Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1542296
SOUND JUDGMENT BEHIND THE POST AUDIO OF 'REASONABLE DOUBT' Aida Kattan. 42 C I N E M O N T A G E F E A T U R E By Robin Whittaker I f y o u h av e n' t y e t w a tc h e d " R e a - sonable Doubt," now's the time to catch up. The Hulu legal drama stars Emayatzy Corinealdi as Jax Stewart, a whip-smart Los Angeles defense attorney who chal- lenges the justice system as fiercely as she navigates the turbulence of work, family, and her own complicated personal life. It's a series driven by bold choices, both on screen and behind the scenes. With Season 3 having premiered in September, I spoke with members of the show's post-production sound team to find out what it's like crafting the audio world of a series that's unapologetically female-for- ward, from its storylines to its creators — to your author, one of the music editors. T h e s h o w w a s c r e a t e d b y R a a m l a Mohamed, a powerhouse writer and show- runner, and her influence resonates across the production pipeline, especially in post. At the helm of the sound team is Danika Wikke, whom members may remember from the CineMontage Q2 2024 cover story on "Only Murders in the Building." At press time, Wikke had the rare distinction of be- ing sound supervisor for all three of Hulu's top streaming shows. Once Danika locks the edit, her mixes head to the dub stage. There, dialogue and music mixer Colette Dahanne takes over, alongside sound effects/Foley/background mixer Jason Dotts. It's a true team effort, one with a notable number of women in key roles. Music editing is led by me and Maximil- ian Rubell, with music supervision from Jen Malone and Whitney Pilzer, and Sarah Chapeck coordinating. Overseeing it all is co-producer Aida Kattan, backed by her all-women post team: associate producer Karyna Bhinvatdhana, post coordinator Bri Worthy, and post PA Chay Crumble. Recently, I spoke with Danika, Colette, and Aida about the layered audio landscape of "Reasonable Doubt" and what it takes to bring justice to the mix. Robin Whittaker: Danika, tell us a little about your process. You do a lot of different shows. Danika Wikke: Getting all the elements to the mix stage involves the same steps, but obviously the content is different. Raamla really knows what she wants to hear, and music plays a noticeably big part in this show. We do a spotting session before we really get started on anything. That's the process in which we watch the episode together and discuss what Raamla wants. We talk about all the different elements involved; what we want to hear or not hear in a specific scene, etc. We talk about the dialogue and whether it's clean enough or needs ADR. Sometimes there is a need for discussion if, say, a scene was cut down or removed, and we now need to record an ADR line to make sense of the storyline. For example, when we are in the therapist's office, it is a room high up in a building. It should sound different from when we are down on street level, but we still need some sounds to poke through here and there to keep us in that space. It's a balancing act. Then there is the music. The show's composers are the famed artists Adrian Yo u n g e a n d A l i S h a h e e d M u h a m m a d [newly inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with the hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest]. Robin Whittaker: Aida, your job involves keeping a lot of balls in the air. We only deal with the sound and music side of things, but you are also dealing with visual effects, color, and I don't even know what else. How do you do it? Aida Kattan: Post actually starts in prep, before the show even goes into pro-