56 I M PS E . O R G
Advancing to Go Backward:
The Patina
of
Mank
David Fincher wanted Mank to sound as if it had been made in the late '30s (around the same time as
Citizen Kane) and put on a shelf, to be discovered by audiences today. To prepare, we studied the sound of
old fi lms to get a sense of the quality and fl avor of the era. We knew Fincher wanted to make a black-and-
white fi lm, but when he sent over a few old movie trailers as reference, and emphasized the bad sound qual-
ity, we were surprised at how terrible the audio was in those reference videos. We asked him, "Do you really
want it to sound like that?" He said, "Yes, and I want it to be mono!" We then asked, "Will you be shooting on
fi lm?" He said, "Hell no!" He wouldn't dream of giving up the choice and fl exibility of digital photography. So
we knew we'd have the same latitude to create the 'old-timey' sound, which we referred to as 'the Patina,' and
apply it after we made all of the choices and detail available through modern recording, editing, and mixing.
BY REN KLYCE AND JEREMY MOLOD,
SUPERVISING SOUND EDITORS
Photo by Gisele Schmidt for Netfl ix
