Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1521562
38 S U M M E R 2 0 2 4 I C A S Q U A R T E R L Y Blake built for the Foley stage that extends three feet down and is a set of wood rafters and lattices. There's a wood panel. If we were to pull that thing up, there is at least 120 pounds of wood structure underneath that panel, and that just completes the sound and makes it sound real, not just a piece of wood on top of the empty concrete block. We also created the sound of the debris. BC: We used a mixture of leaves, and some mag, and then we got a pom-pom that gives the high sprinkly end. Drop some sand or small rocks in there to get the plinks of stuff. Snow falling doesn't sound like much in real life, but in a film, you want to hear something, just little things that give it a little character, even though it's not real. Our whole job here is to make real stuff with fake sounds sound real again. There's a certain expectation that when you go see a movie, whether it's a documentary or a Marvel film, things are going to have sound even when they don't in real life. If you go ultra-realistic with it, you're going to be left wanting something. JF: That's my favorite thing about collaborating with Blake. He's got the eye for detail, and I'm trying to get into the head of the characters, even if it's a tree. Combined, we're able to do anything from helicopter crashes to character work. What mics do you use? What type of processing do you do? Is any of it in the box, or is it all outboard? BC: It's a slight mixture of both. It's mostly outside of the box. I have an H9000 harmonizer, and the way I have it coming into Pro Tools, I can blend it all with the mic signal and just add the low bottom end of the groans or pitch it live as it's happening. I have some Distressors and EQ's, mic pre's, and reverb units. The way I learned Foley was at One Step Up with Dan O'Connell and John Cucci. They brought me on, having never mixed Foley before, so they taught me everything, and they used outboard gear. When I went to Skywalker, they didn't have those things. I had to ask them. They hired me because of the pedigree of my previous work. When I got here at PlayStation, I made sure that we had all the same types of things, but the biggest one is that the H9000 can have multiple signal chains from one unit and have four insert returns coming into my template where I have a reverb, a sub effect, and a pitch shifter. It's all printed. I don't give options of the dry signal because I feel if I'm giving that separation, why do the effects? I'd worked at Paramount before where we did restoration-type stuff. So, when we did 32 Sounds, the archival footage scene with the straps on the piano, I knew how to deal with it from matching new performances. And what about in the box? BC: In the box, I have a suite of Eventide gear. Some of the FabFilter Pro stuff for some multi-band compressing. What do you use for subharmonics? BC: I used to do the dbx 120 hardware, but now I'm just in the box with Avid Pro Sub and the Lo-Fi plugins, where I mix the two of those together and then also boost the EQ—some of the lows—and then I bring that in just to my main thing. Your mic choice and preamps? JF: We were on the Sennheiser MKH800. We typically run between the Millennia HV-3C and John Hardy M-1. We were using the API 3124 for a little bit. BC: I was using Focusrites, too. My favorite is the Martin Sound, MS-10 JF: The cool thing about the M-1 is you get that VU meter. And EQ? BC: The Great River EQ-2NV. I also have the GML 8200. Where was the voiceover recorded? SG: Bobby Johanson is a legend and a genius. Mark wanted to use an immersive mic. We wanted that to happen, and Bobby said, "It's a dead room, why would we want that?" It makes a huge difference. It's this thing that nobody on earth except sound people would ever notice, but it was great. Mark was so tickled, he said, "I've been wanting to do that for 40 years." So that's pretty cool. MM: We did a clever thing at Harbor in New York with Bobby Johansen, who is our ADR mixer. We re-recorded all of Sam's VO for the non-live version in Ambisonics. I convinced Sam that I wanted him to have this sort of omnipresence, and if we just put out a U87, his movie would sound like every other documentary with a voiceover. Bobby will tell you he was skeptical. "I don't think you should do this." Bless him! He broke with tradition, and said, "If that's what you want, we're L-R: Supervisor and re-recording mixer Mark Mangini MPSE, Foley artist Joanna Fang MPSE, and director Sam Green