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SOUNDS THAT HAUNT www.postmagazine.com 34 POST OCTOBER 2015 in order to build their sound. To create the unique sound of the fairies, Berkey used iZotope's Iris sampler. "In Iris, I used the sound of sparklers and then drew around the spectrum of those frequencies that I wanted to hear when I played the sound on the keyboard. Iris allows the spectrum of frequencies, within the sound that is highlighted, to change over time which is unique," details Berkey. Although Berkey has worked with Dolby Atmos before, this was his first na- tive Atmos mix. He completed his pre-mix- es for the effects/Foley/backgrounds in Pro Tools at his studio in Vancouver, Canada, and then traveled to Warner Bros.'s De Lane Lea studio in London (www.wbsound.com/london) for the final mix with Chris Burdon, who handled the dialogue and ADR. Berkey final mixed the effects and music. He and Burdon decided early on to keep the mix in-the-box, mon- itoring and routing all their individual Pro Tools rigs through an AMS DFC console. Re-recording mixer Burdon says, "Satellite control of the Pro Tools rigs meant we could work incredibly fast." On dialogue, Burdon worked with sound supervisor Becki Ponting to build and mix alternate versions of dialogue and crowds for director Wright. "Joe [Wright] likes to work fast. The big chal- lenge was to have any new concepts and elements ready to mix as quickly and ac- curately as possible," says Burdon. While dialogue is typically placed front and cen- ter, Burdon was able to have a bit of fun on the Atmos mix, panning vocals into the overhead speakers during a scene where characters were flying in and out of a hole in the roof of a large hall. Berkey's favorite Atmos moments involved music. Along with the music stems, he was given two extra stereo pairs that were recorded while the or- chestra was being tracked. "These were mics that were placed high-up in Air Studios and had a great natural reverb sound," says Berkey, who used those tracks to create a very spatially wide and deep musical experience. "To do this, I used one stereo pair in the Atmos overheads beds and the other pair in the Atmos object tracks, placing them around the back of the room." Another spectacular Atmos mo- ment comes when entering the mine in Neverland, when the pirates and miners sing Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit." Berkey reveals, "The sound is very much unexpected. It's so different from what is traditionally thought of when it comes to Peter Pan. Most importantly, it was fun and pushed the boundaries of a surround mix over-the-top, which was completely right for the introduction of this intense location and moment in the film." For more on Pan, see page 14. HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 2 The Drac is back in Sony Pictures Animation's Hotel Transylvania 2, direct- ed by Genndy Tartakovsky. Returning for the sequel is the Sony Pictures Post (www.sonypicturespost.com) sound team headed by supervising sound editor Geoffrey Rubay, with re-record- ing mixers Tom Johnson and Michael Semanick. Additionally, composer Mark Mothersbaugh and music editor Andy Dorfman reunite on the film. "Andy, Michael, Tom and I all know and trust each other, and it really makes it easy to work together," explains Rubay. The team has collaborated on many animat- ed projects, including both Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs films, and of course, the first Hotel Transylvania. For Hotel Transylvania 2, Rubay had the opportunity to revisit a few familiar sounds, like bat wing flaps, the 'Drac mobile,' and Blobby's movements. But in- stead of rebooting the originals, he went back to the drawing board… or rather, the recording studio. "We were constantly recording for this film. We were fortunate to have the time on the schedule to be able to record as much as we needed or wanted," says Rubay, who spent seven months on the film. "That is not typical for most sound jobs in the feature world but it's indicative of how supportive Sony Pictures Animation can be towards us." One major sound overhaul in- volved the bat wing flaps since Hotel Transylvania 2 has more bats, and different sized bats, the largest being the human-sized bats known as 'cronies' that pal around with Vlad (Dracula's dad played by Mel Brooks). Rubay and his team visited the expendable supply store on the Sony lot, which sells everything a filmmaker might need, from grip equipment, like tape, to lighting gobos — fabrics and filters that diffuse, reflect, or color lights used on-set. Rubay says, "They have this display that has 40 or 50 samples of gobo fabrics you can order, and so we asked if we could borrow a few to make recordings. They said, 'Sure.' We ended up taking the entire rack because we couldn't make up our minds. There was such a wide variety of sound we recorded from those." They also recorded a well-worn lightweight leather jacket that provided them with a great leather snap sound for the start of each wing beat. Recordings of big pieces of plastic and cardboard flapping yielded chunky movement sounds that translated well for the cronies' wing flaps. As was the case for Hotel Transylvania, each bat wing beat is cut to picture as opposed to being per- formed in Foley because, Rubay explains, "There are multiple layers, with three or four sounds per wing flap depending on what's needed." Another sound design challenge was creating Blobby's movements. Rubay dedicated an entire recording session to capturing the sounds of balloons — Bat wing flaps and the Drac mobile were important sounds to perfect for Hotel Transylvania 2.