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RIGHT ON CUE www.postmagazine.com 40 POST NOVEMBER 2015 Warner Bros./DC Comics film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Disney's nautical rescue adventure The Finest Hours. "I'm really passionate about my job," says Sanacore, who owns Foley studio Core Post in Burbank, CA (www.core-post. com), as well as works as a freelance Foley mixer/Foley supervisor/Foley editor at stu- dios like Warner Bros., Sony Pictures and the Formosa Group in Los Angeles. Sanacore's multi-mic approach to capturing Foley uses one mic close to the sound source and one mic posi- tioned further away to capture the sound of the room. "It is critical to try to get variety in the sound of the room. The room dictates what mics you can use to a degree," says Sanacore. For the room mic, his studio is outfitted with an omni- directional mic, like the DPA 4003, but in other studios, that particular mic may not be the right choice for the space. "I might not even be able to use a room mic in a smaller room if I can't really get a convincing room sound," he notes. "Sometimes I'll take the room mic out of the equation if it's not working." For the close-mic, Sanacore alter- nates between a Neumann KMR 81 short shotgun and a large diaphragm condens- er mic depending on the character of the sound. "Most of the time we use the short shotgun for footsteps, typically set four to 10 feet away," he says. Sanacore also likes the KMR 81 for the cloth pass. "It is very smooth and it has a darker tone than some of the other shotguns, which gives a little more fullness to the cloth. If I want a heavier cloth sound, then I will go to a large diaphragm con- denser mic, like the Neumann U87." Sanacore always has a large dia- phragm condenser mic ready-to-go for capturing props. While recording at Core Post with Foley artists Hilda Hodges and Christopher Moriana on the pilot episode of Ash vs Evil Dead, Sanacore chose a custom-modified large diaphragm con- denser mic to capture the meatier, more over-the-top sounds. "I use it for big body falls no matter what the surface is. I frequently go to the large diaphragm for anything metal, especially bigger metal sounds like a car crash or huge metal impacts." It's also his go-to for recording glass and paper, which are typically very bright and harsh. For capturing fine sound details in props, Sanacore prefers the KMR 81. "It can really help you focus in on the details and get more presence, which is helpful for delicate sounds," he says. In Ash vs Evil Dead, he used it for the Foley of Ash's corset being strapped on, to capture all the nuisances of the creaky leather straps and jingling buckles, and for the locking mechanism sound they recorded for Ash's trademark weapon, the chainsaw, when it attaches to his arm. "When he's not using the chainsaw, Ash has a wood hand that we also had a lot of fun playing up." At Core Post, Sanacore typically runs his mics through a GML Model 8304, or other esoteric mic pre-amps, into Pro Tools 10, mixing the mics on-the-fly and recording onto one mono track. "No mat- ter what mics I'm using, it's almost always a single channel as it is going into Pro Tools. I am mixing the multiple mics down to whatever I feel the final version of the sound should be," Sanacore explains. Sanacore had two days to record roughly 500 cues for the pilot episode of Ash vs Evil Dead. One major factor to his workflow efficiency is how well the Pro Tools session is cued by the Foley super- visor or Foley editor. If it's well labeled, and categorized, then the Foley artist can perform more cues in less time. "It really helps when the cue session keeps a single character on the same track when we're doing footsteps. And when we are doing props, we try to keep reoccurring props on the same track." QUANTICO FOLEY MIXER RYAN COLLISON In his 16 years as a Foley mixer, Ryan Collison, at Alchemy Post Sound in Peekskill, NY (www.alchemypostsound. com), has worked on everything from popular TV series, like Nurse Jackie, to Oscar-winning films like Still Alice, Midnight in Paris and Chicago. He and Alchemy Post Foley artists Leslie Bloome and Jonathan Fang are currently working with supervising sound editor Steve Borne and Foley editor Kelly Rodriguez on ABC's new drama series Quantico, which follows a group of young FBI recruits through training at the academy in Quantico, VA. "It's a high energy show and you want to match the mood of the scene," says Collison. "The Foley artists aren't actors on-screen but their job is to help bring out those performances." Collison and the Foley team prepare for each episode of Quantico by review- ing Rodriguez's cued Foley session in Pro Tools, which tells them exactly what sounds are needed and exactly where they need to go. Rodriguez also commu- nicates which sounds are integral to the story and going to stand out in the mix, and which sounds are just needed for coverage, like background footsteps or Collision (inset) uses three Neumann KMR 81s in his setup at Alchemy Post for ABC's Quantico. Sanacore (inset) had two days to complete the Foley for the Ash vs Evil Dead pilot.