boz Scaggs “Red House”
James Brown “Cold Sweat,”
“It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World,” “I Feel Good”
Martha and the Vandellas “Dancing in the Street”
Little Richard “Good Golly Miss Molly,” “Tutti Frutti”
John Fogerty and Sam Moore
“In the Midnight Hour”
Chuck Berry, Bruce Springsteen, and
Melissa Etheridge “Rock and Roll Music”

The next year, thanks to Paul Sandweiss, who mixed the Telethon for thirty years, I was invited back and worked on all the rest, including Jerry’s last, in 2010. Memories of these shows are still fresh. We were on the air for twenty-one hours … that’s about seven Grammys. Sometimes it was chaos. Bands showed up late, surprise guests showed up early, you gotta love live television. We even found time to help fill the boot. Iconic comedians entertained us, like Don Rickles, Norm Crosby, Shecky Greene, Henny Youngman, and Red Buttons, who never got a dinner. The terrific orchestra provided constant musical highlights, especially accompanying singers like the wonderful Jack Jones, who often arrived in his motorhome and stayed the weekend. Sunday morning, before the show, was reserved for Jerry’s music rehearsal. It was joyful. He loved singing with this talented group and loved even more making them laugh. Sal Lozano, Rick Baptist, and Gene Cipriano (Yo, Cip!) were frequent participants in the fun. Each year, Jerry would point to players calling out musical notes, resulting in chords that would make Varèse proud.

Paul challenges other departments to “fill the boot.” Poster by Craig Rovello

The twenty-some years that I spent Labor Day weekend in the company of Jerry and the wonderful staff and crew are some of the most treasured of my time in television. The Telethon week always had one dark day built into the schedule. Depending on the weather (was it hot or damn hot?), the crew would take advantage of that day by going to the pool at the hotel, visiting Lake Mead, or in one particular case, hiking on Mount Charleston. I used United frequent flyer miles to rent a shiny red Cadillac El Dorado for the day. At the appointed time, three of us headed up the mountain, Joe Kendall riding shotgun, Murray Siegel, A2 Emeritus, in the back. Jeffrey Fecteau and Bart Chiate met us at the trailhead, and we hiked up, enjoying the cooler weather and beautiful views until it was almost time for lunch. At that point, we hiked back down to The Lodge at Mount Charleston, our dining destination. Paul Sandweiss, who enjoyed a busy morning mixing the orchestra pre-records, met us there. As we sat and ordered lunch, it was apparent that our table had become a point of interest for the staff. Finally, someone came over and asked if that was Kenny G? No, we assured them, in spite of the physical resemblance, this was Murray, not Kenny. We enjoyed our lunch, settled the tab, and as we headed out the door, we heard a cacophony from our table. Joe had left a note, drawn on a placemat, thanking the staff for their wonderful food and service, complete with a drawing of a saxophone and signed, Kenny G. As the staff gathered at the doorway to look, they had a good view of Joe and me driving away in the brand-new Cadillac with “Kenny” in the back seat. That was a good day. It was my honor to take part in that unforgettable show for so many years; I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Thanks to Packy, Paul, and so many others who made those Labor Day weekends a special part of my career. It always seemed like we would go to the Telethon in the summer, but when we came back, football season had started, and kids were in school. It was fall.

The Studio

by Buck Robinson CAS

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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