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 47 arts that Ronny and Lily performed during the fights. We used lots of surface changes and textures to give it extra life. The props really tried to sell the violence and desperation that each character was feeling. We had lots of fun smashing and bashing stuff to ramp up the intensity in the fight scenes." John was quick to thank sound supervisors Matthew E. Taylor and Sean Heissinger, as well as the great work from Foley artists Alyson Dee Moore and Christopher Moriana. ELMO PONSDOMENECH CAS: Re-recording Mixer (Dialogue and Music) Elmo attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he studied instrumental performance and composition, balanced with audio, acoustics, and studio techniques. "I spent several years after college working for professional audio companies, eventually landing at Solid State Logic as a sales and systems consultant. In that capacity, I met and trained many audio professionals in the use of console and automation systems, which led to my first professional mixing jobs at CBS Television City and then Todd-AO, where I began as a feature film FX mixer." Having mixed several series for HBO, he was fortunate to be working with Alec Berg on Silicon Valley (for which he won a CAS Award in 2018) when he began work on Barry. "We mix on an Avid S6 running Pro Tools on multiple Mac Pro's as satellites." Elmo mixes dialogue and music. "Depending on the show, I usually receive 8-12 production dialogue tracks, 16-24 group ADR tracks, 8-16 principal ADR tracks, 8-32 tracks of score music (sometimes more) split in stereo and 5.1 stems, and 2-12 source music tracks." Elmo uses a laundry list of plugins. For reverbs, he uses Exponential Audio Stratus 3D, PhoenixVerb Surround, Altiverb, and Lexicon PCM. For dynamics, he uses Avid Pro Compressor/Limiter, Focusrite Compressor, and FabFilter Pro C2. For de-essers, he uses Harrison AVA De-Esser, Massey De-Esser, and FabFilter Pro-DS. For EQ, he uses FabFilter Pro-Q3, Avid Channel Strip, API, SSL, Neve, and Focusrite. In addition, he says, "I can't emphasize enough how important the iZotope plugins have become in my workflow for dialogue repair and noise control." He also uses two Cargo Cult plugins; the Slapper delay and Spanner surround mixer. "I love Slapper!" Asked if there were any particular challenges in this episode, Elmo added, "Exteriors (particularly noisy ones) are always a challenge. Lavalieres, by nature, are not as warm-sounding as boom mics and are prone to cloth noise. Boom mics are warmer but also collect more ambient noise. Noise control is always a challenge. Barry uses a considerable amount of ADR, which is challenging to match and keep natural sounding, as well as a lot of group ADR. This episode's fight scenes were a lot of fun to mix with a lot of panning and perspectives that had to be coordinated with sound effects and Foley action." I asked him if he had any mentors. "So many! Ray Lignowsi, Ray Vaca, David Vaughn, Michael Abbott, and others at CBS. Chris Jenkins, Gary Bourgeois, Scott Milan, Gary Alexander, and almost all of the mixers I worked with at Todd-AO. There was an incredible talent pool at that studio in the '90s and, in spite of a lot of competition, everyone was very generous, encouraging, and supportive. Mike Post and John Bidasio at Westwind Media, David Weathers at Technicolor, and so many others that gave me opportunities along the way." He was also very thankful to the crew on the show; including show runners Alec Berg and Bill Hader. "You couldn't ask for better creative bosses: fun and collaborative and always open to trying things out. And I thank everyone at HBO for continuing to have me back!" Just prior to mixing this episode, mix tech Iden Kamishin passed away. "He was the backbone of our mix stage at Sony and was with me for 6½ years. Thank you, Iden! "Also, a huge thank-you to Martin Schloemer, who helped out as mix tech through a tough time and kept us on track with his professionalism and good humor. Thank you to everyone at Sony Pictures Studios, and to supervising sound editors Sean Heissinger and Matt Taylor, sound editor Rickley W. Dumm and their editorial team at Warner Bros." JASON "FRENCHIE" GAYA: Re-recording Mixer (SFX) Re-recording mixer Jason "Frenchie" Gaya tells me, "I'm a bit of a military brat, but spent more time in Virginia than anywhere else (before coming to LA). I got into sound doing live venues and realized I kind of really liked it, especially once I realized that my electrical engineering classes kind of helped tell the story about what was going on with sound on a technical level. I did, however, spend a little time exploring if I wanted to be a pastry chef before diving into sound as a career. (I do make some mean desserts!)" Once in LA, he cut his teeth at small independent sound houses before teaming up with Elmo at Sony, mostly finding his own way up. He started working with Elmo before the show came in, "(He) thought we would be a great team fit for it." Asked about the tools he uses, Frenchie replied, "At this point, it is an all Avid Pro Tools environment with an S6 as the mixing surface. For this show, I mixed the effects with a 24-fader 5-knob setup. "Effects were typically 10 pre-dubs (just an organized set of subgroup tracks) that each contained six mono and four stereo tracks, but that would change show-to-show, pre-dub to pre- dub. Backgrounds were six pre-dubs of similar width and then about 22 Foley tracks. But that also doesn't count numerous masters and reverb tracks, around 250. The internal voice count in Pro Tools was a total around 700. I handled sound effects, backgrounds, and Foley. Each of us were mixing our tracks over two Pro Tools systems feeding our recorder. My split tends to be one machine for FX and Foley and another machine to handle BG's." His favorite plugins? "I'm not one to have a splash cool plugin to pitch. I have always loved Channel Strip from my System 5 mixing time; it just works and I'm super familiar with it. So, no fancy answers here from me!" Asked about the challenges in the episode, Frenchie told me, "There were a lot of challenging moments throughout this show, but (show runners) Alec and Bill have such a fantastic creative mind when it comes to storytelling through sound, that the challenges were actually really fun. The entire "ronny/