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 57 sounds and panning movements. "There is a natural evolution in the sound from all of the hard work that is put into playing with what works and what doesn't. Those lessons you learn, which allows you the space and the freedom for other creative and technical mix decisions," says Steve. They tend to receive boom and lavaliere microphone tracks for most dialogue. They like to favor the boom for a more natural sound, with the lavalieres as support. Nonetheless, due to the nature of the show, some dialogue is captured off-axis, behind walls, or at a distance. Nick, Steve, and the dialogue editor work hard to make the dialogue the best they can, first with EQ and then with iZotope RX as their go-to tool, done sensitively and with context. The sound of the intercom dialogue (the radio messages between the teams and drivers in the cockpits) is one of the most audience-commented on mix decisions and where Steve and Nick create a sense of immersion. The voices are spread around the viewer by pulling them back from the screen, with divergence to the front and rear channels, as well as to the height channels. "It felt like a very natural and instinctive thing to do from the outset," they admitted. The decision went down very well with audiences. According to Steve and Nick, one of the most challenging tasks in terms of mix time remains the degree of panning required of the many elements in each episode. It is a heavily loaded show, in which the panning of the cars takes a lot of time and is carefully crafted with great precision in each instance. Selecting and processing the correct sounds and ensuring those sounds feel glued to the story, emotions, and visuals is a real labor of love. There is another Formula 1: Drive to Survive season coming up for the current Formula 1 championship. Both Steve and Nick are excited about it and want to thank the F1 and Box to Box Films location sound mixers who work incredibly hard to capture the sound on location, providing them with great material to work with. They also want thank their sound editorial team for the amazing job they do layering all of those sounds. The result is a thrilling show that brings the pinnacle of motorsports to audiences worldwide. Congratulations, Steve and Nick. From the beginning, the brief from the executive producers was for the show to sound cinematic and to pull the viewer right into the heart of the action. Mixing to Netflix's dialogue-gated loudness specification, Steve and Nick achieved a cinematic and dynamic soundscape, making full use of the panning possibilities of Dolby Atmos. Steve and Nick began mixing Formula 1: Drive to Survive as Dolby Atmos first started appearing in documentary content for streaming platforms and consider themselves privileged to have been on that learning curve with great support from Netflix and Dolby. When asked about submitting this specific episode for the CAS Awards, they felt the episode was the best representation of what was achieved in the series in terms of creative intent, amount of action, the level of editing that is involved in the making of the series, and, of course, the technical aspect. In order to maintain authenticity and realism, they make sure that real location sounds are used. A vast quantity of sounds of the races that are recorded throughout the year are curated and edited by the sound team to be used in the series further down the line. "It was crucial to get the real sounds. The resolution and quality of the recordings we receive from the F1 sound recordists is incredible, and seems to get better every year," they add. Even after five seasons (including the 2022 season), Steve, Nick, and the sound editors are always experimenting and finding ways to make the series sound better. They know that certain things work well for the audience. For example, people love the overhead passes and big LFE hits. They are continuously trying new ways to make the viewers' experience evermore visceral, experimenting with different Re-recording mixer Steve Speed Re-recording mixer Nick Fry