Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1010948
What was your main concern with this method? This seemed a bit strange, as it wouldn't allow any creative changes to the scene. Regardless, we tried it a few times and never got past 10 seconds in the scene before timing or overlaps would occur. It was at this point, I asked Tom if we could try it with us being Venom and running the cues, deciding the timing. Tom was a bit reluctant at first, but with Ruben's full support, we ran it through the way we rehearsed in the trailer test. We did it once, all the way through a three-page dynamic scene. Immediately after, Tom put down his headphones and gave me the biggest bear hug. That's fantastic. Did this help build a closer alliance on set between the sound department and talent? From that moment forward, the relationship between Tom, Ruben, and the sound department was sealed. I could now justify to producers the need for a playback operator for 40+ days. We got into the groove after about a week of tests with Tom, playing with different ideas for timing in some of the bigger Venom-related scenes. We all knew things would change before actually shooting these scenes, so we opted not to prerecord anything other than the first week's work, which would happen on stage. The routine we [then] adapted was this: Every morning, Tom would come to the set and do a closed blocking rehearsal. After opening it up for marking rehearsal, Tom would come to us and run the entire scene … sometimes in my trailer, sometimes in his, [or] sometimes in a dark quiet corner of the set before heading into the works. This would allow us time to set up the cues and test it a couple times with Patrick and I. Tom had such confidence in us that after a couple weeks on set, he would lay down the tracks and leave it up to us to hit the timing of Venom. This gave us creative freedom the sound department rarely gets to experience. As everyone got more confident, Patrick started playing around with Pro Tools effects to create a cool, raspy, alienated voice for Venom. So you got to play with a bit of sound design creating, essentially, a temp treatment for Venom? Tom had fun with it, requesting different sound effects on the fly, which would keep us on our toes. The coolest part of this work environment was the relationship and reliance between our talent and the sound department. Tell me about your cart? Did you employ any special tech in your rig for this production? My equipment setup is a Sound Devices 970 primary recorder with 788T backup, a couple venues, and the console is a Midas M32R. Usually, I keep the standard mix track on track one with ISOs on tracks 2-16 or however many tracks are needed. However, after some discussion with editorial, the studio wanted Venom in the dailies. I created two mixes on the 970. Track one was the mix WITH Venom and track two was the mix without Venom. Because Venom didn't play every day, this would allow post to always carry over track one for dailies, and a clean ISO of Venom was always on track 16. Tom Hardy, who plays both Eddie Brock and Venom The main cart setup consists of two venue racks, Sound Devices 970, IFBT4 for Koffy's crew.