Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1316380
44 I M PS E . O R G want to do a lot of back-and-forth, I want to do spotting sessions, I want to do all this stuff. That's really how it all started, all naturally way back when. We thought it was an interesting show and a fun show, but you never know what's going to hit. And that July when it came out, people were text messaging me and calling and I was like "Holy $@#%!"... I'm getting so much recognition off of this and I've done dozens of feature films and I'm getting more recognition from a streaming show. There are millions and millions of subscribers! PAULETTE: That sounds like you're sound designing a film instead of a television show. CRAIG: That's all we know. That's all Will and I know. It's kind of the only way to do it. I don't even like to refer to these as TV shows. PAULETTE: They are like mini movies. CRAIG: Exactly, we all have to apply that esthetic. They surely want them to sound that way. The show is full of dynamics and full of size. It takes time. Will and I deal a lot with frequencies and the listening platforms we know that the show is going to eventually be on and how to maintain how a feature film will sound like. PAULETTE: (to Will) Sounds like you are really spoiled. WILL: (LAUGHS) CRAIG: Team effort. PAULETTE: So you both have been nominated for an Emmy before, right? WILL: This is my first time. In fact, this is my first time on a TV show. But Craig now is a triple-threat winner. CRAIG: Yeah, last night puts me 3 for 3 on Stranger Things. The irony for me is that I've worked on a lot of television shows in Canada. When I moved down here, I was pretty much on feature films exclusively until Stranger Things. It's been like a surreal-like "What?" The TV show I'm working on here has become one of the biggest things going and we have all this good fortune and good luck. PAULETTE: So did you record your speeches as if you were the Emmy winners? CRAIG: So, Will and I, and Dave Klotz, our music guy, did 10 seconds each and we tried to thank as many people as possible but still get everybody on camera. And then we are like, "What about a backdrop, where you gonna do it? Are you going to get dressed up or not get dressed up? Are you going to be funny? It became a whole aspect of not knowing and then you have to fake that you won." (LAUGHS) You couldn't even hold an Emmy, in your hand. If you had an older Emmy you weren't allowed to pull that up. There were so many rules of what you could do and not do. The Emmys are just like everybody else, they are doing the best they can do in this situation. PAULETTE: And you all cheer together "YEAH"! when you won? CRAIG: When they announced it … we were all on a Zoom call. Everyone had a computer and a phone and there was this big delay (when we yelled) "YEAH!" a sound you could not recreate ever if anyone asked you to do that sound on a dub stage. PAULETTE: So tell us a little more about the sound design on Stranger Things. Do you ever have to completely create a sound from scratch? CRAIG: All the time. Will and I are always recording. One of the best tools in your toolkit is a microphone; for the mind flair, for the monsters this year. I was out in the backyard in the rainy season, making a bunch of mud stomps which was a lot of the stuff Season 3 was about. I could be cutting all that stuff from libraries but if I can go and record a bunch of things right there with high-quality and dynamic microphones and separate that, I can bring it back into my samplers and manipulate it. It's just right outside my door. I also tend to use my voice a lot. I have three different types of plugins to sort of get a good baseline of the monsters as well, again looking for performance. I'm constantly looking for sounds you know around the house or anywhere. I could take a door squeek, shorten it in the middle and then I stretch that three octaves and then I take the middle of that stretch section that becomes you know sort of that sounds that you would never think. It turns into the upside-down or turns into a giant monster. PAULETTE: You sound like a mad sound scientist? CRAIG: (LAUGHS) I loved sound so much that I didn't know any better. Everything else in my life just went by the wayside. It's the same for Will. You know, it's the same for you, Paulette. If you get into something, nothing else sort of matters. If you have some good luck and you meet a few directors and you hit it off with them. One of the best things is to get a phone call from a director, saying, "We're going to go again, we're going to make another movie." That's the best award ever for someone like us; independent freelancer sound people. You want to have a network of producers and directors who you get along with and who like to work with you. PAULETTE: Do you think producers fully understand what sound editorial is? WILL: I don't think anybody does! I don't even know if I do sometimes. PAULETTE: I think a lot of people don't even know what a supervising sound editor does. When someone asks what I do for a living, and I tell them, they look confused and say "Huh?"