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30 S P R I N G 2 0 2 0 C A S Q U A R T E R L Y CAS Award Winner – Animated MEET THE WINNERS Toy Story 4 by David Bondelevitch CAS MPSE Pixar's Toy Story 4, the fourth installment of the wildly successful franchise, premiered last June to the delight of fans (and box offices) around the globe. Complementing Pixar's unique animation style is a sound mix that helps bring life to the appealing storyline. That sound mix resonated with members of our craft as the team was recognized with this year's CAS Award for Motion Pictures – Animated. I spoke with the team, including original dialogue mixers Doc Kane CAS and Vince Caro CAS; re-recording mixers Michael Semanick CAS and Nathan Nance; and scoring mixer David Boucher about themselves and the project. Unfortunately, Foley mixer Scott Curtis was not available during our scheduling window. DOC KANE CAS: Original Dialogue Mixer Doc Kane has a storied career as the "go-to" mixer for ADR and animation recording sessions in Hollywood. With more than 400 credits to his name, he has been involved in all four Toy Story movies. "I have been so fortunate to be involved in the Toy Story animated features. I was there with Tom Hanks on his very first recording session of Toy Story in 1994 and his very last session of Toy Story 4 on January 30, 2019." Doc has an outstanding career as an original dialogue mixer, including Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, and The Lion King for Disney Feature Animation. "We had developed and fine-tuned a nice documented workflow of microphones and recording media specifications. When Pixar Animation Studios came to Disney Studios' Stage B to record the dialogue for their first animated feature Toy Story, we were prepared to apply this same workflow to the Pixar production team." Having A-list actors in your cast can often lead to scheduling problems. Doc added, "The actors who provide voice talent for these productions work all over the world. When the studio needs to book them for additional dialogue recordings, production might have to find a recording studio in another city or even another country to record the actor. Having this documented workflow as a guide for the remote studio helped in providing audio consistency throughout the long process of production dialogue recordings no matter where the actor was located for the recording sessions." The main microphones for the Toy Story dialogue recordings were a Neumann U87A on one channel and a Brauner VM1 Tube microphone on a second channel (for loud material). Both microphones were routed through John Hardy M-1 microphone preamplifiers and dbx 160SL compressor/limiters. The recordings were captured in Pro Tools using a D-Command control surface. The Massenburg MDW EQ5 was the only plugin inserted across both microphones for any necessary equalization adjustments. Doc was very gracious to the entire crew. "Many thanks to Vince Caro (who also recorded original dialogue), re-recording mixers Michael Semanick and Nathan Nance, scoring mixer David Boucher, and Foley mixer Scott Curtis for helping make Toy Story 4 such a beautiful sounding movie. And a huge THANK YOU to the Cinema Audio Society for our award for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for 2019! It was such a beautiful ending to 25 years of Toy Story recording sessions!" VINCE CARO CAS: Original Dialogue Mixer Doc worked in conjunction with original dialogue mixer Vince Caro, who originally came from New York. "I remember being 3 or 4 years old sitting in front of my dad's stereo. The smell of the tubes glowing orange. The sound of the Count Basie Band, Frank Sinatra, Quincy Jones or Duke Ellington, or some Italian opera. That feel of the thick cardboard sleeve and 180 mil vinyl RCA Living Stereo or Blue Note LP's. Then I remember hearing Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, and the Beatles, and everything that followed. "In grammar school, I played various instruments in fits and starts and at age 12, I built my first guitar amp. I was always the guy fiddling with the PA; mixing the levels, EQ, adding reverb. I would collect broken headphones, detach the working side, and duct-tape them to the kick and snare drum." Tom Hanks during his final Toy Story 4 recording session.