Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/462877
35 WINTER 2015 / CINEMONTAGE the final." "It was a very busy mix," Rudloff confirms. "We re-recorded everything in 7.1-channel format, and then post-produced an Atmos soundtrack." But Eastwood didn't want American Sniper to be a war movie, according to Rudloff. "He needed the audience to understand what Chris Kyle [the lead character] was going through both at home and in Iraq," he says. "To emphasize that sense of gritty realism, we had very little score; instead we focused on the solitary life of the Navy SEAL working alone. In place of percussion hits, for example, we had sound design or the weapons themselves. We tried to keep everything simple; Clint was comfortable with maintaining the truth of the story, but with a dramatic license. Bradley Cooper, one of the film's producers [and lead actor] came to our playbacks and was thrilled at how the soundtrack helped clarify a scene he had concerns with during the editing." NBCUniversal StudioPost's Alfred Hitchcock Stage was where Taylor handled dialogue and music and Montaño did sound effects for the mix of co-writer/director Alejandro G. Iñárritu's Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance). This is the first of two Oscar nominations this year for Taylor — the second being Unbroken — and the seventh for Montaño, also including Unbroken. "Birdman is so different and unique that I was totally honored when we received the nomination," Montaño says. The team also received CAS and BAFTA nominations. "Remaining faithful to the director's vision was our biggest challenge," admits Taylor, who has worked on four previous films with Iñárritu, "and to honor his aggressive tastes in which the [percussion- centric] score is a powerful component. The drums had to play! We did our first 5.1-channel mix and then secured reactions from Alejandro during the 20-day mix. We had no pre-dubs, and kept everything live through the finals." Montaño adds, "It was an artistically challenging, fun roller-coaster ride." "We secured great production tracks with four microphones on every actor," Taylor explains. "I had the choice of one or two booms, with the remainder being body mics. I could pull up whatever I needed to maintain the correct balance between close and distant miking, to honor the changing ambiences during the long, continuous takes." "There were a lot of sound effects tracks," confirms Montaño, "including Foley, atmospheres and transitional backgrounds — layers that I could use to establish subtle changes between the varying environments, from the theatre's corridors, to the nearby bar, into the audience and out into the street. It had to be perfectly seamless to maintain the visual perspectives that pull the audience transparently into the film." "It is very easy to lose focus on a soundtrack," Taylor concedes. "For such a complicated, story-driven film like Birdman, we always put dialogue for the primary character down the center channel; all other voices are panned off to either side. And we worked hard to ensure that the audience could follow critical dialogue in the theatre's many corridors while the drums were driving the action." Taylor and Montaño reprised their roles on Universal Studios' Dub 6, and then in Dolby Atmos immersive format on the Alfred Hitchcock Stage, for the 7.1 Jon Taylor, left, and Frank Montaño. Photo by Gary Krueger