Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1122868
20 S P R I N G 2 0 1 9 C A S Q U A R T E R L Y transitioned into film mixing about 34 years ago. Since then, I've worked on more than 200 films. How did you get involved in mixing Bohemian Rhapsody? Through a combination of recommendations from John Warhurst (supervising sound and music editor), John Ottman (picture editor), and 20th Century Fox. I had worked several times previously and also separately with both John Warhurst and John Ottman on a variety of films. How much time did you have to complete the production and how big was your team? I had two weeks for dialogue/ADR/group pre-dubs, followed by six days of a music "preliminary" mix. That was followed by about 3½ weeks of final mix/playback/fixes. Deliverables took another 12 days and included things like the Theatrical Atmos, 7.1, 5.1, IMAX [theatrical], 12.0, 5.0, Home Theater Atmos, 7.1, 5.1, [nearfield] 2.0, and all international M&Es. Lots of stuff. The dialogue and music team consisted of two dialogue editors and two music editors. Plus, Niv Adiri handled the singing crowd pre-dubs. Tim Cavagin was the FX mixer and had a separate team for FX, BGs, and Foley. Please describe your workflow and any problems you encountered. I like to mix through consoles, not "in the box." My preferred consoles are Harrison MPC5 and Neve DFC for both dialogue and music mixing. I depend heavily on the Harrison "Toys" plugins for all dialogue processing, both in pre-dubs and final mixes. "Toys" also provides great "onboard console" outboard gear for music mixing. The only dialogue plugins I occasionally use are iZotope and Speakerphone. What was the most challenging aspect of working on this project? Bringing the iconic music of Queen into a 2018 Atmos cinematic experience while maintaining a link to the sound that audiences and fans have come to love and expect from Freddie and the band. What was it like collaborating with the producers and director of this project? Graham King (producer) and Denis O'Sullivan (executive producer) were extremely supportive and professional. I couldn't have asked for better! They were incredible to work with. How involved were Brian May and Roger Taylor in the construction of the final sound? They were very involved with the music and it was wonderful to collaborate with them. They were very open to ideas, obviously very passionate about the sound of the band, and let me present full mixes to them before getting into the more-detailed notes. It was a wonderful way of working for me! Can you share how you recreated the atmosphere of Live Aid? We recorded all of the live songs portrayed in stadiums through Queen's PA at London's O2 Stadium (with approximately 20,000 seats) while they were performing a series of concerts there. We managed to set up 22 mics around the stadium and played all the songs through the PA to get the sound of the stadium without any audience present. I was then able to assign these recordings into Atmos Objects and use them as reverb returns to create height and depth to the Live Aid portion of the film. We also recorded approximately 600 people singing the songs without any music playing in the background, double tracked, then triple tracked to give us approximately 1,800 people singing. This gave us control of audience singing separate from the usual music "spill" in the PA, and also separate from FX crowd cheers, group close-up chants and shouts, etc. Then I used a variety of delays and reverbs to further create space and perspectives as the shots moved from close-up on stage to wider, back-of-stadium perspectives. It was tremendously challenging and extremely rewarding! Is there anything else you'd like to add? It was incredible to have access to all the original Queen 24-tracks of their live and studio recordings, including Live Aid. It provided me with much-needed flexibility when highlighting individual instruments and vocals in the concert scenes. A project of a lifetime for me! TIM CAVAGIN: Re-recording Mixer NIV ADIRI CAS: Re-recording Mixer Tim Cavagin and Niv Adiri were responsible for the SFX and crowd vocals and production effects repsectively. Tim was also part of the team that won last year for Black Mirror. While these two were unavailable for comment, likely busy on the next masterpiece, CAS celebrates their incredible work on this film. MIKE TEHRANI: ADR Mixer What's your background? I studied film and media production at Sheffield Hallam From left: Celebrity presenter Megan Fox, Foley mixer Jemma Riley Tolch, re-recording mixer Paul Massey, former Career Achievement recipi- ent, re-recording mixer, and presenter Anna Behlmer, and Foley mixer Glen Gathard