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 61 of September, we do a lot of stuff. And part of that is just Chicago because being a business trying to survive on any one of those things is a tough road. It also takes the peaks and valleys out of it. When films slow down a little bit, then our commercial work gets a little bit busier, and when our commercial work slows down in the summer, then our video game work is busier, the peaks and valleys are more like smaller hills that you can work your way through it. It's hard from a scheduling and producing standpoint, navigating those different things, but personally, I love the variety. I love that my days are always different. I love that at the beginning of the day, I'm working on a video game and at the end of the day, I'm watching a reel of a film to see how the mix is coming along. I love that variety, being able to shift my brain and work on something else at any given time. I enjoy it. SSS: What was it like for Noisefloor during COVID? BH: Because the city basically shut down and we couldn't go into our buildings to work, we basically took all the gear out of our studio and gave everybody the ability to work at home. We didn't lay anybody off, everybody got a paycheck the whole way through, and it was really important to us. We had a lot of work and our clients trusted us. For three or four months, we'd jump on Zoom and we'd video chat, and we'd have meetings a few times a day to go over projects and what everybody was doing. Then everyone put their head down and did their work. And it worked as well as it was going to under those circumstances. When we were able to ease back into studio life, rebuild the studios, and everyone was ready at that point, we put it to a vote. Most decisions at Noisefloor, we make together as a group, as a team. And we asked, what do people want to do? Do you want to stay at home? Do you want to go back? And pretty much everyone wanted to go back. The city had opened up a little bit at that point, and in that regard, we were small enough that we could do it. We eased back into studio life, rebuilt the studios and kept going. SSS: Do you have in-house rooms all set up for your editors? BH: We have rooms for everyone. We have 12 different rooms at the studio. Pretty much everyone has a room. We have a couple of small edit bays in one of the backrooms. SSS: Are you modifying the Foley stage as time goes on? BH: I would say we're making adjustments as we go. We're collecting a lot more props and things of that nature than we've ever had. We've got a big shoe rack with all the shoes on it. I mean, it's a big room, but you can very quickly overrun yourself with stuff, as I'm sure you know. We built in a little kitchenette to it because we wanted to be able to do kitchen stuff with running water and whatever other things you would Foley in a kitchen. Having enough storage and getting it organized is a daily thing. We were looking for a prop the other day, for a flip phone. We knew we had one but where was it? Which drawer was it in, which bin was it in? And so that kind of stuff is always being worked on. SSS: Right. You got to organize and label everything. Do you have a water pit? KATIE WATERS MPSE: We have multiple pits that are interchangeable. So we can just change out depending on what we need. SSS: How deep is it? KW: It's not very deep, I'd say like two inches. BH: Yeah, two to four right in there, depending on how deep you wanted to go with it. But we don't leave standing water in it. We'll fill it up and then we'll drain it when we're done. SSS: We have Foley stages that have four-feet-deep water pits made out of cement. And the Foley artist will actually get into the water and do all the swimming cues and all the splashing cues and all the amazing cues. It is unbelievable. KW: This is a dream of mine because I grew up as a swimmer. I was a lifeguard. I coached a swim team for two years. So if I had a dream, I would be in the water all day doing Foley. [Laughter] SSS: We would dedicate an entire day just to water cues. I worked on Soul Surfer, which is about the girl who lost her arm to a shark bite, based on a true story. And so because of the amount of surfing and swimming in this movie, we did all the water cues last. We had dedicated days to just water. Katie, I want to find out about you and your background, and what on earth got you to Noisefloor and Foley? KW: I attended Columbia College, Chicago, to study film. I had an interest in sound for film, but I figured I might as well take some other classes while I was there. I took film editing