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November 2015

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RIGHT ON CUE www.postmagazine.com 41 POST NOVEMBER 2015 props, to fill up the scene. "For Quantico, we are going for all the sounds because they need to be covered for the M&E for foreign distribution," explains Collison. A well-prepared Foley session is an important element in an efficient workflow. Cues need to start right on the action. "If the cue is set to start two or three seconds early, it actually throws off our rhythm," says Collison. And it's important to note other particulars in the session too, like where a surface change happens or any specific details related to a prop. "If it says 'sit down on the couch,' it helps to know if it's a leather couch. Otherwise, we will be trying to figure things out as we go. We may end up re-doing cues because we can't see the couch at one point and then later on we realize that it's really a leather couch." In addition to covering sounds noted in the session, Collison says he and the Foley team may decide to add other sonic details for emphasis, particularly on an intense show like Quantico. For instance, during a punching bag scene in the gym, they might add chain rattles to make the bag hits feel more intense over the course of the scene. "We will try to add as much as we can to help it out," says Collison. "We want to bring out the sounds in the scenes that are important to the story." Collison uses three Neumann KMR 81s in his setup at Alchemy Post — two as room mics and one for close-up. This allows him to easily record perspective changes. For example, if a character on screen is walking from far to near, Collison can adjust the mic mix on-the- fly, gradually bringing up the close-up mic to match the proximity of the char- acter on-screen. He runs the three KMR 81s through an 8-channel Millennia HV- 3D mic pre-amp and mixes everything to one mono track in Pro Tools 11. The eight channels on the pre-amp come in handy for recording footsteps in the lobby of Alchemy Post. "If we need a really live sound, like someone walking through an apartment building lobby or through a tunnel, we try to go for natural ambience because that is better than any processing you can go for," says Collison. He and the Foley team will also record footsteps on-location using a mobile Pro Tools recording setup, an M-box, and of course, the Neumann KMR 81s. But there's one problem to recording Foley in the real world — it's full of real world sounds, like birds, traffic and even weather. "We bought a boat horn (an air horn) so we can chase the birds away by blasting the horn if they were really being picked up on the recording," notes Collison. "One time it started raining re- ally heavily and we had to wait about 20 minutes for the rain to stop. Recording on-location is great but it's a real time killer. When we're recording on the stage it's so fast and we know the setup so well. We know how to get the sound we want right away." HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY — PART 2 FOLEY MIXER DAVID JOBE & SOUND SUPERVISOR JEREMY PEIRSON Back together for the final Hunger Games installment, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2, supervising sound editor Jeremy Peirson and Foley su- pervisor John Thomas, at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, CA (www.wbsound. com), collaborated with Foley mixer David Jobe at the Technicolor Foley stage on the Paramount Lot in LA (www. technicolor.com). Since Mockingjay – Part 2 picks up where Part 1 left off, the Technicolor Foley stage was already all set. "Since we did the first part, we had most of what we needed already on the Foley stage," says Jobe. "The direction we got on Part 1 we just followed that through the second film." Working with Thomas's Foley cued Pro Tools session, Jobe recorded a few scenes on each reel and submitted those to Peirson for approval. "Because we have worked together for so long, we have a really good relationship and there is a lot of trust," says Peirson. "We can talk about what works and what I'm looking for, so that once they get started David [Jobe] knows what I need." In Jobe's multi-mic setup, he uses a Neumann KMR 81 for the close-mic and an omnidirectional Sennheiser MKH 20 for the room mic. In addition, he's recently added an AKG C414 to be used as a secondary room mic or as a secondary close mic. "I work with two Foley artists and that allows each one of them to work independently on the same thing on screen, especially for props. They can be at opposite ends of the room with two different mics and I still have a third room mic too," says Jobe. "It's really been helpful. The C414 has a different color to it. It's different from the KMR 81." All the mics go through Pueblo Audio pre-amps and are mixed to one mono track in Pro Tools. "The Pueblo pre-amps are extreme- ly quiet and can handle a lot of level and transients, which Foley can have." Jobe typically breaks down complex sounds into smaller segments to give Peirson more control during the design and edit. For example, if a character sits down in a chair, then that action may be dissected into four individual sounds — a hand touch on the chair, a chair slide, a sit down and a creak. "I feel we can pro- duce a better sound if we break things up, because of the dynamics and the feel. It's really much more specific," says Jobe. In Pro Tools, he uses color-coding to help quickly ID different categories of sound. "We approach the sound in food groups, meaning we do a run of chairs, or all the hands, or all the bow-and-ar- row sounds. Doing it that way, you can stay in a groove. Hands are approached differently than chairs. They're miked dif- ferently. So that is really a very efficient way to work." Saving time on the Foley stage starts with the supervision. Peirson and Thomas spend many hours streamlining the session, deciding what Foley cues are important. "We know when there will be wall-to-wall music," says Peirson. "We don't necessarily need to cover every- thing and having that judgment on our end allows [the Foley team] the ability to focus in on what we are asking for." (L-R) Jobe, Peirson, and Foley artists Dawn Lundsford and Alicia Stevenson collaborated on the final installment of The Hunger Games. PHOTO CREDIT: MURRAY CLOSE

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