Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1521562
60 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 This year's winner in the Television Non-Fiction, Variety or Music - Series or Specials category is Season 2, Episode 5 of 100 Foot Wave for Max. IMDb describes the series as following "the decade-long odyssey of big-wave pioneer Garrett McNamara who, after visiting a small fishing village in Portugal, helped push the sport beyond the realm of his imagination." Re-recording mixer Keith Hodne, who took home the award for his work, has been having a great run in New York mixing a series of fantastic non-fiction shows ranging from The Last Dance and OJ: Made in America to Sr., High Score, and Wham! It was a pleasure to sit down with him and discuss his process working with Wave's director/EP, Chris Smith, and how Keith and his hardworking team put together such a compelling track for 100 Foot Wave. I was looking at your list of recent shows, and I've got to say, great stuff! We've had a really nice run, we've been cranking. I say "we" because it takes a team. I've been more of a one-man band in New York than some projects in California, or some of the bigger New York productions where you'll have a little bit of a team. But for 100 Foot Wave, I had more of a team behind me, because I tried to do Season 1, Episode 1, totally by myself and I realize that, while I did it, it was going to be a nightmare to try that approach moving forward. I created the whole bed, the soundscape, and what I felt was correct. The sound editors have tweaked it and we've come a long way since Episode 1, but the core of our sound was established then. As we went from Season 1 to Season 2, we needed more people, more hands on deck. Now you have Eric Di Stefano as sound designer, Max Holland as sound editor/dialogue editor, Eli Akselrod as sound effects editor, and Mika Anami and Kevin Senzaki as sound designers, right? We have a few people, everybody working super hard to get to where we're at. And I still think we could use more time to polish even more! I'm familiar with that situation! I'll get to the end of a two-day mix, and there are usually a few scenes where you look back and realize you could have had even more fun with them if you just had more time! How many days do you get to mix? It's very quick. We try to do five days of sound edit. And we have such passion for it, sometimes we'll put in some extra work. You feel like you did something so amazing that it deserves something. So, after Season 1 when we were not lucky enough to get nominated for anything, it made us all work harder for Season 2. With five days of unsupervised mix, clients' notes, and outputs and deliverables, it takes a lot of people working a little bit harder than that, but that's what we aim for every episode. Your final dialogue track is, for the most part, very clean, and I'm sure the source material is often not. That is Max Holland. I'll give Max all the credit for the dialogue edit. We've been working together, along with Eric, on and off TELEVISION NON-FICTION, VARIETY OR MUSIC – SERIES OR SPECIALS 100 FOOT WAVE S2 EP. 5 "Lost at Sea" b y K u r t K a s s u l k e C A S