Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1521956
51 S U M M E R Q 2 I S S U E such a lush, living atmosphere. We found a collection of scientific recordings, "Bird Sounds of Japan." Each track contained time of year, location, etc., all that nerdy info we love, which helped guide where all the birds were placed in the show. It's hard to find usable nature recordings from Japan without modern language and/or technol- ogy. We were really building this natural world from the ground up using what we could find purely as a reference to sonically match frogs, crickets and other insects. Russell: I've been known throughout my career to enjoy wreaking havoc on planet Earth on many occasions (like on "Arma- geddon"). That's a joke, but I thoroughly enjoy it. But in "Shōgun," when a massive earthquake hits Toranaga's village, thou- sands of his soldiers, women and children are completely wiped out. Toranaga, who was buried alive in the quake, was saved by Blackthorne and others digging him out with their bare hands. It's a very emotional scene and the culmination of a true bond between two of our lead characters. This was just one of many cinematic experienc- es the sound team was able to create for "Shōgun." Brian, Jim and Ben created such wonderful sound design that was just eerie and haunting and on point. The shifting of the earth had such depth and dynamics and a level of detail and definition that made it, sonically and dramatically, one of my favorite sequences. Pederson: I wanted to add here that the sequence originally had score all the way through. Justin wanted to explore the option of letting the quake play naturally, without music, so, just before the earth- quake struck, we pulled music, and what an effect it had. Greg also pulled out all living nature sounds leaving just wind. Those couple seconds of unease did the trick. Armstrong: The perfect example of "addition by subtraction." CineMontage: What role did the music play in helping to set the tone in both the quiet and more brutal moments? Pederson: I had the good fortune to have met Atticus and Leo Ross on a series we worked on together a number of years ago. It was a show dealing with the supernatural, demonic possession, and had a dark horror side to it. Their score back then delivered the dark edge and tonal fear you'd expect with lots of distortion and tortured har- monics. When I heard early on that Atticus and Leo (along with Nick) were going to be the composers for "Shōgun," I was excited to hear what their take would be on such an epic saga. I expected there would be less of a traditional score with a large orchestra, and more of a contemporary sounding score that would still fit the scale of "Shōgun," but uniquely so. I recently asked Leo: where does the design of the score on a show like this come from? He said, "We want to score the emotion and the character's intentions. It's less about geography and the time period." If you look at the characters in "Shōgun," even though we do have beautiful sets and costumes and locations, there are many duplicitous characters here. The score perfectly addresses the darkness in many of our characters. I want to give a shout-out to our music editor, Melissa Muik, who was with us the whole time. She has a great relationship with Atticus and Leo and was a terrific asset on the stage. She was able to quickly manipulate the music stems and reposition them in a way that made Atticus and Leo happy, and at the same time, she also served Justin's intention for whatever the score was trying to do in that moment. Russell: In creating a well-balanced ar- ticulate sound mix, we treated this project like a feature film. Steve and I have very sim- ilar cinematic sensibilities because we've mixed a number of projects together. We both adhere to the philosophy that dialogue is king, and the narrative of the story and establishing clarity for these characters is key to our process. If Steve says, "Hey, can you pull that impact back?" I'm already on that fader. I'm feeling the same thing. We're very much in sync that way, so you get to a more refined and detailed final mix a lot faster. We always strive for clarity and a well-balanced soundtrack with a great dynamic range, artist definition and detail. So as much as I love great sound effects and sound design and all of that, we are so cautious of making sure that the clarity within our dialogue track is pristine. Down to the nuance of subtle breaths and efforts. And I think we've achieved that throughout the series. The music is obviously such a strong driving force and emotional component to this project. I recently rewatched the show after having been away from it for quite some time, and one of the things I mentioned to Steve and Brian is the in- credible restraint that we showed holding back on the effects side to allow the music to live tonally and rhythmically in a great w a y. T h e m u s i c i s j u s t e x t ra o rd i n a r y throughout the show. Hats off to the entire music department. That restraint allowed dynamics to have a powerful effect: from the most delicate water trickles to the bold sword clanks, to the lightest whispers, to the massive Taiko drums. We hope you hear it all. I'm so ex- cited that the viewing audiences have been able to hear the work that we've all done. Armstrong: A lot of times, it would be someone from the composing team who would ask, "Hey, can we try this scene without music?" The handoff between their modern soundtrack and our traditional, more nature-centric sound design made for a happy marriage of the two. It's a direct result of us being able to have those discus- sions — "would this work better without music," or "should we add something?" To have the comfort and confidence to make those suggestions is special. The entire sound crew even worked side by side with many of the producers, including Hiroyuki Sanada (who also plays Yoshi Toranaga) and Eriko Miyagawa — from the Japanese ADR sessions to the final mixes. We are all so incredibly proud to be considered part of the "Shōgun" family. ■ EPIC SOUNDS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 30