CAS Quarterly

Spring 2016

Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/681510

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 37 of 51

38 S P R I N G 2 0 1 6 C A S Q U A R T E R L Y I t was pure pleasure to talk to the winners of the Television Non-Fiction, Variety, Music Series or Specials, Live from Lincoln Center "Danny Elfman's Music from the Films of Tim Burton." The PBS show was filmed during a run of seven shows at Avery Fisher Hall in New York. It features live perfor- mances of edited suites of music composed by Danny Elfman for 12 of Tim Burtons's films, including Batman, Batman Returns, Edward Scissorhands, Pee-wee's Big Adventure, and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Re-recording mixer Ken Hahn CAS and production mixer Paul Bevan are both based in New York and were happy to share with me their experiences working on this particular show. Ken Hahn has owned his own studio, Sync Sound in New York City, with his business partner and engineer, Bill Marino, for the past 30 years. He has worked on hundreds of documen- taries, episodic television shows and orchestral programs and operas. He brings a different skill set to each project, depending on what is required to do the best job for that format. For Live at Lincoln Center, the challenges were many—short schedule (two to three days), the complexity of music, working with a single performance with no overdubbing, and the fact that the post was being done as the show was being locked. Paul Bevan's collabora- tion and Danny Elfman's presence at the mix were very impor- tant, as they knew the scores so well and were able to guide Ken through many of the more complex pieces. It was important to Ken to deliver a product as good as it could be while retaining a "live" feel, in addition to having it translate well to television. Ken gave much credit to the picture editor, Nick Palm, and executive producer and director, Andrew Wilk, for keeping the energy of the music alive with cuts of various film clips and Tim Burton's original drawings interspersed with the orchestra's performance. Additionally, there were interviews with the composer and Tim Burton and some "on the street" com- ments by audience members to add to the mix. Ken told me he insists on watching the program before begin- ning to work on it to get a feel for the show and see what is working and what needs special attention. Ken works alone most of the time and pre-dubs the dialogue and music himself, and then screens with clients to make adjustments to the mix. He edits in Pro Tools 10 or 12 and mixes "in the box" on an Avid Icon D-Control console. For this mix, Ken chose to use his K+H 5.1 monitoring system. Ken also uses iZotope RX5 for noise control, Avid Pro compressors, and Pro limiters, FabFilter EQ and de-essers and SSL G Series EQ and dynamics plug-ins. Ken told me that to be recognized with a CAS Award is, in his opinion, the most satisfying of all the awards he has gar- nered (this is his fifth CAS win), because only his peers nomi- nate and vote in the process. He had high praise for Paul Bevan, who also won the CAS Award for production mixing. Paul moved to the United States from London 20 years ago and, among his many other projects, has mixed the Boston Pops and The Lord of the Rings: Live to Projection project for 10 years each. He told me that was where he developed the skills to mix and record live orchestras and choruses. For the past two years, he has been traveling around the world with the show "Danny Elfman's Music from the Films of Tim Burton," as the front of house mixer, and his participation was invaluable in both recording and mixing the show for the PBS series Live from Lincoln Center. He used 75 to 80 micro- phones when recording the show to get a very present sound with equal values for all instruments, but is always conscious of keeping a very TELEVISION NONFICTION, VARIETY, MUSIC SERIES OR SPECIALS LIVE FROM LINCOLN CENTER "Danny Elfman's Music from the Films of Tim Burton" by Mary Jo Lang CAS Re-recording mixer Ken Hahn CAS Re-recording mixer

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of CAS Quarterly - Spring 2016