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www.postmagazine.com 24 POST JUNE 2017 and sometimes it would be a guitar riff. Then there would be an impact and mud spraying and explosions. We went through the sequence again, and again, and again trying to shape it." Semanick adds, "It was really a struggle. It took about three days to get through 800 feet of film. But when we got done with it, we were able to get the effects in there. After we mixed the reel John Lasseter came over to watch it down. We were dreading that scene because we knew how important it was to everyone sonically. When we got through that sequence, John said the dem- olition derby sounds awesome. He said, 'I don't know how you did it, got all of that music and the sound effects in there, and kept the dialogue clear.' He was very impressed. That was a feather in our cap when we got through Thunder Hollow." When handling intense music, big effects and dialogue, it can be easy to lose the focus of the mix. So what's Semainck's trick? He says, "I always ask, 'What is the story point?' We want to drive the story and not distract the audience. We don't want to take them away from what the story is about, or what they are supposed to get out of the scene. So I always try to keep that in mind for the entire mix. When frequencies clash or start building up you can get a wall of sound and you lose the detail. Then you have to figure out how to clear it out. Maybe we would shift the timing of the music, or the effects, and get those to play just right. I'm very diligent. I'm trying to make it work and I'm trying to make sure that the story comes through every time on every scene." PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES Captain Jack Sparrow returned to the big screen on May 26 th , in Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. Jack is now pursued by the undead Captain Salazar and his cursed crew of ghost sailors, who are determined to kill Jack and all other pirates. Jack and his allies seek the Trident of Poseidon, which gives its possessor control over the entire ocean and has the power to break every sea-related curse. The Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise is known for impressive set pieces, including several unique ships like the Flying Dutchman, the Queen Anne's Revenge and, of course, the illustrious Black Pearl. Dead Men Tell No Tales carries on that naval tradition with new ships including Salazar's skel- etal-looking Silent Mary. There are other new set pieces too, like the underwater cave of Poseidon's tomb, new ports-of-call and much more. Re- recording mixer/supervising sound editor/sound designer Christopher Boyes at Skywalker Sound in Marin County, CA (www.skysound.com) con- firms, "There's just one big set piece after another. Typically, in a seven-reel film, you'll have three or four major set pieces. But in Pirates, every five or six minutes we are into another big event that has to be carried musically and sound effects-wise. So in that regard, it was a real challenge." Audiences have come to expect exciting ef- fects, soaring orchestral music and animated per- formances from the Pirates films. In regards to the mix, Boyes says, "It's like a sonic dance. You have to keep the momentum going, keep the emo- tion going with the music, and come in and out with the effects while constantly protecting the dialogue. That is job number one." Boyes (sound effects) mixed the film alongside re-recording mixer Paul Massey (dialogue/music). Another element that gets protection is the iconic Pirates theme, which usually kicks in on a big action sequence. Boyes says when that theme comes in it's his job to get the effects out of the way. "If I'm putting in a sound and it's not propelling the story forward, then it doesn't have a place. Our editorial team supplies me with a tremendous amount of wonderful sonic assets but at the end of the day, more than 60 percent of them don't make it into the mix. Once the effects become part of the entire experience they really get held to a very high standard as to whether or not they raise the track," he says. For the first pass of the final mix, Massey began by mixing music and dialogue with no effects. Next Boyes brought in the effects in layers, starting with just the ambiences. "I figure out which components of the ambience are actually complementing the music or the dialogue. The choice is scene specific. If we are out on the ocean we have to have a little bit of wind, a sense of the ocean, a sense of the rig- ging and the sails, and the creaking ship. You don't need all of that all of the time. It's this constantly evolving landscape of sound effects that are folding in and out. Then for the big action sequences, all of those backgrounds disappear," says Boyes. After the ambiences, he added the hard effects like doors, swords, ships, and other diegetic sounds. For action scenes, Boyes will "poke the hard effects in and out, always with the notion of maintaining clarity on the track in an overall sense." Once Boyes was complete, he and Massey looked at the film together, working in 100-foot increments. "We go through it and say, 'Do you hear that line? Are we hearing enough ocean? Are we hearing enough of this or that?' We challenge each other and that is when we really fine-tune the mix," he says. Boyes feels there is so much to be proud of in this film, but mix-wise one of his favorite scenes is the guillotine scene in which Jack Sparrow is locked in irons with the guillotine about to come down on his head. "Mayhem ensues in a very Pirates-esk way, and this guillotine is revolving 360-degrees. The swinging blade almost takes Jack's head off and then it slides away. Meanwhile, all of this havoc is happening around him. It's a really fun frolic of music, sound effects, and dialogue. It is very funny and very exciting but extremely well orchestrated sonically," Boyes concludes. SUMMER MOVIES Pirates was mixed at Skywalker Sound. The guillotine scene is a favorite of mixer/editor Boyes. C M Y CM MY CY CMY K