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 51 It appears the show was shot right in the heart of London, an extraordinarily busy area. What were the particular challenges shooting there? CB: It was. As you can imagine, there were some fraught moments where we were sending personnel over to building sites to plead with builders and crane and digger operators to hold the work. It was not an easy job at all for locations and everyone drawn into it—AD's runners, producers. With the best will in the world and planning, you can't get London to stop (well, perhaps right now you can!). However, we just had to make the calls as we went along. Some battles you win. But I think this is where you are drawing on all of your experience in sound to make those kinds of difficult calls. Knowing what you can get away with and what you really can't will help you temper just what efforts you need to employ in trying to get noise dealt with. There were several takes where I would be marking my script in different-colored pens as we roll with which lines or even words we got and which we didn't in between a jack hammer, siren, or even seagull. Yes, in London we have seagulls now. DD: Certainly, some of the locations were hard to control the sound for. It's no secret that iZotope's RX bundle of software is fantastic at cleaning up sounds. I also really like FabFilters' range of plugins. We tried to clean up the production sound as much as possible rather than relying on ADR, to preserve the performances. Christian, was there any gear you focused on to get recordings you were happy with? Not really. We pretty much got radio mics on as much as we could and equally two booms. Covering the fast-moving dialogue with Fleabag's trademark head turns to camera meant that if we wanted it all on booms as much as possible (which we did), then we had to have a 2nd AS available to do that— and keep ourselves working as cohesively with camera and lighting, too. All of this, along with often very last-minute script finessing. At one point, Brett Gelman was literally being fed his lines off camera by Phoebe as the camera was rolling on his close-up. It was a delicious moment and Phoebe herself said she thought that we had reached maximum Fleabag madness or words to that effect. But really the sense of fun was never far away and that really was helpful. Harry Bradbeer was a wonderful director, too, and really calcified that essential foundation of a thriving creative energy on set. James, was there a great deal of ADR recorded for this episode? [The] only scene that had a lot [of ADR] was the last scene in the show at the bus stop. It is a very emotional scene and the end of the whole series. I'm never at the mix so I never really know how much ADR makes it into the show, but both Phoebe and Andrew had nearly the whole scene to ADR. It's hard to recreate those performances, but I think they did such a good job! David, how much time do you get to mix? There wasn't loads of time to mix the show, but it was a very enjoyable process. So when it was needed, I would mix late into the night to make sure we [achieved] everything we wanted. David, seeing as this is mostly a "walk and talk" show, what are the particular challenges that brings? I would assume in some regards, it makes some aspects more difficult because there is nothing to hide behind sonically. It certainly doesn't have wall-to-wall music, which can help you hide behind sometimes. And, of course, humor and drama can come from subtle reactions such as small mouth sounds or breaths, so it's important to preserve these when cleaning up the production sync. Sometimes the dialogue is fast and there are multiple characters talking over each other. [That] can be difficult to balance, as you want to keep the energy but don't want it to feel confusing or messy for the viewer. Jack Gillies, the SFX editor, laid up some really lovely characterful background atmospheres throughout the series, which were great to bed the dialogue into. Is there anything you'd like to add? Is there an important aspect of the show's sound we haven't talked about? CB: Well, I think Isobel Waller-Bridge's musical contribution to this is huge for one. I also do think having the right attitude is so important and it's often something that can slide when people are asked to shoot on projects that are overly stressful. There was something homegrown, fragile, and humbling about this project (as well as mischievous and awesome). But I think that it really did help to cultivate extra good will—which is so golden. JG: I think we all put in the same level of work and pride into every show we do. Sometimes a show just hits and you get picked up with it. I'm very happy to be involved. Christian Bourne keeping dry on set.