Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/964731
www.postmagazine.com 34 POST APRIL 2018 5.1 surround for big broadcast events like the Super Bowl. But if broadcasters are going to air commer- cials in 5.1 all the time, why not take advantage of that surround format? Vitacco recently completed a 5.1 surround mix for JWT Atlanta's spot for the U.S. Marine Corps called, Anthem 72. In the spot, the camera tracks through a diorama of different war scene vignettes that span several eras. It begins with just sound effects —sword clashes, explosions, gunfire, yelling, sirens and water splashes. "It's so immersive. The way the camera moves through this diorama allowed us to use more of the surrounds for the sound design than we would normally use. Typically with commercials, the viewer is in a very static position but this one felt like a Magic Mountain roller coaster ride. You're going through all of these little vignettes so spatially it was more complex," says Vitacco. Most commercials don't involve epic battle scenes and dramatic music, but even the more subtle spots can benefit from the extra channels of 5.1 surround, to help play with perspective or create the feeling of space. In Droga5 New York's Blue Apron spot Monday, a man comes home from work and begins to prepare dinner. It's dark and rainy out- side. There's a shot of the man as seen from outside his kitchen window. Here, Vitacco added rain effects in the surrounds to reinforce the change of perspec- tive. "Sometimes, even though there is a camera change or a shot change, you don't want to get too crazy with changing the perspective audio-wise because it starts to get distracting for the viewer. I normally establish a mix spatially and don't deviate from that too much for shot changes. But for this one, it worked because of the style and pacing. It made for a very rich, dynamic spot," he says. The Blue Apron campaign has a different spot for each day of the week. It features Vitacco's custom recorded sound effects, which he recorded in his apartment and other appropriate environments. "Everything was à la carte per spot. I wasn't pulling a ton of stock sound effects for this. It was actually confusing my dog, Maggie, who would lift her head every time she heard our apartment buzzer in one of these spots." Even though the spots he mixes for broadcast are ultimately delivered in 5.1, Vitacco likes to mon- itor the stereo mix often. Doing so "gives me a way to make sure there isn't any phase compatibility issues with the fold down," he says. "Then, I expand it out to the 5.1 mix and work with the spatial placement of sounds in the 5.1 environment a bit more specifically." Vitacco concludes, "To me, the stereo mix is still the most dominant deliverable. Every household has stereo audio and it's the format that most digital media is delivered in." Heard City mixed this Tourism Australia's Crocodile Dundee spoof. Anthem 72 for the U.S. Marine Corps.