Thanks to Co-Sound Supervisor Elmo Weber for taking time for this Q and A! FSD: With so many physical comedies under your belt, how hard is it to find the perfect sound that complements the wackiness? EW: When working on comedies, no matter what your job is, it’s important to have a good sense of humor. Every project is different. Your success depends on not only understanding the humor of each film, but also knowing your place in the “big picture”. Most of the time I find myself playing the “straight man” when it comes to comedy sound design. Don’t over-do it. The comedy is mostly in the hands of the writers, actors, and directors, so create realistic sounds that support and don’t distract. Then when your sound moment comes, make it count. The most important rule is to never make a moment un-funny. Then it’s back to the old sci-fi action and academy awards for you. ...

DOLBY: In Broken Arrow, there’s this scene where the A-bomb goes off and the ground sort of heaves up in a wave toward the audience. CB: This kind of thing is always a big challenge, because so often the production wants to arrive at the major climactic moment, and they’ve already brought a freight train of sound. So I have to try to figure out a way to work against that. You can’t be in a battle that’s really loud, and all of a sudden introduce a cannon and make that louder. ...

Here is a little video interview with Randy Thom on his work on “Rattaoullie”. The film is great and the sound is too… Mixonline.com Posted by FILMSOUNDDAILY at [9:32 AM](/2007/07/randy-thom-video-interview/) 0 comments: Post a Comment [Newer Post](/2007/07/transformers-pt3/) [Older Post](/2007/07/transformers_02/) [Home](/) Subscribe to: [Post Comments (Atom)](http://filmsounddaily.blogspot.com/feeds/8321484611253037332/comments/default) Data preservation for the cinematography community.

O’CONNELL: What percentage of what we do is artistic vs. technical? LANDAKER: It’s very much artistic––at least 50-50 but more like 70-30 [artistic to technical]. You can have all the chops in the world about faders and EQ, but it’s actually the fine balancing act of putting that movie together than makes it a reality. You have to have a feeling for that screen. Here is a great little bit the Editor’s Guild transcribed from the “Sound Behind the Picture” event that took place this spring. The picture above was taken during “The Empire Strikes Back” dub. If you look hard enough you cannot see me in the picture wishing I was there. You can read the rest of the transcription HERE. The academy’s sound branch will be putting another event on soon for animated film sound. Keep updated on their calender of events HERE. ...

Yesterday, I went to see Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix at a local theater chain and to my delight the soundtrack defaulted down to the stereo mix from the third reel on. I was obviously a little annoyed so I decided to talk to the manager and let them know that the film in their biggest theater was playing back in not so optimum conditions. They nodded and awarded my effort with lip-service about how they would “look into it.” I always get empathy but no action. They want to make me feel like they care about how the film is presented, but unless a majority of patrons file out of the theater to complain I don’t think anything will change. So, what do we do as a community? Is there anyway to champion a campaign to remedy this plague of bad sound? I mean I am sure if the picture looked crappy audiences would be up in arms. I asked Randy Thom about this epidemic recently and he had this to say: ...

“The Simpsons Movie” does the Bartman into theaters July 27th. Helping bring the sounds of Springfield to the big screen are Supervising Sound Editor Gwen Whittle and Sound Designers Chris Scarabosio and Randy Thom. All fixtures at Skywalker Sound, the trio have each worn numerous hats in post sound. Each person has done a big film this year, Whittle Supervised the ADR on “Zodiac” and Scarabosio designed on “Pirates 3”, while Thom has kept it low key by supervised AND mixed “Ratatouille.” Though the four temp dubs mixed at a few different stages around LA,(read the editors guild article HERE) the film finaled on the Fox’s Howard Hawks stage with Andy Nelson and Anna Behlmer. This duo already has a big 2007 with “Shrek the 3rd” and “Live Free or Die Hard”. Behlmer, one of the only female mixers in LA and has been nominated for nine Oscars, all of which have been during the mixing team’s ten-plus years together. Original dialog on the film was shot by Greg Zimmerman at the Todd-AO West’s Stage A. Zimmerman a busy ADR mixer shot 20-plus films already this year. This great scene from one of TV show’s 400 episodes illustrates turmoil on an ADR stage…. ...

THANKS GO TO SOUND SUPERVISOR GWEN WHITTLE FOR TAKING TIME TO DO THIS Q AND A! FSD: During the dubs, were there donuts on the stage? No! I’m glad though because I would have eaten them. We had them during editorial at the ranch one Sunday when we were working. Our fabulous assistant Josh Gold brought them in for us. FSD: The Simpsons TV show editorial was done by Skywalker for a while, right? What differences in approach and detail are there between the TV show’s sound and the film’s? ...

Thanks to Re-recording mixer Kevin O’Connell for taking time out to do this brief Q and A! FSD: With this the second huge film you guys mixed this year(the first being Spiderman 3), how much adaptation is needed working with different directors and sound crews? KO: We had been in communication with Supervising sound editors Ethan Van Der Ryn and Mike Hopkins for many months prior to the mix strategizing and laying out a game plan for the mix. That communication helped us enormously. As far as working with different directors, having worked on numerous films for both Sam Raimi and Michael Bay really helped to get us where we needed be much faster then if we had not had that luxury. ...

Holy Crap! I went to see “Transformers” tonight. I just wanted to applaud all the great work in this film. Too much cool stuff to list! Check it out in the best sounding theater available. Thanks so much to Sound Designer Erik Aadahl for taking some time out to do this Q and A! FSD: I’ve read a lot of discussions lately about defining a Sound Designer. What were your duties on Transformers? ...

“Underdog” marks theaters August 3rd. Helping give the four-legged superhero’s barks and growls life is Sound Supervisor Robert L. Sephton. Sephton, no stranger to canine audio, supervised “The Shaggy Dog”, “Snow Dogs”, “Homeward Bound II” and was an effects editor on 1994’s “Iron Will.” F. Scott Taylor, a long time assistant sound editor for Sephton, was the Assistant Sound Supervisor on the show. Dean A. Zupancic and Terry Porter mixed the film at Disney’s Main Theater on the Burbank lot. Together the team has mixed almost all of Disney’s traditional 2-D animated films since 1995’s “Pocahontas.” Separately, Porter has been mixing them since the reemergence of Disney-animated theatrical hits starting with 1989’s “The Little Mermaid”. Production mixing duties rolled over into Tom Williams’ lap. Williams is currently shooting location sound on Jonathan Demme’s next film, “He Comes in Peace.” Continuing his collaboration with man’s best friend, Williams was the mixer on The National Geographic’s “Dog’s with Jobs”. Randy Edelman composed for the film at “Hear No Evil Studios” in London. Edelman, an established musician/songwriter in his early years, has composed for over 60 films. ...