Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/757053
16 F A L L 2 0 1 6 C A S Q U A R T E R L Y Were you drawn more to FX editing and mixing when you first started in post? Yes, I was. Especially doing the horror work. I really enjoyed editing sound effects and designing the sounds and mixing them as well; making the Foley sit with pro- duction. Around that time, I met dialogue re-recording mixer Marti D. Humphrey CAS. I had met him at a Pro Tools event at a dealer, where he won a drawing and, when I heard his name, I recognized it from the boards like the Digi User Conference and Gearslutz. We had chatted through the forums a few times before, so I went up and talked to him and he recognized me as well. I had mentioned that I just bought my own Pro Tools HD 3 system with plugins, interfaces and the whole nine yards, and he was just setting up The Dub Stage and needed another mixer and system. I think he saw something in me —that I knew what I was doing technically and had some experience in post sound and mixing in Pro Tools. So we started working together a little bit. I helped him set up his system at The Dub Stage and he had just bought two Control 24's and I brought my system in and we had a two-man operation going. That was in 2004. The first project we did was the director's cut of The Grudge. Marti had just finished mixing the final at another facility and they were coming back to do the director's cut for the DVD and international theatrical release. So that was my first time working with him and Paul Ottosson as well. You've worked on quite a few films with Paul since then. Yes, he's been pretty good to me. I helped out on The Hurt Locker, pre-dubbing sound FX for about a week. I did sound effects editorial and mixed Drag Me to Hell, a few weeks of sound effects editing on Spider-Man 3 and also did a lot of sound design and sound FX editing for Battle: Los Angeles, as well. I think Paul likes that I pre-mix as I cut, and he likes that it's in the ballpark and ready to be presented when I'm done. Recently, he called me to help out on Independence Day: Resurgence and I did some temp mixing and sound effects editing on that film. How did you learn to work on larger films? Did you get a lot of training or did you just dive in and learn as you went? Initially, when I was learning at the first studio I worked at, we had a guy who was a dialogue spe- cialist who I learned a lot from, and we also had a music supervisor in the facility who was working on big features at the time. He knew a lot about the ins and outs of working on larger projects. I was learning some great stuff in the beginning and a lot of it was also figuring out on my own on smaller projects. Then when I worked on bigger stuff, I started learning more, like when an editorial house would bring their shows for us to mix and split out in different groups of pre-dubs. Working as a mixer, you see a wide range of things, big and small, and you see what works and what doesn't. When Marti and I first started out at The Dub Stage, we were working on small projects and the first bigger project we did was The Grudge. That was the first theatrical feature film I worked on and the first time I had worked with Dolby to printmaster. What were some of your favorite projects? One of the first big breaks I got was working on The Strangers with Scott Hecker, who was the supervising sound editor. We had enough experience at the time that we knew what we were doing and it was one of those projects that was fun to work on and it went smoothly. It was a pleasure to work with Scott, and I got really good material to mix. Scott and I are friends to this day. We've also done some good TV shows, like Everybody Hates Chris, Alphas, Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce, and Allegiance. Mixing Oz the Great and Powerful at Sony was also a highlight. We mixed it in the Kim Novak Theater, which is a beautiful traditional stage. We brought in two Icon D-Control 64 fader consoles that were situated on top of the Harrison, with four Pro Tools HDX systems consist- ing of dialogue, music, FX/sound design, and BG/Foley with a total track count of over 1,200. No committed pre-dubs, all kept virtual to the very end when we did the final printmaster. Working with sound supervisor Jussi Tegelman is always a pleasure as well. Marti pre-dubbed the dialogue at The Dub Stage and I did the FX pre-dubs at Sony in the Novak Theater before we did the final mix in the Novak. After that, we did some versioning at The Dub Stage, including the Auro-3D version, home theater mixes, stereo mixes, and Icon D-Control console at The Dub Stage