Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1521562
C I N E M A A U D I O S O C I E T Y. O R G 51 SG: Yeah. I mean, that analogy is not lost on me for sure. I sometimes feel like I'm an expo just plating all this stuff that other people have given me. The showrunners and the picture editors are giving me the recipe, all the editors, and Pat with ADR and the Foley guys, they're giving me the ingredients they're cooking at their stations. Then it comes to me and I gotta plate it all and make sure it's good. That is certainly a very good analogy for what we do! Major, how do you approach your first pass on the mix? SG: I want to come in with no preconceived notions, so I'll watch it once before the spotting session, and then we'll talk through it. The series' editors, Joanna Naugle and Adam Epstein, do such a great job of giving us that structure to build good sound on. And, of course, the creators of the show, if they're not thinking about it when they write it and shoot it, you just can't wedge it in after the fact. So, the scaffolding needs to be there for us to build on. I hate that 58% of Americans use subtitles all the time. That really bothers me. So, less dynamics, more dialogue is my thing. I mix the dialogue first, get that in the pocket, then mix everything around it, deciding at each moment what the most important element is. The effects department bring it full force and, sometimes I end up muting entire sections that they probably spent a day on, which I know kills them a little bit. But, when you have a pop song scoring a scene, and people yelling, and production noises, you have to make choices, and dialogue always wins. And then, on this show, usually music after that. They give us great moments for the sound effects to shine, too. Those flashbacks, quick cuts, crazy zoom pan whooshes, and all that stuff. It's temped well in terms of structure on a zoomed-out level, and then we can go in and elevate the moments as needed. This show could be an overly dynamic mess if I let it. 70% of people still watch streaming stuff on a television in their living room, so I want it to play well there. I don't want people grabbing for the remote when there's a quiet scene, so that's always in the forefront of almost every decision I make. Pat, from an ADR standpoint, I didn't hear anything sticking out—which I feel is always a good thing. Tell L-R: ADR mixer Patrick Christensen, re-recording mixer Steve "Major" Giammaria CAS, award presenters Peter Devlin CAS and Cristo Fernández, Foley mixer Ryan Collison, Sound Lounge EP of Film + TV Rob Browning, production sound mixer Scott D. Smith CAS Re-recording mixer Steve "Major" Giammaria CAS