Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1500716
C A S Q U A R T E R L Y I S U M M E R 2 0 2 3 43 PP: It makes you jump. And we did that in this season. Very successfully. PP: Yeah, tell me a story. Tell me a story. Bang! And it's that effective use of dynamic range both on set and in post- production that's part of our sound. I mean, we're on set, we're all whispering, and then a gun goes off, which is really difficult on the sound mixer. But in telling the story, it has the impact that it's supposed to have. Cheers to our writers, our producers, our creative team, and everybody at AMC for giving them that space. To get out of the way to let them tell the story, to be able to go, "This is the moment in our series that changes everything." So, you've got to give it that space, dynamic range, and freedom to be able to do it. It's funny that you were mentioning the details. Just in this episode, there's the clicking of the water heater that Walter White has to deal with. It's those details that make the show live. Kevin, the effects mixer, actually found that because of those careful choices. Particular sounds sound even better than they should because they've been highlighted. They made space for them. And the same thing happens when you capture the dialogue nicely, allowing them to pin-point as well. PP: A huge credit to Larry and Kevin that they give space for the dialogue and the music. The music on the show is phenomenal, but it complements the story. I don't think anything drives anything except the story drives it. In my conversations with other creative members on set, the director of photography or the writers or everybody—it's how to best serve the story. For example, sometimes they pick these places to do a scene. It's important that it happens there, the fact that it's right next to the blower of a building— of the HVAC unit—sorry, but it has to happen here. Now, I could complain and ask if there's a better place, but they would say, "No, we want it. It serves the story." So, I have to make it work or record it as best as I can. There are a lot of happy accidents, and I attribute a lot of really great things to happy accidents. Also, to not getting in the way of letting a happy accident happen. We can maneuver and ask for this or push for that, but sometimes we are creating our own problems. Sometimes it's best to just sort of let the problems happen and then we deal with them. So, the trick so often is to step back and not try and fix a problem before it's a problem. It may never happen, and then you're left with being the guy who is always complaining. Do you have an anecdote of when that happened, where you saw a potential problem but held your tongue and everything worked out? PP: We had an episode where it was a scene in front of this giant noise-making thing, and I really didn't want it to happen here and I wanted to move it over there. Ultimately, what happened was they changed the dialogue so that it didn't happen where the problem was. They moved the dialogue portion to a different area, not because of the noise, but because of the story. And that fixed the problem for me. Well, if you have a last thing you want to add, give it a shot. PP: I just want to thank my team, boom operator Mitchell Gebhard and utility Andrew Chavez. I owe all of the tracks to them. If the source isn't good, the recording isn't good. And they're in charge of the source. PP: I owe everything to those guys. And I appreciate immensely the collaboration that I've had with Marshall Adams and Paul Donachie, the directors of photography. Marshall, who did the final episode, and I have been working together for a lot of years on the show, and we have immense respect for each other and I feel like we complement each other. Congratulations to you, Larry, Kevin, and Stacey for eight years and six seasons of wonderful work. Here's hoping your next project with this fantastic crew is just as satisfying, and sounds just as amazing! Phillip W. Palmer CAS on top of Mystery Mesa in Santa Clarita