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Fall 2025 – LOCAL695.COM 37 ex-wife, Tiffany, to her new beau, Frank. It also features nearly every member of the Berzatto family. Predictably, this results in some moments of high drama. Midway through the episode, we see Richie and Tiffany's young daughter crawling underneath a huge table of food and drink, in an attempt to escape the impending "stepfather-daughter" dance with Frank. Richie soon follows and does his best to assuage her fears. Before long, most of the Berzatto family and a few other guests are under the table in a free-for-all group therapy session focused on the fears of each of the characters. The scene presented unique hurdles for the Sound Department. While we could employ the usual approach of slapping a lav mic on each of the actors, we knew that the actors would be jostling around under the table, crouched over, with wardrobe selections that were sure to be the enemy of good sound. And while we might be able to get a boom mic underneath the actors on close-ups, wide shots would show the entire floor and underside of the table. There were no easy options here. The only solution was to figure out a way to employ mics hidden on the underside of the table, which was composed of ¾ inch plywood, and aged down with a light faux stain finish. The standard approach of PZM mics attached under the surface was going to be a non-starter, even if they were recessed to be flush with the underside of the table. In addition, there was the issue of actors and objects bumping into the table, which would be transmitted into the plywood and subsequently picked up by the mics. Hardly an ideal scenario for dialog recording. After considering all the options, the only approach that seemed workable was to employ small mics embedded in the underside of the table. Fortunately, for the scenes that took place with the actors under the table, the tabletop itself would not be seen on camera (Insider scoop: The tabletop shown in the reception scenes was a second table laden with the usual food and drink set dressing). The next problem was to figure out how to hide the mics from camera view, as well as isolating them from any vibration that might be induced from the plywood surface. The most straightforward approach was to drill holes in the table surface and insert small diameter lavalier mics with foam to isolate them from the plywood. The art department was not particularly enthralled with this approach, but after we assembled a mock-up of the table with mics and foam in place, and aged to match the wood surface, they relented. So, now we had sixteen more mics to deal with, in addition to lav mics on the actors and a boom mic. Since the actors would move around during the scene, we only had a rough idea of what mic(s) might pick up their dialog for any given part of the scene. The only answer for this was an additional 16-channel mixer, with a separate mix track consisting of just the zone mics for the Picture Editors to work with. In the end, we maxed the channel capabilities on the Sound Devices Scorpio recorder that we employ for most of our stage work, with all the mics isolated, and two mix tracks. Needless to say, the Dialogue Editor (Evan Benjamin) was rather astonished when he received thirty-two channels, which was well in excess of even the most complicated scenes we had done to date. Soundminer was his friend in helping to sort out all the tracks, along with a plot of the table showing mic positions as a roadmap. One Actor, Five Mics This was not to be the end of pain for Season 4, however. Next up was Episode 8 ("Green"), which includes a mysterious dream sequence with Sydney acting as the chipper host of a cooking show that quickly takes a turn into a kitchen nightmare. This includes wind and water flooding the set, cabinets banging open and shut, and general mayhem, all of which were actual on-set effects, as opposed to CGI. Given the improvisational nature of the dialog, the goal was to get as useable a track as possible. It's not easy to overcome the noise from a Ritter fan six feet away from set, combined with rain FX, hydraulics, and other assorted noise. But since the set was portrayed as a TV cooking show set, we were able to convince the director that a studio mic boom would be something that would typically be found in this scenario. Consequently, we had the advantage of using a Fisher boom AND include it as part of the set dressing. However, as this was to be a one-take shot, we didn't want to risk it to a single mic. So, in addition to a Sennheiser MKH- 415 on a Fisher Model 2, we also had a mic on the actress, two mics rigged above the table, and a mic hidden in the tabletop. Somehow, the post sound crew was able to extract something usable from all these sources, without resorting to ADR. The Bear is definitely not your typical run-of-the mill episodic TV show. Major challenges for both the production and post- production sound team are routine. Joe Campbell - Boom Operator Michael Capulli - Boom Operator Nicholas Price - Utility Sharon Frye - Utility Eric LaCour - Utility Nick Ray Harris - Boom and Additional Mixer Uriah Brown - Utility Nick Fabellai - Utility Blake Scheller - Utility Mikey Wilson - Utility Tim Edson - Utility Jason Johnston - Boom (Pilot) Carly Perkins - Utility (Pilot) Many thanks to my crew for some stellar work over the run of the show.