Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/830490
C A S Q U A R T E R L Y S P R I N G 2 0 1 7 17 Doc's attention to detail and care in his work yield a consistently superior product that is integral to the success of the soundtrack. But, fi lmmaking is a team effort. "The sound crew did such an amazing job and I don't think I ever had a chance to thank them at this year's CAS Awards dinner where Dory won for best sound in the animated catego- ry! So I am now thanking them … thank you Nathan Nance, Michael Semanick, Tommy Vicari, and Scott Curtis … what a fantastic mix!! I have to also thank Vince Caro up at the Pixar Studio in Emeryville, who does such a great job of recording many of the voices for all of Pixar's animated movies! And thank you to all the members of CAS for this great award!!" MICHAEL SEMANICK CAS: RE-RECORDING MIXER With nearly 160 credits to his name, more than 30 years in the business, and more award nominations than you can shake a stick at, one would think that Michael Semanick would see his CAS win for Finding Dory, the second win in a row for him and his team, as just another notch on his impressive belt of a career. "The great thing about the CAS Awards is that it literally comes from your peers. It's a truly beautiful honor to not only be nominated, but to actually win. I've got to be honest, I didn't think we had a chance in heck!" Michael saw Dory as an underdog nomination, partly because it was a sequel, but also because of the quality of the other projects in the same category. "I went along to the awards to have a good time, but I was literally fl abbergasted when they called Dory." Speaking with Michael, one gets the impression that, even though he wasn't prepared for the win, he is always more than prepared on the dub stage. The sound team for Dory were sound supervisors Steve Slanec and Tim Nielson, music editors Bill Bernstein and Michael Zainer, sound effects editors Ken Fisher, Jack Whittaker, and Kim Patrick, dialogue editors James Spencer and Steve Slanec. The mix was done at Skywalker Sound in Mix A on a Neve DFC. Nathan Nance and Michael were the re-recording mixers. two-channel record session. Channel 1 is always a Neumann U87 microphone and Channel 2 is a Brauner VM1. There are several reasons for this. Since there is no animation produced at this time, all the dialogue is shot wild. The scripts and storylines are constantly evolving, which is just part of the creative process in writing for animation. Because of this process, a project usually takes two to three years to record. Once a certain part of the script is fi nished and okayed by the directors, it has to be recorded and then sent to picture editorial and eventually to the animators! The production coordinators are constantly chasing the cast around all over the world on whatever other project they have currently taken on! If a member of the cast happens to be shooting in a distant location such as Australia or South Africa, we will fi nd a studio close by and have the talent record the updated script lines. Chances are good the remote studio will at least have a U87 to record with. Since we do so much international work, we have created a list of great studios we have worked with from all over the world. And we always send out a list of our record requirements such as the microphone types and Pro Tools specifi cations to the remote studio that will be handling the recording—just in case and as a friendly reminder! Also, recording with two different microphones gives editorial an option on what microphone might sound better to them on a particular character. When recording Pixar's Monsters University, we recorded Billy Crystal and John Goodman together. The picture editor thought the U87 sounded best on Billy 's voice and the Brauner on John's voice. So he had an option. Requesting that every studio involved in our sound recordings keep the same type of microphones that we have used throughout the entire recording process really helps in creating a seamless quality to the soundtrack. Making all the dialogue recordings sound like they came out of the same room is what we really strive for!" When Doc works in live action, he also makes all efforts to ensure a good match by insisting on consistent microphone types but also trying to emulate distance. "In a traditional ADR session for live action, we acquire information from the post supervisor on what microphones were actually used by the production sound crew. Whether it be a Schoeps or Sennheiser boom with a COS-11D radio mic or DPA, we always use the same microphones production sound used. We strive to match as close as we can to the original sound. We again record two channel with boom on channel one and radio mic on channel two. And many times, we record three channels with channel one front boom and channel two with a boom about a foot away in case the front boom sounds too close and still with the radio mic on channel three." He also creates dynamic choices for the re-recording mixer onstage to enrich environments by recording his group in multiple ways. "Group recordings are shot in monos, LCRs, and 5.0. And telephone futzed recordings are always shot with a clean recording on channel one and channel two patched through a live phone for futzed audio."