Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1259912
C A S Q U A R T E R L Y S P R I N G 2 0 2 0 59 Francis usually rolls with a small, sleek unit during the basic interview setups with a cinematographer and sound person. Francis is also pretty sharp and focused when he comes to his interviews, so I would say they generally are finished in under an hour. Were there any other things recorded besides the interviews? We filmed a musical sequence in which Bowie's bandmates performed the song "London Boys" that music producer Mark Plati produced. The song was off his album Toy, which I believe is still unreleased. Gail Ann Dorsey was on bass and the inimitable Earl Slick was on a Telecaster guitar. Mark was playing a Stratocaster along to David's original vocal. Please describe your workflow and any problems you encountered. My typical documentary workflow is to make sure I bring my Sound Devices recorders, two Schoeps CMC 641's, and Lectrosonics wireless rigs with Sanken or DPA heads on them. The most challenging aspects for me in documentary or cinema vérité work is almost always the same; dealing with noisy locations and rigging talent with well-hidden and well-placed microphone rigs. Earlier in my career, I was more inclined to insist that a location was too noisy. But now I'm able to step back and consider a few more factors before I make that call. The other dark art in sound is rigging and hiding mics on talent that sound clean. For me and the bulk of the documentary and cinéma vérité mixing I do, this is consistently my biggest challenge. A few years ago, I was able to work with mixer Tom Varga (CAS Award winner and Academy Award nominee for Birdman) and boom operator/mixer Adam Sanchez on the first season of Mozart in the Jungle. Tom and Adam were very generous and taught me so much during that season in the mic rigging techniques they used. One thing that is often different in documentaries is that, very often, I'm in situations where the talent I'm rigging up is experiencing that event only once. They 're not actors, they 're not acting, and they 're not ever going to go through that experience we're filming ever again. I literally only have one chance to get it right. That's why I kinda get nerdy and obsessive about this subject. I've just resolved myself to the fact that I will never be finished learning about wiring talent. Any amusing stories about this project? Anytime you get the chance to film with Earl Slick, you are guaranteed to have an amusing time. One of the nicest down- to-earth guitar superstars out there. What is your background? I have been in the audio post-production industry for more than 20 years. Ironically, I am a Bromley boy just like David Bowie was—he grew up in Sundridge Park about half a mile from where I was born and raised—albeit at very different times. He then moved to Beckenham as did I. That's probably where the similarity ends though! I was raised in a very musical family. My mother was a music teacher and my parents were both members of the Salvation Army. To that end, I was always immersed in a musical scene. I learned to read music and play the cornet, the baritone and, finally, the euphonium, all thanks to my upbringing within the Salvation Army. In 1998, I graduated from Rose Bruford College with a degree in music technology. At the time, it was an extremely rare subject and my class was the first to take part on that course. After graduating, I started as a runner at Molinare TV and Film where my job was to fetch teas and coffees and basically do anything and everything that anyone asked of me. I chose the night shift so that I could use the days to sit in with the re-recording mixers and soak up as much experience as possible. I was extremely fortunate to shadow some fantastic mixers, Mike Aiton being one of them. I quickly moved on to become a sound assistant at Molinare where, again, my job was to do anything and everything asked of me to support the re-recording mixers working on landmark series at the time such as The Planets and Horizon. After a year, I got the opportunity to join the Maidstone Studios as a junior mixer and I jumped at the chance. I was there two years and then had a brief stint at another company for a year, GDO Postpoduction, before I joined Clear Cut Pictures in 2002 (again under Mike Aiton from Molinare). I stayed for 16 happy years, seven of those years as Head of Audio. At Clear Cut, I worked on TV, drama, and films. Then in 2016, I was approached by George Foulgham at Molinare to become their Head of Broadcast Factual Sound. It was a tough decision to leave Clear Cut Pictures, but the opportunity to join (or even re-join) London's oldest post- production house and the prestigious name of Molinare was too strong a pull. So, I've come full circle—I started at Molinare TV & Film and then, 18 years later, I came back and that's where I'm currently mixing. What are some of the projects you have worked on? I've worked on many different things ranging from factual TV, drama, and feature films. My latest project released was the fantastic series Don't F*** with Cats, which I mixed for Netflix. I'm currently working on a cinema feature documentary about DB Cooper and another series for Netflix called Welcome to Fear City, which I'm also mixing in Dolby Atmos. How did you get involved in being the dubbing mixer on this project? When the opportunity to quote for the work on David Bowie: within the Salvation Army. Sean O'Neil