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www.postmagazine.com 33 POST JULY 2015 hen the poolside Speedo spec- tacle no longer commands your attention, here's something else for you to point and laugh at this summer — a whole new set of comedic Web series. Diving into the sound, these audio post pros share their series experiences. So pack your tablet and earbuds on your vacation to paradise, and make sure your all-inclu- sive hotel package offers free Wi-Fi. WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER: FIRST DAY OF CAMP One wet, hot summer back in 2001, a little film with a huge cast — Janeane Garofalo, David Hyde Pierce, Molly Shannon, Paul Rudd, Christopher Meloni, Michael Showalter, Elizabeth Banks, Michael Ian Black, Bradley Cooper, Amy Poehler, and Ken Marino, regaled audiences with a tale of camp life in the '80s. Director David Wain's Wet Hot American Summer spoofs everything ridiculous you remember from '80s teen films, pulling inspiration from classic camp comedies like Meatballs and Indian Summer, as well as from films like Do the Right Thing and Dazed and Confused, where the story happens all in one day. Wain's own childhood camp experiences were also a source of material. His new series Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp, based on that 2001 film, will be available July 31 st on Netflix. While supervising sound editor/ re-recording mixer J.M. Davey can't dish out details before the release, he can assure audiences that director Wain's series delivers everything the film had, including original cast, and a set that replicates the original shooting location at camp Towanda in Pennsylvania, even though the series is actually shot in Malibu. "The Camp Firewood set for the series looks exactly the same as in the film. They built cabins that are just spot on," says Davey. "The series is going to be amazing for people who are fans of the original movie." Davey is no stranger to director Wain's sense of humor, having worked with him for years on other satirical comedy series, like Children's Hospital and Newsreaders on Adult Swim. Davey notes that Wain often likes to have fun with different film styles, for example, this season on Children's Hospital there was an Ocean's Eleven-style episode where a character tries to rob a sperm bank instead of a casino. For Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp, Wain creates an episode with a kung fu fight that, sound-wise, references G.I. Joe: Retaliation. "The sound work that the very talented Tobias Poppe and John Marquis did on that film was so much fun. I wanted the kung fu scene to sound like that, a really over-the-top action film," says Davey. Knowing the Wet Hot series was for Netflix, which requires a fully filled M&E for foreign-language versions, Davey was able to plan ahead on how to handle the backgrounds. "It's a summer camp with kids, so there's constant activity, from moment one through the end of the sea- son. We needed to fill the backgrounds with kids doing different activities at different distances," says Davey. He spent many hours recording kids playing in parks and exploring hiking trails around Los Angeles, using a Schoeps M/S stereo rig with KC Active cables that give his recording setup a smaller, more discrete profile. "I was hiking on a trail that goes by Tree People, a nonprofit here in LA that takes care of and plants trees. There must've been a school group because there were whole classes of kids at this demonstration on taking care of trees. I just pretended I was sitting there listen- ing in and I plopped the microphone next to me. No one paid me any attention and I got great recordings of these kids learning about trees, and yelling about water and soil." In crafting the right sound for the Wet Hot series, Davey notes a lot of time was spent on balancing tone. Whether the actors are being ridiculous or delivering lines, they take it completely serious. Or, when a scene transforms into a summer blockbuster action film, like the kung fu fight, Davey says they really dive into that world, playing the sound as if, for those two minutes, it actually is a huge action film. "Then there are other times when David [Wain] is playful with the sound. People who are fans of David's work know there is a particular pottery break sound effect that he often uses. Someone on-screen will toss an object that's not a piece of pottery, but when it lands, you hear this pottery break," says Davey. "We spent a lot of time balancing when to play the sound straight and let the joke work on its own, and when to dip into that comedy territory." #CANDIDLY NICOLE Forget everything you remember about the vacuous Nicole Richie of The Simple Life. Everyone makes mistakes. All grown up now, the Nicole Richie of the AOL Originals #Candidly Nicole series is down-to-earth, often witty, and always extremely entertaining. The popular AOL Originals series, produced by Telepictures and World Of Wonder, made the jump to VH1 and became a half-hour series, with Season 2 premiering July 29 th . Of course the fun is still continuing on AOL, where #Candidly Nicole is already into its second season. Re-recording mixer Erik Valenzuela of Sound Waves Post, LLC in Los Angeles works on both the AOL Originals and the VH1 episodes of #Candidly Nicole. Woking with post production supervi- sors Travis DeCola and Nahall Esteghamat at World of Wonder, Valenzuela is able to talk with the production teams on #Candidly Nicole before they head out on a shoot. "Sometimes audio post production studios are separate from the production companies, but I have direct communication with the production company so I can help identify issues that might come up on future episodes," says Valenzuela. When shooting reality series, situations can arise quickly and funny lines can be lost if people aren't miced correctly. "Talking about those issues be- forehand allows us to deliver better audio and it brings up the production value of all the episodes." Whether it's headed to air or going online, Valenzuela handles the mix the same. For each episode of #Candidly Nicole, an AAF/OMF from picture edit, which includes music, is transferred into a Pro Tools 10 template that Valenzuela designed specifically for #Candidly Nicole. The dialogue is edited, and W J.M. Davey focuses on tone when crafting the sound of Netflix's Wet Hot American Summer (above and opposite page).