Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1335892
48 I M PS E . O R G 48 I M PS E . O R G The Team Olivia Zhang (sound effects and design) We crossed paths at Technicolor when we were both working on The Nun. Olivia is a brilliant and thoughtful designer whose choices always come from a place of story fi rst. We would sit and talk through scenes and she would pull at threads in the storytelling that I had not yet picked up on. We would often look at a scene from different perspectives and meet somewhere in the middle where the sum of our ideas was far greater than the parts. Thankfully, I was able to pull her away from Mark Stoeckinger long enough to get us through this fi lm. Like so many who joined us on this journey, she continuously expressed the importance of this fi lm, and her gratitude for being part of the process. We'll get into some specifi cs of her work coming up. Bryan Parker (crowds design, fi ght scenes, and Boston Ballroom Concert) Bryan and I became fast friends when I fi rst joined Formosa a couple of years ago. We share similar sensibilities with respect to story, design, and mixing and have collaborated on a number of fi lms in a short span of time. We seem to share the sonic equivalent of fi nishing each other's sentences when it comes to identifying and executing the multitude of decisions we carry out on a daily basis in this business of sound. The two fi ght scenes—Wembley with a crowd of 35,000 and Miami with a crowd of 8,000—and the Boston Ballroom Sam Cooke Concert with a crowd of 1,000 needed a singular mind to craft those crowds from scratch, and Bryan was the perfect man for the job. Bryan provided some sound design for If Beale Street Could Talk which brought some nice symbiosis to the project. Michael Baird and Paul Carden (dialogue editorial) These two gentlemen have become my de facto dialogue department. There is so much overlap in their talents as dialogue editors, ADR, and group supervisors that I never have to worry about any task I throw their way. The three of us share all of these duties in a very fl uid manner and keep each other in check so that nothing falls through the cracks. I can't imagine supervising a show without them at my side. Dan O'Connell (Foley artist) I have been a huge fan of Dan's for so long, and had been eager to work with him for some time. I thought for sure we couldn't afford him, but Dan was so impressed with the fi lm that he very graciously agreed to join our little indie project. A true gentleman and artisan, I hope we have more opportunities to work together in the future. Josh Adeniji (Foley editor) Josh is one of the most calm and competent sound editors I have met that you just want to have him around because he's not only great at his job but also brings a joyous levity to the moments when I'm tearing my hair out trying to fi gure out how we're going to get it all done. Duncan McRae (sound effects re-recording mixer) Originally, Duncan was slated to be our mix tech but we found a little extra money to bring him on as a mixer. I've known Duncan for a few years now, and he's mixed FX for me on a few occasions and always done a fantastic job so I am super thankful that we had the opportunity to bump him up to mixer, and also allow me to focus on mixing dialogue and music. He has a great ear, a knack for storytelling, a fantastic attitude, and is great with clients, and I'm happy to support him however I can. We met via our mutual friend, the deeply beloved and sorely missed Gregg Rudloff. Gregg and I mixed Death Note together while at Technicolor and became quite close during that time and thereafter. Our lunches would turn into these four-hour affairs discussing everything under the sun. Gregg had an effortless grace and humility about him that I constantly strive for. I know Gregg also had a huge impact on Duncan during their time together on Mad Max: Fury Road. The fi lm opens with the Cassius Clay vs Henry Cooper fi ght at Wembley Stadium, a melange of radio and ringside announcers, Cassius and his corner, Henry and his corner, the referee, a mixture of polite and rambunctious British ringside patrons, and the near, middle, and deep crowds and all of their reactions to the fi ght. We knew we would need to lean on loop group to reinforce the sense of place via a variety of British accents, and to convey the feeling that the bulk of the crowd was there for Cooper and largely protesting Cassius and his theatrics in the ring. Shooting loop group for this and the Miami fi ght scene, and also for the Boston Ballroom was one of the fi rst things we tackled. Working with Tina Hart and her group, Bryan and I recorded the voices in one day over Zoom. It was early lockdown and the only available option at that time was for all of the actors to record themselves individually but simultaneously in their home studios with our ADR stage feeding picture and guide tracks to each actor over Zoom. We knew that monitoring would be a disaster, both for us and for the actors considering there was no way to successfully blend all 12 sources together in real time. There's something really special that happens when you get 12 actors in a room together listening to each other, balancing against one another and fi nding a common pitch that we knew would be diffi cult to recreate with everyone in isolation. We toyed with the idea of fi rst crafting a guide track of