Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/681510
C A S Q U A R T E R L Y S P R I N G 2 0 1 6 25 as Pro Tools operator (he was actually working with Michael Giacchino before me with the legendary Danny Wallin [Up, Ratatouille], who recorded and mixed all of Michael's first 13 years of film and TV work until he retired at the age of 85). Vini sets up the four Pro Tools rigs we use: a 96 in/out orchestra rig, a prerecord rig (which in this case, didn't have much so it also had picture and DX/FX), a reverb rig, and the print rig for the 13 stems plus the 5.1 composite mix of all the stems and a stereo fold down and a click track to aid in editing. I have to mention the great crew at Warner Bros.: Rich Wheeler, who sets up the 90-plus mics and risers and baffles for the recording. Tom Hardisty, who makes this ridiculously com- plex setup happen in the control room. Ryan Robinson, who makes sure all systems are functioning at full capacity and is always devising brilliant ways to make it more efficient. And Jamie Olvera, who keeps the operation and support scheduled and flowing smoothly. What was special about mixing this score versus other films? It is a special joy to work with Michael Giacchino. He has a wonderful ability to tell stories with his music, and he has a magical touch with heartbreakingly tender melodies. He also has a great knowledge of and love for the history of film music and is able to bring that to his own music. Michael writes in his own voice, but working with him, it sometimes feels like I'm in a time machine working on the same stages where the great Bernard Herrmann worked and (for the recent Zootopia score) where the classic Quinn Martin TV scores from the seventies were recorded. But also for Michael, joy in life is very important and he keeps this as a major priority in his work. He likes his sessions to be fun. I love to work with music and I love to mix music, but I also love films and storytelling and especially appreciate meaningful films, so it has been a special pleasure to be able to work on Pixar films. Inside Out helps us to understand how emotions shape our behavior and personalities, and introduces the con- cept that maybe we don't always have to act on the immediate emotion we are feeling. These films make positive contributions to our world and they do it in immensely entertaining and fun ways. It has made my life more fulfilling to be able to work on these projects. Mary Jo Lang CAS: Foley Mixer How did you get started in Foley? I was working in wardrobe in 1984 and met the sound crew on a movie called Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo. Mark Ulano [current CAS President] was the sound mixer and his wife, Patrushkha, was the boom operator. We got along great so they offered to train me and I worked with them on Friday the 13th, Part V as the cable person. I was working with Toni Spadafora while I was in wardrobe and her husband, Tim Sadler, was the mixer on the Foley stage at TAJ, and she heard that I had been doing sound. Tim offered me a job as a runner in 1985 and, after a month, they offered me an internship and got me in the union. That's where I stayed until TAJ was sold and then I went with John Roesch to Warners Bros. I've been there for almost 30 years. It's really hard to believe, it's gone by so fast! So you were with John for the last 30 years? I started mixing in 1990 on the midnight to 8 a.m. shift on Hook and then started working days with John. We moved to Warner Bros. in 1992. How long have you been working with Alyson Dee Moore, and who is your Foley team now that John has moved to Skywalker Sound? I have been working with Alyson Moore for 17 years (she's one of the best Foley artists I've ever worked with!), and now we work with Chris Moriana, who is awesome. He's a well-known Foley artist and we are so happy to have him. I record a lot of Foley as well and I rarely get the chance to shoot with two Foley artists. What's it like? Are you recording multiple mics? Oh no. They each stick to a character through the whole show or, if it's a group cue, they're both up there in front of the same mic. I use two mics normally—one main mic (Neumann KMR 81) and one for ambience for indoor scenes (Sennheiser MKH 60). When do you get into using both walkers for cues? Is it mostly group and background footsteps? No. It's great with two people because you get a greater variety in footsteps and they collaborate on the best thing to use for props and surfaces. They also can switch off with props and help each other so they're not getting worn out. I'm very con- scious of that. I'm constantly asking, "Are you OK? Do you need a break? Do you need to sit down for a while?" It's hard to be out there for 8-9 hours a day. When you're working on video games, are you shooting the cinematics or the in-game sounds? We started out just doing the cinematics, but now we're doing the in-game stuff, too. So the cues will be like "Batman walking on dirt, walking on cement, walking on glass, walking on metal, walking on resonant wood, walking on dead wood." Then it's running, jumping, body falls on all those surfaces. It's really hard on them so I try to be sympathetic to how difficult it is. But it's fun and the video game clients are great. It's something different than TV or movies. Do you have a preference of animation or live action or video games? It's nice to have the mix. It's great to not have the same thing every day and it's good to have different challenges and different approaches to what the editor's taste is and what the director wants—especially in animation. The animation directors always come by for at least one day. It's so great because they get excited to hear sound effects with their animation. They've been working for two or three years on a project and it's the first Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo