Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1545202
be every producer's dream. A film project Matt has fostered at the studio is nominated for a Golden Globe. Matt's insecurities get the best of him as he fears the film's director (Zoë Kravitz in a cameo appearance) won't thank him during her acceptance speech. He repeatedly approaches Kravitz, trying to convince her to include him in her speech. At one point, he even attempts to manipulate the teleprompter or influence the speech structure indirectly. The evening quickly devolves into a pathetic and transparent downward spiral. Matt ends up embarrassing himself in front of colleagues, movie stars, and the Hollywood Foreign Press. To make matters worse, Matt learns from Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos (playing himself) that many executives only get thanked because it's written into contracts. The revelation deepens Matt's worst fear: maybe nobody actually respects studio heads at all. Maybe it all means nothing. The cornerstone of The Studio's visual style is long Steadicam walk-and-talk shots. The camera follows the characters as they move through hallways, studio lots, and crowded events, emphasizing the frantic pace of studio decision-making. This approach creates a sense of controlled chaos, mirroring the constant pressure and scrambling that defines the film industry and is something all the technicians who work on the show in real life can relate to, including the veteran sound team. Production sound mixer Buck Robinson CAS is a veteran of more than 20 years in the film and television industry. His credits include The Devil's Rejects, Mindhunter for Netflix, and another Apple TV hit show, Palm Royale. I asked Buck about the challenges of The Studio and the task of capturing quality dialogue with the show's unusual visual style. "When I first read the script, I thought, 'Are they going to do these episodes as 30-minute continuous shots?' Our initial preparation was to have two completely redundant sound carts that would cower each half of the walk and talks. I brought Nick Allen to work the second cart and man the boom. As we dove a little deeper, we realized that there was no way the actors were going to get through 28 pages top-to-bottom. We were assured there would be some transition points that would be stitched together to appear as one shot. We only had to use the redundant cart once. We did have a bag rig on hand for several scenes that start in a car and travel to a second location where the scene continues and transitions to a sound cart at that second location. This technique is most notable in episode two of the series entitled 'The Oner.' "The first dialogue for the Golden Globes episode begins in a limousine, but the bag rig was not necessary. The start point for the limo was at the end of the range for the RF but within acceptable range," Buck recalls. L-R: Buck Robinson CAS, Fred Howard, Lindsey Alvarez CAS, Brian Magrum CAS, and Ron Mellegers