Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1521562
44 S U M M E R 2 0 2 4 I C A S Q U A R T E R L Y M E E T T H E W I N N E R S At the 60th Cinema Audio Society Awards, the hit HBO show The Last of Us won the Television Series – One Hour Award for Outstanding Sound Mixing. The winners were up against a murderers' row of industry favorites: Succession, The Crown, Ted Lasso, and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel! An absolute landslide of well-received shows and stellar sound work. However, this past year, The Last of Us struck a palpable post- pandemic nerve with audiences, and the realistic, but unnerving sounds of the apocalyptic offering had a lot to do with its positive reception. It's not a show that tries to inundate you with sci-fi beeps, whooshes, bass drops, and their associated graphics. It's a show that leans into a science-based Michael Crichton-like premise where everything is as it should be, except one new frightening twist of nature that affects just about everything and everyone, throwing the world into disarray. I chatted with the show's production sound mixer, Michael Playfair CAS, Foley mixer Randy Wilson CAS, dialogue and music re-recording mixer Marc Fishman CAS, and effects re-recording mixer Kevin Roache CAS to hear how they achieved this win. Michael, I'll begin with you because you are the one who's on set. How did you get your start in the business? MICHAEL PLAYFAIR CAS: Well, that's a good question! When I was 19 or 20, a friend of mine, my best friend since high school in fact, told me she could see me with a camera on my shoulder recording things. I never forgot that and that led to me taking courses about cinema a year or two later. Eventually, I ended up in film school and got into sound from there. And how about you guys? RANDY WILSON CAS: Well, like most everyone, I thought I would be in the music industry, and I stumbled into this! I had a co-op position in 12th grade in high school, and started at a studio and kinda worked my way up the ranks through various different studios. Eventually, the city of Toronto went freelance and that's when I was able to jump into Foley whole-hog, and now it's been 20 years! MARC FISHMAN CAS: I studied for a couple of years at USC, and then left there to go to Full Sail, and graduated in 1990. I started with an internship and then a job at EFX for eight years or so. I started as a sound editor and then supervising sound editor. I was an ADR editor and a mix tech, all those fun things. Then I started mixing full time in 1998. And a few years ago, in the midst of the pandemic, Kevin and I started mixing together. KEVIN ROACHE CAS: I went to USC and graduated in 2001. I went to film school there and ended up working in the sound department because that's where everyone was having all the fun: laughing and joking and doing cool work. So, I was just attracted to those people and then I got a job as a runner for a while. That transitioned into being a recordist for several years for Elmo Ponsdomenech CAS and Joe Earle CAS. Then I mixed effects with Elmo, and I've been doing that ever since. TELEVISION SERIES – ONE HOUR THE LAST OF US S1 Ep. 1 "When You're Lost in the Darkness" b y P a t r i c k S p a i n C A S