Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1535806
C I N E M A A U D I O S O C I E T Y. O R G 35 aimed to reflect that fluidity and delicacy in the sound. When the actors would walk on the tatami floors, we also had to pay attention to the floor lines. Depending on which direction the actors walked, their socks would make more sound going forward versus the other direction. This show gave us the opportunity to create sounds we'd never tackled before. It pushed me to go deeper, to experiment more. And I want to say, none of that would have been possible without the support from our sound supervisor, Brian Armstrong. He trusted us and gave us room to work, and I'm really grateful for that. Michael, how often do you start a take and realize the ISO isn't ideally placed? And what do you do when that happens? MW: I never call "cut." I let the scene run and figure we can fix it later. That ties into how I like to work with microphones. I aim for a clean-sounding master and try to keep close-ups ADR and the Pursuit of Precision ADR mixer Takashi Akaku's written responses from Japan (edited lightly for clarity). Do you have specific techniques for matching outdoor versus indoor ADR? That is quite a difficult issue for us to solve perfectly due to the limitation of the studio size. I usually pay attention to the distance and direction between the microphone and the actor to control the reverberation. Sometimes I use blankets to surround the microphone to reduce the reverberation. But I've never had any big trouble about the matching because we can solve it with the processors on the mix stage in most cases. Was direction given in Japanese or English? Mostly Japanese except Anna Sawai because she is bilingual and her character had to speak both. Most of the actors had just Japanese lines, so Mr. Sanada gave them the directions in Japanese. What considerations did you make when recording more intimate or subtle scenes? For subtle scenes, of course, the actors speak calmly and quietly, so I had to consider every noise that the microphone might pick up. I especially had to pay attention to the rustle consistent. A lot of people push the mic in tight on close-ups, but I tell my team to pull back a bit. Even though I love presence, we're telling a story, and if it sounds good in the master, I want that same sound in the close-up. That way, editors can cut between shots without big ambient shifts. If I don't like something in the master, my team will fix it by the time we get to the close-ups. It happens on almost every show, but usually by the end of the first episode, or the first week on a feature, we've got it dialed in. Some people accept clothing noise and other issues as inevitable, but I like to make that stuff disappear. My team is into that, too. SP: And Sam, just to conclude—if you watched Shōgun, you probably heard the Japanese term shukumei. It means "fate." You might say that our collective collaboration and experience on Shōgun—with everything the show has achieved—was shukumei. It was fate, and it's truly been an incredible experience. of the actors' clothing. Proper gain setting is also important. Of course, I had to bring up the gain to capture low-level speaking, but if it's too hot, the noise floor comes up as well, which may pick up too much rustling noise. So, the gain setting should be carefully considered, scene by scene. Was capturing accurate pronunciations and accents challenging? Yes, but it was very important for Shōgun's ADR because we had to pay attention to the old accent that the samurai were speaking. That is very difficult even for Japanese. Mr. Sanada was very particular about it and made no compromises. He attended every ADR session and paid attention to every detail. I was very impressed by his passion and knowledge. Takashi Akaku