Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1257029
After years of mixing mostly heavy dramas like The Sopranos, through the gorefest of The Following and Season 2 of Marvel's brooding Daredevil, I landed on this 1950's Technicolor-movie musical-screwball-dramedy which is shot like a major motion picture. The Palladinos love their rat-a-tat, super rapid-fire dialog and Maisel does not disappoint. It's brilliantly funny, a feast for the eyes and ears and a truly wonderful show to be a part of. It's a very special set to be on and every day-playing actor and crew member who joins us remarks on how family-like and fun it all feels. It's also the most challenging show I've ever mixed; the word "compromise" is not in anyone's vocabulary. I first heard of Maisel after the pilot had been shot and found out that Picture Editor Brian Kates, a friend of mine who had edited a couple of features I had mixed, had cut it. I reached out to him because it sounded like a fun show to work on. I loved the idea of mixing a musical comedy, especially since music is my first love, and we all need a good laugh, especially these days. It turned out that the pilot's mixer had already committed to another show before Maisel got picked up for series and Brian had already told production they needed to hire me. The lesson being always be good to your post people! As an Audio Ltd wireless user for more than twenty-five years, I finally made the switch and now my core equipment is all Zaxcom. I'm running a full RX-12 receiver unit, a Mix-12, and a Deva 16. With the latest sell off (again) of our frequencies, and the shrinking of the radio spectrum, I'm very glad to have frequency agility and the ability to record right on the Zaxcom transmitters. That has saved me many times! Their ZMT transmitters are tiny and our cast loves them. My primary boom mics are Schoeps CMIT's and MK41's. My lavs are generally Sonotrim's, Sanken COS- 11D's, Countryman B6's and the new Shure TL48 which I use exclusively for Rachel. My approach to mixing Mrs. Maisel is the same as my approach to everything that I (and I'm sure all of you) mix, in that I strive for a clean, full, and very rich vocal quality. Maisel is ALL about the words (and music); our average script is approximately 85-90 pages for a show that runs just under an hour, and almost every word makes it in. There are no car chases, gunfights, or explosions, so there is no place to hide and they HATE looping! Because it's a period show, whenever we're exterior, I have to be extra diligent about any modern-day noises that might creep in. Of course, we all prefer booms instead of wires, but wiring our cast is just safer for me, it gives me much more flexibility and, because of the show's signature long take "oners," we tend to see in all directions. Also, it helps me if the shot changes at the last minute or in case the actors get out of range of the boom. Since the dialog zips by so quickly, post loves all the wires as it helps with the clarity of the consonants, but there's always a boom to keep the tracks alive. The Palladinos love their wide shots, often without tighter coverage. Many times, characters start very deep in the frame and come into close-ups or vice versa, or we'll go from room to room and in and out of doorways. The mixing challenge there is finding the best spot to transition between the radios and the boom as seamlessly as possible. For one of our crazy shots, in the S2E4 episode, "We're Going to the Catskills!" we put a wide lens camera across the road from the Weissman's summer cottage as they arrive and unpack for the summer. It was a half-dozen people yelling and overlapping to each other from all of the rooms while going from inside to outside and back. It was such a great challenge to just wire them all and hold on for dear life! On any given day, it's pretty typical that I'm easily running between seven to twelve tracks (or more). Our number 1, Midge, almost always gets wired at the beginning of the day, mostly because her corseted infrastructure makes it time-consuming to do at the last minute. Our great wardrobe people send me a photo of her costume and I pick what I think is the most appropriate lav for it; I've always felt that you wire the clothes, not the actor. They rough it in and when she gets to set, I'll fine- tune it. We work so closely together that I think of us as the "SoundRobe" Department. Midge Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan) on stage in Las Vegas