Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1152266
36 S U M M E R 2 0 1 9 C A S Q U A R T E R L Y EXCELLENT. That's amazing. Have you guys ever done anything like this before? Have you worked on VR or any type of nonlinear narrative-driven productions before? DOUG: My only experience making nonlinear was I'd mixed three video games. So, I had some awareness. In fact, I think that was one of the things that was in my favor when the job was out there and people were trying to work out who to mix it. But actually, it's a whole different ballgame, frankly. AND SO, WHEN YOU SAY YOU MIXED VIDEO GAMES, were you working with audio implementation software or were you working with the linear videos that were within the video game? DOUG: No, I was working on the audio implementation software, basically teaching the game how to mix itself. THAT'S AN INTERESTING BACKGROUND because one of my other questions is, were there any [audio] specifications that you had to hit as you went from module to module where you had to reach a logistic point sonically? [Maybe] a particular background with a particular decibel level or panning pattern between the end and beginning of different segments so that it would feel consistent as you played through? Was there any guideline created for that? Any effort toward making a specification even just for yourself? DOUG: No. I mean, that was one of the things that I felt really strongly about from the very beginning, that it should feel seamless. So, we had various conversations with engineers at Netflix and I think everyone was quite skeptical that it was going to be achievable. But I hope it is and I hope people that have seen it feel that it does flow smoothly. IT CERTAINLY DOES. What did you do to help it become seamless? Was it an automated crossfade-type of thing in the programming? DOUG: No. So, effectively, it was like having many reel joins. There's no facility to crossfade in the stream. Basically, the sound will just fade out and fade in again between noncontiguous segments. We created transition blocks to make each join work. We knew which segments would go to which other segments and where those segments could have come from. We actually created transitions for all those possibilities and then, after that, we just had to make sure that each of the ambiences effectively had the same automation in all the different places where you're in the same space. I WOULD THINK THAT WOULD BE A bit like mixing in reels when you're dealing with a scene that cuts from one environment to another but will assemble for a long play or full version. And, in this case, that sounds like a lot of work. How were your approvals? How did your clients come in AS A RE-RECORDING MIXER MYSELF, when I typically get booked, I usually ask for a screener before I go into the mix so that I can kind of follow the story and foreshadow what it needs to foreshadow or maybe do the opposite and kind of withhold information that maybe needs to be a twist or surprise for the audience, et cetera. That's not really possible for this production. Did you guys have a grasp of the multiple plot lines? How was the narrative communicated to you?' TIM: I went to interview with producers Mark Kinsella and Russell McLean, and the first thing they showed me was [a] chart. And it was like a sort of kind of big family tree-type affair with lots of branches coming off it and loops and, yeah, more like a sort of computer program rather than a script or an outline. So I looked at that and thought, "Oh my God, that is quite something." Did you get to see that, Doug? DOUG: I didn't, no. I came on board later, so I was a bit more fortunate in that I was given access to Branch Manager, the software that the whole thing's made in. TIM: But did you get to effectively play through before starting work on it? DOUG: While reading the script in its form. OH, I SEE. And when you read the script in this form, this Branch Manager software, is it a linear script that you were reading where "if this and that," or were you able to literally read something and kind of click through or see the different options? DOUG: In the version of Branch Manager I was given, each segment was in there, pretty much. You could jump around into different segments; you didn't have to follow any of the narratives. To learn a little about how that affected the world of audio mixers, we spoke with Tim Barker, production mixer, and Doug Cooper, re-recording mixer. Doug Cooper, re-recording mixer Tim Barker, production mixer