Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/501792
30 CINEMONTAGE / SPRING 2015 Pohlad decided to do his post-production in New York. Producer Ann Ruark and post-production supervisor Gerry Byrne had both been in contact with Paul Hsu and Phil Stockton at C5 Sound, who had recommended Renbeck and sound designer Eugene Gearty, MPSE. The two met with Pohlad, Jonsäter and Byrne; Renbeck's interest was piqued by the fact that Ross was the composer and Chris Jenkins would be the re-recording mixer. "Bill definitely had a vision of how he wanted the film to sound," Renbeck says. "In the 1960s part of the story, we are focused on what Brian Wilson is going through both creatively and emotionally. As he begins to break down, Bill had us explore ways in which we could get more into Brian's head sonically though sound and music." An example of that comes early in the film when Brian, travelling with the other Beach Boys, has a panic attack on an airplane. "Bill had us keep raising up the sound of the airplane and bringing down the voice of Brian's brothers as they try to help him until they cannot be heard at all," says Renbeck. "All that's left is just the overwhelming plane sound. Very simple, but very effective." In the 1980s segments, Brian's life is shown mostly from the view point of Melinda, a calming influence on him. "The music and sound plays more straight during these scenes," says Renbeck. "It's only when Dr. Landy's or Brian's actions alarm her that we change the dynamic sonically." When Renbeck began work on Love & Mercy, the deadline for the temp was looming, and there was no music editor. "Unfortunately, we found out we were not going to be able to have Chris Jenkins on the temp," recalls Renbeck. "It was a tight schedule, and since it was Eugene and me at that point, we both said, 'Okay, let's just do it ourselves.' C5 has three modest-sized 5.1 Dolby-approved design/mixing rooms, each with a ProTools HDX2 set-up, and we ended up doing the temp there. I think we both just hunkered down, prepped our tracks, pre-mixing as we went." Gearty handled the sound effects and Foley and Renbeck worked on the production tracks and all currently existing music. "Atticus had sent over a number of stereo mix-downs of his cues," Renbeck relates. "As we got closer to the temp, he got me some of his full stem mixes. It was a few very busy — yet really fun — days. It turned out to be a great shakeout to see and hear what was what. It allowed Bill, Dino, Eugene and me to get to know each other's sensibilities, and I started figuring out a number of music challenges the film presented. "Atticus is very exact in his tracks and gives fantastic music stems to the mixer that are really ready to go," continues Renbeck. By the time he was finished with that first temp, "I figured I'll officially be the music editor; I'll own the music at this point." But Renbeck never lost sight of the fact that Jenkins would be stepping in. "The temp played and looked good," he says. "I really started to like the way some of the production music into Beach Boys music transitions were working. And once Chris joined us, I knew the whole film was only going to get even better. But in turning the mix over to Chris, I wanted to make sure I didn't tie his hands with any of the decisions I made in the temp. You don't want to put the mixer in a position where he can't do what he needs to do because the editor has made those decisions for him. I was really concerned that I figure out a way to deliver to him what I'd done, but in a manner that allowed him full control." The solution was a handful of conversations between Renbeck and Jenkins, in which they figured out a template of how to work. With dialogue and ADR, they brought it back to a more traditional turnover. "But with the music elements, where I'd done a lot of mixing, panning, adding reverb and figuring out transitions from actor to Beach Boys or, say, placement of the Wrecking Crew within the studio, we let that live within ProTools," he explains. "If needed, we could break those elements back out and put them in a standard turnover to him. But if it works as I prepped them, we would just keep it that way. Then Chris and I could work together at the final to further fine-tune those spots. The first temp was the most challenging Love & Mercy. Photo by François Duhamel/ Roadside Attractions