Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1541612
40 W I N T E R 2 0 2 6 I C A S Q U A R T E R L Y CAS Award winner Joana remembers "being quite nervous the first time I found myself in the middle of an American team because even the way they asked me to do things was completely different from what I was used to. [There was] a more complex and structured way of doing it." Viktor expanded on that. "Co-productions provide, not only financial and technical support, but also connect authors, actors, and technicians through shared work. The best value in this more closely knit world is being able to heighten our storytelling across all the disciplines by working in a cooperative way." Craig Berkey, with three Academy Award nominations and two CAS Award wins, has had a wonderful international career all to himself. He was born and started working in British Columbia but made his way to Los Angeles in the early '90s, where he began both supervising and mixing projects. After stints at DSP, FX, Disney, and more, he moved up to San Francisco, "working with the Coen brothers and Terrence Malick, mostly at that time." A new chance to work with Joe Wright on The Soloist led to working on Joe Wrights' "next one [Hanna] in London. So that was the start of me working internationally." Craig's workflow highlights how modern technology has made international work smoother and more possible. He was able to move back to Pemberton in Canada, where he set up his editing room and a home Dolby Atmos studio where he can do pre-dubs. As for communication, "The discussion can be had over Zoom about specifics for the film and what we're trying to achieve." Projects can be streamed or sent out to view progress and, when it's time, he can then travel to "London and Rome, and I've mixed in Austin, TX, and New York, and gone down to San Francisco… I've been all over." As for making sure he's personally ready when he touches down around the world, he always wants to leave a few days to accustom his ears to a new stage. "I play back the last thing that I mixed, wherever I am. [I try not to] freak out, because sometimes you go in a room, and it sounds pretty weird. By the time a couple days go by, it sounds pretty normal." There's also sometimes an adjustment when working with new technicians, where they've grown used to having a re-recording mixer who knows all the quirks in patching and routing for a room and others who don't. Craig reminisced that, "I've just got there, and you're in a room, and sometimes you have to take a breath." Craig currently works with Paul Carter, a sound designer in London, and Davide Favarigiotti, a dialogue supervisor in Italy. "So, it's a Canadian, a Brit, and an Italian on the show." An international dub all the way around! It feels like the spread of Hollywood production around the world has led to the spread of both the divides and the creative collaborations that we also feel in the States. People working on smaller projects have to don many hats, but the larger the budget, the greater the chance you have to hire particularly focused individuals in each position. Bigger projects get better budgets, and smaller ones become more challenging to make, with studios—and even country sponsorship—going to larger, more predictable projects. It is the challenge of filmmakers across the world to figure out how to keep all levels of filmmaking—from home-produced to multi-national—vibrant and alive. Igor Vujovic CAS Craig Berkey CAS