Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1434375
66 W I N T E R 2 0 2 2 I C A S Q U A R T E R L Y my assistant, a Pro Tools operator/ editor, sometimes that's one or two people. On a project I'm on right now, there are four people! This particular production is crazy, though. There are songs and score and recordings happening at the same time the mixing is happening and the same time as files are delivering to the dub stage. I'm on the scoring stage and there are two other mixes on dub stages nearby mixing; one handling the score and the other the songs. I also have a recordist in the control room with me; there are two or three stage crew; one who is running the headphone mix to the players and the conductor, one is running cables and moving microphones around, and they are all helping with the ever-changing setups in the room. We also have an engineer on the stage who is making sure all the gear is working properly, and these days, we are also broadcasting the sessions to various members of the production using Zoom, ClearView, Audiomovers, and these types of things to keep the filmmakers up to speed. You know, most of the time, the filmmakers are not with us right now. In the past, they usually were. You know, the recording process takes a village! The mixing process tends to cut things down to my assistant and a Pro Tools operator. At this stage, I'm mostly interfacing with a music editor, who is on or near the dub stage. Composer Sherri Chung Next, I spoke with Sherri Chung, who's written music for Riverdale, The Lost Husband, and the upcoming Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai. I thought it might be insightful to hear about the process from a composer's perspective. As a composer, how early do you get involved in a project? I have been involved as early as before the script was finished. Sometimes it's a show that's in development and a director has yet to even be hired. I've also been hired to replace a composer when the show is post locked and the clock is really, really ticking and a score has already been tried but didn't necessarily work. So, in that case, which is not uncommon but certainly not the rule, are you "handcuffed," so to speak, by anything that was previously written? It depends on how stumped [the filmmakers] are. The first question I ask is, "What wasn't working with that?" You know, because it is so subjective. I never feel like Composer Sherri Chung and scoring mixer Greg Hayes at the board creating and capturing the magic. "There is a magic in the room when everyone there is making music together." –Greg Hayes