Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/942009
46 CINEMONTAGE / Q1 2018 His opportunity to follow his muse came in the early 1970s, when a close friend took him onto the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank and got him a job in the mailroom. "I then met Al Green, who at the time was head of the studio's sound department, and he agreed to try me out," Fernandez says. "I had been studying sound in my spare time — at that point I was a layout engineer at Ralph M. Parsons Company, working on petrochemical plant design — and had watched the crew working on a dub stage. So Al asked me, 'What do you want to do here?' I just told him straight: 'I want to record music for motion pictures.' 'I can make that happen,' he replied. 'But you have to learn as much as possible about that job...and I'll be holding quizzes!' That was my start." And so Fernandez watched, listened and asked questions. Then came a surprise. "I soon learned the meaning of the word 'hiatus,'" he explains. "So, during that first three-month summer break," he says, "I read every audio book I could find and hung out with a couple of friends working in recording studios. When I came back, I took on every crappy job in the sound department I could find, including loading film magazines, coiling cables and other chores. When summer came around again, Al found me other jobs over hiatus. 'You're the only guy on my crew who can handle everything,' he said. And he kept me on." It's a career decision that paid off. The recent score for Clint Eastwood's The 15:17 to Paris (2018) — a Warner Bros. film about three Americans who thwart a terrorist attack on a Paris-bound Thalys train that was released on February 9 — marks Fernandez's 35th outing with the actor/director. The only exception was Mystic River (2003), the score for which was recorded in Boston. "Clint surrounds himself with people who are good at what they do," Fernandez confides. "While I never assume that I will get his next film, you couldn't ask for a better working environment. He is on the stage from the start to the end of a scoring session, and is deeply concerned with the sound he wants to hear. And it's great to be dealing with just one person and not a committee." The director was looking for a minimalist score for music on The 15:17 to Paris. "We had just piano, strings, light percussion and a synth pad," reveals Fernandez. "Clint puts music where he feels it is right for the film, and only where it is needed. He worked very closely on the score with composer Christian Jacob." For The 15:17 to Paris score, Fernandez recorded an orchestra made up of 22 violins, eight violas, six celli and four basses, together with harp, percussion, guitar and a piano, the latter played by the composer. "There were some additional synth elements that were stemmed out high and low to give the dub stage some extra flexibility to raise or lower the tracks as needed in the final mix," he explains. "Both the 5.1-channel orchestral and synth stems provided another level of tension and dramatic effect to the picture, particularly during the film's train attack. There were also Fender Rhodes piano parts added to some of the cues." The orchestra was set up within the Eastwood Scoring Stage in a traditional layout, with violins on the left, violas center, celli and basses on the right. "The piano was set up in the middle of the room behind the violas," the scoring mixer continues. "Placing the piano in this position gave me a more focused and natural sounding pickup with the Decca Tree and outrigger mics. It also allowed me to bring in and spread the piano spot mics for more width and detail without the worry of any phase issues. To the left of the piano was the harp, and to the right was a setup for the rhythm bass, which was only used on the source cues. "For this score, I wanted a very warm sound that could be aggressive when it needed to be," he continues. "I didn't want any odd-order harmonic distortion when things got loud. The even-harmonic distortion of tube mics was the sound I wanted for the score." Fernandez recorded his tracks into Avid Pro Tools. "I then mixed the score on the Warner Bros. scoring stage with its 96-channel Neve 88RS analog console," he says. "It's my favorite console and control room. When mixing in the box, I'll use a combination of both hardware and plug-in reverbs; the latter give me access to reverb programs and devices to which I normally The 15:17 to Paris. Warner Bros.