Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1487730
M OT I O N P I CTU R E S O U N D E D I TO R S I 53 MOVIOLA!!! Bring it to the stage ready to mix or take it back to the bench." I never forgot that. MA: Can you break down your process to helping mixers get through so much content in tight TV deadlines? CC: Our TV mixes are usually 2-3 days for content that has a 40-60 min runtime, so we'll do what we can to push things forward more efficiently. When we have coverage of ADR and group for effort passes for instance, I'll cut the group efforts for principal actors into the ADR tracks, so that the mixers don't have to jump between the group and ADR tracks. The only things we keep in group tracks are the elements from non-scripted roles of people in the show, as well as general walla. As I mentioned earlier, I make all our decisions on how ADR and production will work together in the edit phase. This way the mixer isn't trying to make a call of where to switch from production to ADR mid-sentence or for a syllable. It's cut to play. If I have a lot of alternate takes, I'll send them on hidden inactive tracks that the mixers know are there. For the production dialogue, we have processed and unprocessed tracks so they can seamlessly switch back to an original clip if they feel we have over-processed something. On the SFX side, a lot has changed with the advent of these new mixing consoles. We have many mix groups in our templates, multiple groups for backgrounds, SFX, sound design and special elements at times. At the start of the season, we'll discuss our needs with the mixers and together we develop a template for the show. A lot of mixers in TV have conservative track layouts but the amount of tracks we require to deliver top-quality sound often exceeds this. Each of the banks link to a group so the mixers have control over the whole bank easily. We deliver our tracks at a balanced level where everything plays well against each other so the mixers don't have to battle against the initial levels of everything coming together. We'll even give a pre- treated option for any dialogue effects as well as a clean version. By doing this treatment before the mix, we can get the producer to sign off on it so that there are no surprises when they get there. For group, I try to cover everything even if we think we may not need it. I supervised Season 1 of Animal Kingdom. At the end of the first playback, one of John Wells' notes was for a busy scene at the Mexican border. We were on the Mexico side in a long line of vehicles waiting to get back into California. There were people all over the place selling things, there were officers scattered all over with dogs checking cars. A lot was going on. John spoke out because all he could hear was music and he thought that was all there was. He wanted to feel more of the world around us. He listed all these things he wanted to hear. I confidently told him, "It's all there." He said, "Put the tracks up and play it without the music." After hearing all of the detail we put into the scene, he said yeah I want to hear all that. Our coverage for these kinds of scenes helped us avoid backlash. To me, it's just doing your job and My time in features was great but I found that they became few and far between. Your first day on a feature is your first phone call toward the next job. There was nobody bringing you a show. You had to call somebody and say, "Well … you got a show coming up?" I'm sure everyone does this. I try to cover everything even when in 10 episodes they never asked for it, because sometimes on the 11th episode, they may ask for it. The one time you don't cover something obvious is something they never forget. Will they remember or even know that you had it there 10 other times before? Probably not. I'll ask many questions at the spotting session to get a gauge for what they want and to avoid excess unnecessary work. When they say in this scene, "do your thing," they're saying cover it all. So you just prepare all in case they decide to drop out music and change the feeling of a scene. If you don't do your job well every single time, then you might as well hang up your headphones and walk away. MA: Over the years you have collaborated with many sound editors. What's your process for managing your team? CC: It's really important to make an effort to give your team feedback and support when they need it. Whether things are working or not. When I was an editor I remember many times I'd wait for feedback from the sound supervisor during the mix and often ended up calling the stage to find out they wrapped hours ago. Sometimes no call was the only pat on the back you'd get. You had to take that as a thank you and move on. I never wanted to be that kind of supervisor. I'm nothing without my editors. At the end of each mix, I send my team a group text message letting them know how it went and thank them. Sometimes I get busy, I forget and