Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1545202
22 S U M M E R 2 0 2 6 I C A S Q U A R T E R L Y about wanting it to be clear, but that's the way it sounds like in racing. And then we had another actor who came in and, for some reason, we didn't get the right helmet. We couldn't mic him that way. So, I just had him hold the lavaliere and bring it in and out with each cue just to try to match it. We played it back and everyone at Skywalker said it worked out perfectly. GR: I've got a couple little things that I'll mention. Part of our story has this element of trying to get around the dirty air. And for a while, we didn't really have a sound that defined dirty air. That was a challenge because, really, all it comes down to is a layer of just flat-out distortion which we didn't realize was going to be the answer. We talk about dirty air, and we even built a component for a car that's designed to drive through the dirty air. But what is the dirty air? You can't see it. You can't hear it. So very strategic choices of where to play it and where not to play it and how much of it to have and where to pan it and where to put it. It only happens a couple of times, but I want to believe it's tastefully done. We also worked right up until the print master on the Las Vegas race where Sonny Hayes is driving angry. And that was actually a very delicate balance between the score, the car, and the dialogue. When I say dialogue, it's not necessarily driver to pit crew, but more about how much of those PA's to use. We had to establish those PA's at that point as kind of our anchor for a lot of the play-by-play. But at this point, we were really using it to play Sonny's perspective. JP: The most unexpected thing is that when I was pre-mixing and we were doing a temp mix, he basically wanted us to all be on the same page that every single race in the movie should sound different. It was a good challenge for us to try to keep it as interesting as possible but have each one sound as different as possible. The first Formula One race in the movie is at Silverstone, and in that race, there's no music. So, Joe's like, all right, this is the effects department. Make it as exciting as possible. All we had were the announcers and the cars. That was one aspect. And then on the second F1 race, it was a Hungarian Grand Prix. And that one was more like a music video, very music driven. Still some effects here and there but definitely leaning more on music. And then in Monza, it was a little bit of everything. Score, cars, the accident happens and all that. And then we go to Vegas and the entire race takes place inside Sonny's head. So, we're kind of underwater, kind of like going into a dream state. AM: I honestly didn't have any challenges. I had a great team. It's good news for me knowing I'm going to hand my stems to Gary Rizzo. Gary and I have done so many films together. He's won three Academy Awards for films that I mixed the music for. So, I know that he's a very music-oriented dubbing mixer. I know that we're in good shape and I can make things as punchy as I want and I know that he'll handle it well. The team with Gary and Juan, they really do love the music. So, when the music is there, it comes through as opposed to having to battle for it. I think the first film I did with Gary was Tron: Legacy and we got to be very good friends. We have a good choreography between us. DL: I ended up doing Foley because I'm kind of winding down from supervising shows. I was a supervising sound editor for many years. It's really been an eye opener in many ways. I already had a complete concept about film being what it is, it's a fabricated reality. Sometimes you have to enhance reality. Just the other day, I can't discuss the show, but we were at a cafe. A couple was sitting across from each other, and one of the couples poured sugar in the other participant's coffee. And we had to create the sound of sugar pouring into a cup of coffee. Have you ever heard the sound of sugar pouring into a cup of coffee? No! I mean, usually you're in, say, a diner and the sound of pouring is very quiet, you don't hear it. And even in a recording studio, pouring sugar or any kind of granular substance into a cup that's got liquid in it doesn't really produce any sound if you put a mic even two inches