ARTICLES
- MARKEE MAGAZINE Sound for Film: Changing the Soundscape
- POST PERSPECTIVE A closer look at Southpaw’s audio
- FORBES Why Digital Audio Restoration Software Is So Important
To Music, Film, And TV Oct 2014 - AVID Inside the World of Emmy-Winning Frank Morrone
- MEDIAVERSAL Interstellar Suite 5.1 surround mix review
- DEADLINE MPSE Lifetime Achievement to Randy Thom
- HOLLYWOOD REPORTER Emmy Award Winning Re-recording mixer joins Technicolor
- HOLLYWOOD REPORTER Frank Morrone new President of MPSE
- EDITORS GUILD Article Sept 2013
- MUSIC & MUSICIANS NAMM 2013
- AUDIOPHILIAC Mixing It Up On The Set Of Copper
- POST MAGAZINE Article
- PRO SOUND Interview
- AVID Interview
- M&K Article
- IZOTOPE Article
- HOME THEATRE Article
- MIX Magazine Under Pressure
- MIX Magazine Final Chapter
- EDITORS GUILD Magazine Article
- McDSP Interview
- AVID - Lecture Series Tribeca Flashpoint
- AVID - Lecture Series USC
- AVID - Lecture Series FULL SAIL
- AVID - Lecture Series - SCAD
- EDITORS GUILD 52nd Annual MPSE Golden Reel Awards
- AVID - Lecture Series LA FILM SCHOOL
WRITTEN BY.....
MIX MAGAZINE Article "Tips from Todd-AO East" - by Frank Morrone & Bob Chefalas - Oct 1999
CANADIAN MUSICIAN Article "Before the Session" - by Frank Morrone - Apr 1983
CANADIAN MUSICIAN Article "Before the Session" - by Frank Morrone - Apr 1983
Congratulations to all our 63rd Golden Reel Award Winners & Nominees
Outgoing President's Message
I’d like to welcome everyone to the 63rd Golden Reel Awards and extend warm congratulations to all of our nominees. Tonight we honor not only nominees and winners but the whole sound editing community—the men and women who work tirelessly to create the sonic landscapes we hear in our cinemas, our home theaters, our tablets and our ear buds.
It’s been a busy year for sound. In 2015, more than 400 television shows were aired, more than 250 features went into wide release and more than 600 video games were issued .
The past is a point of reference but not a place to reside. We respect our history, especially the contributions of those of us who began cutting on mag and tape, but our focus remains on the future. We continue to adapt to demands that grow more complex. Technology is progressing at an accelerating rate. Sound editing is no longer solely about cutting. It’s about managing files and data. It’s about developing workflows to accommodate bigger track counts, compressed schedules and tighter budgets.
As a community of sound editors, we are eager to share what we’ve learned about new tools and techniques. Two years ago, we partnered with the Cinema Audio Society and Mix Magazine to create a day-long event on immersive sound. Tom McCarthy and Sony Pictures opened their facility to host the event. Attendees from as far away as China and India flew in to listen and learn. Last year, we expanded the event to include sound design and panel discussions covering a variety of feature and television topics. Our attendance doubled and this year will be bigger still but I’ll let our new president, Tom McCarthy, tell you more about that.
It has been an honor to be President of the MPSE and represent the sound editors in our community during the last four years. We have made many strides forward during that time including increased membership and international recognition, new automated online voting, increased social media presence, and improved and updated internal processes. And today we launched our new and improved MPSE website with many added features including the ability to set up member profiles, purchase event tickets, and host a full online community with articles and blogs.
We have added many new events and sound partnerships to provide our members with opportunities to explore all the latest technologies and network within the community. We continue to focus on mentoring the next generation of sound editors.
I’m proud to say the MPSE is stronger today than it has ever been.
Frank Morrone
Outgoing President, MPSE
Outgoing President's Message
I’d like to welcome everyone to the 63rd Golden Reel Awards and extend warm congratulations to all of our nominees. Tonight we honor not only nominees and winners but the whole sound editing community—the men and women who work tirelessly to create the sonic landscapes we hear in our cinemas, our home theaters, our tablets and our ear buds.
It’s been a busy year for sound. In 2015, more than 400 television shows were aired, more than 250 features went into wide release and more than 600 video games were issued .
The past is a point of reference but not a place to reside. We respect our history, especially the contributions of those of us who began cutting on mag and tape, but our focus remains on the future. We continue to adapt to demands that grow more complex. Technology is progressing at an accelerating rate. Sound editing is no longer solely about cutting. It’s about managing files and data. It’s about developing workflows to accommodate bigger track counts, compressed schedules and tighter budgets.
As a community of sound editors, we are eager to share what we’ve learned about new tools and techniques. Two years ago, we partnered with the Cinema Audio Society and Mix Magazine to create a day-long event on immersive sound. Tom McCarthy and Sony Pictures opened their facility to host the event. Attendees from as far away as China and India flew in to listen and learn. Last year, we expanded the event to include sound design and panel discussions covering a variety of feature and television topics. Our attendance doubled and this year will be bigger still but I’ll let our new president, Tom McCarthy, tell you more about that.
It has been an honor to be President of the MPSE and represent the sound editors in our community during the last four years. We have made many strides forward during that time including increased membership and international recognition, new automated online voting, increased social media presence, and improved and updated internal processes. And today we launched our new and improved MPSE website with many added features including the ability to set up member profiles, purchase event tickets, and host a full online community with articles and blogs.
We have added many new events and sound partnerships to provide our members with opportunities to explore all the latest technologies and network within the community. We continue to focus on mentoring the next generation of sound editors.
I’m proud to say the MPSE is stronger today than it has ever been.
Frank Morrone
Outgoing President, MPSE
SOUND FOR FILM:
CHANGING THE SOUNDSCAPE
An interview with Frank Morrone
With Tom Inglesby
Frank Morrone wears several hats; he is an award winning Hollywood audio professional who has mixed sound for high profile television shows and movies including The Strain, Boss, Sleepy Hollow, and the Oscar-winning When We Were Kings. He is President of the Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE) and has served as a Governor for the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Morrone is a member of the Recording Academy and has served on the Board of Directors for the Cinema Audio Society. All in all, a sound guy first and foremost.
“I’ve been working in film since mag, then 24-track interlock, and from there to the DA-88s and digital dubbers,” Morrone recalls. “Now we are in Pro Tools land. The changes have been substantial in a fairly short period of time. And the changes keep on coming. The big changes now are just in workflow because our track counts are getting bigger, and our budgets are getting smaller, and our times are getting shorter. That’s been the biggest change.”
The computer has, indeed, taken over the processing of audio for film. “It’s all in Pro Tools,” acknowledges Morrone. “Even composers are all in Digital Performer and converting everything to Pro Tools for deliverables to the mix stage.”
Silly question: Are there things that have transpired with the equipment on the set; the microphones, the recording equipment? “Most certainly!” is his response. “Going from the Nagra days, we went to eight-track recorders, and now to the new Dolby Atmos capabilities. I was looking at a recorder that Sound Devices is putting out, a 64-track recorder for use on production sets. We’ve gone from a single boom and a lav to 64-track capability; that’s huge.”
The impact on production mixers has been equally great. “Their carts have become very, very sophisticated. I’ve been on sets where some of the transmitters they have on the lavs, the custom carts that they’ve built, the custom antennas that they’ve built to work with the number of wireless mics that they employ, are phenomenal. Production mixers have had to get very, very hip to technology, and it’s really impressive how they’ve adapted.”
Audio people are creative and innovative, just like their counterparts behind the cameras. “A couple of years ago, in Los Angeles, CAS held a parade of carts,” Morrone remembers. “We had 14 production mixers bring their carts to a set, and it was amazing to see how 14 different production mixers had 14 totally different carts. Some were on hard disk recorders. Some were in Pro Tools. There were no two carts that were identical. They were all like fingerprints. It was interesting to see how everybody really adapted their way of working with whatever technology they wanted to use.”
All the technology on a set points to heavier bandwidth needs and more computer power and that’s true of audio, as well. Morrone agrees, “Absolutely. Our computers need to operate at much higher speeds and handle much higher loads. We are getting up to 500 tracks of audio playing at one time. So Pro Tools has developed HDX cards, which are fantastic and much more powerful than the previous generation, the HD cards. With TDM systems, you were limited to how many voices you could have in Pro Tools. Now you can just deploy as many of these cards as you need, and every card gives you 256 voices per card. It’s pretty amazing.”
He continues, “Most of the processing power is on the card itself, so it doesn’t tax your computer’s processor so much. One generation ago, Pro Tools cards were doing a lot of the processing but so was your computer. Sometimes you would get that “wheel of death” on the Mac that we all so often fear; the rainbow spinning wheel of death, as we call it.”
Years ago, the audience wasn’t too concerned about the quality of sound in a film. It was possible to create sound on film that was much better than the reproducing capabilities of the theater. Then Ray Dolby came along and changed everything. Newer technologies are making the delivery systems, whether in theaters or in 4K television set, so much better that the original audio on the set has to be that much better. “No question about it,” Morrone says. “The analog-to-digital and the digital-to-analog converters have gotten so much better over the years, and they’re recording at higher sample and bit rates. Now the norm is 24-bit 48K. That’s just the norm. The tools are there.”
But tools are not always enough to overcome the barriers faced on real-world sets. “Production recordings are limited by the location,” admits Morrone. “If you’re shooting under the Brooklyn Bridge, there’s very little you can do about the ambient noise. There are ways to overcome that problem but it makes it that much more difficult when your ambient noise is 85 dB to start with.”
The current and next generation of audio engineers will have more technology to apply than ever before. But knowing when and how to apply it is going to make some winners. “I think the tools that people now have at their disposal are so much more than what we ever had—and there are so many new ones coming. The challenges aren’t with the gear; the challenges now are with workflow, just being able to do work quickly and still produce the quality that the client demands. The audience has gotten used to a much higher quality in their movies so that’s the challenge for everybody on the set. We’ve evolved to where we are now and somebody just coming into the business might not have the background old timers have—I’m not sure if they appreciate it as much as guys that have come up through mag. But whether they appreciate it or not, they have fantastic tools at their disposal right now.”
As the technology has evolved, so too have the educational approaches. Let’s hope that those entering the field take the time to learn the basics before jumping into the deep end. “You have to understand where you’ve been to know where you’re going,” counsels Morrone. “I think they should touch mag, they should know what a splicer is; it’s important to have a feel and a sense of how sound developed. I think that the teachers that I’ve seen at these schools are teaching them about signal flow and not overloading one stage of a preamp or any stages of the signal chain. That was one of the first things I learned, signal flow through a console. How to set up your line inputs and preamps on the microphones, keeping things all at unity so nothing would overload one stage or another.”
He adds, “I’ve done a lot of lectures, at universities and schools like Full Sail, and I think the kids are pretty sharp. I love it when I see how enthusiastic they are. When somebody is enthusiastic and wants to do the job right, I get encouraged, because I see both ends of it. You can also tell the students that are not as enthusiastic and may have a tougher time with it. Then there are the ones that are really sharp and on top of it. That makes me realize, the industry will be in good hands.”
CHANGING THE SOUNDSCAPE
An interview with Frank Morrone
With Tom Inglesby
Frank Morrone wears several hats; he is an award winning Hollywood audio professional who has mixed sound for high profile television shows and movies including The Strain, Boss, Sleepy Hollow, and the Oscar-winning When We Were Kings. He is President of the Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE) and has served as a Governor for the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Morrone is a member of the Recording Academy and has served on the Board of Directors for the Cinema Audio Society. All in all, a sound guy first and foremost.
“I’ve been working in film since mag, then 24-track interlock, and from there to the DA-88s and digital dubbers,” Morrone recalls. “Now we are in Pro Tools land. The changes have been substantial in a fairly short period of time. And the changes keep on coming. The big changes now are just in workflow because our track counts are getting bigger, and our budgets are getting smaller, and our times are getting shorter. That’s been the biggest change.”
The computer has, indeed, taken over the processing of audio for film. “It’s all in Pro Tools,” acknowledges Morrone. “Even composers are all in Digital Performer and converting everything to Pro Tools for deliverables to the mix stage.”
Silly question: Are there things that have transpired with the equipment on the set; the microphones, the recording equipment? “Most certainly!” is his response. “Going from the Nagra days, we went to eight-track recorders, and now to the new Dolby Atmos capabilities. I was looking at a recorder that Sound Devices is putting out, a 64-track recorder for use on production sets. We’ve gone from a single boom and a lav to 64-track capability; that’s huge.”
The impact on production mixers has been equally great. “Their carts have become very, very sophisticated. I’ve been on sets where some of the transmitters they have on the lavs, the custom carts that they’ve built, the custom antennas that they’ve built to work with the number of wireless mics that they employ, are phenomenal. Production mixers have had to get very, very hip to technology, and it’s really impressive how they’ve adapted.”
Audio people are creative and innovative, just like their counterparts behind the cameras. “A couple of years ago, in Los Angeles, CAS held a parade of carts,” Morrone remembers. “We had 14 production mixers bring their carts to a set, and it was amazing to see how 14 different production mixers had 14 totally different carts. Some were on hard disk recorders. Some were in Pro Tools. There were no two carts that were identical. They were all like fingerprints. It was interesting to see how everybody really adapted their way of working with whatever technology they wanted to use.”
All the technology on a set points to heavier bandwidth needs and more computer power and that’s true of audio, as well. Morrone agrees, “Absolutely. Our computers need to operate at much higher speeds and handle much higher loads. We are getting up to 500 tracks of audio playing at one time. So Pro Tools has developed HDX cards, which are fantastic and much more powerful than the previous generation, the HD cards. With TDM systems, you were limited to how many voices you could have in Pro Tools. Now you can just deploy as many of these cards as you need, and every card gives you 256 voices per card. It’s pretty amazing.”
He continues, “Most of the processing power is on the card itself, so it doesn’t tax your computer’s processor so much. One generation ago, Pro Tools cards were doing a lot of the processing but so was your computer. Sometimes you would get that “wheel of death” on the Mac that we all so often fear; the rainbow spinning wheel of death, as we call it.”
Years ago, the audience wasn’t too concerned about the quality of sound in a film. It was possible to create sound on film that was much better than the reproducing capabilities of the theater. Then Ray Dolby came along and changed everything. Newer technologies are making the delivery systems, whether in theaters or in 4K television set, so much better that the original audio on the set has to be that much better. “No question about it,” Morrone says. “The analog-to-digital and the digital-to-analog converters have gotten so much better over the years, and they’re recording at higher sample and bit rates. Now the norm is 24-bit 48K. That’s just the norm. The tools are there.”
But tools are not always enough to overcome the barriers faced on real-world sets. “Production recordings are limited by the location,” admits Morrone. “If you’re shooting under the Brooklyn Bridge, there’s very little you can do about the ambient noise. There are ways to overcome that problem but it makes it that much more difficult when your ambient noise is 85 dB to start with.”
The current and next generation of audio engineers will have more technology to apply than ever before. But knowing when and how to apply it is going to make some winners. “I think the tools that people now have at their disposal are so much more than what we ever had—and there are so many new ones coming. The challenges aren’t with the gear; the challenges now are with workflow, just being able to do work quickly and still produce the quality that the client demands. The audience has gotten used to a much higher quality in their movies so that’s the challenge for everybody on the set. We’ve evolved to where we are now and somebody just coming into the business might not have the background old timers have—I’m not sure if they appreciate it as much as guys that have come up through mag. But whether they appreciate it or not, they have fantastic tools at their disposal right now.”
As the technology has evolved, so too have the educational approaches. Let’s hope that those entering the field take the time to learn the basics before jumping into the deep end. “You have to understand where you’ve been to know where you’re going,” counsels Morrone. “I think they should touch mag, they should know what a splicer is; it’s important to have a feel and a sense of how sound developed. I think that the teachers that I’ve seen at these schools are teaching them about signal flow and not overloading one stage of a preamp or any stages of the signal chain. That was one of the first things I learned, signal flow through a console. How to set up your line inputs and preamps on the microphones, keeping things all at unity so nothing would overload one stage or another.”
He adds, “I’ve done a lot of lectures, at universities and schools like Full Sail, and I think the kids are pretty sharp. I love it when I see how enthusiastic they are. When somebody is enthusiastic and wants to do the job right, I get encouraged, because I see both ends of it. You can also tell the students that are not as enthusiastic and may have a tougher time with it. Then there are the ones that are really sharp and on top of it. That makes me realize, the industry will be in good hands.”
A closer look at Southpaw’s audio
Director Antoine Fuqua & the film’s sound team talked about their process at Sony panel.
By Mel Lambert
With Oscar buzz swirling around the film Southpaw, director Antoine Fuqua paid tribute to his sound crew on The Weinstein Company’s drama during a screening and Q&A session on the Cary Grant Stage at Sony Pictures in Culver City — the same venue where the film’s soundtrack was re-recorded earlier this year.
The event was co-moderated by Cinema Audio Society president Mark Ulano and Motion Picture Sound Editor president Frank Morrone; it was introduced by MPSE president-elect Tom McCarthy, Sony Pictures Studio’s EVP of post-production facilities.
The film depicts the decline and rise of former World Light Heavyweight boxer Billy Hope (Jake Gyllenhaal), who turns to trainer Tick Wills (Forest Whitaker) for help getting his life back on track after losing his wife (Rachel McAdams) in a tragic accident and his daughter Leila (Oona Laurence) to child protection services. Once the custody of his daughter falls into question, Hope decides to regain his former life by returning to the ring for a grudge match in Las Vegas with Miguel “Magic” Escobar (Miguel Gomez).
“Boxing is a violent sport,” Fuqua told the large audience of industry pros and guests. “It’s always best to be ready to train or you’re going to get hurt! I spent a lot of time with the actors preparing them for their roles, and on Jake’s pivotal relationship with his daughter, but I had to make sure that Jake’s character wasn’t too consumed by anger. If you don’t control your anger [in the boxing ring] you cannot control your performance.”
Fuqua is best known for his work on Training Day, as well as The Replacement Killers, King Arthur, Shooter, Olympus Has Fallen and The Equalizer. He has also directed a number of music videos for artists such as Prince, Stevie Wonder and Coolio. The latter’s Gansta’s Paradise rap video won a The Young Generators Award.
Fuqua revealed that he has worked with most of the crew since Training Day (2001), his major directorial debut. “I like to give them a copy of the script as early as possible so that they can prepare” for the editorial and post process. “The script shows me the ‘nuts and bolts’ of the film,” stated production mixer Ed Novick. “It shows the planned environments and gives me an idea of how I can capture the sound. Most of the key boxing matches were staged as a TV event, like an audience watching an HBO Production, for example. I placed mics in the corners of the boxing ring, on the referee and around the audience areas.”
“I drove Ed crazy,” Fuqua said. “I gave the actors the freedom to improvise; Jake is that type of actor and he just went with it! But often we had no idea where we were heading — we were just riffing a lot of the time to get the fire going — but Ed did an amazing job of securing what we were looking for.”
“The actors were very cooperative and very accommodating to my needs,” said Novick. “They wore mics while fighting, and Jake and Rachel helped me get great tracks.”
“Sound secured from the set is always the best,” added the film’s dialog/music re-recording mixer, Steve Pederson. “There was very little ADR on this film — most of it is production.”
“We developed a wide range of crowd sounds, which became our medium shots,” explained supervising sound editor Mandell Winter, MPSE.
“We made a number of ambience recordings during HBO boxing matches in Las Vegas using microphones located around the perimeter of the boxing ring and under the balcony, as well as mounting a DPA 5100 surround mic below the press box and camera platforms,” added sound designer David Esparza, MPSE. “We covered every angle we could to place the action into the middle of the ring using the sound of real crowds, and not effects libraries.”
As sound effects re-recording mixer Dan Leahy stated: “We used a combination of close-up and distant sounds to accurately locate the audience in the center of the fighting action.”
“It’s all about using sound to reinforce the feeling and emotion of a scene,” stressed Fuqua.
Picture editor John Refoua, ACE, added that “the sound also drove the cut. We had an initial mix with pre-cut effects — the final mix evolved with effects being cut at different audio frequencies to heighten the crowd’s excitement. It was an amazing process to witness, to have the soundtrack evolve during that period.”
“You could feel the heart beat rising,” Fuqua added.
For the major fight at the end of the film, Refoua recalled that there were 12 cameras running simultaneously, including a handful of Canon EOS-5D DSLRs being assigned to the press. “That was a lot of footage,” he recalled. “We looked at it all a shot at a time, and made decisions about which one worked better than another.”
Originally, the final boxing match was choreographed for six rounds, “but we then cut it into 12,” continued Refoua. “We stretched and took alternate takes to build the other rounds.”
Regarding the use of a haunting score by the late James Horner, music editor Joe E. Rand said that the composer was drawn to the film because of the intimate father/daughter relationship, “and looked to different harmonic structures and balances” to reinforce that core element.
But the sound for one pivotal scene didn’t run as expected. “For the graveyard scene [between Gyllenhaal and Laurence, at the grave of the lead character’s wife] we lost most of the radio mics,” reported Winter. “We had a lot of RF hits and [because of camera angles] the boom mic wasn’t close to the actors. The only viable track was Oona [Laurence]’s lavaliere, which still had RF dropouts on it — iZotope RX saved the day.” “We needed to use iZotope to extract the signal from the RF noise,” recalled re-recording mixer Pederson. “Mandell [Winter] and I were surprised it worked out so well.”
“No director can make a movie by themselves,” concluded Fuqua. “The sound crew all came up with creative ideas that I needed to hear. After all, moviemaking is a highly collaborative effort.”
Mel Lambert is principal of Content Creators, an LA-based editorial service. He can be reached at mel.lambert@content-creators.com. Follow him on Twitter @MelLambertLA.
Director Antoine Fuqua & the film’s sound team talked about their process at Sony panel.
By Mel Lambert
With Oscar buzz swirling around the film Southpaw, director Antoine Fuqua paid tribute to his sound crew on The Weinstein Company’s drama during a screening and Q&A session on the Cary Grant Stage at Sony Pictures in Culver City — the same venue where the film’s soundtrack was re-recorded earlier this year.
The event was co-moderated by Cinema Audio Society president Mark Ulano and Motion Picture Sound Editor president Frank Morrone; it was introduced by MPSE president-elect Tom McCarthy, Sony Pictures Studio’s EVP of post-production facilities.
The film depicts the decline and rise of former World Light Heavyweight boxer Billy Hope (Jake Gyllenhaal), who turns to trainer Tick Wills (Forest Whitaker) for help getting his life back on track after losing his wife (Rachel McAdams) in a tragic accident and his daughter Leila (Oona Laurence) to child protection services. Once the custody of his daughter falls into question, Hope decides to regain his former life by returning to the ring for a grudge match in Las Vegas with Miguel “Magic” Escobar (Miguel Gomez).
“Boxing is a violent sport,” Fuqua told the large audience of industry pros and guests. “It’s always best to be ready to train or you’re going to get hurt! I spent a lot of time with the actors preparing them for their roles, and on Jake’s pivotal relationship with his daughter, but I had to make sure that Jake’s character wasn’t too consumed by anger. If you don’t control your anger [in the boxing ring] you cannot control your performance.”
Fuqua is best known for his work on Training Day, as well as The Replacement Killers, King Arthur, Shooter, Olympus Has Fallen and The Equalizer. He has also directed a number of music videos for artists such as Prince, Stevie Wonder and Coolio. The latter’s Gansta’s Paradise rap video won a The Young Generators Award.
Fuqua revealed that he has worked with most of the crew since Training Day (2001), his major directorial debut. “I like to give them a copy of the script as early as possible so that they can prepare” for the editorial and post process. “The script shows me the ‘nuts and bolts’ of the film,” stated production mixer Ed Novick. “It shows the planned environments and gives me an idea of how I can capture the sound. Most of the key boxing matches were staged as a TV event, like an audience watching an HBO Production, for example. I placed mics in the corners of the boxing ring, on the referee and around the audience areas.”
“I drove Ed crazy,” Fuqua said. “I gave the actors the freedom to improvise; Jake is that type of actor and he just went with it! But often we had no idea where we were heading — we were just riffing a lot of the time to get the fire going — but Ed did an amazing job of securing what we were looking for.”
“The actors were very cooperative and very accommodating to my needs,” said Novick. “They wore mics while fighting, and Jake and Rachel helped me get great tracks.”
“Sound secured from the set is always the best,” added the film’s dialog/music re-recording mixer, Steve Pederson. “There was very little ADR on this film — most of it is production.”
“We developed a wide range of crowd sounds, which became our medium shots,” explained supervising sound editor Mandell Winter, MPSE.
“We made a number of ambience recordings during HBO boxing matches in Las Vegas using microphones located around the perimeter of the boxing ring and under the balcony, as well as mounting a DPA 5100 surround mic below the press box and camera platforms,” added sound designer David Esparza, MPSE. “We covered every angle we could to place the action into the middle of the ring using the sound of real crowds, and not effects libraries.”
As sound effects re-recording mixer Dan Leahy stated: “We used a combination of close-up and distant sounds to accurately locate the audience in the center of the fighting action.”
“It’s all about using sound to reinforce the feeling and emotion of a scene,” stressed Fuqua.
Picture editor John Refoua, ACE, added that “the sound also drove the cut. We had an initial mix with pre-cut effects — the final mix evolved with effects being cut at different audio frequencies to heighten the crowd’s excitement. It was an amazing process to witness, to have the soundtrack evolve during that period.”
“You could feel the heart beat rising,” Fuqua added.
For the major fight at the end of the film, Refoua recalled that there were 12 cameras running simultaneously, including a handful of Canon EOS-5D DSLRs being assigned to the press. “That was a lot of footage,” he recalled. “We looked at it all a shot at a time, and made decisions about which one worked better than another.”
Originally, the final boxing match was choreographed for six rounds, “but we then cut it into 12,” continued Refoua. “We stretched and took alternate takes to build the other rounds.”
Regarding the use of a haunting score by the late James Horner, music editor Joe E. Rand said that the composer was drawn to the film because of the intimate father/daughter relationship, “and looked to different harmonic structures and balances” to reinforce that core element.
But the sound for one pivotal scene didn’t run as expected. “For the graveyard scene [between Gyllenhaal and Laurence, at the grave of the lead character’s wife] we lost most of the radio mics,” reported Winter. “We had a lot of RF hits and [because of camera angles] the boom mic wasn’t close to the actors. The only viable track was Oona [Laurence]’s lavaliere, which still had RF dropouts on it — iZotope RX saved the day.” “We needed to use iZotope to extract the signal from the RF noise,” recalled re-recording mixer Pederson. “Mandell [Winter] and I were surprised it worked out so well.”
“No director can make a movie by themselves,” concluded Fuqua. “The sound crew all came up with creative ideas that I needed to hear. After all, moviemaking is a highly collaborative effort.”
Mel Lambert is principal of Content Creators, an LA-based editorial service. He can be reached at mel.lambert@content-creators.com. Follow him on Twitter @MelLambertLA.
Why Digital Audio Restoration Software Is So Important To Music, Film, And TV
Forbes Magazine By Nick Messitte
There’s a film available for streaming on Netflix right now entitled The Conversation. You may have seen it; it’s a classic Francis Ford Coppola picture, released in between The Godfather one and The Godfather II. The film follows Harry Caul (played by Gene Hackman), an audio surveillance expert who, hired to tape and transcribe a conversation held in San Francisco’s Union Square, uncovers a murder plot.
As well as displaying classic 70s paranoia tropes, the film features a panoply of scenes in which Hackman futzes around with his tapes: he cranks knobs to filter out unnecessary noise; he strains to make the conversation intelligible. Hackman frequently uses hefty pieces of analogue equipment to meet this task, and the more work he does (the more time he puts in, the more knobs he twiddles) the closer he gets to demystifying the tapes, and the closer he gets to figuring out who’s going to die. It’s a great picture, but it’s dated in one respect: Hackman’s job would be undeniably easier now, in 2014, than it was in 1974.
You might not know it, but within the pro-audio industry, there has been a explosion of software innovation—a torrential downpour of audio plugins has brought about a sea change in the way professionals handle raw, unproduced audio before it ever hits the marketplace. We’ve made it clear in other articles that many facets of the audio industry have been affected by this explosion, from drum production to vocal tuning. But in my estimation, no nuts and bolts technology is more important these days than audio restoration software, for such technology impacts a larger (and more profitable) terrain than the music industry—it has also shaped the modern sound, workflow, and budgeting practices of film and television.
It’s a bit of a paradox: when employed correctly, you’d never hear this technology at work. However, this technology has become increasingly more necessary in all commercial media–or at any rate, any such media with a soundtrack.
In the music business, the necessity of this software can be attributed to the home recording revolution, which has brought a whole host of changes to the industry—some positive (free recording time for any artist almost anywhere, so long as they have invested in their own rig), others negative (studios shutting down across the country). But at least one of these changes should have been apparent to everybody with functioning ears. That this change hasn’t been glaringly obvious only testifies to the efficacy of the technology being discussed:
Raw audio—the stuff an engineer receives months before you hear the finished product—can often be quite dirty. Dirtier than it used to be, at any rate. What do I mean by “dirtier?” Here’s an example: in an ideal world, a raw vocal track would sport the sound of vocals and nothing else. This would be a “clean” audio track.
But in a home recording studio, a vocal track can often showcase other, undesirable sounds—the noise of an air-conditioning unit, for instance, or the electrical hum of a power supply, or street noise (cars, sirens, etc), or indeed, people talking in other rooms. Any such sound would render raw audio “dirty.”
In the halcyon days of recording, bands and artists alike would seek a proper studio setting in order to circumvent the problems of dirty audio. But in these days of home recording—these days of shrinking budgets and declining payouts—one inevitably soldiers straight into land-mines of dirty audio.
The nature of home recording ensures this fact: your typical bedroom boasts a window, and windows are portals to extraneous noise. Your typical bedroom also sports methods for regulating temperature; consumer-grade regulation units are a far cry removed from silent. Your typical bedroom probably hasn’t received the full complement of acoustic treatment (free floating floors, for example); if anything, it has been “deadened” with whatever you could muster, from professional fiberglass panels to packing blankets lining the walls.
All of this means a vocal sung in such a room will carry a specific ambiance, a bit of echo or reverberation which essentially makes up the sonic signature of your room. Such sonic signatures often present difficulties when the usual techniques of mixing—equalization, compression, distortion, or spatial effects (reverb, delay)—are applied.
Any one of these aforementioned situations can often lead to dirty audio, which, in turn, can often lead to engineers pulling their own hair out in frustration.
Now, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that within this new ecosystem of home studios, plenty of talented engineers have figured out their own ways of obtaining and delivering pristine audio. However, even the best audio engineers can find themselves in impossible situations: What if the perfect take picked up the singer stomping on the microphone stand by accident? What if the bass player dug in harder than anticipated on his best performance, accidentally clipping (digitally distorting) the preamp in the process? What if an amazing live piano recording is marred by the coughs of one audience member?
This is where digital solutions come into play. Indeed, such solutions have been implemented across genre lines, from classical recordings (where an unwanted page-turn of sheet music might need to be removed) to country recordings (where the fret-squeal of an acoustic guitar might need to be subdued) to indie genres (where a vocal or a bass might sport unwanted hums, clicks, or pops due to the aforementioned problems) to pop recording (which is expected to sound pristine—even if the raw audio is dirty).
Indeed, for all the dirty audio recorded in this new home-recording paradigm, you’d never hear it on the pop charts. You can bet digital audio restoration plays a part of that.
Moving on from music industry matters, we can also see this software in high demand across film and television arenas, largely for reasons having to do with budgets and timeframes.
“I think the schedules are getting tighter,” Frank Morrone recently told me. He knows of what he speaks; a veteran Re-Recording mixer, his credits include the film Ransom and the TV show Lost. “We’ve adjusted our workflow to work within the parameters of those accelerated schedules.”
Yes, Morrone and his peers have taken full advantage of this software boom in order to handle the twin problems of “tighter schedules and tighter budgets.”
“We have better tools at our disposal,” Morrone told me, “they know we can do more.”
Indeed, the clearest examples of how engineers can now “do more” come from film and television: in such a universe, where the integrity of dialogue matters so much (in order to further plot, sell you product, or both), the fruits of digital labor are on their proudest display.
I’ve noticed that the proliferation of relatively cheap audio restoration software has had a democratizing effect on the sound of movies from the bottom up; cheaply made independent features looking for distribution deals on the film festival circuit now tend to sound just as good as big studio pictures—and for a fraction of the price.
I’m not the only one to notice this—but we get ahead of ourselves; for now, let’s address how cleaning up “dirty” audio worked before the days of digital, and let’s use the film world as our backdrop, as the flaws of dirty audio are easier to spot within the context of the history of cinema sound:
While clean audio in the music industry has historically been obtained in perfectly calibrated studios, the same cannot be said for film: Capturing good location sound has always been fraught with peril, and audio captured on a soundstage often isn’t much better—such is the nature of the business. But as anyone who’s read Sidney Lumet’s highly instructive Making Movies could tell you, the integrity of dialogue is paramount, and in the old days, achieving sonic integrity was no easy feat. Lumet even labeled the process “The Only Dull Part of Movie Making” in his book. He also told Fresh Air’s Terry Gross that the mixing process was “a drag.”
Even to someone like me—a relatively young man somewhat versed in digital audio restoration—the analogue way of doing things is full of confusing, jarring nomenclature: “In the analogue days, especially on mag, it was a lot of riding faders in and out, cutting on mag, mod to mod, using the Dolby Cat 43, eq’ing, notching—we had a lot of tools that we were using.”
The above description comes from Frank Morrone, and if it sounds incomprehensibly complex, don’t worry—it is.
The laymen’s takeaway is this: Before digital, individual hardware pieces existed to whip such sound into shape, but as Tom Marks (a member of CAS and a Re-Recording Mixer for Warner Brothers) said, “Everything was a one trick pony.” When it came to classic hardware pieces, they could often “do this one thing great, and that was it.” Such equipment was expensive to own, and complicating the matter further, film/television audio could often sport problems beyond the boundaries of a typical hardware piece.
Take the dialogue on Lost, which Morrone told me was “extremely challenging, because if they pointed the mic one way you’d get the surf coming in.” If they pointed it the other way, a superhighway and a military base became glaringly audible, and the resulting audio often sounded as if it were plonked “between helicopters and Mack Trucks going by on what was supposed to be a deserted island.” Compounding the problem, a matter of simple costuming: you couldn’t very well place wireless microphones on the actors because “nobody ever had shirts on.” The resulting sound, through no fault of the original recording engineers (to be clear, their circumstances are inherently fraught with problems) was “really tough because they were picking up so much extraneous noise.”
Though this is a relatively contemporary example, the experience of exceeding the parameters of hardware was not uncommon. Indeed, if a task fell beyond the realm of what could be handled on a mixing stage, the job of cleaning up dialogue could very well be outsourced: “For stuff that required more surgical work,” Tom Marks told me, he would have to farm the audio to “an office where you can send them files, and you kind of describe what you’d like to get done, and they do their process.”
So a line of dialogue would be sent to the offices of a company like CEDAR Audio, where Tom would interface with their staff: “‘Hey, [the audio’s] got X issue, can you see what you can do?’” He’d tell them. “Then they’d send back, let’s say, a few different versions of it—with little processing, medium processing, and full processing.” Even in CEDAR’s capable hands, the results might not always be an improvement: “When you plug it in, if it’s better, great, and if it’s not, you know you tried.”
But the recent digital revolution—of which Avid’s Pro Tools is a huge part—started to change standard operating procedures over the years; as Pro Tools rigs gained steam in film and television, software companies sought to streamline the process for post-production mixers and other markets in need of audio restoration (home studio recordings, for example).
Entities such as Waves, Sonic NoNOISE, Sony Oxford, and Bias began releasing audio restoration suites. However, in the earlier days of such technology, these plugins could be quite pricey, and even then, often delivered mixed results.
Indeed, post production mixers still strained for options when it came to reducing unwanted noise in their dialogue: “Waves always tended to have too much latency for real time use,” said Tom Marks, referring to a common problem (digital signal processing causing an ultimate delay in the audio signal, thereby messing up the all-too-important sync between sound and picture; net result: lips not corresponding to speech.) “For everything that Waves did, I found something, you know, better.”
In my talks with industry pros, such sentiments didn’t keep themselves relegated to Waves Audio. Often times engineers could find themselves using software tailor-made for the music business, rather than the film and television industry.
“I was using this sophisticated gate to get rid of [unwanted ambiance], but it never worked effectively,” said Frank Morrone, referring to a plugin engineers on the music side have traditionally used to enhance the transients of drums.
To be candid, I have had my own struggles with such software, tussling with Sonnox Restore, Bias Soundsoap, and Waves in my efforts to wrestle unwanted noise to the ground on movies such as Joanna Arnow’s award winning I Hate Myself :) and Sumi, a film by Hye Yun Park and Rachael Grace.
On these films, all of the above software almost worked for me, but inevitably, I would find myself reaching for some other plugin for the necessary juice to make it across the finish line.
Forbes Magazine By Nick Messitte
There’s a film available for streaming on Netflix right now entitled The Conversation. You may have seen it; it’s a classic Francis Ford Coppola picture, released in between The Godfather one and The Godfather II. The film follows Harry Caul (played by Gene Hackman), an audio surveillance expert who, hired to tape and transcribe a conversation held in San Francisco’s Union Square, uncovers a murder plot.
As well as displaying classic 70s paranoia tropes, the film features a panoply of scenes in which Hackman futzes around with his tapes: he cranks knobs to filter out unnecessary noise; he strains to make the conversation intelligible. Hackman frequently uses hefty pieces of analogue equipment to meet this task, and the more work he does (the more time he puts in, the more knobs he twiddles) the closer he gets to demystifying the tapes, and the closer he gets to figuring out who’s going to die. It’s a great picture, but it’s dated in one respect: Hackman’s job would be undeniably easier now, in 2014, than it was in 1974.
You might not know it, but within the pro-audio industry, there has been a explosion of software innovation—a torrential downpour of audio plugins has brought about a sea change in the way professionals handle raw, unproduced audio before it ever hits the marketplace. We’ve made it clear in other articles that many facets of the audio industry have been affected by this explosion, from drum production to vocal tuning. But in my estimation, no nuts and bolts technology is more important these days than audio restoration software, for such technology impacts a larger (and more profitable) terrain than the music industry—it has also shaped the modern sound, workflow, and budgeting practices of film and television.
It’s a bit of a paradox: when employed correctly, you’d never hear this technology at work. However, this technology has become increasingly more necessary in all commercial media–or at any rate, any such media with a soundtrack.
In the music business, the necessity of this software can be attributed to the home recording revolution, which has brought a whole host of changes to the industry—some positive (free recording time for any artist almost anywhere, so long as they have invested in their own rig), others negative (studios shutting down across the country). But at least one of these changes should have been apparent to everybody with functioning ears. That this change hasn’t been glaringly obvious only testifies to the efficacy of the technology being discussed:
Raw audio—the stuff an engineer receives months before you hear the finished product—can often be quite dirty. Dirtier than it used to be, at any rate. What do I mean by “dirtier?” Here’s an example: in an ideal world, a raw vocal track would sport the sound of vocals and nothing else. This would be a “clean” audio track.
But in a home recording studio, a vocal track can often showcase other, undesirable sounds—the noise of an air-conditioning unit, for instance, or the electrical hum of a power supply, or street noise (cars, sirens, etc), or indeed, people talking in other rooms. Any such sound would render raw audio “dirty.”
In the halcyon days of recording, bands and artists alike would seek a proper studio setting in order to circumvent the problems of dirty audio. But in these days of home recording—these days of shrinking budgets and declining payouts—one inevitably soldiers straight into land-mines of dirty audio.
The nature of home recording ensures this fact: your typical bedroom boasts a window, and windows are portals to extraneous noise. Your typical bedroom also sports methods for regulating temperature; consumer-grade regulation units are a far cry removed from silent. Your typical bedroom probably hasn’t received the full complement of acoustic treatment (free floating floors, for example); if anything, it has been “deadened” with whatever you could muster, from professional fiberglass panels to packing blankets lining the walls.
All of this means a vocal sung in such a room will carry a specific ambiance, a bit of echo or reverberation which essentially makes up the sonic signature of your room. Such sonic signatures often present difficulties when the usual techniques of mixing—equalization, compression, distortion, or spatial effects (reverb, delay)—are applied.
Any one of these aforementioned situations can often lead to dirty audio, which, in turn, can often lead to engineers pulling their own hair out in frustration.
Now, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that within this new ecosystem of home studios, plenty of talented engineers have figured out their own ways of obtaining and delivering pristine audio. However, even the best audio engineers can find themselves in impossible situations: What if the perfect take picked up the singer stomping on the microphone stand by accident? What if the bass player dug in harder than anticipated on his best performance, accidentally clipping (digitally distorting) the preamp in the process? What if an amazing live piano recording is marred by the coughs of one audience member?
This is where digital solutions come into play. Indeed, such solutions have been implemented across genre lines, from classical recordings (where an unwanted page-turn of sheet music might need to be removed) to country recordings (where the fret-squeal of an acoustic guitar might need to be subdued) to indie genres (where a vocal or a bass might sport unwanted hums, clicks, or pops due to the aforementioned problems) to pop recording (which is expected to sound pristine—even if the raw audio is dirty).
Indeed, for all the dirty audio recorded in this new home-recording paradigm, you’d never hear it on the pop charts. You can bet digital audio restoration plays a part of that.
Moving on from music industry matters, we can also see this software in high demand across film and television arenas, largely for reasons having to do with budgets and timeframes.
“I think the schedules are getting tighter,” Frank Morrone recently told me. He knows of what he speaks; a veteran Re-Recording mixer, his credits include the film Ransom and the TV show Lost. “We’ve adjusted our workflow to work within the parameters of those accelerated schedules.”
Yes, Morrone and his peers have taken full advantage of this software boom in order to handle the twin problems of “tighter schedules and tighter budgets.”
“We have better tools at our disposal,” Morrone told me, “they know we can do more.”
Indeed, the clearest examples of how engineers can now “do more” come from film and television: in such a universe, where the integrity of dialogue matters so much (in order to further plot, sell you product, or both), the fruits of digital labor are on their proudest display.
I’ve noticed that the proliferation of relatively cheap audio restoration software has had a democratizing effect on the sound of movies from the bottom up; cheaply made independent features looking for distribution deals on the film festival circuit now tend to sound just as good as big studio pictures—and for a fraction of the price.
I’m not the only one to notice this—but we get ahead of ourselves; for now, let’s address how cleaning up “dirty” audio worked before the days of digital, and let’s use the film world as our backdrop, as the flaws of dirty audio are easier to spot within the context of the history of cinema sound:
While clean audio in the music industry has historically been obtained in perfectly calibrated studios, the same cannot be said for film: Capturing good location sound has always been fraught with peril, and audio captured on a soundstage often isn’t much better—such is the nature of the business. But as anyone who’s read Sidney Lumet’s highly instructive Making Movies could tell you, the integrity of dialogue is paramount, and in the old days, achieving sonic integrity was no easy feat. Lumet even labeled the process “The Only Dull Part of Movie Making” in his book. He also told Fresh Air’s Terry Gross that the mixing process was “a drag.”
Even to someone like me—a relatively young man somewhat versed in digital audio restoration—the analogue way of doing things is full of confusing, jarring nomenclature: “In the analogue days, especially on mag, it was a lot of riding faders in and out, cutting on mag, mod to mod, using the Dolby Cat 43, eq’ing, notching—we had a lot of tools that we were using.”
The above description comes from Frank Morrone, and if it sounds incomprehensibly complex, don’t worry—it is.
The laymen’s takeaway is this: Before digital, individual hardware pieces existed to whip such sound into shape, but as Tom Marks (a member of CAS and a Re-Recording Mixer for Warner Brothers) said, “Everything was a one trick pony.” When it came to classic hardware pieces, they could often “do this one thing great, and that was it.” Such equipment was expensive to own, and complicating the matter further, film/television audio could often sport problems beyond the boundaries of a typical hardware piece.
Take the dialogue on Lost, which Morrone told me was “extremely challenging, because if they pointed the mic one way you’d get the surf coming in.” If they pointed it the other way, a superhighway and a military base became glaringly audible, and the resulting audio often sounded as if it were plonked “between helicopters and Mack Trucks going by on what was supposed to be a deserted island.” Compounding the problem, a matter of simple costuming: you couldn’t very well place wireless microphones on the actors because “nobody ever had shirts on.” The resulting sound, through no fault of the original recording engineers (to be clear, their circumstances are inherently fraught with problems) was “really tough because they were picking up so much extraneous noise.”
Though this is a relatively contemporary example, the experience of exceeding the parameters of hardware was not uncommon. Indeed, if a task fell beyond the realm of what could be handled on a mixing stage, the job of cleaning up dialogue could very well be outsourced: “For stuff that required more surgical work,” Tom Marks told me, he would have to farm the audio to “an office where you can send them files, and you kind of describe what you’d like to get done, and they do their process.”
So a line of dialogue would be sent to the offices of a company like CEDAR Audio, where Tom would interface with their staff: “‘Hey, [the audio’s] got X issue, can you see what you can do?’” He’d tell them. “Then they’d send back, let’s say, a few different versions of it—with little processing, medium processing, and full processing.” Even in CEDAR’s capable hands, the results might not always be an improvement: “When you plug it in, if it’s better, great, and if it’s not, you know you tried.”
But the recent digital revolution—of which Avid’s Pro Tools is a huge part—started to change standard operating procedures over the years; as Pro Tools rigs gained steam in film and television, software companies sought to streamline the process for post-production mixers and other markets in need of audio restoration (home studio recordings, for example).
Entities such as Waves, Sonic NoNOISE, Sony Oxford, and Bias began releasing audio restoration suites. However, in the earlier days of such technology, these plugins could be quite pricey, and even then, often delivered mixed results.
Indeed, post production mixers still strained for options when it came to reducing unwanted noise in their dialogue: “Waves always tended to have too much latency for real time use,” said Tom Marks, referring to a common problem (digital signal processing causing an ultimate delay in the audio signal, thereby messing up the all-too-important sync between sound and picture; net result: lips not corresponding to speech.) “For everything that Waves did, I found something, you know, better.”
In my talks with industry pros, such sentiments didn’t keep themselves relegated to Waves Audio. Often times engineers could find themselves using software tailor-made for the music business, rather than the film and television industry.
“I was using this sophisticated gate to get rid of [unwanted ambiance], but it never worked effectively,” said Frank Morrone, referring to a plugin engineers on the music side have traditionally used to enhance the transients of drums.
To be candid, I have had my own struggles with such software, tussling with Sonnox Restore, Bias Soundsoap, and Waves in my efforts to wrestle unwanted noise to the ground on movies such as Joanna Arnow’s award winning I Hate Myself :) and Sumi, a film by Hye Yun Park and Rachael Grace.
On these films, all of the above software almost worked for me, but inevitably, I would find myself reaching for some other plugin for the necessary juice to make it across the finish line.
Inside the World of Emmy-Winning Re-Recording Mixer Frank Morrone
Avid Blogs Pro Mixing By Tom Graham
I recently sat down with Frank Morrone on a sunny, summer morning to discuss his experience mixing the new hit TV show The Strain on FX Network at Technicolor Toronto (Canada). The show has racked up some really big numbers in it’s first few weeks while Frank has been mixing ahead non-stop for the last few months on the S6 surface and with Pro Tools HDX and Pro Tools HD 11 software.
I’ve been lucky to know Frank pretty well for the last 10 years now – as I was the product specialist helping him design, install and get up on the ICON and Pro Tools HD rigs for the hit show LOST. Frank is not just a mixer, he’s also a passionate advocate and leader for the industry. He has served as a Governor for the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and is currently President of the Motion Picture Sound Editors. He is also on the Board of Directors for the Motion Picture Editors Guild. Additionally, he is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Recording Academy and has served on the Board of Directors for the Cinema Audio Society.
TG: Could you speak to the level of expectation for soundtracks today? Are consumers demanding a bigger, higher quality experience from all media?
FM: Consumers today expect and demand a theatrical experience from (modern) TV shows. Shows are broadcast with High Def (picture) and 5.1 (audio) so we are very conscious of delivering a high level of quality for the consumer and our clients. The shows live on with the 5.1 Blu-Ray, DVD and streaming versions as well, where people want a great experience.
TG: With that in mind, what are the big challenges facing you as a professional mixer today?
FM: The challenges we face in mixing for television today are that track counts continue to get bigger, our budgets are getting smaller and the schedules are getting tighter… we’re basically asked to deliver a (high quality – theatrical) 5.1 mix in a fraction of the time than we would have with a feature film. Days as opposed to weeks. Having a streamlined workflow is the key to efficiently delivering that mix.
I was really excited to join the Technicolor worldwide team because to me, they really represent a modern, forward thinking company that wants to invest in the technology and facilities needed to deliver modern streamlined workflows and foster an environment for a great client experience and great results.
TG: Could you speak to the evolution of sound mixing and over the last 15 years and how has Avid helped shape that evolution?
FM: Initially I started mixing in film and television back in the days of mag film and analog consoles and so I never take for granted the power that Avid and Pro Tools has brought to our workflows. I’ve worked on traditional (analogue and digital) mixing consoles and you end up writing two sets of automation because besides automating the console, I like to use a lot of the plug-ins (such as reverbs and noise reduction) in Pro Tools, so you’re carrying along two sets of automation with every session. The great thing about working (entirely) within Pro Tools and S6 is that the automation stays intact wherever you go and it makes it seamless to move from one studio to another.
We didn’t have the demands on us that we have today and Avid has provided us with a means to get the job done and deliver high-quality results. It’s been an evolution that’s been ongoing… Every time Avid has released the product, they’ve listened to us, to what the needs of mixers, editors, music engineers and composers are and have responded to that. Every release that they have put out there has been a tremendous help because they do listen to what we need and they deliver.
TG: Can you talk about how you came to the Pro Tools | S6 solution and how you think S6 changes the way you mix (compared to the previous solution)?
FM: When we started mixing LOST many years ago – we knew right away that the ICON and Pro Tools HD was the way to go to deal with the huge track counts and streamline our workflow. It was a tremendous tool for us to use on that show and I loved it.
With LOST we had 7 computer monitors (for the 7 HD Systems) in front of us to get the visual feedback we needed. Now with the S6, I have the TFT (Meter) displays and all the information is streamlined right in front of me. I can get at it with a lot less clutter. And I really love the scrolling waveforms because when I’m doing my dialogue premixes I can see when a piece of dialogue is coming in on a track and if I need to raise my Fader because of the (relative) size of the incoming waveform. To be able to also see my metering, my compression and my EQ curves right next to the scrolling waveform are just great features and they really get you into a rhythm when you’re working. It’s a rhythm and efficiency that you could never get before.
Another big difference for me between the ICON and the S6 is the use of real estate. Avid has really maximized the space that you have on the desk and you get a lot of functionality in a much smaller space. The S6 is a tremendous improvement – it really has been well thought out and laid out ergonomically for us to have everything we need at our fingertips and I find that I work much faster. It’s been a real treat and a joy to work on the new S6.
TG: And how was the transition from ICON to S6 for you?
FM: Moving from the ICON to the S6 was virtually seamless, just a few hours really. Once you’re familiar with working and mixing within Pro Tools HD and it’s automation, the ICON and the S6 are just an extension of that and it was a very easy move.
TG: Could you talk about the transition from Pro Tools HD to Pro Tools | HDX?
FM: With the release of the (Pro Tools) HDX cards there was a huge advancement in the power that we gained, it helped us get much higher track counts, much more DSP power and it sounds better too, the difference was noticeable and we’re really happy with the move. What took 7 HD systems onLOST is now 3 HDX rigs: (1 for Dialogue/Music/Group, 1 for FX, BGs and Foley and 1 recorder for all the stems). It was a huge advancement that really helped our capabilities to work more efficiently and streamline our workflow.
TG: What stands out to you as the most compelling features of S6?
FM: Between the HDX cards and the S6 console – we have a very powerful combination. Some of the features that the S6 offers (and now especially with the latest release of software version 1.2), I can basically use the touchscreen or the VCA’s and VCA spill and the Layouts to get at any of the tracks I need quickly. Those are all powerful tools. But if I had to pick just one – I love the touchscreen; it’s a great, great feature! I find that I am constantly going to it and being able to scroll through tracks or go to EQ’s or the surround panner – and it just really allows me to work very quickly and efficiently. It’s also fun – that’s the best way to put it, the S6 is a lot of fun to work on.
TG: Can you describe your experience with the Avid team on supporting your sale and installation.
FM: The overall support from Avid has been phenomenal. When we (at Technicolor) ordered, (really the first dual operator S6 in North America), we needed to know that we were going to have the support to get our show (The Strain - on FX Network) up and running under our tight deadline. They were fantastic in supporting us, getting us up and running and they were available to us when we needed them. And that’s important with any product – it’s only as good as the people standing behind it and they did an exceptional job.
TG: Any advice you would give to students or young mixers who want to do what you do?
FM: My best advice to someone wanting to get into the film and TV mixing industry starts with: Pro Tools is the lifeblood of our industry. The more proficient you can get on it – the more valuable you become to a facility. Mastering Pro Tools and the surfaces like the S6 will make you a huge asset to any studio looking to hire someone.
Avid Blogs Pro Mixing By Tom Graham
I recently sat down with Frank Morrone on a sunny, summer morning to discuss his experience mixing the new hit TV show The Strain on FX Network at Technicolor Toronto (Canada). The show has racked up some really big numbers in it’s first few weeks while Frank has been mixing ahead non-stop for the last few months on the S6 surface and with Pro Tools HDX and Pro Tools HD 11 software.
I’ve been lucky to know Frank pretty well for the last 10 years now – as I was the product specialist helping him design, install and get up on the ICON and Pro Tools HD rigs for the hit show LOST. Frank is not just a mixer, he’s also a passionate advocate and leader for the industry. He has served as a Governor for the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and is currently President of the Motion Picture Sound Editors. He is also on the Board of Directors for the Motion Picture Editors Guild. Additionally, he is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Recording Academy and has served on the Board of Directors for the Cinema Audio Society.
TG: Could you speak to the level of expectation for soundtracks today? Are consumers demanding a bigger, higher quality experience from all media?
FM: Consumers today expect and demand a theatrical experience from (modern) TV shows. Shows are broadcast with High Def (picture) and 5.1 (audio) so we are very conscious of delivering a high level of quality for the consumer and our clients. The shows live on with the 5.1 Blu-Ray, DVD and streaming versions as well, where people want a great experience.
TG: With that in mind, what are the big challenges facing you as a professional mixer today?
FM: The challenges we face in mixing for television today are that track counts continue to get bigger, our budgets are getting smaller and the schedules are getting tighter… we’re basically asked to deliver a (high quality – theatrical) 5.1 mix in a fraction of the time than we would have with a feature film. Days as opposed to weeks. Having a streamlined workflow is the key to efficiently delivering that mix.
I was really excited to join the Technicolor worldwide team because to me, they really represent a modern, forward thinking company that wants to invest in the technology and facilities needed to deliver modern streamlined workflows and foster an environment for a great client experience and great results.
TG: Could you speak to the evolution of sound mixing and over the last 15 years and how has Avid helped shape that evolution?
FM: Initially I started mixing in film and television back in the days of mag film and analog consoles and so I never take for granted the power that Avid and Pro Tools has brought to our workflows. I’ve worked on traditional (analogue and digital) mixing consoles and you end up writing two sets of automation because besides automating the console, I like to use a lot of the plug-ins (such as reverbs and noise reduction) in Pro Tools, so you’re carrying along two sets of automation with every session. The great thing about working (entirely) within Pro Tools and S6 is that the automation stays intact wherever you go and it makes it seamless to move from one studio to another.
We didn’t have the demands on us that we have today and Avid has provided us with a means to get the job done and deliver high-quality results. It’s been an evolution that’s been ongoing… Every time Avid has released the product, they’ve listened to us, to what the needs of mixers, editors, music engineers and composers are and have responded to that. Every release that they have put out there has been a tremendous help because they do listen to what we need and they deliver.
TG: Can you talk about how you came to the Pro Tools | S6 solution and how you think S6 changes the way you mix (compared to the previous solution)?
FM: When we started mixing LOST many years ago – we knew right away that the ICON and Pro Tools HD was the way to go to deal with the huge track counts and streamline our workflow. It was a tremendous tool for us to use on that show and I loved it.
With LOST we had 7 computer monitors (for the 7 HD Systems) in front of us to get the visual feedback we needed. Now with the S6, I have the TFT (Meter) displays and all the information is streamlined right in front of me. I can get at it with a lot less clutter. And I really love the scrolling waveforms because when I’m doing my dialogue premixes I can see when a piece of dialogue is coming in on a track and if I need to raise my Fader because of the (relative) size of the incoming waveform. To be able to also see my metering, my compression and my EQ curves right next to the scrolling waveform are just great features and they really get you into a rhythm when you’re working. It’s a rhythm and efficiency that you could never get before.
Another big difference for me between the ICON and the S6 is the use of real estate. Avid has really maximized the space that you have on the desk and you get a lot of functionality in a much smaller space. The S6 is a tremendous improvement – it really has been well thought out and laid out ergonomically for us to have everything we need at our fingertips and I find that I work much faster. It’s been a real treat and a joy to work on the new S6.
TG: And how was the transition from ICON to S6 for you?
FM: Moving from the ICON to the S6 was virtually seamless, just a few hours really. Once you’re familiar with working and mixing within Pro Tools HD and it’s automation, the ICON and the S6 are just an extension of that and it was a very easy move.
TG: Could you talk about the transition from Pro Tools HD to Pro Tools | HDX?
FM: With the release of the (Pro Tools) HDX cards there was a huge advancement in the power that we gained, it helped us get much higher track counts, much more DSP power and it sounds better too, the difference was noticeable and we’re really happy with the move. What took 7 HD systems onLOST is now 3 HDX rigs: (1 for Dialogue/Music/Group, 1 for FX, BGs and Foley and 1 recorder for all the stems). It was a huge advancement that really helped our capabilities to work more efficiently and streamline our workflow.
TG: What stands out to you as the most compelling features of S6?
FM: Between the HDX cards and the S6 console – we have a very powerful combination. Some of the features that the S6 offers (and now especially with the latest release of software version 1.2), I can basically use the touchscreen or the VCA’s and VCA spill and the Layouts to get at any of the tracks I need quickly. Those are all powerful tools. But if I had to pick just one – I love the touchscreen; it’s a great, great feature! I find that I am constantly going to it and being able to scroll through tracks or go to EQ’s or the surround panner – and it just really allows me to work very quickly and efficiently. It’s also fun – that’s the best way to put it, the S6 is a lot of fun to work on.
TG: Can you describe your experience with the Avid team on supporting your sale and installation.
FM: The overall support from Avid has been phenomenal. When we (at Technicolor) ordered, (really the first dual operator S6 in North America), we needed to know that we were going to have the support to get our show (The Strain - on FX Network) up and running under our tight deadline. They were fantastic in supporting us, getting us up and running and they were available to us when we needed them. And that’s important with any product – it’s only as good as the people standing behind it and they did an exceptional job.
TG: Any advice you would give to students or young mixers who want to do what you do?
FM: My best advice to someone wanting to get into the film and TV mixing industry starts with: Pro Tools is the lifeblood of our industry. The more proficient you can get on it – the more valuable you become to a facility. Mastering Pro Tools and the surfaces like the S6 will make you a huge asset to any studio looking to hire someone.
Amin Bhatia - Interstellar Suite 5.1 Surround Sound Mix Review - Audio Ecstasy
by Wesley Derbyshire
Emmy-Winning Re-Recording Mixer Frank Morrone Joins Technicolor
Hollywood Reporter (Exclusive) by Carolyn Giardina
Re-recording mixer Frank Morrone -- who has won Emmys for Lost and The Kennedys -- is joining Technicolor. His first project at the company will be Justin Bieber's Believe.
Morrone bring an extensive list of TV credits including Sex and the City and the recent pilot of The Blacklist and features including Ransom, Sleepy Hollow and the Oscar-winning documentary When We Were Kings.
An active member of the community, Morrone serves as president of Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE), a Sound Governor with the Television Academy, and board member of Motion Picture Editors Guild. He is a past board member of the Cinema Audio Society.
Morrone will be available at Hollywood's Technicolor at Paramount and Technicolor Toronto. He joins the company's roster of re-recording mixers which includes Scott Millan, Greg P. Russell, Anna Behlmer and Terry Porter.
"I’m proud be a part of an innovative company that has so much great talent," Morrone told The Hollywood Reporter. "And their state of the art facilities are as good as it gets."
Hollywood Reporter (Exclusive) by Carolyn Giardina
Re-recording mixer Frank Morrone -- who has won Emmys for Lost and The Kennedys -- is joining Technicolor. His first project at the company will be Justin Bieber's Believe.
Morrone bring an extensive list of TV credits including Sex and the City and the recent pilot of The Blacklist and features including Ransom, Sleepy Hollow and the Oscar-winning documentary When We Were Kings.
An active member of the community, Morrone serves as president of Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE), a Sound Governor with the Television Academy, and board member of Motion Picture Editors Guild. He is a past board member of the Cinema Audio Society.
Morrone will be available at Hollywood's Technicolor at Paramount and Technicolor Toronto. He joins the company's roster of re-recording mixers which includes Scott Millan, Greg P. Russell, Anna Behlmer and Terry Porter.
"I’m proud be a part of an innovative company that has so much great talent," Morrone told The Hollywood Reporter. "And their state of the art facilities are as good as it gets."
Skywalker Sound’s Randy Thom To Receive MPSE Lifetime Award
by Deadline Hollywood
The Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE) today announces that it will be honoring Randy Thom, Director of Sound Design at Skywalker Sound, with its prestigious MPSE Career Achievement Award. Thom is a two-time Academy Award-winner (The Right Stuff, The Incredibles) and a 14-time Oscar nominee. He has contributed to more than 100 films as a sound designer and re-recording mixer. He will receive the award at the 61ST MPSE Golden Reel Awards ceremony held on February 16, 2014, at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel and Suites, Los Angeles, CA.
“I am pleased and excited that the MPSE will be honoring Randy Thom with our Career Achievement Award,” says MPSE President, Frank Morrone. “His creative skills and dedication to the importance of sound in the filmmaking process is inspiring. Please join us in recognizing and celebrating Randy for excellence in the craft and his impressive achievements.”
“I am humbled, and deeply gratified to be receiving the MPSE Career Achievement Award,” stated Randy Thom. “It goes without saying that a very large part of the honor is shared with the wonderful sound editors, mixers, designers, assistants, and others with whom I’ve collaborated. They’ve often made me look, and sound, better than I was. Part of the honor goes to Skywalker Sound, as well. There is no better place to work in our industry.”
The Career Achievement Award recognizes those that have distinguished themselves by meritorious works as both an individual and fellow contributor with outstanding achievements in ‘the art of sound’ for feature film and television as well as setting an example of excellence for others to follow. Randy’s diverse works and his incredible tenacity in championing the craft merit this recognition. The prestigious company of this honor, most recently include Ben Burtt, Larry Singer, Walter Murch, George Watters II, and John Roesch, 2013’s recipient.
Randy Thom is Director of Sound Design at Skywalker Sound, but still spends most of his time working on movies. Randy began his astonishing career in 1979 walking-in on the re-mix sessions of American Graffiti when he introduced himself to Walter Murch, Ben Burt and Mark Berger. This event turned into his first film work when he was hired as a sound effects recordist on Apocalypse Now. Randy moved on to work in a wide variety of creative capacities within the sound department spanning over one hundred films. Randy’s approach to designing and turning motion picture sound into art begins before the film has started shooting by helping the director open doors to sound in the script. He is the foremost advocate for the idea that sound ideas should affect creative decisions in the other crafts, just as they affect sound.
Additional credits include Return of the Jedi, Never Cry Wolf, Wild at Heart, Forrest Gump, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, The Thin Blue Line, War of the Worlds, Coraline, How To Train Your Dragon, Ghost in the Shell, and Ratatouille.
He has worked with a diverse list of directors, including Francis Coppola, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Bob Zemeckis, David Lynch, John Waters, Errol Morris, Henry Seleck, Peter Jackson, Brad Bird, and Chris Wedge.
Randy has been nominated for fourteen Oscars, an Emmy, and a Grammy. He has received two Oscars: one for The Right Stuff, and one for The Incredibles.
by Deadline Hollywood
The Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE) today announces that it will be honoring Randy Thom, Director of Sound Design at Skywalker Sound, with its prestigious MPSE Career Achievement Award. Thom is a two-time Academy Award-winner (The Right Stuff, The Incredibles) and a 14-time Oscar nominee. He has contributed to more than 100 films as a sound designer and re-recording mixer. He will receive the award at the 61ST MPSE Golden Reel Awards ceremony held on February 16, 2014, at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel and Suites, Los Angeles, CA.
“I am pleased and excited that the MPSE will be honoring Randy Thom with our Career Achievement Award,” says MPSE President, Frank Morrone. “His creative skills and dedication to the importance of sound in the filmmaking process is inspiring. Please join us in recognizing and celebrating Randy for excellence in the craft and his impressive achievements.”
“I am humbled, and deeply gratified to be receiving the MPSE Career Achievement Award,” stated Randy Thom. “It goes without saying that a very large part of the honor is shared with the wonderful sound editors, mixers, designers, assistants, and others with whom I’ve collaborated. They’ve often made me look, and sound, better than I was. Part of the honor goes to Skywalker Sound, as well. There is no better place to work in our industry.”
The Career Achievement Award recognizes those that have distinguished themselves by meritorious works as both an individual and fellow contributor with outstanding achievements in ‘the art of sound’ for feature film and television as well as setting an example of excellence for others to follow. Randy’s diverse works and his incredible tenacity in championing the craft merit this recognition. The prestigious company of this honor, most recently include Ben Burtt, Larry Singer, Walter Murch, George Watters II, and John Roesch, 2013’s recipient.
Randy Thom is Director of Sound Design at Skywalker Sound, but still spends most of his time working on movies. Randy began his astonishing career in 1979 walking-in on the re-mix sessions of American Graffiti when he introduced himself to Walter Murch, Ben Burt and Mark Berger. This event turned into his first film work when he was hired as a sound effects recordist on Apocalypse Now. Randy moved on to work in a wide variety of creative capacities within the sound department spanning over one hundred films. Randy’s approach to designing and turning motion picture sound into art begins before the film has started shooting by helping the director open doors to sound in the script. He is the foremost advocate for the idea that sound ideas should affect creative decisions in the other crafts, just as they affect sound.
Additional credits include Return of the Jedi, Never Cry Wolf, Wild at Heart, Forrest Gump, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, The Thin Blue Line, War of the Worlds, Coraline, How To Train Your Dragon, Ghost in the Shell, and Ratatouille.
He has worked with a diverse list of directors, including Francis Coppola, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Bob Zemeckis, David Lynch, John Waters, Errol Morris, Henry Seleck, Peter Jackson, Brad Bird, and Chris Wedge.
Randy has been nominated for fourteen Oscars, an Emmy, and a Grammy. He has received two Oscars: one for The Right Stuff, and one for The Incredibles.
Frank Morrone to Succeed Bobbi Banks as President of Motion Picture Sound Editors
Hollywood Reporter by Carolyn Giardina
Frank Morrone has been elected to succeed Bobbi Banks as president of the Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE). Banks resigned as president and a board member of the non-profit, citing personal reasons. She held both positions since 2006. Morrone was the organization's vice president. The board also elected Mark Lanza as vice president and Chris Reeves as secretary.
“The MPSE board of directors extends its sincere thanks to Banks for her contributions over the last eight years and wishes her the best. Under her leadership, the MPSE has experienced significant growth in its mission and the scope of its annual Golden Reel Awards show,” the organization said in a statement.
"I am forever grateful to have had the invaluable experience of serving this exceptional group of professionals,” said Banks in a statement. “I am very proud of the work our board and our members have done to improve this organization and earn it renewed awareness and prestige.” Morrone is a re-recording sound mixer whose credits include Lost. He is the recipient of multiple MPSE Golden Reel Awards and nominations, alongside two Primetime Emmy Awards and an additional five Emmy nominations.
He said in a statement: "I look forward to working with the MPSE board in continuing to grow our organization. Our mission is to pursue greater recognition for our members and to educate the entertainment community and general audience regarding the importance and artistic merit of the sound track.”
Hollywood Reporter by Carolyn Giardina
Frank Morrone has been elected to succeed Bobbi Banks as president of the Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE). Banks resigned as president and a board member of the non-profit, citing personal reasons. She held both positions since 2006. Morrone was the organization's vice president. The board also elected Mark Lanza as vice president and Chris Reeves as secretary.
“The MPSE board of directors extends its sincere thanks to Banks for her contributions over the last eight years and wishes her the best. Under her leadership, the MPSE has experienced significant growth in its mission and the scope of its annual Golden Reel Awards show,” the organization said in a statement.
"I am forever grateful to have had the invaluable experience of serving this exceptional group of professionals,” said Banks in a statement. “I am very proud of the work our board and our members have done to improve this organization and earn it renewed awareness and prestige.” Morrone is a re-recording sound mixer whose credits include Lost. He is the recipient of multiple MPSE Golden Reel Awards and nominations, alongside two Primetime Emmy Awards and an additional five Emmy nominations.
He said in a statement: "I look forward to working with the MPSE board in continuing to grow our organization. Our mission is to pursue greater recognition for our members and to educate the entertainment community and general audience regarding the importance and artistic merit of the sound track.”
A One-Stop Shop for Audio Repair - iZotope’s New RX 3
Editors Guild Magazine by Mel Lambert
Targeted directly at dialogue editors, sound designers and re-recording mixers working in film and TV post-production, iZotope’s flagship Audio Repair Suite now offers a number of innovative features. Powerful new tools for RX 3 Advanced include a Dereverb module that dramatically reduces and/or eliminates reverb within a sound file, while a real-time Dialogueue Denoiser mode cleans up material suffering from unwanted background noise.
The stand-alone application and companion array of workstation plug-ins both feature a new, redesigned user interface and improved workflow for enhanced precision; new internal enhancements are said to provide faster processing and repair capabilities. Usefully, an unlimited Undo history, which is saved automatically with audio data in a new RX document format, means that all file changes can be recalled instantly and corrected, if necessary. The new RX 3 Audio Repair Suite is available for both Apple OSX and Windows platforms. During a special introductory period that runs until September 27, RX3 costs $249, while RX 3 Advanced sells for $749. After that date, prices will be $349 and $1,199, respectively. Users who purchased RX 2 after July 1, 2013, will receive a free upgrade to RX 3. More details are available at www.izotope.com/rx3.
RX 3 is described as being able to eliminate tonal and broadband noise, hum, clicks and crackle, as well as clipping distortion and unwanted sounds from a dialogue or sound effects track. As with iZotope’s RX 1 (introduced in 2008) and RX 2 (which followed in 2010), the new RX 3 is offered as a stand-alone application, in addition to individual DAW plug-ins in Audio Unit/AU format for Apple Logic Pro, RTAS/AudioSuite for Avid Pro Tools 7.4 thru X, VST, VST3 and the new 64-bit AAX format for Avid’s Pro Tools 11. In addition to the new Dereverb and Denoise specialized tools, RX 3 Advanced also includes iZotope’s Insight metering suite, bundled as an additional plug-in; a Deconstruct module that separates audio into tonal and noisy components, allowing independent control of each; Asymmetric Declip, which reduces clipping with enhanced accuracy; Advanced Declick parameters that target and repair discontinuities; and a Center-Channel Extraction feature. Also provided are third-party plug-in support, 64-bit sample rate conversion and MBIT+ dithering.
The Dereverb module includes a multi-band section that helps target frequency-specific offending reverberation or ambience; the program can also be used to add a specific reverb signature, if necessary. The Dialogueue Denoiser module removes broadband or atonal noise from dialogue tacks, with a reported zero latency and low DSP load. The Asymmetrical DeClip module is described as being more musical sounding, while sharper filter shapes for the Remove Hum module offer enhanced precision. An updated Batch Processor chains together modules that operate on multiple files, and is optimized for use on multiple CPUs.
Familiar Spectral Audio Editor and Optimized Workflow
The program’s familiar spectral audio editor lets users visually select and suppress unwanted sounds, in addition to resynthesizing missing audio segments. The redesigned RX 3 user interface features easy-to-read screen legends against neutral gray backgrounds, similar in overall look and feel to graphic editors such as Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, as well as a number of contemporary audio and video workstations. RX 3’s visual-editing paradigm uses both visual and aural information to let users identify and repair sonic anomalies via a unique spectrogram display with familiar lasso, brush, magic wand, invert selection and select harmonics tools for making freehand selections around problem sound sections. The Spectral Repair tool seamlessly resynthesizes sound while the user removes unwanted elements, or fills gaps in a dialogue recording, for example, based on room-tone selections.
A new, optimized workflow was designed specifically for audio restoration and track repair, while Undo History stores every change for complete tracking of undo sequences; a Compare Settings mode lets users process and audition multiple settings side by side. All session states are saved, even between system restarts. Because RX 3 can take full advantage of multi-core processing, it is said to run some six times faster; AAX-format plug-ins for Pro Tools 11 also run in full 64-bit mode with zero latency in native environments.
Re-Recording Mixer Frank Morrone, Working on Copper TV Series and Feature Films
A two-time Emmy Award-winning mixer, Frank Morrone CAS, MPSE, has worked on such landmark productions as Lost, Last Resort, Copper, The Kennedys, Boss, Sleepy Hollow, Ransom and When We Were Kings; he was recently named as President of the Motion Picture Sound Editors. “I use iZotope RX Series plug-ins on just about everything I mix,” he says. “For BBC America’s Copper, which is a period piece set in New York during the 1860s, exteriors are shot close to a busy highway. Extraneous noise and passing trucks are always a problem; a huge transformer on the outside of the sound stage often causes hum during interior scenes, which I eliminate with the Remove Hum module.
“To remove the sound of passing cars and noisy Mack trucks, I first make a pass with the RX 3 Denoiser using samples of the actual noise from the highway, which gets rid of a lot of the unwanted material,” Morrone continues. “I then use some Massenburg parametric EQ to remove the rumble, and then a light pass using the WNS Noise Suppressor plug-in from Waves. The RX 3 Denoiser includes clever adaptive technology that is more effective than previous RX offerings; it now learns the ever-changing noise pattern and its frequency range. RX 3 is a great life-saver!”
Morrone acknowledges that the new version of iZotope RX has some great improvements and additional tools. “The most apparent change is the new GUI, which gives you quicker access to menu items that previously were hard to reach, such as the Declicker module, which now offers a number of options to remove clicks, thumps or discontinuities,” he explains. “I also notice there is now zero latency on the RX 3 Denoiser. With RX2 there used to be an up to three-frame latency, which meant that you either had to slip the entire track [back into sync] or render the file in place, all of which takes time.”
The option in RX 3 of selecting the regular Denoiser or the new Dialogue Denoiser “gives you manual control over different frequency bands of the noise that the plug-in captures,” the re-recording mixer adds. “With previous versions, in Auto mode you had no control of the different bands of noise. But now you can target the noise in specific bands and, as a result, do not lose top-end frequencies, if that is what you are after.
“On the Spectral Repair app, the magic wand has tighter algorithms for highlighting the unwanted noise you want to remove; double-click the section and RX 3 gets all of the harmonics with tighter precision than before,” he continues. “You also have unlimited amount of undo on all of the RX 3 plug-ins.”
But the best new feature of RX 3 to Morrone tell it is the Dereverb reverb-removal plug-in. It is fast and effective,” he relates. “I have used Unveil from Usikmesse [a German plug-in developer], which I think is a slightly better reverb remover that RX 3, but there is always room for improvement!”
Morrone cites an example of the use of RX 3’s Denoiser module while working on the mix for Copper: “I remember there was a scene with a 30-piece choir that had been recorded close to a noisy fog machine. Since we were able to save the track with RX 3, the producers did not have to re-record the choir.”
Re-Recording Mixer Bob Bronow, Working on a Range of Reality Shows
A winner of two Emmy Awards and four Cinema Audio Society Awards for his work on Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch, as well as mixer such TV reality shows as Axe Men, 1,000 Ways to Die and The Legend of Shelby the Swamp Man, Bob Bronow, CAS, needs all the help he can get to clean up dialogue tracks that are often captured under less-than-perfect conditions. “Making sure that the dialogue can be heard has always been a continuing challenge,” he says. “On Catch, I normally only receive production sound from on-camera and lavaliere mics, and need to make it as intelligible as possible. Nearly every piece of dialogue in these shows has been through some kind of noise processing; iZotope makes some amazing tools.”
As a member, like Morrone, of iZotope’s Beta Community during final development of the new RX 3 Audio Suite, Bronow recalls that he “provided feedback on what the interface should look like and how we wanted to see the controls displayed. I had a long list of what I wanted RX 3 to do; RX2 was a true game-changer — it did things that I could never do before. We were expecting a lot from RX 3, and iZotope didn’t disappoint! The app makes everything sound as good as possible; it has become my first line of attack. I sometimes use the stand-alone application for tracks that need a lot of very fine work; otherwise the plug-ins work extremely well from my Avid D-Command control surface.”
The new Dialogue Denoiser for RX 3 was “one of my biggest surprises,” Bronow says. “In the Auto/Adaptive Mode it works really well and removes a lot of troublesome background noise; pretty much everything I touch goes through RX 3, which now handles most of my heavy lifting. The Dialogue Denoiser can take an average track and make it sound very good; it can make a bad-sounding track useable. And those processed tracks can then be used with RX 3’s other noise-fixing tools for even more impressive results.”
But noise isn’t the only problem with reality-show tracks. “There is often a signature hum or rumble in the wheel room [during Deadliest Catch], as well as computer beeps, sea gulls, squeals, clicks and other anomalies that I can take out quickly and easily with RX 3’s Spectral Repair, Dehum and Declick modules; it’s like Photoshop for sound,” Bronow continues. “I can also remove wind noise across lavaliere-mic tracks using the Decrackle and Spectral Repair modules; it’s like the noise was never there, with no added distortion. I also use the Declip module to recover tracks that obviously have overloaded with flat-topped peaks, but which [after processing] sound pretty normal.”
The RX 3 Dereverb module also comes in handy, according to Bronow, for “removing obvious reverb from tracks recorded, for example, inside the wheel house, to match those recorded on the open deck.”
The re-recording mixer also cites an interesting example from Discovery Channel’s The Colony reality series, during which an ice-cream truck had parked outside the 10-acre lot used to film a group of people in a simulated post-apocalyptic environment. “Music from the truck had leaked into the mics but, using RX 3’s Spectral Repair tool, I was able to remove individual notes without affecting the dialogue tracks,” he explains. “I could see exactly where the music was and just ‘painted’ it out [using the plug-in’s graphic tools]. I could also set the program to blend the deletions with material either before or after the section being targeted, or equally before and after [dependent upon the sequence]. It’s the closest thing I have seen to magic!”
Mel Lambert has been intimately involved with production industries on both sides of the Atlantic for more years than he cares to remember. He is principal of Media&Marketing, a Los Angeles-based consulting service, and can be reached at mel.lambert@mediaandmarketingcom.
Editors Guild Magazine by Mel Lambert
Targeted directly at dialogue editors, sound designers and re-recording mixers working in film and TV post-production, iZotope’s flagship Audio Repair Suite now offers a number of innovative features. Powerful new tools for RX 3 Advanced include a Dereverb module that dramatically reduces and/or eliminates reverb within a sound file, while a real-time Dialogueue Denoiser mode cleans up material suffering from unwanted background noise.
The stand-alone application and companion array of workstation plug-ins both feature a new, redesigned user interface and improved workflow for enhanced precision; new internal enhancements are said to provide faster processing and repair capabilities. Usefully, an unlimited Undo history, which is saved automatically with audio data in a new RX document format, means that all file changes can be recalled instantly and corrected, if necessary. The new RX 3 Audio Repair Suite is available for both Apple OSX and Windows platforms. During a special introductory period that runs until September 27, RX3 costs $249, while RX 3 Advanced sells for $749. After that date, prices will be $349 and $1,199, respectively. Users who purchased RX 2 after July 1, 2013, will receive a free upgrade to RX 3. More details are available at www.izotope.com/rx3.
RX 3 is described as being able to eliminate tonal and broadband noise, hum, clicks and crackle, as well as clipping distortion and unwanted sounds from a dialogue or sound effects track. As with iZotope’s RX 1 (introduced in 2008) and RX 2 (which followed in 2010), the new RX 3 is offered as a stand-alone application, in addition to individual DAW plug-ins in Audio Unit/AU format for Apple Logic Pro, RTAS/AudioSuite for Avid Pro Tools 7.4 thru X, VST, VST3 and the new 64-bit AAX format for Avid’s Pro Tools 11. In addition to the new Dereverb and Denoise specialized tools, RX 3 Advanced also includes iZotope’s Insight metering suite, bundled as an additional plug-in; a Deconstruct module that separates audio into tonal and noisy components, allowing independent control of each; Asymmetric Declip, which reduces clipping with enhanced accuracy; Advanced Declick parameters that target and repair discontinuities; and a Center-Channel Extraction feature. Also provided are third-party plug-in support, 64-bit sample rate conversion and MBIT+ dithering.
The Dereverb module includes a multi-band section that helps target frequency-specific offending reverberation or ambience; the program can also be used to add a specific reverb signature, if necessary. The Dialogueue Denoiser module removes broadband or atonal noise from dialogue tacks, with a reported zero latency and low DSP load. The Asymmetrical DeClip module is described as being more musical sounding, while sharper filter shapes for the Remove Hum module offer enhanced precision. An updated Batch Processor chains together modules that operate on multiple files, and is optimized for use on multiple CPUs.
Familiar Spectral Audio Editor and Optimized Workflow
The program’s familiar spectral audio editor lets users visually select and suppress unwanted sounds, in addition to resynthesizing missing audio segments. The redesigned RX 3 user interface features easy-to-read screen legends against neutral gray backgrounds, similar in overall look and feel to graphic editors such as Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, as well as a number of contemporary audio and video workstations. RX 3’s visual-editing paradigm uses both visual and aural information to let users identify and repair sonic anomalies via a unique spectrogram display with familiar lasso, brush, magic wand, invert selection and select harmonics tools for making freehand selections around problem sound sections. The Spectral Repair tool seamlessly resynthesizes sound while the user removes unwanted elements, or fills gaps in a dialogue recording, for example, based on room-tone selections.
A new, optimized workflow was designed specifically for audio restoration and track repair, while Undo History stores every change for complete tracking of undo sequences; a Compare Settings mode lets users process and audition multiple settings side by side. All session states are saved, even between system restarts. Because RX 3 can take full advantage of multi-core processing, it is said to run some six times faster; AAX-format plug-ins for Pro Tools 11 also run in full 64-bit mode with zero latency in native environments.
Re-Recording Mixer Frank Morrone, Working on Copper TV Series and Feature Films
A two-time Emmy Award-winning mixer, Frank Morrone CAS, MPSE, has worked on such landmark productions as Lost, Last Resort, Copper, The Kennedys, Boss, Sleepy Hollow, Ransom and When We Were Kings; he was recently named as President of the Motion Picture Sound Editors. “I use iZotope RX Series plug-ins on just about everything I mix,” he says. “For BBC America’s Copper, which is a period piece set in New York during the 1860s, exteriors are shot close to a busy highway. Extraneous noise and passing trucks are always a problem; a huge transformer on the outside of the sound stage often causes hum during interior scenes, which I eliminate with the Remove Hum module.
“To remove the sound of passing cars and noisy Mack trucks, I first make a pass with the RX 3 Denoiser using samples of the actual noise from the highway, which gets rid of a lot of the unwanted material,” Morrone continues. “I then use some Massenburg parametric EQ to remove the rumble, and then a light pass using the WNS Noise Suppressor plug-in from Waves. The RX 3 Denoiser includes clever adaptive technology that is more effective than previous RX offerings; it now learns the ever-changing noise pattern and its frequency range. RX 3 is a great life-saver!”
Morrone acknowledges that the new version of iZotope RX has some great improvements and additional tools. “The most apparent change is the new GUI, which gives you quicker access to menu items that previously were hard to reach, such as the Declicker module, which now offers a number of options to remove clicks, thumps or discontinuities,” he explains. “I also notice there is now zero latency on the RX 3 Denoiser. With RX2 there used to be an up to three-frame latency, which meant that you either had to slip the entire track [back into sync] or render the file in place, all of which takes time.”
The option in RX 3 of selecting the regular Denoiser or the new Dialogue Denoiser “gives you manual control over different frequency bands of the noise that the plug-in captures,” the re-recording mixer adds. “With previous versions, in Auto mode you had no control of the different bands of noise. But now you can target the noise in specific bands and, as a result, do not lose top-end frequencies, if that is what you are after.
“On the Spectral Repair app, the magic wand has tighter algorithms for highlighting the unwanted noise you want to remove; double-click the section and RX 3 gets all of the harmonics with tighter precision than before,” he continues. “You also have unlimited amount of undo on all of the RX 3 plug-ins.”
But the best new feature of RX 3 to Morrone tell it is the Dereverb reverb-removal plug-in. It is fast and effective,” he relates. “I have used Unveil from Usikmesse [a German plug-in developer], which I think is a slightly better reverb remover that RX 3, but there is always room for improvement!”
Morrone cites an example of the use of RX 3’s Denoiser module while working on the mix for Copper: “I remember there was a scene with a 30-piece choir that had been recorded close to a noisy fog machine. Since we were able to save the track with RX 3, the producers did not have to re-record the choir.”
Re-Recording Mixer Bob Bronow, Working on a Range of Reality Shows
A winner of two Emmy Awards and four Cinema Audio Society Awards for his work on Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch, as well as mixer such TV reality shows as Axe Men, 1,000 Ways to Die and The Legend of Shelby the Swamp Man, Bob Bronow, CAS, needs all the help he can get to clean up dialogue tracks that are often captured under less-than-perfect conditions. “Making sure that the dialogue can be heard has always been a continuing challenge,” he says. “On Catch, I normally only receive production sound from on-camera and lavaliere mics, and need to make it as intelligible as possible. Nearly every piece of dialogue in these shows has been through some kind of noise processing; iZotope makes some amazing tools.”
As a member, like Morrone, of iZotope’s Beta Community during final development of the new RX 3 Audio Suite, Bronow recalls that he “provided feedback on what the interface should look like and how we wanted to see the controls displayed. I had a long list of what I wanted RX 3 to do; RX2 was a true game-changer — it did things that I could never do before. We were expecting a lot from RX 3, and iZotope didn’t disappoint! The app makes everything sound as good as possible; it has become my first line of attack. I sometimes use the stand-alone application for tracks that need a lot of very fine work; otherwise the plug-ins work extremely well from my Avid D-Command control surface.”
The new Dialogue Denoiser for RX 3 was “one of my biggest surprises,” Bronow says. “In the Auto/Adaptive Mode it works really well and removes a lot of troublesome background noise; pretty much everything I touch goes through RX 3, which now handles most of my heavy lifting. The Dialogue Denoiser can take an average track and make it sound very good; it can make a bad-sounding track useable. And those processed tracks can then be used with RX 3’s other noise-fixing tools for even more impressive results.”
But noise isn’t the only problem with reality-show tracks. “There is often a signature hum or rumble in the wheel room [during Deadliest Catch], as well as computer beeps, sea gulls, squeals, clicks and other anomalies that I can take out quickly and easily with RX 3’s Spectral Repair, Dehum and Declick modules; it’s like Photoshop for sound,” Bronow continues. “I can also remove wind noise across lavaliere-mic tracks using the Decrackle and Spectral Repair modules; it’s like the noise was never there, with no added distortion. I also use the Declip module to recover tracks that obviously have overloaded with flat-topped peaks, but which [after processing] sound pretty normal.”
The RX 3 Dereverb module also comes in handy, according to Bronow, for “removing obvious reverb from tracks recorded, for example, inside the wheel house, to match those recorded on the open deck.”
The re-recording mixer also cites an interesting example from Discovery Channel’s The Colony reality series, during which an ice-cream truck had parked outside the 10-acre lot used to film a group of people in a simulated post-apocalyptic environment. “Music from the truck had leaked into the mics but, using RX 3’s Spectral Repair tool, I was able to remove individual notes without affecting the dialogue tracks,” he explains. “I could see exactly where the music was and just ‘painted’ it out [using the plug-in’s graphic tools]. I could also set the program to blend the deletions with material either before or after the section being targeted, or equally before and after [dependent upon the sequence]. It’s the closest thing I have seen to magic!”
Mel Lambert has been intimately involved with production industries on both sides of the Atlantic for more years than he cares to remember. He is principal of Media&Marketing, a Los Angeles-based consulting service, and can be reached at mel.lambert@mediaandmarketingcom.
IZOTOPE @ THE NAMM SHOW, 2013
Tips from a Pro Live - Frank Morrone
Mixing it up on the set of 'Copper'
CNET by Steve Guttenberg
The Audiophiliac talks with Frank Morrone about mixing sound for BBC America's new show "Copper."
"Copper," the new BBC America crime drama, is set in NYC in 1864, while the Civil War was still raging. I was intrigued because the 10-part series was created by Tom Fontana, who did "Homicide: Life on the Street" and "Oz," and on a more personal level, my old friend Frank Morrone is a sound mixer for the show. We met in 1999 when I was writing a feature story on mixing sound for Ron Howard's film "Edtv," and more recently, Morrone shared some of his experiences about mixing sound for the "Lost" TV series. You might be surprised to learn that only a small portion of the sound on movies and TV shows is actually recorded when the film or video is shot; most of the sound is added in later stages of production. It's the job of the sound designers and mixers to make it all sound completely natural, as if there were no mix at all.
The biggest difference between mixing sound for movies and TV is time. A major Hollywood film like "Public Enemies" can take many months to mix, mostly because of the number of ongoing changes and reshoots involved. The "Lost" sound crew wrapped up each episode in four days, and now with "Copper," just two days. Morrone loved working on "Lost," but I can still hear the fatigue in his voice when he says that no TV show will ever be harder to mix. For the finale, the crew was dealing with 450 tracks, so everything he's worked on after that was easy. Feature film mixes progress at a relative snail's pace, but each film has an original sound design, and the level of sonic detail in a big-budget film is much higher than on a TV show. So yes, the best-sounding movies sound better than the best TV series.
All of the "Copper" sound elements are recorded in 48kHz/24-bit uncompressed audio. The use of surround channels and LFE/subwoofer tracks are pretty subtle on "Copper."
The primary mix for "Copper" is the 5.1 channel version for the HD broadcast, Blu-ray, and DVD releases; there's a separate stereo mix for standard-definition TV broadcasts and streaming. That mix has reduced soft-to-loud dynamic range, compared with the 5.1 version. The engineers monitor the sound on a professional JBL multichannel speaker system, with JBL 18-inch subwoofers in a studio at Deluxe Laboratories in Toronto. Morrone continues to mix feature films and other TV shows, including the upcoming ABC series, "Last Resort."
With period shows like "Copper," the mixers are trying to make everything sound authentic and natural. Morrone has to devote a lot of time to eliminating 21st-century sounds -- like the buzz of lighting systems or trucks whizzing by on the highway near the set -- from making their way onto the soundtrack. For "Copper," the only sound that's recorded live on the set is the actors' dialogue; the street sounds, gunshots, horses, and background sounds are all created after the fact by a team of sound designers and mixers. Morrone and the crew work with up to 60 dialogue tracks, 48 music tracks, and 212 sound effects tracks.
When I asked Frank about why there are so many dialogue tracks, he explained that in outdoor scenes with crowds and street vendors, each voice may be on a separate track. When the original dialogue recordings have too much noise or quality issues, the engineers rerecord the actors in a quiet studio, and those replacement bits wind up on separate tracks. Morrone later adds ambiance and "room sound" to the original and replacement dialogue tracks to give the illusion that each actor is in the appropriate acoustic setting you see on screen.
CNET by Steve Guttenberg
The Audiophiliac talks with Frank Morrone about mixing sound for BBC America's new show "Copper."
"Copper," the new BBC America crime drama, is set in NYC in 1864, while the Civil War was still raging. I was intrigued because the 10-part series was created by Tom Fontana, who did "Homicide: Life on the Street" and "Oz," and on a more personal level, my old friend Frank Morrone is a sound mixer for the show. We met in 1999 when I was writing a feature story on mixing sound for Ron Howard's film "Edtv," and more recently, Morrone shared some of his experiences about mixing sound for the "Lost" TV series. You might be surprised to learn that only a small portion of the sound on movies and TV shows is actually recorded when the film or video is shot; most of the sound is added in later stages of production. It's the job of the sound designers and mixers to make it all sound completely natural, as if there were no mix at all.
The biggest difference between mixing sound for movies and TV is time. A major Hollywood film like "Public Enemies" can take many months to mix, mostly because of the number of ongoing changes and reshoots involved. The "Lost" sound crew wrapped up each episode in four days, and now with "Copper," just two days. Morrone loved working on "Lost," but I can still hear the fatigue in his voice when he says that no TV show will ever be harder to mix. For the finale, the crew was dealing with 450 tracks, so everything he's worked on after that was easy. Feature film mixes progress at a relative snail's pace, but each film has an original sound design, and the level of sonic detail in a big-budget film is much higher than on a TV show. So yes, the best-sounding movies sound better than the best TV series.
All of the "Copper" sound elements are recorded in 48kHz/24-bit uncompressed audio. The use of surround channels and LFE/subwoofer tracks are pretty subtle on "Copper."
The primary mix for "Copper" is the 5.1 channel version for the HD broadcast, Blu-ray, and DVD releases; there's a separate stereo mix for standard-definition TV broadcasts and streaming. That mix has reduced soft-to-loud dynamic range, compared with the 5.1 version. The engineers monitor the sound on a professional JBL multichannel speaker system, with JBL 18-inch subwoofers in a studio at Deluxe Laboratories in Toronto. Morrone continues to mix feature films and other TV shows, including the upcoming ABC series, "Last Resort."
With period shows like "Copper," the mixers are trying to make everything sound authentic and natural. Morrone has to devote a lot of time to eliminating 21st-century sounds -- like the buzz of lighting systems or trucks whizzing by on the highway near the set -- from making their way onto the soundtrack. For "Copper," the only sound that's recorded live on the set is the actors' dialogue; the street sounds, gunshots, horses, and background sounds are all created after the fact by a team of sound designers and mixers. Morrone and the crew work with up to 60 dialogue tracks, 48 music tracks, and 212 sound effects tracks.
When I asked Frank about why there are so many dialogue tracks, he explained that in outdoor scenes with crowds and street vendors, each voice may be on a separate track. When the original dialogue recordings have too much noise or quality issues, the engineers rerecord the actors in a quiet studio, and those replacement bits wind up on separate tracks. Morrone later adds ambiance and "room sound" to the original and replacement dialogue tracks to give the illusion that each actor is in the appropriate acoustic setting you see on screen.
BAG END Offers Mix Studio Low End
by Post Magazine
Sound mixer Frank Morrone (www.frankmorrone.com) makes the most of his compact studio, where he works on film, television and music projects. Designed by Anthony Grimani and tuned by Dolby, the 12 x 15 foot space is equipped with Avid Pro Tools 10 with two HDX cards, a Euphonix control surface and Westlake BBSM6s for 5.1 Dolby mixing.
Carrying the low end is a Bag End single 18-inch subwoofer. "I need that low end to be especially complete and tight," he notes.
The first project Morrone worked on using the new Bag End subwoofer was a 5.1 re-mix of Bhatia's famous "Interstellar Suite," originally created using only analog synthesizers, for its 25th anniversary release. Morrone's TV credits include work on Lost, The Kennedys, Boss, The L Word and Sex & the City. His film credits include Ransom, Sleepy Hollow, Shaft, Lost Souls, The Cider House Rules ad the Oscar-winning doc, When We Were Kings.
by Post Magazine
Sound mixer Frank Morrone (www.frankmorrone.com) makes the most of his compact studio, where he works on film, television and music projects. Designed by Anthony Grimani and tuned by Dolby, the 12 x 15 foot space is equipped with Avid Pro Tools 10 with two HDX cards, a Euphonix control surface and Westlake BBSM6s for 5.1 Dolby mixing.
Carrying the low end is a Bag End single 18-inch subwoofer. "I need that low end to be especially complete and tight," he notes.
The first project Morrone worked on using the new Bag End subwoofer was a 5.1 re-mix of Bhatia's famous "Interstellar Suite," originally created using only analog synthesizers, for its 25th anniversary release. Morrone's TV credits include work on Lost, The Kennedys, Boss, The L Word and Sex & the City. His film credits include Ransom, Sleepy Hollow, Shaft, Lost Souls, The Cider House Rules ad the Oscar-winning doc, When We Were Kings.
Emmy Winner Frank Morrone: "Pro Tools is the lifeblood of our industry."
AVID Buzz by Mark Williams
Frank Morrone is a Los Angeles based dialog and music re-recording mixer who who has mixed high profile television and movies including LOST, Boss, Sleepy Hollow, Ransom and the Oscar winning When We Were Kings. Frank has been nominated for six Emmy awards and recently brought home his second, for Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Miniseries or Movie for his work on The Kennedys.
We had the opportunity to catch up with Frank and talk about his work on the project, and about how important Pro Tools has been to his workflow and to his professional development.
Congratulations on the recent Emmy! Can you share a few thoughts on what it feels like to be recognized at such a level for your work on The Kennedys?
It is very exciting to win for The Kennedys. The competition was very strong, so you are on the edge of your seat waiting for the winner to be read. I was thrilled when our names were called. It was a project that I was very passionate about so it is very rewarding to be recognized with such a talented team.
You’ve witnessed a revolution in audio mixing during your career. How do you feel the technological developments have impacted your creativity?
I started editing music and dialog on 1/4" tape and never take for granted the advances in technology. It has allowed me and my teams to meet tighter scheduling requirements while dealing with larger track counts than we would ever have imagined possible before. Pro Tools is a huge part of our process. It has allowed us to work faster and more efficiently while delivering quality 5.1 mixes in a fraction of the time that it would have taken before. Pro Tools lets us keep the creative momentum going and is the lifeblood of our industry.
Can you describe the workflow you used while working on The Kennedys?
I mixed The Kennedys on a Control 24. Dialog and Music were on one Pro Tools system while backgrounds, effects and foley were on a second system. I did the premixes within Pro Tools and printed stems and print mastered to a third system. I used several plug-ins during my mixing process. I used the Massenburg EQ on all my dialog and music elements. The narrative on the archival footage was all redone except for Walter Cronkite so I used McDSP Futzbox to simulate that very distinct sound of the Movietone news reels. I also used the McDSP ML4000 multi band compressor limiter on my dial chain and the Izotope RX Advanced to clean the dial. Revibe and Altiverb were also used for the music and dialogue.
Can you talk about how cloud-based solutions made their way into your day-to-day workflow?
I've been using cloud based systems to get my elements and updates since mixing LOST. On that project, all our source material and updates were coming from editors off the Disney lot. On the project I'm working on currently, we use a cloud to get locked picture for review before sessions. I am also currently using it on a feature film I'm mixing to stream all picture updates as they are available and give feedback to the editors.
What project are you currently working on?
Currently working on a new drama series called BOSS with Kelsey Grammer. Kelsey is the lead and executive producer on the show. Gus Van Sant directed the pilot and is overseeing the mixes. I really like the show and the cast and scripts are excellent.
Many thanks to Frank for taking time out of his busy schedule to talk with us. Check out www.frankmorrrone.com to learn more about him and his incredible career. We wish him continued success!
AVID Buzz by Mark Williams
Frank Morrone is a Los Angeles based dialog and music re-recording mixer who who has mixed high profile television and movies including LOST, Boss, Sleepy Hollow, Ransom and the Oscar winning When We Were Kings. Frank has been nominated for six Emmy awards and recently brought home his second, for Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Miniseries or Movie for his work on The Kennedys.
We had the opportunity to catch up with Frank and talk about his work on the project, and about how important Pro Tools has been to his workflow and to his professional development.
Congratulations on the recent Emmy! Can you share a few thoughts on what it feels like to be recognized at such a level for your work on The Kennedys?
It is very exciting to win for The Kennedys. The competition was very strong, so you are on the edge of your seat waiting for the winner to be read. I was thrilled when our names were called. It was a project that I was very passionate about so it is very rewarding to be recognized with such a talented team.
You’ve witnessed a revolution in audio mixing during your career. How do you feel the technological developments have impacted your creativity?
I started editing music and dialog on 1/4" tape and never take for granted the advances in technology. It has allowed me and my teams to meet tighter scheduling requirements while dealing with larger track counts than we would ever have imagined possible before. Pro Tools is a huge part of our process. It has allowed us to work faster and more efficiently while delivering quality 5.1 mixes in a fraction of the time that it would have taken before. Pro Tools lets us keep the creative momentum going and is the lifeblood of our industry.
Can you describe the workflow you used while working on The Kennedys?
I mixed The Kennedys on a Control 24. Dialog and Music were on one Pro Tools system while backgrounds, effects and foley were on a second system. I did the premixes within Pro Tools and printed stems and print mastered to a third system. I used several plug-ins during my mixing process. I used the Massenburg EQ on all my dialog and music elements. The narrative on the archival footage was all redone except for Walter Cronkite so I used McDSP Futzbox to simulate that very distinct sound of the Movietone news reels. I also used the McDSP ML4000 multi band compressor limiter on my dial chain and the Izotope RX Advanced to clean the dial. Revibe and Altiverb were also used for the music and dialogue.
Can you talk about how cloud-based solutions made their way into your day-to-day workflow?
I've been using cloud based systems to get my elements and updates since mixing LOST. On that project, all our source material and updates were coming from editors off the Disney lot. On the project I'm working on currently, we use a cloud to get locked picture for review before sessions. I am also currently using it on a feature film I'm mixing to stream all picture updates as they are available and give feedback to the editors.
What project are you currently working on?
Currently working on a new drama series called BOSS with Kelsey Grammer. Kelsey is the lead and executive producer on the show. Gus Van Sant directed the pilot and is overseeing the mixes. I really like the show and the cast and scripts are excellent.
Many thanks to Frank for taking time out of his busy schedule to talk with us. Check out www.frankmorrrone.com to learn more about him and his incredible career. We wish him continued success!
We'd always end up back on the MK's!
by MKSound
In detailing the accomplishments of independent re-recording mixer Frank Morrone, we could probably fill this article with just a list of his major film, television and music credits and awards, including his 2011 Emmy for Outstanding Sound Mixing on the popular and controversial mini-series, The Kennedys.
Other television projects include Lost, Boss, The L Word and Sex and the City. He has worked with directors Sydney Lumet, Gus Van Sant, J.J. Abrams, Jim Henson, Ron Howard, Tim Burton, Taylor Hackford, John Singleton, Janusz Kaminski and Lasse Hallstrom on projects including Ransom, Shaft, Lost Souls, Cider House Rules and the Oscar-winning documentary When We Were Kings. He also mixed the Jonas Brothers’ Camp Rock, earning a platinum album for the soundtrack.
Frank’s award-winning body of work also includes an Emmy for the worldwide cult hit series Lost and a Best Sound Satellite Award for Tim Burton’s film Sleepy Hollow, as well as four additional Emmy nominations and multiple CAS, Golden Reel and Gemini nominations.
Frank Morrone is pleased to note a growing appreciation of sound among film makers, “For directors like Ron Howard and Tim Burton, sound is 50% of the entire film. I’ve been very lucky that way. Budgets may be getting tighter, but there is still awareness of the importance of sound.”
Frank’s own personal journey in audio began as a musician.“I’ve been a drummer for so long, I don’t even remember when I started playing as a kid. I was in a lot of bands. I got into sound when I was working in a music store and one day the owner couldn’t pay me. Instead, he gave me a Teac four-track recorder and that’s what started me off in my career.”
“I absolutely loved it and couldn’t stop. I still have that recorder because of its sentimental value and I still keep it in my studio beside me. It was the first piece of equipment I ever owned.”
After earning a degree in electronic engineering, Frank honed his craft under the mentorship and tutelage of experienced recording professionals.
“Back then, we really didn’t have the academic training available that they do now. There are so many good schools now. I do lectures for AVID and I get to see what some of the courses are all about and what they encompass.”
“When I got into it, the only way you could get in was through apprenticing and mentorship.”
Frank began his career mixing music for film scores as well as jazz, rock and country albums. From there, he moved to film and television post production. In 1995, he joined Todd AO in New York. While in New York, he also did some lecturing for New York University Film School. He moved to Los Angeles in 2004 to work on Lost, and has since mixed several projects for Disney as well as freelance projects for other studios.
Looking back on his time in the industry, Frank sees one major game-changer: “Digital has made a huge difference. Without it, we couldn’t do the work we do today with the schedules and the budgets that are dictated. Our track counts keep getting bigger all the time. And in television now, we’re expected to deliver a 5.1 mix that is just as good as any feature film in a fraction of the time, usually three days. We just couldn’t do that without digital.”
Frank Morrone’s most widely known work was an innovative six-year run on the television series, Lost, a unique J.J. Abrams concept that combined edgy human drama with off-the-wall science fiction.
Unlike most conventional TV fare where background music consists of the same recycled cues week after week, an original score was composed by Michael Giacchino (Star Trek, Mission Impossible) for every episode of Lost and recorded with a 40 piece orchestra. For a typical episode, there could be 60 dialogue tracks; 12 music tracks and 140 or more effects tracks.
Frank explains enthusiastically, “I’ve been very fortunate in that almost everybody that I have worked with professionally, most notably the people behind Lost, executive producer Bryan Burk and J.J. Abrams, are so into sound that they would participate tremendously in getting the final sound of the show. We also had a very talented team of editors that provided us with great material to mix. They delivered exceptional tracks every show.”
Lost was shot on location in Hawaii, but editing and mixing took place at Disney’s Buena Vista Sound in Burbank, California.
“I first encountered MK Sound at Disney. All of their DVD authoring rooms and all of their near-field set-ups are MK S150’s. So my first exposure to them was more than six years ago when we started on Lost. We had a free hand in choosing our monitors. Disney was willing to let us use anything that we felt comfortable with, so we did a lot of testing with a lot of reference material that I knew very well.”
“With the MK’s, it doesn’t matter what you put through them, whether it’s classical music, a big score, dialogue or sound effects. Listeners are blown away. They just can’t believe what we’re putting these speakers through and they handle it beautifully.”
“And the subwoofers - Before discovering MK, I had a subwoofer that really did seem to work, except when you got into higher SPL levels. It couldn’t handle the really low bottom end, so I started looking at various other options. Working at Disney, I heard the MK’s and it was a no-brainer. I was really, really impressed. The subs are just fantastic.”
“Once the popularity of Lost was apparent, we had a lot of manufacturers approaching us and dropping speakers off for us to audition. We’d listen to a lot of other speakers, but we’d always end up back on the MK’s. They translate very well to the broadcast side of things and to the DVD side as well. They can handle an incredible amount of level and have a wide dynamic range.”
“A lot of it has to do with what you’re hearing in the midrange. In film and television, you really want a high level of accuracy especially there, because you’re dealing with dialogue and ADR.”
“When you’re working in television, your work gets broadcast just days after you’vedone it. It’s vital to have accurate reference monitors for both on-air broadcasts and DVDs. The MK’s always delivered the most reliable reference for us.”
Frank Morrone just finished the pilot for yet another J.J. Abrams project, the new TV drama Alcatraz, shot on location at the shuttered penitentiary. The sound team spent nights there capturing the haunting atmosphere of the historic prison in the San Francisco Bay to be put to dramatic use as the series unfolds. He is currently working with Gus Van Sant on Boss.
Despite his increasingly busy schedule, Frank Morrone takes the time to stay active in industry organizations, as well as contributing to the education of future generations.
“I am very fortunate to be in an industry that I love and enjoy and I feel that giving back to the community is very important. I always give as much of my time as I can.” Frank currently sits on the Board of Directors for the Cinema Audio Society and is also vice-president of the Motion Picture Sound Editors and a sound governor for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
“Every year, I do a lecture tour for AVID, talking about workflow at film and technical schools all over the country, mainly because I wish I had had those avenues open to me when I was learning. It gives you valuable insight into how professionals work.”
“This is the least that I can do for an industry that has given me so much.”
by MKSound
In detailing the accomplishments of independent re-recording mixer Frank Morrone, we could probably fill this article with just a list of his major film, television and music credits and awards, including his 2011 Emmy for Outstanding Sound Mixing on the popular and controversial mini-series, The Kennedys.
Other television projects include Lost, Boss, The L Word and Sex and the City. He has worked with directors Sydney Lumet, Gus Van Sant, J.J. Abrams, Jim Henson, Ron Howard, Tim Burton, Taylor Hackford, John Singleton, Janusz Kaminski and Lasse Hallstrom on projects including Ransom, Shaft, Lost Souls, Cider House Rules and the Oscar-winning documentary When We Were Kings. He also mixed the Jonas Brothers’ Camp Rock, earning a platinum album for the soundtrack.
Frank’s award-winning body of work also includes an Emmy for the worldwide cult hit series Lost and a Best Sound Satellite Award for Tim Burton’s film Sleepy Hollow, as well as four additional Emmy nominations and multiple CAS, Golden Reel and Gemini nominations.
Frank Morrone is pleased to note a growing appreciation of sound among film makers, “For directors like Ron Howard and Tim Burton, sound is 50% of the entire film. I’ve been very lucky that way. Budgets may be getting tighter, but there is still awareness of the importance of sound.”
Frank’s own personal journey in audio began as a musician.“I’ve been a drummer for so long, I don’t even remember when I started playing as a kid. I was in a lot of bands. I got into sound when I was working in a music store and one day the owner couldn’t pay me. Instead, he gave me a Teac four-track recorder and that’s what started me off in my career.”
“I absolutely loved it and couldn’t stop. I still have that recorder because of its sentimental value and I still keep it in my studio beside me. It was the first piece of equipment I ever owned.”
After earning a degree in electronic engineering, Frank honed his craft under the mentorship and tutelage of experienced recording professionals.
“Back then, we really didn’t have the academic training available that they do now. There are so many good schools now. I do lectures for AVID and I get to see what some of the courses are all about and what they encompass.”
“When I got into it, the only way you could get in was through apprenticing and mentorship.”
Frank began his career mixing music for film scores as well as jazz, rock and country albums. From there, he moved to film and television post production. In 1995, he joined Todd AO in New York. While in New York, he also did some lecturing for New York University Film School. He moved to Los Angeles in 2004 to work on Lost, and has since mixed several projects for Disney as well as freelance projects for other studios.
Looking back on his time in the industry, Frank sees one major game-changer: “Digital has made a huge difference. Without it, we couldn’t do the work we do today with the schedules and the budgets that are dictated. Our track counts keep getting bigger all the time. And in television now, we’re expected to deliver a 5.1 mix that is just as good as any feature film in a fraction of the time, usually three days. We just couldn’t do that without digital.”
Frank Morrone’s most widely known work was an innovative six-year run on the television series, Lost, a unique J.J. Abrams concept that combined edgy human drama with off-the-wall science fiction.
Unlike most conventional TV fare where background music consists of the same recycled cues week after week, an original score was composed by Michael Giacchino (Star Trek, Mission Impossible) for every episode of Lost and recorded with a 40 piece orchestra. For a typical episode, there could be 60 dialogue tracks; 12 music tracks and 140 or more effects tracks.
Frank explains enthusiastically, “I’ve been very fortunate in that almost everybody that I have worked with professionally, most notably the people behind Lost, executive producer Bryan Burk and J.J. Abrams, are so into sound that they would participate tremendously in getting the final sound of the show. We also had a very talented team of editors that provided us with great material to mix. They delivered exceptional tracks every show.”
Lost was shot on location in Hawaii, but editing and mixing took place at Disney’s Buena Vista Sound in Burbank, California.
“I first encountered MK Sound at Disney. All of their DVD authoring rooms and all of their near-field set-ups are MK S150’s. So my first exposure to them was more than six years ago when we started on Lost. We had a free hand in choosing our monitors. Disney was willing to let us use anything that we felt comfortable with, so we did a lot of testing with a lot of reference material that I knew very well.”
“With the MK’s, it doesn’t matter what you put through them, whether it’s classical music, a big score, dialogue or sound effects. Listeners are blown away. They just can’t believe what we’re putting these speakers through and they handle it beautifully.”
“And the subwoofers - Before discovering MK, I had a subwoofer that really did seem to work, except when you got into higher SPL levels. It couldn’t handle the really low bottom end, so I started looking at various other options. Working at Disney, I heard the MK’s and it was a no-brainer. I was really, really impressed. The subs are just fantastic.”
“Once the popularity of Lost was apparent, we had a lot of manufacturers approaching us and dropping speakers off for us to audition. We’d listen to a lot of other speakers, but we’d always end up back on the MK’s. They translate very well to the broadcast side of things and to the DVD side as well. They can handle an incredible amount of level and have a wide dynamic range.”
“A lot of it has to do with what you’re hearing in the midrange. In film and television, you really want a high level of accuracy especially there, because you’re dealing with dialogue and ADR.”
“When you’re working in television, your work gets broadcast just days after you’vedone it. It’s vital to have accurate reference monitors for both on-air broadcasts and DVDs. The MK’s always delivered the most reliable reference for us.”
Frank Morrone just finished the pilot for yet another J.J. Abrams project, the new TV drama Alcatraz, shot on location at the shuttered penitentiary. The sound team spent nights there capturing the haunting atmosphere of the historic prison in the San Francisco Bay to be put to dramatic use as the series unfolds. He is currently working with Gus Van Sant on Boss.
Despite his increasingly busy schedule, Frank Morrone takes the time to stay active in industry organizations, as well as contributing to the education of future generations.
“I am very fortunate to be in an industry that I love and enjoy and I feel that giving back to the community is very important. I always give as much of my time as I can.” Frank currently sits on the Board of Directors for the Cinema Audio Society and is also vice-president of the Motion Picture Sound Editors and a sound governor for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
“Every year, I do a lecture tour for AVID, talking about workflow at film and technical schools all over the country, mainly because I wish I had had those avenues open to me when I was learning. It gives you valuable insight into how professionals work.”
“This is the least that I can do for an industry that has given me so much.”
HT Talks To . . . Lost's Sound Crew
Home Theatre Magazine By Steve Guttenberg
Scott Weber, Tom de Gorter, and Frank Morrone talk with HT about mixing ABC TV's Hit series, Lost.
ABC TV's Lost is a phenomenon recalling the best of The X-Files or Twin Peaks' mind-warping weirdness as it slips between edgy drama and scintillating sci-fi. The show's creators, J.J. Abrams (Alias) and Damon Lindelof (Crossing Jordan), set Lost on a mysterious tropical island in the Pacific Ocean, populated it with an ever-expanding cast of survivors, and pepper the episodes with flashback scenes that add depth and complexity to the show's epic story arc. The episodes are shot on location in Hawaii, but they're edited and mixed at Buena Vista Sound at Disney Studios in Burbank, California. To learn more about how Lost's incredible soundtrack shapes up every week, I spoke with the show's supervising sound editor Tom de Gorter and rerecording mixers Frank Morrone and Scott Weber. Lost is currently in its third season; seasons one and two are available on DVD from Buena Vista.
I'm a bit of a movie snob and rarely watch network TV, but Lost hooked me from the first episode.
TdG: The producers want this show to be different from everything else on the air. They want people to argue about the show around the water cooler the next day and wonder about what's going on.
SW: The writers play off of some of the things people are talking about on the message boards and put them in their story lines.
A feedback loop between the show and its fans—that's so cool. Your sound mix is the very last stage of production; how long after you're finished does the show air?
TdG: On this last show, we were mixing 16-hour days for four days, and the episode we finish on Monday airs on Wednesday. Our challenge on a week-to-week basis is to mix the show in a fraction of the time we would get to do a feature film and still achieve the same detail in sound.
Lost is also unusual in that it's not shot within the controlled environment of a soundstage. How much of the dialogue recorded on location is usable?
FM: We try to use as much as possible to maintain the feel of the original performance. But there are all sorts of on-location problems—they might be running a noisy rain machine on the set, and the mikes are cutting out. In those instances, we'll have the actors replace their original dialogue, rerecording it in a studio.
So, when Sawyer and Kate do, say, a beach scene, and the pounding surf obscures their lines...
FM: They have to go into a studio, look at a monitor, and re-create the same performance they did on the set. Then I have to match the studio sound to the location recording's sound.
How do you do that?
FM: I just keep going back and forth, comparing one to the other, matching the original's sound, getting closer and closer to a seamless match. The editors also provide me with a sample of the original background sound—the surf, in this example—which I mix in with the new dialogue to match it with the original.
You make the quiet studio dialogue sound exactly like the dialogue recorded on the beach or wherever. that's amazing. What about the original sound of the surf and jungle scenes?
TdG: It depends. We might get lucky and use the location recording, but it's usually a combination of that and sound that we design and create.
That reminds me—what's up with the Smoke Monster? That thing looks like an angry black tornado and sounds, well, Weird.
SW: Since there's nothing in our sound-effects library called "Smoke Monster," we had to create it from scratch. The producers weren't looking for a Jurassic dinosaur effect—they wanted some type of mechanical element with an organic quality. The challenge for the sound designers was to make it neither or both. It's also a work in progress. Each time we use the sound, we add something to it, so the monster's sound continues to evolve. There are hidden messages in its sound.
Wow, I'll have to listen more closely. and do the sound designers create the less fantastical stuff?
TdG: Sure, the doors in the hatch [an underground bunker] are an example of that. They're actually made of wood, but, to make them sound metallic, big, and heavy, our sound designers might use five or six elements: metallic impacts, creaks, a latch, and maybe a heavy boom. It's the combination of those elements that make up the sound of the doors. The hatch also has an electromagnetic buzz happening all the time, and the computer room has retro-sounding Apple IIe computers. One of our techno geeks had some of these computers, so we fired them up and recorded them.
The scenes with rain always sound amazing.
SW: When it's raining, the sound changes all the time.
It gets lighter and heavier; it moves with the wind. The sound we use involves several layers of effects with specific elements—rain hitting the leaves, the actors' clothing, and other things. [Producer] Ra'uf Glasgow is very adamant about getting the details right. Rain can very easily turn into a mush of noise.
Mixing is a finely tuned balancing act—it's all about aligning the various elements to sound natural.
TdG: We have to make choices about what's going to play and what's not. On a beach scene, for instance, the surf might be so loud, we have to back off of the effects to let the dialogue come through. Or, if the scene has music, we have to leave room for it and back up on other things. Then we listen to everything together—sound effects, music, and dialogue—because they sometimes compete with each other. The producers might even decide to pull the music out if it's ruining the moment for the sound effects, or we might have to pull back on the sound effects for a musical moment.
Composer Michael Giacchino's score is incredibly cinematic.
FM: Most network shows do a few scoring sessions and then library the cues and reuse them every week. Lost has an original score every week, recorded with an orchestra. They're all live sessions with, I think, 40 string players.
So, There are No synths—it's all real string players. No wonder it sounds so good. how many tracks are you mixing?
FM: There are 60 dialogue tracks; 12 tracks are for music, and the 140 or more effects tracks can run the total to over 200. We use the Digidesign Pro Tools editing system; that allows us to handle even more virtual tracks.
What sort of speakers are you listening through when you make all of these mixing decisions? Some Home Theater readers might want to duplicate your system so they can hear exactly what you heard when you did the mix.
FM: We have a big JBL THX theatrical monitoring system in our studio, but, for the most part, we use a home theater–type 5.1 system with THX-approved M&K MPS-150 speakers and the MPS-350 subwoofer. It's the same system Skywalker, Sony, Warner, and, of course, Disney use. We monitor our stereo mix on Genelec 1029A speakers.
Do you guys have any inside dope about where Lost is headed?
TdG: They do give us advance knowledge on certain story lines we need to know about, but we can't talk about them. I will say there are sound effects in some episodes that provide clues about stuff that will be revealed later on. You could call them Easter eggs for very careful listeners.
Last question: Do you have a favorite episode?
TdG: The episode ["One of Them"] from season two when Sayid was in Iraq was a lot of fun to mix. There's a lot going on in the surrounds, and there are explosions in the subwoofer. The pilot has always been a favorite of mine, and we spent the most time mixing that one. Scott and Frank were nominated for Emmys both years; I was nominated the first year. We won awards from the Motion Picture Sound Editors guild for the pilot episode. It's great to be recognized by our peers, and that's very gratifying for us.
Home Theatre Magazine By Steve Guttenberg
Scott Weber, Tom de Gorter, and Frank Morrone talk with HT about mixing ABC TV's Hit series, Lost.
ABC TV's Lost is a phenomenon recalling the best of The X-Files or Twin Peaks' mind-warping weirdness as it slips between edgy drama and scintillating sci-fi. The show's creators, J.J. Abrams (Alias) and Damon Lindelof (Crossing Jordan), set Lost on a mysterious tropical island in the Pacific Ocean, populated it with an ever-expanding cast of survivors, and pepper the episodes with flashback scenes that add depth and complexity to the show's epic story arc. The episodes are shot on location in Hawaii, but they're edited and mixed at Buena Vista Sound at Disney Studios in Burbank, California. To learn more about how Lost's incredible soundtrack shapes up every week, I spoke with the show's supervising sound editor Tom de Gorter and rerecording mixers Frank Morrone and Scott Weber. Lost is currently in its third season; seasons one and two are available on DVD from Buena Vista.
I'm a bit of a movie snob and rarely watch network TV, but Lost hooked me from the first episode.
TdG: The producers want this show to be different from everything else on the air. They want people to argue about the show around the water cooler the next day and wonder about what's going on.
SW: The writers play off of some of the things people are talking about on the message boards and put them in their story lines.
A feedback loop between the show and its fans—that's so cool. Your sound mix is the very last stage of production; how long after you're finished does the show air?
TdG: On this last show, we were mixing 16-hour days for four days, and the episode we finish on Monday airs on Wednesday. Our challenge on a week-to-week basis is to mix the show in a fraction of the time we would get to do a feature film and still achieve the same detail in sound.
Lost is also unusual in that it's not shot within the controlled environment of a soundstage. How much of the dialogue recorded on location is usable?
FM: We try to use as much as possible to maintain the feel of the original performance. But there are all sorts of on-location problems—they might be running a noisy rain machine on the set, and the mikes are cutting out. In those instances, we'll have the actors replace their original dialogue, rerecording it in a studio.
So, when Sawyer and Kate do, say, a beach scene, and the pounding surf obscures their lines...
FM: They have to go into a studio, look at a monitor, and re-create the same performance they did on the set. Then I have to match the studio sound to the location recording's sound.
How do you do that?
FM: I just keep going back and forth, comparing one to the other, matching the original's sound, getting closer and closer to a seamless match. The editors also provide me with a sample of the original background sound—the surf, in this example—which I mix in with the new dialogue to match it with the original.
You make the quiet studio dialogue sound exactly like the dialogue recorded on the beach or wherever. that's amazing. What about the original sound of the surf and jungle scenes?
TdG: It depends. We might get lucky and use the location recording, but it's usually a combination of that and sound that we design and create.
That reminds me—what's up with the Smoke Monster? That thing looks like an angry black tornado and sounds, well, Weird.
SW: Since there's nothing in our sound-effects library called "Smoke Monster," we had to create it from scratch. The producers weren't looking for a Jurassic dinosaur effect—they wanted some type of mechanical element with an organic quality. The challenge for the sound designers was to make it neither or both. It's also a work in progress. Each time we use the sound, we add something to it, so the monster's sound continues to evolve. There are hidden messages in its sound.
Wow, I'll have to listen more closely. and do the sound designers create the less fantastical stuff?
TdG: Sure, the doors in the hatch [an underground bunker] are an example of that. They're actually made of wood, but, to make them sound metallic, big, and heavy, our sound designers might use five or six elements: metallic impacts, creaks, a latch, and maybe a heavy boom. It's the combination of those elements that make up the sound of the doors. The hatch also has an electromagnetic buzz happening all the time, and the computer room has retro-sounding Apple IIe computers. One of our techno geeks had some of these computers, so we fired them up and recorded them.
The scenes with rain always sound amazing.
SW: When it's raining, the sound changes all the time.
It gets lighter and heavier; it moves with the wind. The sound we use involves several layers of effects with specific elements—rain hitting the leaves, the actors' clothing, and other things. [Producer] Ra'uf Glasgow is very adamant about getting the details right. Rain can very easily turn into a mush of noise.
Mixing is a finely tuned balancing act—it's all about aligning the various elements to sound natural.
TdG: We have to make choices about what's going to play and what's not. On a beach scene, for instance, the surf might be so loud, we have to back off of the effects to let the dialogue come through. Or, if the scene has music, we have to leave room for it and back up on other things. Then we listen to everything together—sound effects, music, and dialogue—because they sometimes compete with each other. The producers might even decide to pull the music out if it's ruining the moment for the sound effects, or we might have to pull back on the sound effects for a musical moment.
Composer Michael Giacchino's score is incredibly cinematic.
FM: Most network shows do a few scoring sessions and then library the cues and reuse them every week. Lost has an original score every week, recorded with an orchestra. They're all live sessions with, I think, 40 string players.
So, There are No synths—it's all real string players. No wonder it sounds so good. how many tracks are you mixing?
FM: There are 60 dialogue tracks; 12 tracks are for music, and the 140 or more effects tracks can run the total to over 200. We use the Digidesign Pro Tools editing system; that allows us to handle even more virtual tracks.
What sort of speakers are you listening through when you make all of these mixing decisions? Some Home Theater readers might want to duplicate your system so they can hear exactly what you heard when you did the mix.
FM: We have a big JBL THX theatrical monitoring system in our studio, but, for the most part, we use a home theater–type 5.1 system with THX-approved M&K MPS-150 speakers and the MPS-350 subwoofer. It's the same system Skywalker, Sony, Warner, and, of course, Disney use. We monitor our stereo mix on Genelec 1029A speakers.
Do you guys have any inside dope about where Lost is headed?
TdG: They do give us advance knowledge on certain story lines we need to know about, but we can't talk about them. I will say there are sound effects in some episodes that provide clues about stuff that will be revealed later on. You could call them Easter eggs for very careful listeners.
Last question: Do you have a favorite episode?
TdG: The episode ["One of Them"] from season two when Sayid was in Iraq was a lot of fun to mix. There's a lot going on in the surrounds, and there are explosions in the subwoofer. The pilot has always been a favorite of mine, and we spent the most time mixing that one. Scott and Frank were nominated for Emmys both years; I was nominated the first year. We won awards from the Motion Picture Sound Editors guild for the pilot episode. It's great to be recognized by our peers, and that's very gratifying for us.
In Search of the “Lost” ICON
Editors Guild Magazine By Michael Kunkes
On August 4, a standing-room-only group of TV sound professionals crowded onto Disney’s Victory Stage 6 in Burbank to view a practical demonstration of the power of Digidesign’s ICON Integrated Console System by re-recording mixers Scott Weber and Frank Morrone, CAS, who together produce the acoustically complex mix for ABC’s hit series Lost, now finishing its fourth season. The event, presented jointly by Digidesign and the Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE), proved such an enthusiastic success that Morrone and Weber repeated the presentation for three straight evenings.
Morrone and Weber just received their third Emmy nomination for Lost and have been mixing the show on Stage 6 since the first episode in 2004. After finishing seasons one and two on a Neve Logic 2 console, they acquired the dual ICON console in time for season three. The two linked systems each have 72 channels of I/O, necessary for feeding 24 channels from each system into the 48-channel ProTools recorder. There are also four additional edit playback and auxiliary input systems, with up to 32 additional channels, and a Soundmaster ION system is used to synchronize four ProTools/HD Accel rigs, ProTools recorder and both mix systems––a total of seven systems. The room also features three stations for music, dialogue or sound editors, any of whom can access any of the ProTools machines or the ProTools recorder via a KVM switcher, do any needed editorial work, and return it to the system.
One of the most unique things about the Lost ICON is a custom shelf at the rear of the console that houses a bank of monitors arranged left to right, displaying Weber’s ProTools rigs for backgrounds, Foley and hard effects, then moving over to Morrone’s music score, ADR, group and production dialogue, various plug-ins and the main mix. “The great thing about this setup [which is unique even for an ICON room] for both of us is that it acts as one big, elongated cue sheet,” says Morrone. “At a glance, I can view when a music cue or an ADR line is coming up and can see all my principal dialogue. On most systems, you are constantly scrolling up and down to see what your tracks are and what’s coming up, but on this ICON, we are spreading the horsepower out among a lot of systems with a lot of visual feedback. It helps us run a lot faster and smoother.”
A typical mix on Lost takes four days, although for the two-hour finale, they were awarded a generous six days to mix a show that was twice as long. “On a normal episode, the first day and a half is dedicated to roughing out the show,” Weber explains. “Then the producer screens the show and provides notes, and we will run off DVDs for the writers, executive producers and picture editors. It’s a complicated show, and we have quite a lot of creative input coming in––more than on most series.” Music is scored weekly by composer Michael Giacchino (Ratatouille) with live orchestra recording (a rarity these days for a weekly series) and arrives at the mix in stereo pairs split in elements such as percussion, melody instruments, woods and harp.
During the mix, Morrone and Weber work closely with the editorial team (not to be known as “The Others” as a Lost fanatic might say), which includes sound effects editors Paula Fairfield, MPSE, and Carla Murray, MPSE; Foley artist Doug Reed; Foley mixer Geordy Sincavage; and supervising sound editor Tom de Gorter, MPSE. That’s important on a show such as Lost, where Weber alone has128 tracks of effects, Foley and backgrounds on his side of the board.
“All the editors on Lost work on ProTools, and we have it worked out ahead of time what tracks to put their edits on so we can easily put them into our template,” Weber explains. “The way we’ve laid things out, certain effects must go onto certain tracks, so I subdivide my effects tracks in groups of eight faders––which correspond to a VCA master fader. For example, we just finished the two-hour season finale, and I had 112 effects tracks; you can imagine trying to toggle through all that. By creating VCA masters to subdivide all those tracks to a custom fader bank, I was able to have all those tracks controlled by only 14 faders. The effects editors cut all their background and volume graphing automation roughly into where it should be, so when I go in to do the mix, I can immediately get a relative level and present it the way they cut it, with all their volume automation maintained.”
Though as a rule they like to work together on a scene through a near field (left>center>right) speaker setup on the stage, Morrone or Weber will on many occasions go to headphones in certain situations in order to mix more efficiently. Says Weber, “If Frank is working on dialogue, I can be on headphones pre-dubbing the next scene, using M-Audio Q-40s. Sometimes he needs to isolate and doesn’t want to hear what I am doing, so I will put on the headphones and go do the next scene, setting up my tracks and rough balances. Or Frank will do the same with his dialogue, and that comes in handy when working with ADR. Producers just aren’t that patient listening to ADR; you get a couple of passes, and that’s it.” “The biggest mistake you can make is playing an ADR line barenaked and letting the producers hear it. That is sheer suicide,” adds Morrone.
“That’s again why ICON’s preview mode is so great; I can sweep through the EQs, comparing the ADR against the production line, but I am doing it on the headphones,” Morrone continues. Additional plug-ins employed by the Lost team include Massenburg EQs, McDSP’s ML4000, DP575 and Futzbox, Digidesign’s ReVibe, convolution reverbs from TL Space (a Digidesign company), Dolby Surround Tools and Waves L.1and L.2 Brickwall Limiters.
To conform to ABC broadcast standards, Morrone and Weber apply final compression to the mix, employing a Dolby DMU (Digital Mastering Unit) and the Waves L2 to contain the two-track levels below +10db. The end deliverables are a 5.1 mix and a two-track stereo “LtRt.” “We lay down both the 5.1 and the two-track at the same time, but don’t listen to the stereo mix until the final pass, then make adjustments to compensate for any loss in dynamics,” Weber relates. “We supply our 5.1 HD deliver on D5, as well as a stereo composite and stereo M&E for the SD delivery.
Production sound, both dialogue and effects, are a huge part of the mix process on Lost. The show’s executive producers, J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof, Bryan Burk, Jack Bender and Carlton Cuse, believe strongly in salvaging and using as much production dialogue and effects as possible, and Morrone and Weber have risen to the challenge––to the point where ADR accounts for only a small percentage of Lost’s performances. “We’re cursed in a way, because a lot of scenes take place on the beach,” says Morrone. “When you point the mic toward the ocean, you have the surf noise, and you can’t point it the other way because there’s a highway there and its supposed to be a deserted island.”
To reduce noise and preserve the integrity of the production tracks, the team utilizes a Cedar DNS2000 Dialogue Noise Suppressor, as well as a McDSP notch filter, part of a suite of powerful McDSP plug-ins (including EQs, de-esser, FutzBox, etc.), that the two have been utilizing during this fourth season. “What I love about the Cedar box [the only outboard signal processing used on the console] is that you can bring the controls up to custom faders,” says Morrone. “I can look at the waveforms as they come up and constantly ride them and simultaneously automate my rides.
“The custom faders on the ICON are wonderful for that,” he continues. “I can be balancing my dialogue against ADR, or switch to dialogue against music or the loop group, and the custom faders can be in any order you want or as deep as you want. You just keep creating different configurations, and that feature gives me a lot of flexibility. Not only that, I can go into preview mode on the ICON, go through different ranges on the Cedar, and see if and how it is affecting the integrity of the dialogue. That mapping ability is one of the strongest features of ICON. Most of the plug-ins map out really well.”
“We are essentially mixing a feature film in a fraction of the time, and that’s the quality that is expected of us, especially for the DVD releases,” summarizes Weber. “It’s important for us to have a highly efficient automated system and the ICON has made our lives much easier. That reliability is critical on Lost.”
Michael Kunkes is a freelance editor and writer specializing in animation, production and post-production. He can be reached at writermk@sbcglobal.net.
Editors Guild Magazine By Michael Kunkes
On August 4, a standing-room-only group of TV sound professionals crowded onto Disney’s Victory Stage 6 in Burbank to view a practical demonstration of the power of Digidesign’s ICON Integrated Console System by re-recording mixers Scott Weber and Frank Morrone, CAS, who together produce the acoustically complex mix for ABC’s hit series Lost, now finishing its fourth season. The event, presented jointly by Digidesign and the Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE), proved such an enthusiastic success that Morrone and Weber repeated the presentation for three straight evenings.
Morrone and Weber just received their third Emmy nomination for Lost and have been mixing the show on Stage 6 since the first episode in 2004. After finishing seasons one and two on a Neve Logic 2 console, they acquired the dual ICON console in time for season three. The two linked systems each have 72 channels of I/O, necessary for feeding 24 channels from each system into the 48-channel ProTools recorder. There are also four additional edit playback and auxiliary input systems, with up to 32 additional channels, and a Soundmaster ION system is used to synchronize four ProTools/HD Accel rigs, ProTools recorder and both mix systems––a total of seven systems. The room also features three stations for music, dialogue or sound editors, any of whom can access any of the ProTools machines or the ProTools recorder via a KVM switcher, do any needed editorial work, and return it to the system.
One of the most unique things about the Lost ICON is a custom shelf at the rear of the console that houses a bank of monitors arranged left to right, displaying Weber’s ProTools rigs for backgrounds, Foley and hard effects, then moving over to Morrone’s music score, ADR, group and production dialogue, various plug-ins and the main mix. “The great thing about this setup [which is unique even for an ICON room] for both of us is that it acts as one big, elongated cue sheet,” says Morrone. “At a glance, I can view when a music cue or an ADR line is coming up and can see all my principal dialogue. On most systems, you are constantly scrolling up and down to see what your tracks are and what’s coming up, but on this ICON, we are spreading the horsepower out among a lot of systems with a lot of visual feedback. It helps us run a lot faster and smoother.”
A typical mix on Lost takes four days, although for the two-hour finale, they were awarded a generous six days to mix a show that was twice as long. “On a normal episode, the first day and a half is dedicated to roughing out the show,” Weber explains. “Then the producer screens the show and provides notes, and we will run off DVDs for the writers, executive producers and picture editors. It’s a complicated show, and we have quite a lot of creative input coming in––more than on most series.” Music is scored weekly by composer Michael Giacchino (Ratatouille) with live orchestra recording (a rarity these days for a weekly series) and arrives at the mix in stereo pairs split in elements such as percussion, melody instruments, woods and harp.
During the mix, Morrone and Weber work closely with the editorial team (not to be known as “The Others” as a Lost fanatic might say), which includes sound effects editors Paula Fairfield, MPSE, and Carla Murray, MPSE; Foley artist Doug Reed; Foley mixer Geordy Sincavage; and supervising sound editor Tom de Gorter, MPSE. That’s important on a show such as Lost, where Weber alone has128 tracks of effects, Foley and backgrounds on his side of the board.
“All the editors on Lost work on ProTools, and we have it worked out ahead of time what tracks to put their edits on so we can easily put them into our template,” Weber explains. “The way we’ve laid things out, certain effects must go onto certain tracks, so I subdivide my effects tracks in groups of eight faders––which correspond to a VCA master fader. For example, we just finished the two-hour season finale, and I had 112 effects tracks; you can imagine trying to toggle through all that. By creating VCA masters to subdivide all those tracks to a custom fader bank, I was able to have all those tracks controlled by only 14 faders. The effects editors cut all their background and volume graphing automation roughly into where it should be, so when I go in to do the mix, I can immediately get a relative level and present it the way they cut it, with all their volume automation maintained.”
Though as a rule they like to work together on a scene through a near field (left>center>right) speaker setup on the stage, Morrone or Weber will on many occasions go to headphones in certain situations in order to mix more efficiently. Says Weber, “If Frank is working on dialogue, I can be on headphones pre-dubbing the next scene, using M-Audio Q-40s. Sometimes he needs to isolate and doesn’t want to hear what I am doing, so I will put on the headphones and go do the next scene, setting up my tracks and rough balances. Or Frank will do the same with his dialogue, and that comes in handy when working with ADR. Producers just aren’t that patient listening to ADR; you get a couple of passes, and that’s it.” “The biggest mistake you can make is playing an ADR line barenaked and letting the producers hear it. That is sheer suicide,” adds Morrone.
“That’s again why ICON’s preview mode is so great; I can sweep through the EQs, comparing the ADR against the production line, but I am doing it on the headphones,” Morrone continues. Additional plug-ins employed by the Lost team include Massenburg EQs, McDSP’s ML4000, DP575 and Futzbox, Digidesign’s ReVibe, convolution reverbs from TL Space (a Digidesign company), Dolby Surround Tools and Waves L.1and L.2 Brickwall Limiters.
To conform to ABC broadcast standards, Morrone and Weber apply final compression to the mix, employing a Dolby DMU (Digital Mastering Unit) and the Waves L2 to contain the two-track levels below +10db. The end deliverables are a 5.1 mix and a two-track stereo “LtRt.” “We lay down both the 5.1 and the two-track at the same time, but don’t listen to the stereo mix until the final pass, then make adjustments to compensate for any loss in dynamics,” Weber relates. “We supply our 5.1 HD deliver on D5, as well as a stereo composite and stereo M&E for the SD delivery.
Production sound, both dialogue and effects, are a huge part of the mix process on Lost. The show’s executive producers, J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof, Bryan Burk, Jack Bender and Carlton Cuse, believe strongly in salvaging and using as much production dialogue and effects as possible, and Morrone and Weber have risen to the challenge––to the point where ADR accounts for only a small percentage of Lost’s performances. “We’re cursed in a way, because a lot of scenes take place on the beach,” says Morrone. “When you point the mic toward the ocean, you have the surf noise, and you can’t point it the other way because there’s a highway there and its supposed to be a deserted island.”
To reduce noise and preserve the integrity of the production tracks, the team utilizes a Cedar DNS2000 Dialogue Noise Suppressor, as well as a McDSP notch filter, part of a suite of powerful McDSP plug-ins (including EQs, de-esser, FutzBox, etc.), that the two have been utilizing during this fourth season. “What I love about the Cedar box [the only outboard signal processing used on the console] is that you can bring the controls up to custom faders,” says Morrone. “I can look at the waveforms as they come up and constantly ride them and simultaneously automate my rides.
“The custom faders on the ICON are wonderful for that,” he continues. “I can be balancing my dialogue against ADR, or switch to dialogue against music or the loop group, and the custom faders can be in any order you want or as deep as you want. You just keep creating different configurations, and that feature gives me a lot of flexibility. Not only that, I can go into preview mode on the ICON, go through different ranges on the Cedar, and see if and how it is affecting the integrity of the dialogue. That mapping ability is one of the strongest features of ICON. Most of the plug-ins map out really well.”
“We are essentially mixing a feature film in a fraction of the time, and that’s the quality that is expected of us, especially for the DVD releases,” summarizes Weber. “It’s important for us to have a highly efficient automated system and the ICON has made our lives much easier. That reliability is critical on Lost.”
Michael Kunkes is a freelance editor and writer specializing in animation, production and post-production. He can be reached at writermk@sbcglobal.net.
Avid Hosts Lost Editor and Sound Designers at USC's First Look Film Festival
Avid Buzz by Mark Williams
Last night at USC, Avid was proud to sponsor a panel discussion with the editor and sound designers from ABC’s Lost, now in it’s sixth and final season, as part of the School of Cinematic Arts’ First Look Film Festival. Editor Chris Nelson and sound re-recording mixers Frank Morrone and Scott Weber went through a scene from last season and showed in detail how it was composed – from a primary green screen shot to finished scene complete with CG, scoring, and sound.
Nelson said it wasn’t unheard of to work a 24+ hour day in the run-up to final delivery, and showed time and time again how Media Composer was integral to his workflow - allowing him to produce results impossible on any other editing platform. He described the workflow as a kind of dance, utilizing Avid storage and workflow solutions to freely pass work across the team, allowing them to creatively sculpt scenes, not just edit static footage.
Frank Morrone and Scott Weber took Nelson’s finished piece and then raised the bar considerably with their innovative audio work. Every episode uses unique original music, requiring the recording of a 50 piece orchestra on a regular basis. Final mixes exceeding 300 tracks are common, requiring multiple synch’d Pro Tools HD systems , resulting in layers of sound being woven together to create feature film worthy results.
USC School of Cinematic Arts’ First Look Film Festival runs from April 17 to the 27th. The festival concludes this weekend with the winning films being screened for an audience of industry professionals at the Directors Guild of America in Hollywood, CA.
Avid Buzz by Mark Williams
Last night at USC, Avid was proud to sponsor a panel discussion with the editor and sound designers from ABC’s Lost, now in it’s sixth and final season, as part of the School of Cinematic Arts’ First Look Film Festival. Editor Chris Nelson and sound re-recording mixers Frank Morrone and Scott Weber went through a scene from last season and showed in detail how it was composed – from a primary green screen shot to finished scene complete with CG, scoring, and sound.
Nelson said it wasn’t unheard of to work a 24+ hour day in the run-up to final delivery, and showed time and time again how Media Composer was integral to his workflow - allowing him to produce results impossible on any other editing platform. He described the workflow as a kind of dance, utilizing Avid storage and workflow solutions to freely pass work across the team, allowing them to creatively sculpt scenes, not just edit static footage.
Frank Morrone and Scott Weber took Nelson’s finished piece and then raised the bar considerably with their innovative audio work. Every episode uses unique original music, requiring the recording of a 50 piece orchestra on a regular basis. Final mixes exceeding 300 tracks are common, requiring multiple synch’d Pro Tools HD systems , resulting in layers of sound being woven together to create feature film worthy results.
USC School of Cinematic Arts’ First Look Film Festival runs from April 17 to the 27th. The festival concludes this weekend with the winning films being screened for an audience of industry professionals at the Directors Guild of America in Hollywood, CA.
Full Sail University Welcomed AVID Panel Featuring the
Sound Mixing Team Behind the Television Show LOST
by PRWEB
Full Sail University (fullsail.edu) recently welcomed the sound mixing team behind the award-winning television drama, LOST. Re-recording Mixers Frank Morrone and Scott Weber, along with AVID Application Specialist, Gill Gowing, who moderated the presentation, came to campus for a special presentation and Q&A session for the students, staff, faculty and AVID guests.
Held in the newly opened Full Sail Live venue, Weber and Morrone gave attendees an exclusive look at their two-man mixing console in the Disney Buena Vista Sound Services Room 6 in Burbank, California, where the team worked on LOST for the entirety of the show’s six seasons. The two worked side by side on every episode of the show, with Morrone handling dialogue and music, while Weber mixed the show's sound effects, earning them an Emmy® for Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama Series in Season 4.
“Having the Emmy award-winning sound mixing team from LOST on campus to speak with our students and share their insight was simply remarkable,” said Scott Dansby, Industry Relations for Full Sail University. “Being able to share and converse about real world industry experiences with working professionals in the entertainment field encourages our students to develop their craft and prepare for their future careers.
Sound Mixing Team Behind the Television Show LOST
by PRWEB
Full Sail University (fullsail.edu) recently welcomed the sound mixing team behind the award-winning television drama, LOST. Re-recording Mixers Frank Morrone and Scott Weber, along with AVID Application Specialist, Gill Gowing, who moderated the presentation, came to campus for a special presentation and Q&A session for the students, staff, faculty and AVID guests.
Held in the newly opened Full Sail Live venue, Weber and Morrone gave attendees an exclusive look at their two-man mixing console in the Disney Buena Vista Sound Services Room 6 in Burbank, California, where the team worked on LOST for the entirety of the show’s six seasons. The two worked side by side on every episode of the show, with Morrone handling dialogue and music, while Weber mixed the show's sound effects, earning them an Emmy® for Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama Series in Season 4.
“Having the Emmy award-winning sound mixing team from LOST on campus to speak with our students and share their insight was simply remarkable,” said Scott Dansby, Industry Relations for Full Sail University. “Being able to share and converse about real world industry experiences with working professionals in the entertainment field encourages our students to develop their craft and prepare for their future careers.
The Lost Boys
by The South Magazine
It’s not very often that I am able to sit and chat with a group of people who have ultimately changed the lives of millions of viewers throughout the world, and are responsible for helping create a cult that lovingly refer to themselves as “Losties.” So when I sat in the Lennon Bus today with the video, dialog and sound editors of Lost I was extremely eager to learn how it was all done.Chris Nelson, Scott Weber and Frank Morrone worked on the six seasons of Lost with the job of creating visual and audio suspense every week. If you are familiar with the show, the video and sound created 90 percent of the thrilling sequences viewers yearned for every episode. Through a complicated web that is more or less seen as a major movie production than a television series, these three worked on enhancing scenes and in turn, the show’s plot, which is by no means an easy feat.
All three agreed that working on Lost was the most challenging job of their career.
“The amount of content was challenging. We had a smoke monster, plane crashes and a deserted island,” Sound Editor Scott Weber said. “Not only that, the environment they were filming was a busy, populated island, O’ Ahu, with a highway nearby, an Airforce base nearby and a lot of that audio had to be worked on in the studio.”
It was funny however, to find out that with all the technology they had at hand to create, distort and hide sounds and visuals, it turns out that some time old tricks-of-the-trade were still in use. The infamous clicking of the smoke monster was the sound of a New York taxicab printing a receipt that Morrone recorded before he worked on the show.
Here to speak to SCAD students about editing as a profession and the realities they face in the business, I asked each of them what lessons of the profession they wanted to relay and they all had the same ideas: teamwork, observation and most importantly, leaving the ego at the door.
Nelson was quick to respond with a quote from his first boss, Gloria Clark.
“The moment you start loving your work is the moment you stop getting better at your job,” said Nelson. He also stressed if you want to be great in this business you have to be a good student of human nature.
Morrone noted that 50 percent of the job is how well you relate to people, “that and networking! Get out and meet as many people as possible.”
Nelson summed it up well by saying success is an equal combination of “talent, personality and luck.”
by The South Magazine
It’s not very often that I am able to sit and chat with a group of people who have ultimately changed the lives of millions of viewers throughout the world, and are responsible for helping create a cult that lovingly refer to themselves as “Losties.” So when I sat in the Lennon Bus today with the video, dialog and sound editors of Lost I was extremely eager to learn how it was all done.Chris Nelson, Scott Weber and Frank Morrone worked on the six seasons of Lost with the job of creating visual and audio suspense every week. If you are familiar with the show, the video and sound created 90 percent of the thrilling sequences viewers yearned for every episode. Through a complicated web that is more or less seen as a major movie production than a television series, these three worked on enhancing scenes and in turn, the show’s plot, which is by no means an easy feat.
All three agreed that working on Lost was the most challenging job of their career.
“The amount of content was challenging. We had a smoke monster, plane crashes and a deserted island,” Sound Editor Scott Weber said. “Not only that, the environment they were filming was a busy, populated island, O’ Ahu, with a highway nearby, an Airforce base nearby and a lot of that audio had to be worked on in the studio.”
It was funny however, to find out that with all the technology they had at hand to create, distort and hide sounds and visuals, it turns out that some time old tricks-of-the-trade were still in use. The infamous clicking of the smoke monster was the sound of a New York taxicab printing a receipt that Morrone recorded before he worked on the show.
Here to speak to SCAD students about editing as a profession and the realities they face in the business, I asked each of them what lessons of the profession they wanted to relay and they all had the same ideas: teamwork, observation and most importantly, leaving the ego at the door.
Nelson was quick to respond with a quote from his first boss, Gloria Clark.
“The moment you start loving your work is the moment you stop getting better at your job,” said Nelson. He also stressed if you want to be great in this business you have to be a good student of human nature.
Morrone noted that 50 percent of the job is how well you relate to people, “that and networking! Get out and meet as many people as possible.”
Nelson summed it up well by saying success is an equal combination of “talent, personality and luck.”
The Avid Lecture Series Goes to Hollywood
Avid Buzz by Mark Williams
On Monday, March 7th, Christopher Nelson (editor of LOST and Mad Men), Frank Morrone and Scott Webber (sound re-recording engineers from LOST) joined over 130 students from The Los Angeles Film and Recording Schools for a two hour discussion on Avid’s essential role in producing one of television’s biggest hits. Students were taken through 3 clips (rough cut, producers cut, and final cut) and were shown first hand how Chris, Frank, and Scott edit and fine tune video and audio tracks to create the final cut using Media Composer and Pro Tools.
The following week, the guys were back at The Los Angeles Film and Recording Schools to work with 45 students, in two smaller groups, for specific Avid Student Master Classes. Chris held a “Video Master Class”, while Scott and Frank held a “Audio Master Class”. This two hour class allows the students and our guests to talk more in-depth about technique, workflow, and the industry.
Avid Buzz by Mark Williams
On Monday, March 7th, Christopher Nelson (editor of LOST and Mad Men), Frank Morrone and Scott Webber (sound re-recording engineers from LOST) joined over 130 students from The Los Angeles Film and Recording Schools for a two hour discussion on Avid’s essential role in producing one of television’s biggest hits. Students were taken through 3 clips (rough cut, producers cut, and final cut) and were shown first hand how Chris, Frank, and Scott edit and fine tune video and audio tracks to create the final cut using Media Composer and Pro Tools.
The following week, the guys were back at The Los Angeles Film and Recording Schools to work with 45 students, in two smaller groups, for specific Avid Student Master Classes. Chris held a “Video Master Class”, while Scott and Frank held a “Audio Master Class”. This two hour class allows the students and our guests to talk more in-depth about technique, workflow, and the industry.
