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 53 baked in, and since they don't want to do a lot of ADR, a lot of that fork stuff is in there. They're so good at matching what's in production. I don't know if they went through a bunch of different fork props for this episode, but it matched enough where I didn't have to worry about that. That's what I've come to expect from them. RYAN COLLISON: Thank you, Major. This episode really did come down to these ASMR kind of moments where it's so hyper- focused and detailed and minute. We can break glass and throw things across the room all day, but there is an element of detail to the series in general and especially to this episode. We really have these moments, big and small to explore. That's what we're trying to do. Make this show as great as the actors are trying to do and as powerful as the writing and the music and all these fantastic little moments. We want to be a part of the life of it. Can you share some of the moments you're addressing with sound? RC: Smoking really brings out a lot of the torture that Richie is going through, especially when he's speaking to his ex-wife. He's really dragging on that stupid thing so hard and with so much pain. When Richie is cleaning his apartment, it's really a variety of sound that we're trying to provide with everything he's taking off the table. It's so meaningful what he's doing. The paper and the dishes, and this and that. I don't want to say it records itself, but really, they give us these opportunities to really deliver these sounds. It's a great way that we get to express ourselves and show ourselves what we can do. When it comes to picking props, is the gut instinct for your Foley artists to grab true-to-life props, or do you try and use props that are bigger than the actual prop you see on screen? RC: Sometimes. Before we get too creative with it, we have to do something that's going to make sense and that's going to sound right, because it's easy to pick it out when it doesn't sound right. Sometimes we grab the exact prop that they're using, and even though it's metal, it sounds like plastic, and I tell them it's not going to work. We're going to need something with a little more texture. The fork, as the episode is called, might have a little too much shing, or I want it to shing more. But it's really got to be appropriate for the moment more than anything. Grabbing an inventive and creative prop is good, but it's really got to be something that's going to make sense and add to the drama or the comedy or whatever it may be. Scott, tell me about some of the obstacles you encounter working on this show. SS: On any given day, we have a cast count that can go from a dozen people down to two people. So far, we've been lucky the dozen people have happened on stage, but there have been instances where we have a pretty big cast on location. We have four different sound carts now. The largest cart, which is 16 channels, has fortunately only lived on stage. Then we have an intermediate cart that is 12 channels, so we can accommodate essentially 10 wireless and two boom channels on that. Then we have a mini-cart that is eight channels that is small enough that we can get it upstairs into the apartments. And we have another mini-cart that is small enough to take on an L train and other really tight locations. So, one of the biggest challenges is just figuring out what can we get away with in a given location without getting into something bigger than what we really need. Is anything shot on set or is everything practical locations? SS: It's a mixture of both. The Beef restaurant is down on a very busy street in Chicago. Occasionally, we've been able to get traffic control there, but usually it is what it is. There's a lot of construction going on, along with all the usual city noise. We just hope for the best. If they don't shoot it at rush hour, we consider ourselves lucky. We were shooting on the L train just yesterday, which is always a fun experience. Fortunately, this time around, no dialogue on the L, but dialogue right at the bottom of a L-R: Production sound mixer Scott D. Smith CAS, Sound Lounge EP of Film + TV Rob Browning, and re-recording mixer Steve "Major" Giammaria CAS