Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/830466
26 what we need, I'll be sure to request it. Yasu and our di- rectors have been pretty fl exible and easy to work with. We wire everyone who has scripted lines when we aren't restricted by wardrobe or a shirtless actor and on occa- sion, we will wire actors even if they don't have any lines. We communicate with our directors to see if they are expecting any dialog adjustments and try to get a jump on it and wire that actor. We often get some great reac- tion sounds that make it to air. When it comes to mix- ing the show, the actors generally stick to the script but when they change it up, we have enough time to make the needed adjustments. The actors have been great to work with and we have had no pushback when it comes to putting mics on them. While This Is Us is a straightforward show when it comes to recording the dialog, we sometimes have music play- back with our Pro Tools 11 rig. The playback cart has a MacBook Pro running PT11 with a MOTU 828x inter- face. We use a Mackie 1204, Phonak Earwigs, QSC 2450 amps and JBL SRX715 passive speakers. We've had Jeff Haddad, Mark Agostino and Gary Raymond in to run the playback. For non-sync atmosphere, we get a handful of stems to suit what our actor wants to hear. Primarily, it is Mandy Moore needing playback, but we also had a live record with Chrissy Metz (Kate) and also Brian Tyree Henry (William's cousin Ricky). We use speakers onstage and earwigs for the band during scenes that have dialog over music. This gets us the best results for capturing the band and the dialog simultaneously. I started in music recording, so anytime we do live music records, it makes for a fun time and a great challenge. When we do driving scenes, it is a mix of free driving and process trailers. I'll pull my recorder off the cart and Tim will start wiring up the car. I love the sound of my trusted Schoeps BLM. We mount it to the header between the two actors in the front seats. It works well in our modern- day vehicles but not so great on our vintage automobiles, which tend to be louder and less helpful acoustically. Randall's current Mercedes-Benz sounds like a sound booth. It is one of the quietest cars in which I have ever recorded. I wish that were true for the older vehicles be- cause they are noisy! We make sure we give Post the op- tions they need to make the scene work. In the episode after William's death (played by Ron Ce- phas Jones), the cast had a celebration of his life. The whole family decided to go on a long walk down Randall's street, because that was something William did every day. We wired all eight actors with Erin and Tim booming. I Clockwise from top left: An interior scene with Milo Ventimiglia and Mandy Moore "A Handful of Moments." (Photo: Ron Batzdorff/NBC); "Memphis" pictured: (l-r) Susan Kelechi Watson as Beth, Ron Cephas Jones as William. (Photo: Ron Batzdorff/NBC);18-track recording; Erin Paul at William's AA group.