Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1152266
24 S U M M E R 2 0 1 9 C A S Q U A R T E R L Y From left: Season 7 sound cart; Anna Chlumsky's yearly wrap gift; Bill MacPherson CAS with re-recording mixer John Cook CAS; four cameras, no waiting. Photo by Mike Nicastro receivers. The bag rig is essential as it's used all the time. 411 receivers can be added to the bag as needed. All venue frequencies on the cart are coordinated via Wireless Designer. The bag receivers are matched to the cart receivers and remain on standby until needed. Since things happened very quickly on Veep, having a light- weight system with up to 12 chan- nels ready to go at any given time was a great option. Season 4 was the last season shot in Baltimore. Seasons 5, 6, and 7 would be shot at Paramount with a new pro- duction team consisting of Morgan Sackett and David Hyman. Also, we got a new showrunner, David Mandel. I met David while mixing Curb Your Enthusiasm. At Curb, David served as executive producer, writer, and overall creative sage. Veep was in very good hands. The office of the cinematographer had a revolving door over the years, as Veep employed five DPs over seven seasons. (I figured I must've been doing something right to stay on board for so long.) The last two seasons with David Miller shifted exponentially to brilliant. Miller earned Veep's first Emmy for Cinematography. Even though we were shooting with four cameras, David Miller's creative lighting allowed us a greater opportunity to use two booms. For me, the best part of the move back to LA was meeting re-recording mixer John Cook CAS. All production mixers should sit in with the re-recording mixer at some point in time. Production is a world of moving sound fields and, at best, semi-controlled environments. Post is highly controlled, with every tool available to improve and polish the final product. Spending time with John Cook CAS and Bill Freesh CAS at Universal's Mix 1, I was able to follow the path of my production tracks to their final outcome, as well as learn what could be done on my end to streamline the process. Sackett and Hyman pulled the show together with meticulous care. the location for a major retail distribution center and the Veep production soundstage, both in the same building. As wrong as that seems, the Veep soundstage was separated from a massive industrial distribution center by one wall. The sound of forklifts backing up was a permanent addition to our audio track. Whenever the wind kicked up, the metal doors on the roof vents would blow open and then close with a thunderous slam. We were told the doors could not be bolted down for some unexplained reason. HBO and UPM Mads Hansen were both extremely helpful for insulating our half of the building, yet it never really worked properly as a soundstage. Re-recording was mixed in London by Richard Davey. Richard is an absolute maestro when it comes to pulling clean dialogue from large poly WAV files. We were extremely lucky to have him. When I returned for Seasons 2 through 4, I was completely taken with the show. We had long days and lots of laughs. Despite the hours (or, more likely, because of them), there was a sense of camaraderie among the cast and crew unlike anything I'd ever experienced before. On the cart, I used two Sound Devices 688 recorders for up to 24 inputs. Veep had multiple scenes involving teleconferencing setups. The assignable outputs of the 688 served very well for those situations, with one output feeding a hotspot or earwigs for one room and another output feeding vice versa for the next room, usually via Lectro SMQV or UM400a to a 411a receiver. I have a Sound Devices 688/SR6 bag rig with three Lectrosonics SRc dual