Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/990701
56 CINEMONTAGE / Q2 2018 According to dialogue/music re-recording mixer Keith Rogers, CAS, who also worked on the series' initial season, "Our on-air 5.1-channel deliverables are being derived from a downmix output produced by the Dolby RMU [Rendering and Mastering Unit]. After we mixed the first season's episodes in 5.1-channel back in 2016, the showrunners and executive producers — including writer/director Jonathan Nolan and his wife/executive producer Lisa Joy — asked that we peel apart and remix the soundtrack to the immersive Atmos format" for both Blu-ray disc release and Internet streaming. "The results worked well enough, but there were compromises in the left-right balance and placing certain elements within the immersive soundfield," Rogers reveals. "It exposed aspects of the mix that we didn't want the audience to hear! For that reason, the showrunners asked that for Season Two we prepare the master mix natively in Atmos format, and then use the RMU to downmix Atmos to the air-deliverable 5.1-channel format. We also recorded a number of 7.1.2 stems and objects, together with 5.1-channel stems from the RMU. The show's M&E [music and effects] elements are prepared in another department using our master native Atmos Pro Tools sessions." Loosely based on director Michael Crichton's 1972 film of the same name, Westworld depicts a futuristic world in which an exclusive theme park allows "guests" to indulge their most primal fantasies with their robotic "hosts" without consequences. But these illicit, artificial intelligence-based fantasies do have outcomes for the guests. The series stars Evan Rachel Wood, Thandie Newton, Jeffrey Wright, James Marsden, Ed Harris and Anthony Hopkins. For the new season, Rogers worked with sound effects mixer Andy King, CAS, at Keith Rogers.