Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/830490
32 S P R I N G 2 0 1 7 C A S Q U A R T E R L Y MEET THE WINNERS to that director or the DP and see if I can talk them out of that wide and that tight shot at the same time. Hopefully, I can help them see how they can work with us and still have the shot be effective. The other thing we do in the field is, I try to boom everything, but also we try to wire everyone all the time. So when I have to use the wire, it's the same wire, the same transmitter and the same eq that's already matched to the boom on that person every single day. It's not like I'm using one [mic] on Alex [today] and it goes on Haley tomorrow. That way, when I need to use it, it's there and it's ready. It sounds like it can get really complicated really fast. How many tracks will you be recording on the big day? Sixteen? Oh yeah, easily. I've done up to 30, that's insane. But I try to keep it as simple as possible. We'll get everyone wired, we'll make sure everyone sounds good. It's great because, when it gets big like that, they're okay paying for the additional equipment and boom operators because they [the producers] get it. So, for instance, on "The Storm," we've got the whole family and all these kids. I think at some point everybody ended up there. For those big scenes, I get an extra boom operator if not two. So it's Serge Popovic, William Munroe, and Peter Hansen. So I had the three of them swinging for the big scenes. On Modern Family, we may have six scenes, we'll have six setups in a single day. They'll do everything they're going to do in 10 takes. You've got to capture a winner every single time. Everyone's on mics, there's overlaps. It's got to sound good. And you give Dean and Brian everything they need. At more than 180 episodes, have there been a lot of changes, or do you find that you're doing essentially the same thing? I'm doing the same type of job, I've just gotten better at doing it and anticipating what producers or directors are going to ask of me. For example, [EP] Steve Levitan likes music live. It's much easier to be playing back but, more often than not when we have music in an episode, it ends up being live and I have to track it. In an episode last year called "Man Shouldn't Lie," I played back their instruments, and we tracked all live vocals. In terms of keeping things consistent, I've changed some of the recorders out, but my systems kind of remain the same. I'll tell ya, I try to boom everything. It doesn't always work, but Schoeps shotguns 95 percent of the time. The other five percent, maybe an MKH 50 or Sennheiser 8060s. In terms of cars, I'm 99 percent of the time using Schoeps BLM 03s. So you have consistency through all scenes—especially that classic warm Schoeps sound. And that's a decision you make on the set. In terms of lavs, I'm generally using Countryman B6s. You can get them out button holes and hide them in plain sight. Do I think maybe a Sanken COS11 or a DPA or a Sennheiser might sound better? I do, but a Countryman B6 with no clothing rustle sounds way better than any of those with it. That's one thing I definitely noticed about the show, it seems like there wasn't any of that. We all work very hard at that. It shows. You know the other thing is we just try to do whatever we can For the fifth year in a row, the CAS Award for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for Television Series – Half-Hour has gone to production mixer Steve Tibbo CAS and re-recording mixers Dean Okrand CAS and Brian R. Harman CAS for their work on Modern Family's "The Storm." I had the opportunity to speak with Steve and Dean about this year's win and, perhaps more importantly, how it is that they main- tain such a high standard. Brian Harman was, regretfully, unavailable and we would like to offer him our sincerest con- gratulations. STEVE TIBBO CAS: PRODUCTION MIXER Congratulations, Steve! You guys just keep doing this over and over again and I think, for me, that's the most interesting part of this story. Clearly, you and Dean (Okrand) and Brian (Harman) make a great team. From what I've read in the past, you get a lot of support from the producers of the show. Thank you! They absolutely do. And we get a lot of cooperation between departments. You have to make compromises in the filmmaking and television-making process. When they bring that third camera out because they've got 12 or 13 characters that they've got to cover, that's when it ends up getting to be tricky. That's when I've got to be on my game and I might have to go Production mixer Stephen Tibbo CAS (left) and re-recording mixer Dean Okrand CAS Production mixer Stephen Tibbo CAS (left) and re-recording mixer TELEVISION SERIES HALFHOUR MODERN FAMILY "The Storm" by Stephen Fitzmaurice CAS Brian Harman CAS