Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1535880
72 M PS E . O R G pasting, but filling out and putting more life into it along the way. We would get the spotting session notes from Ron and follow that. Also, it was really important to follow the temp effects that the picture editor chose, improve and augment them but try to keep it consistent, pretty much. Lots of work went into the crowd environments. A lot of the bar stuff was very challenging. DB: How did you handle the period-piece aspect of the show? AZ: That was hard for BG's, you know, to go out and record BG's you can't use any modern sounds. Right? So, there was a lot of going through the library and finding things that were appropriate. Specific time and place. Same thing with vehicles and phones and all the little quirks and things like that you gotta pay attention to. DB: So, in the "running around trying to get a cab" scene, how many engines did you have to cut when they were running from cab to cab? [laughs] AZ: Well, it's funny because a lot of those engines are sort of that same frequency, so we had to do a little bit of pitch shifting. But yeah, scenes like that, like Ron said, you want to cover it with sound. I need to cover all my bases. I'm going to try to be a little stylistic where I can be. Then Ron would give me notes where he thinks I should pay more attention and make it all a little bit better. DB: And does it hurt when the music goes over it all? AZ: Oh, yeah. [laughs] When I'm watching the episodes, yeah, that's hard because I cut with the music off, usually. It's a big surprise to hear something you work on for four hours completely gone. But you're happy on the inside, you know. You just have to be able to let it go. That's an art in itself. Letting things go and knowing that it's part of the job. DB: The Foley on the show reads so authentic to every environment. How did the Foley team approach each episode? Steve Visscher (supervising Foley editor): That's more George. George is wonderful at placing mics and Marko's performance is fantastic as well. They do that in the studio. My job was, because it was such a condensed schedule, to spot it for them so that they could move quickly, get everything done, and have as little extraneous material as possible. In all honesty, a lot of my process was looking for stuff not to do. There are things that you had to cover, like all the principal's footsteps. Or when a principal was handling a property, you have to do that. On a feature film, they'll do "see a cow, hear a cow." If you see something on the screen, you'll throw something in there, even though it has nothing to do with the story, and it'll quite possibly not survive the mix. We definitely tried not to do that. I provided the focus, they provided the magic when it came to a performance and the mic'ing. Then they gave it back to me. They had to work so quickly. I'm not going to call them sloppy [laughs], but it was not in sync. I then had to spend my time editing for the stage. It usually took me two days to spot an episode, and then four to six days to edit what they would record in three days. DB: That's incredible. George and Marko, you guys are a team. Talk about your process together. George Lara (Foley mixer): Marko and I have been working together for years, maybe 20, 25, 28 years together? Marko Costanzo (Foley artist): So, the happiest 10 years of my life. [laughs] We've been working together a long time. It's in the preparation. Steve got it together for us and then George and I liked to work in groups—like do all the wood footsteps, then all the concrete, and so on. These are just techniques that enabled us to work as quickly as possible. The bottom line is we saw what we needed to do, you give it character, and then editors take it from there. You know, big team effort. GL: Working with Marko is wonderful because he's very consistent and focused, whether it's working the footsteps or props, you know, he is amazing. Steve is the unsung hero of the group because besides spotting the episode he will go through all the material we provided, edit the best performances, and deliver the complete session to Ron. We'd receive each episode and cues from Steve. We screened and listened to the guide tracks to get familiar with the characters shoes or the props we are going to use. Then we started working through the footsteps. We usually looked at each individual surface, carpet, wood, cement, tile, and then recorded all the characters on that surface for the whole episode. Then we'd go for a different surface. It saves us time and effort doing it this way. We usually recorded all the