Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/681510
Kirk Lynds: Re-recording Mixer: (Effects & Foley) Kirk Lynds always loved music (he plays guitar) and wanted to become a sound engineer, but tells us, "I decided to take the safe route and go into electrical engineering. After realizing that it wasn't for me at all, I trans- ferred to a sound engineering school in Toronto (Harris Institute). It was there that I became aware of post-production sound and decided to focus my career in that direction." Kirk went on to intern at Casablanca Sound and Picture Toronto, and was eventually hired on as a recordist. Season one of Fargo had been mixed at another facility, but for season two, the producers wanted to move post. Both re- recording mixers work on the show Vikings for MGM (which also produces Fargo), and they were suggested as re-recording mixers for season two. Sound supervisor Nick Forshager is in Los Angeles while they mix in Toronto. Martin Lee explains, "This was the first job for which I ever had to do an audition mix." Nick asked them to mix four scenes from season one, partly as a workflow test to see if they could work from two cities at the same time. "One thing they liked was that they were able to point out that one of the sound effects was not correct. They were using loons in a winter scene, and they migrate to warmer weather in the winter," Martin explained. Apparently, this impressed the LA crew and they began work. Similar to most shows, the schedule on Fargo was about a week per episode. Nick supervised the first episode in Toronto and then returned to Los Angeles for the remainder of the season. Martin adds that, even though locations were sometimes noisy, there is hardly ever any ADR in the series (except for loop group). "Michael Playfair did an amazing job on the pro- duction side." Martin uses both Cedar and iZotope RX5 mostly on the stage, although sometimes editors will prep some material with noise reduction. Asked if there were any scenes he was particularly happy with, he mentioned a scene with Nick Offerman during a tense con- frontation. And, of course, the season finale, which pits a shoot- out against a visit from a UFO, was a major challenge as so much happens all at once. And in the award-winning episode "The Gift of the Magi," the shootout in the woods was among the most complex mix scenes in the series. Kirk explains, "This was a very busy episode. There was a lot of real mixing to this episode. Crafting the sound for the shoot- out in the forest that intercuts with Reagan's speech took a bit of time to get right. And then the butcher shop scene at the end, where the Gerhardts try and kill Ed and the butcher shop burns down, was also challenging. Letting all the sound drift away when Ed was being strangled and just leaving a tinnitus tone until the mix pops back in really helped with the tension of the scene." The mix was supervised from Santa Monica, with Martin and Kirk playing the Pro Tools session in Toronto. Aside from a few minor issues, the system worked extremely well. Show run- ner Noah Hawley would give notes. Martin and his co-mixer Kirk use two Pro Tools Icon D-Commands with four Pro Tools systems. Martin mixes dia- logue and music, and Kirk handles all FX and Foley. Production dialogue on the show is typically about 16 tracks, with four more for PFX and another four for dialogue alts. ADR may have 12-16 tracks, but this show used hardly any ADR. ADR was recorded at different facilities because of actor availability, as many had moved onto other projects in other locations. ADR is always double-tracked, with separate boom and lavaliere tracks. Loop group was another eight tracks. Martin was very happy that the producers agreed to a work- flow that allowed time for a separate dialogue pre-dub before the final mix of each episode, which is a rarity on episodic tele- vision. Music decisions were all made by production. Mark Bensi, the music editor, prepared the tracks for the stage on 8-10 stereo splits. Martin added, "In terms of music, this is one of the simplest jobs I have done; all decisions were made long before they came to the dub stage." Martin likes the Waves UM226 to convert stereo to multi-channel. For dialogue, Martin uses the Channel G console plug-in from McDSP. "One of the nice things at Tattersall Sound is that all rooms have all the same plug-ins for the mixers." For reverbs, he uses Altiverb 7 and Waves R360. The FX session was set up for 60 tracks of BG, split into A/B groups (consisting of stereo and mono tracks) and 60 tracks of specifics (split into various groups), as well as four 5.1 tracks for sound design. Foley would come in on 24 tracks and would deliver full coverage. Kirk adds, "I would consistently use about 80% of it in the domestic mix. Even if PFX was covering the sound, I would augment it with Foley if the sound was an improvement." Kirk uses an Avid channel strip on every FX and Foley track and C4 5.1 compressors and L2 limiters on stem masters. Kirk's reverb is handled by Altiverb and Waves R360. Martin enjoys working with the crew on the show. "Nick Forshager, the sound supervisor, is a really great guy to collabo- rate with, and I would also thank our recordist, Alex Aslund." Fargo is an intense show to work on, according to Martin. "Because of the style of storytelling, you really have to watch every scene very carefully. There wasn't a minute of screen time where we weren't focusing on sound." Fargo sound crew Re-recording mixer Kirk Lynds