Post Magazine

48 Post • October 2008 www.postmagazine.com Much of True Blood was shot on stage where production sound by Roger Steven- son and Mark Weingar ten was controllable, so not much ADR was needed. "We had the luxur y of having most of our ADR time spent on performance enhancements and Sookie's thoughts rather than technical prob- lems," Dunn points out. "The time we have for design is in large part thanks to them." Benson's team edits on Digidesign Pro Tools|HD using Sonic's NoNoise to fix loca- tion sound issues, like too much back- ground traffic in areas supposed to be rural. The show is "very rich in group ADR," Ponsdomenech repor ts, espe- cially for the bar where Sookie works. "It's not mushy walla; it's very tasty and specific," he says. "We're all about de- tail," agrees Benson. "You'll get a piece of something in the background in a hole in the main characters' dialogue." Music also plays a big par t in the show, from source music in Sookie's bar to composer Nathan Barr's ver y organic tracks with recurring musical themes. Gar y Calamar is the show's music super visor and Bruno Coon the music editor. Ponsdomenech takes a "very cine- matic approach to the mix" with music and ADR treated for perspective and all the pans true to the picture. "They move natu- rally as if you were there," he says. "It's im- portant for a show with lots of sound design to establish normal so you can see the change," Benson adds. Foley mixer Zane Bruce aims to keep things real and "ver y palpable," with creaky wood floors and lots of textures, but "away from traditional horror movie treatments," Ponsdomenech notes. His team mixes to Pro Tools 48k/24-bit and lays back to a 23.98 HDSR mas- ter. They deliver a set of dis- crete stems, a 5.1 6-channel mix, and Dolby E encoding. "There are no boiler plates for the signature sounds on our mix stage: There's no such thing as a Sookie thought-dialogue fader, and it takes time to fi- nesse," notes Dunn. "Sound effects mixers Joe Earle and Kevin Roache do a pre-dub pass on sound effects to cre- ate a rich environment. Elmo then continues with the dia- logue and music pass, and we finish up the mix with Alan's refinements. "And every episode intro- duces a new concept to flesh out the story, so we move at lightning speed under those circumstances," he continues. "Having new elements in every episode make it fun for us and that much more en- joyable for viewers." B U R N N OT I C E USA Network's hit series Burn Notice shoots extensively in and around Miami, which adds color and flavor to the show and serves up challenges galore for Sherry Klein, re-recording mixer for dialogue and music. She, along with sound effects mixer David Raines and location mixer Scott Clemens, has been nominated for an Emmy Award for the penultimate episode of the first season of Burn Notice, which aired last year. "We deal with the Florida rainy season, ocean front cafes, swamps and traffic. They must shoot under ever y overpass and tin roof in the area," jokes Klein, "and ever y week I roll my eyes! During a recent tropical storm they managed a full day of production despite the rain — good for them but not so good for us." Each episode is scheduled for a two-day mix with Klein, who works with Burbank audio post company Smar t Post Sound (www.smar tpostsound.com), and Raines, who's employed by Hollywood's Larson Stu- dios (www.larson.com), where the audio post production for Burn Notice is based. "We have to be done mixing by lunch on the second day for the producers' play back around 3pm, and we're out the door by 7pm," she explains. "So we have to really kick it. There's a lot of dialogue clean-up to be done, plus effects and wall-to-wall music." Klein is in regular communication with Clemens who, in addition to his location sound mixing, handles ADR and star Jeffrey Donovan's voiceover. "Scott goes above and beyond his location recording because he also records the ADR on location or in a small room they've set up onsite," she notes. Alber t Ibbotson is the supervising sound editor for Burn Notice. Sound editorial deliv- ers ever ything in Pro Tools sessions, which Klein and Raines then import into their ses- sion templates for the mix at Larson Holly- wood's Stage 3, where the show is mixed on a Digidesign Control 24 work surface. Klein came up through the ranks mixing on traditional consoles and moved to Pro Tools about five years ago. "Working with Pro Tools allows me to explore the client's requests onstage instead of sending it back to editorial," she explains. "I use ever ything at my disposal to make things work as best I can because, in the end, dialogue is king and maintaining the storyline is the focus of the show. Many times I find that I'm mixing in what I call my 'mind's ear,' that is to say, I'll work a word, phrase or a syllable until I get what I hear in my mind and keep pulling out the tools until somebody says,'Stop.That's it!' Music and sound effects this good usually come with high price tags & complicated licensing. Not with us! You get great sounds, low prices and no hassle. From alternative to orchestral to world music, we've got the styles you need, with intuitive searches to find the right sound fast. Get 25% off your first order; see site for details. I can't believe it's ROYALTY FREE! for TV Series Raising the Bar has its sound edited by George Haddad at Todd-AO.

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