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FOLEY TEAMS www.postmagazine.com 24 POST NOVEMBER 2016 1960's-era props for reoccurring ob- jects, like the telephones, typewriters, and office chairs in Aquarius during the show's two-season run. The Magicians follows the ad- ventures of a group of grad school students who possess magical powers. In terms of Foley, the team is challenged with adding a sense of reality to fabricated images. Whether the audience is seeing everyday, non-magical items doing unexpected things, such as numerous books flying around the room, or they're treated to creatures not of our world, like an oversized metallic spider that crawled down a character's throat, Rainey says, "We need to create sounds that are organic and believable for fictional images. We have to make it feel real." For example, the metallic spider Foley involved layers of props, like pinecones and clam shells for the crunch of the exoskeleton, another layer of metallic texture and a layer to emphasize body weight. The flying books were a "buddy cue" for Thomas and Rainey, one that they performed together. While one worked the spine of the book, the other fluttered the pages. Then they recorded additional tracks to cover specific sync points. Similarly, in Season 1, they needed to create the sound of The Beast, a magical man whose face is obscured by hundreds of moths. The Foley design for the moths' wings consisted of feather fans and feather dusters, a feather slap- ping against the spokes of a spinning bicycle tire, and the fingers of a glove flapping together. "We had to use common, everyday items to create a sound for that. Then TJ uses different EQ plug-ins to thin it out or beef it up, depending on what we need. It really is a team effort using what we have to create the magic," explains Thomas. "We are constantly experimenting and trying new techniques. We actually look for ways to reinvent the wheel!" Boyd uses multiple mics in his setup: a Neumann KMR 81 for close- miking, and a CAD E100S to mic the room. The Sync Tank also utilizes an arsenal of mics for specialized record- ings, such as recording underwater. The mics are fed into an Apogee Quartet audio interface and record- ed into Pro Tools 10. For a control surface, Boyd uses an Avid Artist Mix. Inside Pro Tools, he EQs the signals with DMG Audio's EQuality, and for dynamics processing he opts for FabFilter's Pro-MB multiband compressor. According to Thomas, what she and Rainey hear on the stage isn't always what Boyd hears in the booth. Communication through the glass is essential, and the team needs to speak the same language. "TJ lets us know what he needs on his end and we can make adjustments to get the proper sound," says Rainey. Concludes Thomas, "It's like being in a band. Everyone has to collaborate to be in sync with what we want to hear for the end result and that is the key to a great team. To have a good partner- ship is golden, and the fact that we are busier than we've ever been is a testament to that teamwork." TECHNICOLOR AT PARAMOUNT FOLEY TEAM — FENCES Technicolor at Paramount's Foley stage (http://www.technicolor.com) is possibly Hollywood's oldest Foley stage in operation. It's certainly seen its share of mixers and Foley artists, but for nearly three years one team has called it home, that of Foley mixer David Jobe and Foley artists Alicia Stevenson and Dawn Lunsford. Together they've provided Foley for series like the Emmy-nominated Marvel's Daredevil, and numerous feature films, most recently The Boss, Boo! A Madea Halloween, and the upcoming Fences, directed by Denzel Washington. Though they have only worked together for a couple years at Technicolor, the team has a much longer history. Stevenson and Lunsford, who have been Foley partners since 1996, actually played varsity tennis to gether in high school. Stevenson and mixer Jobe worked together for nearly a year in 1993 at George Lucas's Skywalker South. After Stevenson and Lunsford joined Technicolor five years ago, they even- tually persuaded Jobe to be their mixer. "What Dawn [Lunsford] and I were looking for we found in David [Jobe], in his technical wisdom and his willingness to continue to educate himself on the latest technology, to purchase new gear and to experi- ment," shares Stevenson. "David is a big risk taker as far as experimenting. We love that," notes The Sync Tank's Foley stage. The Magicians uses Foley to 'add believability.' Technicolor's (L-R) Jobe, Lunsford and Stevenson.