Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1521956
C O V E R S T O R Y 34 C I N E M O N T A G E Mathew Waters. Wikke, who grew up outside of San Francisco, always wanted to break into the movie business, but it wasn't until she was going to school at California State Univer- sity, Northridge, that she settled on sound. "I grew up with a theater background," she said. "Working with actors feels natural to me. When recording ADR, I really love the aspect of getting their dialogue to work. It's a puzzle to me — trying to get a word or a new phrase or a better per- formance, and then making it fit." Having established herself on numerous series, in- cluding "Brooklyn Nine-Nine," Wikke won a Golden Reel Award for "Only Murders in the Building." CineMontage recently spoke with Wa- ters and Wikke about the show, its cast, and its intricate sound world. CineMontage: Mathew, what appealed to you about "Only Murders in the Building"? Mathew Waters: I've been doing this a long time, and I'm probably in the last bridge of my career. I saw in the trades that Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez were doing a show together, and I just really admired them. I thought, "Wow, I would love to work with them." I kind of made it a mission to try and get the show. I had an interview, and then, luckily, I got the job. I usually do bigger tent poles, but to me, this is big. CineMontage: Danika, you began as the dialogue editor on Season 1. Danika Benton Wikke: It was complete- ly random, and I'm so lucky I got on it. I was in between supervising a few different shows and I literally had a two-month lull where I had nothing to do. I'm with Formosa [Group], and they said, "Hey, do you want to cut a show called 'The L Word'?" I'll cut anything, but then they said they got another show in sooner. I saw Steve Martin and Martin Short—I love them. I started with Episode 2, so I was like, "Who the hell is Tim Kono [a key character in Season 1]? What just happened?" I didn't have a clue what was happening, but I cut it anyway. I was there the whole season, and then we went back to Episode 1. The whole time I was starting to piece the story together, but I still didn't really know what happened and who this guy was. CineMontage: How did you become co-supervising sound editor starting on Season 2? Wikke: Matt said, "I would like for you to cut dialogue again," but he was actually going back and forth between New York and LA because he had another show. He said, "I'm going to need some help supervising because I'm going to be in New York the whole time other than the very last mix." I said, "Absolutely." CineMontage: Can you both talk about working with the dialogue on the show? Waters: The actors are tremendous and the writing is tremendous, so one of the main things I do is to get the dialogue to be as true to their performances as possible. I want you to hear every line. It starts with the production sound mixer, Joseph White. I've worked with him on a few films prior to this, and we work well together. Wikke: The sound of the dialogue is incredible. It's one of the better-sounding shows I've ever gotten, so in that sense, it's already coming to us in a good place, which really helps. This show is very minimal on ADR; it's really only used for technical reasons, such as when we don't have some- thing that we need story-wise or we need to fix something. Waters: When we get the material, we go through and edit and we find production alts. Danika is very good at that. I also con- sider myself a good listener, maybe because I'm from Kentucky. When I'm mixing, I'm thinking, "What are they saying? What is she saying? What is he saying?" And if I have to say that, then I'm going to call for a production alt. Wikke: It can be something really silly like an "s": "I need a better 's' in the begin- ning of this line." But there are a lot of little things that we add that might not feel like big things, but they do help in bringing out the dialogue and the performance. CineMontage: Danika, is the process made easier because you have actors with such a command of language? Wikke: It totally helps. I would say the hardest one is Selena, because she does have a definite tonal shift in her voice. She just has an interesting voice, so a lot of times I swap out, or at least try to hit, certain syl- lables with her, depending on the situation. CineMontage: Is it satisfying to make small changes that end up having a big impact? Wikke: There are times where I'll have to create a word out of nothing. During the last season, there is a scene in the theater and we needed a line. Uma the neighbor [Jackie Hoffman] was grabbing a Playbill from the usher right before the show starts, and she had lip flap. There was nothing recorded for her. We thought, "We need something for her," and it was the eleventh hour. We were on the stage, and we weren't going to bring her in for ADR. It looked like she was saying a "thank you," because she took the Playbill, but she didn't say that on the day. Just by knowing the show and having all my sessions there, I thought, "OK, what episode would she pos- sibly says 'thanks' or a 'thank you'?" And I thought of a scene in Season 1 where she was in a diner and said "thank you" to the server setting down a plate, and I pulled the "thank you" and I took out the plate sound.