Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/987065
44 S P R I N G 2 0 1 8 C A S Q U A R T E R L Y of the season and we were all a little tired. Five days of rest and then we were right back onto a show called Barry, another HBO show that just premiered. What are some of your favorite pastimes outside of work? Well, my wife and I are big campers and hikers. She used to be in the business and she transitioned to teaching, which she loves. And when she gets her time off in June, we normally head up to the mountains or the coast or we see family up in Northern California. We're also both big cooks, my wife and I, and we do almost everything together. Toward the end of The Office, me and a couple other people on that crew started brewing beer. So, I fill up my crews' growlers on Friday morning with whatever I'm making and Chris and Corey can give me notes. I'm sure some of it hasn't been great but they never complain. I think I've been doing it long enough that some of them are drinkable. I may have five gallons of an experiment that they'll have to help me motor through it. It's still beer! Is there anything that you wanted to add, anything you want the readers to hear? I didn't get to give a "Thank You" speech. I just want to say how much I appreciate winning the award. I don't feel like I am any better than anybody else and I have a great amount of respect for everyone who does the same job. I feel a lot of camaraderie nowadays, more than I did 20 years ago. But I'm sure it's great to get recognized by your peers. They know what it takes and they pick the person who should win this go-round. Yeah, I've received some Emmy ® nominations, which was great but those people aren't as tight of a peerage as CAS. How do you listen at home? I just use a Marantz AV system with a stereo pair and I bought a really nice center channel. Because the center channel is where your and my work lives. Yeah, if it sounds good to your ears, your ears are very discerning, so it's probably good. Hopefully my ears stay that way. A lot of this game is how much longer you're going to be in it. I like to think I'm two-thirds through my time but, at the same time, I can't think of anything else I'd want to do. Other than teach—I like teaching, but maybe not full time. Elmo Ponsdomenech & Todd Beckett: Re-recording Mixers Now it's a bustling Thursday and I'm rolling up to the Sony lot to talk to re-recording mixers Elmo Ponsdomenech and Todd Beckett. I head across the lot to their dub stage, where they are knee-deep in a mix for a Season 5 episode of Silicon Valley. Elmo, where are you from, where did you attend school and when did you arrive in Los Angeles? EP: Born in Boston, raised in San Antonio,Texas, went back to college in Boston, then came to LA. I've been in LA since 1986. Boston until I was five, Texas until I was 18 and back to Boston to finish college and then LA since 1986. What about you Todd? TB: I'm originally from Canada, Toronto. I moved here 10 years ago. Elmo, what did you end up studying in college, specifically? EP: I went to Berklee College of Music. There were some music production and engineering classes involved as well as acoustics. I also did some recording when I was in college, but I was more on the performance side of things. I started mixing out of necessity because I wanted to get my songs and my bands recorded. A friend handed me the keys and said, "You can use the studio as long as you don't ask me any questions, the manuals are over there…" Todd, what did you study in college? TB: I went to a trade school for producing and engineering, sort of like Elmo, only my plan was to sit behind the desk and work in records, which I started in, and then I did a lot of live sound. And almost the same thing; necessity was if I'm going to make some money, music is not going to be it. A loaded question but, how does Silicon Valley compare to other shows that you guys work on? EP: Essentially, they don't like too full/busy a mix, generally, in terms of backgrounds and other activity other than what's on camera, it's primarily dialogue and music, except when it serves the comedy and the plot of the story. Over the years, we've been able to get into the heads of Mike Judge and Alec Berg and see, basically, how they serve the jokes and the gags. The story pops to the front and there's not a lot of distraction unless you're meant to be led by it. They're very good at the way they set