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EMMY CONTENDERS The Mandalorian Disney+ has a hit with its series The Mandalorian, which recently streamed its third season. The journeys of the Mandalorian through the Star Wars galaxy continue, with bounty hunter Din Djarin reuniting with fan favorite Grogu. Meanwhile, the New Republic struggles to lead the galaxy away from its dark history. The Mandalorian reconnects with old allies and makes new enemies as he and Grogu continue their journey together. The show received several Emmy nominations, including those for Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Visual Effects and Cinematography. Grady Cofer was the production VFX supervisor for Season 3, which marked his first season on the show. "I couldn't say 'yes' fast enough," he recalls of the opportunity. "Jon Favreau's gift for storytelling and character had made The Mandalorian a pure delight. The art of the show, led by Doug Chiang, was stunning. And the philosophy behind its visual effects — balancing computer graphics and anima- tion with traditional techniques, like animatronics and model miniatures — really resonated with me." Season 3 kicked off with the Lake Monster attack between the Mandalorians and a huge snapping turtle, all taking place along the water's edge. "It's the kind of sequence that I find thrilling to tackle," Cofer explains. "So many logistical ques- tions arise: Do we shoot in water? Do we need a practical representation of the monster? What stunts can we achieve in live action, and what needs to be animated? It's the kind of scene that you could plan for a year." To create the environment, the production exca- vated a lakebed and filled it with 150,000 gallons of water. Then, special effects supervisor Scott Fisher and his team installed a wave maker, and placed water canons throughout the lake. This provided a real-world foundation of splashes and waves. "The creature's design came from Doug's team. It drew inspiration from snapping turtles and crocodiles. Then ILM built the creature in computer graphics with some highly-detailed modeling and paint work." But, Cofer says the sequence's biggest challenge was the creature's interplay with both water and sand. "All of that had to be simulated realistically. One of my favorite shots shows the turtle digging its claw into the sand, and then scraping the sand back, allowing the water to rush into the cavity. The simulation is both beautiful and convincing." They also built a practical back of the turtle's shell, which could be controlled on a motion base, allowing stunt performers to interact with a dy- namic surface. "The scene, shot over multiple days, took a mas- sive amount of coordination between all the depart- ments to pull off. But, after many months of post, it's very rewarding seeing how it all came together." The Mandalorian's eight episodes incorporate 5,000 visual effect shots and over a hundred unique environments, while also introducing 19 creatures. Barry HBO's Barry ran for four seasons and centers around Barry Berkman (Bill Hader), a former Marine who now works as a hitman. The dark comedy sees Barry travel to Los Angeles for a job, but finds him involved in an acting class taught by Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler), where he meets aspiring actress Sally Reed (Sarah Goldberg). He then begins to question his life choices, while deal- ing with criminal associates. The show's soundtrack is presented in 5.1 sur- round/Dolby Atmos, and its first three seasons received Primetime Emmy Award nominations in the category of "Outstanding Comedy Series." Sean Heissinger and Matthew E. Taylor serve as supervising sound editors on the show. Additional soundtrack credits include dialog editor John Creed, sound designer Rickley Dumm, Foley editor Clay Weber, Foley mixer Darrin Mann, Foley artists Alyson Dee Moore and Chris Moriana, and music editor Michael Brake. "Working on the show Barry is so much fun on the sound editorial side of things," note Heissinger and Taylor. "Bill Hader is very conscious about sound and how it can really help him tell his story, and from the very beginning, there was a lot of room for us to be written into the scripts. This gives us space to create moments that are hope- fully impactful in the story and leave an impression on the audience." One of Season 4's more challenging scenes for the sound team came in Episode 4 — the sand silo. Each area of post sound had to come together to create one of the series' most tense scenes. "From cleaning up the dialog recorded in a really reflective space, to recording the loop group reacting to having the time of their lives playing in the sand, and then suddenly turning to surprise and horror as they are swallowed, to Michael Irby's ADR struggles for Cristobol as he sinks in the sand, recorded through a rolled up hand towel to give it the muffled claustrophobic quality, to the sound design of this peaceful place all of a sudden becoming a monster trying to kill everyone in it, to the Foley of all the sand movement and Hank coming to dig Cristobol out at the last minute," note the supervisors. Another unique aspect of the show was the sound team being given the resources to do a lot of field recording — more than many other televi- sion shows allow. "We were quite fortunate to get access to an ac- tive Supermax prison for sound recording purposes," they recall. "In fact, this was the location where all the prison scenes were filmed. This afforded us the opportunity to record a fairly-wide variety of prison ambiences, wallas, activity, doors, alarms and tools. "Also in the sand silo scene, when Cristobal sank into the sand and was buried, we recorded two contact mics submerging into a large bag of rice. The goal was to create a grim ASMR experience of sand directly passing by and settling near the ear canal. These recordings helped accent and add an extra level of authenticity, especially to the prison track's day room and yard [backgrounds]."