Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1545202
26 S U M M E R 2 0 2 6 I C A S Q U A R T E R L Y we'd be regularly adjusting gain staging via the Riedel base station receivers. We also had a backup system on the Wendy house/pit wall in case of RF issues/Bolero failure, which involved Dante under the track to a Sound Devices 888 and a custom headphone amp/mixer designed by Mark McBride. We worked closely with Joe Kosinksi to create some large playback queue beats, made up of Brad and Damson's car dialogue for our cast on the Wendy house/pit wall to interact with, fed to them via the Bolero headsets. Michael Ling and Isla Bathgate knocked it out the park with the complex playback. RF coordination at the tracks was never straightforward, getting assigned multiple different channels depending on which country we were shooting in (UK, Italy, Belgium, Hungary, UAE, and USA). The Sound Devices A20 onboard recordings were a lifesaver. Exterior scenes were shot on Schoeps SuperCMIT's, with a mix of MKH50's and SuperCMIT's on interiors and DPA 4018C's for plants. How was it miking the helmets and helping to create the tension and feeling of being in one of those cars firsthand? GJ: The actors' helmets had push-to-talk noise-canceling driver mics (transmitted back to us and recorded via digital Motorola R7's) and we'd also rig a DPA 4062 up close against the mouth (connection via a breakaway cable down to a Sound Devices A20 in record mode, Velcro dual-locked into the cockpit). Our cast was driving 160 mph-plus whilst delivering dialogue, so the tension and realism was pretty much baked in. There was an incredible team that literally carried me through the job. UK was Dash Mason-Malik, Freya Clarke, and Michael Ling. Then Niall Cropper, Jo Vale, and Isla Bathgate (plus Jake Chilcott and Tom Fennell). USA was Patrick Martens and Michael Primmer with Eva Rismanforoush and Rebecca Chan. Richard Thomas was recording 120-plus tracks of F1 broadcast mics on Pix 970's, with Mark "Gadget" Reed and James Whyard on comms. Mark McBride was tech support and Al MacFeely on second unit. What was the approach for the Foley going into this film to help create this world authentically for both domestic and international audiences? EM: We always try to cover as much as possible to make sure that when we take out the domestic dialogue, we're not missing pieces. We do that by covering all the actions of the actors. We try to make sure we get all their feet. We try to make sure anything they touch we cover. The dialogue editors do their best to help make sure that if we're missing something, we can go back and grab those pieces that they need. It was a quick turnaround. I recorded the first part and then Dennis recorded the other part. I covered a few reels and then they figured out pickups because some of it, they hadn't finished shooting the movie when I worked on it. For a project like this, it was also cool because obviously, they knew what parts were going to be in the movie and they had the roadmap of what the rest of it was going to be. DL: It's very important. It's one of the pivotal needs. In live- action film, when you take the dialogue out, all the production goes away as well. And then you have a twofold problem. You have to record the footsteps, record movement, cloth movement, and nuance. And you have to match it because the mix team and the director are going to want to have the international versions sound as close to the original version. Then there's animation. I've done a lot of animated films, and animation comes with nothing, right? Nothing at all. One of the things I do since I've done a lot of mixing of music is footsteps are like percussion for me. I record it and treat it like it was drums. Technically, it is really part of the art of mixing Foley. Because what wants to poke through the most is the transient. But the sound of the surface or resonance, the nuance of the shoe [needs to be heard]. I suppose when listening to fabricated reality come out of a loudspeaker, the transients dominate. Controlling them and creating a treatment of these transient sounds that contains the peaks and brings the body to the foreground is very important. What were some techniques to help blend the ADR against the dialogue recorded on set? Creating some Foley magic