Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1545202
44 S U M M E R 2 0 2 6 I C A S Q U A R T E R L Y have to make me a spot. The way this stage is laid out, they go in circles; the show is always on the move. I would literally have to be pushing my cart and mixing.' I went to a whiteboard and showed it to them. They said, 'No problem. We're reserving this spot for you' and they painted it on the ground." There are six antennas set up at the stage (two more will be added for Season 3). "Directionals on all four corners and in the center stage, we have two omni antennas." Von elaborates, "Additionally, there are three utility carts strategically placed at the front doors, right where everyone walks in. That's where Cristina and Yervant wire all the talent so that I can listen to them during the one-and-only rehearsal." The post team had its own learning curve. Re-recording mixer Ed Carr explains, "We were told there would be no music, it would play a very small part, so we decided to make everything very energetic with the sound. We put backgrounds in really strong. We did phones, we did all sorts of things to fill up those spaces. We thought it was great. So, John Wells came in and pretty much went, 'No, this is not what I wanted.' It was kind of a remix on the fly. He wanted to highlight the specific stuff that had been done in ADR and specific Foley stuff so that it wasn't this wall of noise. He wanted it to be very specific. Then we understood what he wanted." Todd elaborates, "Ed and I watch the offline before we mix it to get an idea of the sonic shape of the episode. We want to see what the picture editors have focused on so we don't bury an important story point that we missed because we weren't paying attention to the dialogue." Foley mixer Alex Jongbloed continues, "On the Foley stage, we start with the cloth pass under the entire episode—so we do get to watch it all. I annotate where the focal points are, which parts are really driving the story in each episode." "One of the biggest challenges is that there's no music in the show," ADR mixer Tami Treadwell reports, "so everything that we do is heard. It's not buried under music." Alex confirms, "We all kind of reinvented our workflows to deal with the sheer volume of tracks. There are 15, 18 main characters, and you're constantly moving; there's a continuation and continuity throughout the season that you're trying to keep consistent. And any mistake you have is either amplified or not being played at all." Tami agrees, "Alex and I are both doing live recordings for Todd and Ed to blend with Von's production tracks. I've done things on this show that I've never done before—but will definitely do again. For instance, to have it sound organic when the camera is following characters through areas of the ER with different levels of background activity, we swing the boom toward or away from the loop group. We loosened the height adjustment of my tall boom stand so it can rotate freely. Sound supervisor Bryan Parker will position the group actors for the density he needs, give them direction on where within the mic's movement they should start or stop talking, Alex Jongbloed CAS Ed Carr III CAS