Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1383665
64 I M PS E . O R G EM: I noticed in that film, August at Akiko's, that backgrounds and spot eects seem to play a big role in your mixes. In terms of the amount of tracks that you're working with, how wide do you typically cut for those sounds, within your added backgrounds and spot eects? SRC: I try to do at least five or six layers of stereo coming from front and back. Sometimes I go crazy, I'll go up to 20 tracks or something. But that's not necessarily good, because the frequencies can clog together and give me a headache while mixing. I try to find some good elements in one sound, and then to try to compensate with the other elements and different sounds, that way it comes across as a little deeper. EM: For spot eects, how detailed do you typically go? Do you fill in every gap between lines of dialogue? SRC: When I need the audience to focus on a moment, I try to cut in a spot effect. My Foley guys are pretty good at covering them too, and I'll use their work to put more embellishment on that. And then of course there are little squeaks coming from PFX. I think the main function of spot effects is to give focus to the elements of the picture for when they need to happen. Many times I do that without picture reference, so when you don't see anything but you kind of hear something moving in the background, like birds calling back-and-forth, things like that. EM: How often do you go record your own sounds for a film, either on site or just for backgrounds? And do you often purchase new libraries for each project? SRC: It depends on the timeline. If you have only three weeks, then it's hard to find the time to go and record sounds, but I believe that's the best way to do it, always. I try to record as much as I can, but if I don't have the time to, that's one reason why I focus on production sound. They spend a large amount of time on set, so it's a big asset for me on these films. I can't find that much time to go and record things. I try to listen to everything they record too, like wild takes, alternate takes, etc. In the middle of a Japanese film I worked on, there's a park and a bunch of kids running around. If I tried to group ADR those kids, that would be a massive amount of work