Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/987065
C A S Q U A R T E R L Y S P R I N G 2 0 1 8 19 Mark: The ever-present wind on the Mole got even stronger toward the seaward end. It was more than a mile long and, after a few days of shooting there, all carts (including mine) were banned. I spent a good deal of time dialing in my over-the- shoulder setup. As the rain came, keeping everything dry became a challenge. But what was even more critical was to keep the saltwater out of the gear as the Mole was frequently hit with big waves that washed over us. The Moonstone posed another challenge as Chris wanted to shoot with the engine always running at sea. Despite a valiant effort from the marine department to insulate the whole engine compartment, the engine noise was still not acceptable for sound. I asked them to rig the Moonstone to be easily towed from front, back, and side. On Day 1, we shot with the engine on. From Day 2 going forward, the Moonstone was always towed ... phew! It was an extremely tough shoot. I'd like to thank all of the other crew members for their support throughout. Alan: As I received new elements or had to change out elements of the score (for example, switching out a sampled orchestra with a live one), it was challenging to match what I'd done before when I sent it back to editorial or the stage. Chris doesn't want to put in a piece of music and have the level be 4 dB louder. That upsets the whole apple cart. Part of my job was making sure every single moment in the score matches level- wise and balance-wise, but with the new sounds. Additionally, this score was essentially an 88-minute piece of music that never stopped. Originally, there was 1m1 and I think, 5m2 or something like that. For scoring purposes, it was broken up into manageable chunks and recorded, but was always meant to be put back together as one continuous piece. I delivered every element to the stage as a separate element. Alex Gibson and Ryan Rubin, music editors, were kind of partners on the mix. They were given so many elements to cut into the film under the watchful guidance of Chris Nolan to deliver the final, seamless score. Scott: A perpetual challenge in Foley is not having the actual prop or environment for your recording. We have to go with what we think is going to work best. What does this cockpit truly sound like? I believe we used a police riot shield for a lot of the cockpit interior banging and movement. Oftentimes as I'm mixing the Foley, I don't look out onto the stage to see what they're using because I want to be tricked. I feel like if they can fool me, then the sound is working. Another unique thing for Dunkirk was the fact that on our stage here at Skywalker, we have this elephant door that we can open up to bring in big items like vehicles. We actually brought in a boat and put it in the water pit! We recorded not only a lot of the human movement for the scenes inside the beached trawler and the Moonstone, but also the sound of netting, buoys, and other things that you saw in the periphery in the boat. The Pre-Dub Dunkirk did not have a pre-dub. The Final Dub Gregg: We're not allowed to see a frame of the movie until it's our first day. We start our first day on the film as the first day of the final mix. Richard King has created and brought to the stage a minimum of 500-plus tracks of sound effects. The music department has me with 192 stereo tracks coming in. Gary has a full boat of his dialogue and we start with reel 1. We work our way through the reel—crashing and burning. Chris sits right there behind us as he wants to see our physical reaction to a sound that we've never heard before. How Gary and I react to the picture and the audio (what we're grabbing/ not grabbing, what are we reaching for, why are we doing what we're doing) is important to Chris because he likes the artistry, he likes our impression and he likes our foresight of soundtracks. Right to left: Fionn Whitehead (Tommy), Helmut Prein Hoyte (chief lighting technician), Bob Hall (first assistant camera), Ryan Monro (key grip), Christopher Nolan (director), Tom Caton (boom operator) "I will play the recording up against the production track because you can't just record things (props or footsteps) in a vacuum and expect it to work." -Scott Curtis