Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1434375
56 W I N T E R 2 0 2 2 I C A S Q U A R T E R L Y we have way more tracks. Editorial has gotten more sophisticated. With everything now in the box, we have the process of pre-dubbing, and you are constantly finessing a track that is a work in progress. The tools are better, the fidelity of the sound is better. So, it's become more sophisticated and the expectation of what the soundtrack will be by the storytellers is more sophisticated." For Tom, as a longtime feature mixer, one way he had to adapt was when he spent a stint mixing television for Boardwalk Empire. "Working on a series, in a way, I love it, because it's like working on a really long movie, but the grind is hard. I don't really like to cut corners, but that's a necessary thing on that kind of a schedule. I almost had to go back to the way I started. When I started mixing, there was no automation and no pre-dubs. We just put everything up and mixed it. On Boardwalk, the first episode was basically a Scorsese movie. I had four weeks to do the pilot, and then it was like BAM, I have four days to do episode two. So that was a mental adjustment." When comparing the old days and now, Tom notes, "Things are a lot more complicated now. There was some simplicity to having 10 faders to work with. There's always one thing that needs to be featured, and it's all about making it play on screen. It's not about how cool the sound effects are. The goal is to keep the audience involved and not notice what you've done. You know, we're doing sleight of hand all the time." When I asked David about the old days compared to today, he shares, "We've sort of come up through the bully mentality. Some of these bully types would look for others who were not like that, and think they were easy prey. I had a client back at Compact who would throw things at me like paper and pencils and stuff. I saw that a lot in those days, and I didn't understand it. I'm glad that it's going away. People of color and women are getting more opportunities now, and that's just the way it should be." He continues, "One of my first recordists was a woman, and I brought her on. I didn't even think about it in the mid- '80s, but back then it was a big deal for some reason." For David's current project, Encanto, Colombian culture is being celebrated and great care is being taken to represent that culture accurately and positively. For Disney, creating more shows that feature cultures that have previously been underrepresented is now part of the mission. "I'm hopeful that it just keeps getting better that way, but it still has a long way to go." One thing that never goes out of style, but hopefully improves with experience, is good communication, and I would be remiss if I missed the opportunity to ask these guys their thoughts on keeping the right vibe in the session. Larry states, "When I talk to students, the biggest advice I always like to give is 'Don't be a dick' and 'Be a cool hang.' Those are the most important things because the other stuff is teachable. You can learn the best tools and techniques, but it's really about being a good communicator and being able to decode what someone says. We know how to parse up our time to get to the finish line, but let's keep it as stress free as possible and enjoy ourselves while we're doing it, because it's fun." For Tom, "I just want to be honest about how I feel things are playing. I don't sugar-coat things. If something's not working, I'll say so. But it's fun to joke around, too, tell war stories, and gossip—you know, what's happening in Hollywood. You gotta have a good time." And David, much like a man after my own heart, embraces the dad joke and, specifically, puns. "I have this thing called The Pun Jar, which dialogue editor Jake Reeley made for me. The short story is, yeah, I do that, dad jokes on the dub stage, and it's corny, but people laugh and it creates a mood and a vibe. The way it works is, if I say a dad joke and no one laughs, I have to put a dollar in, and if anybody laughs, they have to put a dollar in. At the end of Raya and the Last Dragon, we had $275 in The Pun Jar that was donated to Make-A-Wish." Moving Forward Not only does the field of mixing evolve over time, but the practice of mixing itself creates experiences and changes in us over time, too. You don't just take a class and then "ta-da," you know mixing! We must keep learning and trying to discover new ways to do things. It's what being a mixer is all about. As Tom puts it, "Can you teach re-recording mixing? Can you teach someone to do it or do they have to just do it? That's how I learned, I just started doing it. It's like learning to play a guitar, you break it down into little pieces. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time." "With the ambience in there, Marty was very particular. He only wanted to hear certain drips. You see all this water dripping, but you don't hear anything. They were trying to give this impression that things weren't as they seem." –Tom Fleischman CAS reflecting on mixing the film Shutter Island