260 - Sound Design For Westerns: Bass Reeves

Have you ever been watching a stand-up comedy special and felt like you were in the room the day it was recorded? A lot of that energy relies on the sound of the crowd as they laugh and react to what the performer is doing on stage. Vinny Alfano has worked on the audio post-production on stand-up specials from Mike Birbiglia, Sarah Silverman, Iliza Shlesinger, Louis C.K, David A. Arnold and more. He talks us through how to translate that energy from the live performance to the screen by making crowd reactions immersive, and the performer crisp and clear. Also.... Attention Sound Designers and Mic Lovers! The Field Recording Slack is currently running a MACHINE themed crowdsource library. Whether you're just getting started or already sleep with a mic under your pillow, your sounds are needed!  There are some serious prizes  up for grabs from Pole Position, Aftertouch Audio, Penguin Grenade, Tonsturm, Sonorous Objects, Articulated Sounds, Thomas Rex Beverly, Shaping Waves, Axl Sound, Western Tiger, JSE, Surround Sound Lab and more. Mark Mangini and Ezra Dweck will choose the winning sounds after the June 30th deadline. For details on how to take part go to: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cwXn-h6YBOaKaA9QSOofII_hkQLgX9OlYUKj-xDvFtc/edit There have already been 130 machines recorded and submitted, so lets get your sounds in too—You Don’t miss this one! Show Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/266-audio-post-for-comedy-specials-with-vinny-alfano/ Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com Tonebenders Host This Episode: Timothy Muirhead

This show hits hard! Invincible may be an animated series, but it is definitely not for young kids.  There are real consequences here, characters die, battles leave marks. The sound design has to be big and impactful to match the powers of the super heroes going toe to toe on screen.  Punches are huge, explosions really go BOOM.  Blood rains down.  Supervising Sound Editor Brad Meyer, Re-Recording Mixer Jeff Shiffman and Sound Effects Editor Katie Jackson tell us the secrets behind the sound design of the punches, the endless blood, inter-dimensional portals and lots more. Show Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/265-invincible/ Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com Tonebenders Host This Episode: Timothy Muirhead

How do you use sound to amplify feelings of awkwardness and discomfort? In The Curse the sound design is tasked with making the viewers skin crawl in a very unusual way. The series is not horror, but there are times you feel you have to look away. Long silences (that are never actually silent!) lead to unexpected emotions in both the characters on screen and those watching at home. The show's main characters, played Emma Stone, Benny Safdie and Nathan Fielder, lie to themselves and each other while their lives spiral as a result. It is quite a ride. Re-recording mixers Tim Hoogenakker and Larry Benjamin are joined by Production Sound mixer Phillip Bladh to explain how they captured and sculpted the sound to be an emotion driving force for the series. Show Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/264-the-curse/ Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com Tonebenders Host This Episode: Timothy Muirhead

How much Fun would it be to have the opportunity to record one of the few working B17 "Flying Fortress" planes that are still operational? The sound team from AppleTV's "Masters Of The Air" got to do just that. They were able put 60 microphones all over the B17, to record every part of it that made a noise. Then they took those sounds back to the sound editorial team and turned the recordings into to the amazing sound design of the intense air battles featured in the series. Supervising sound editor Jack Whittaker and re-recording mixers Michael Minkler & Duncan McRae tell us all about the challenges this series presented and the ways they met them. Show Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/263-masters-of-the-air/ Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com Tonebenders Host This Episode: Timothy Muirhead

Today marks the opening weekend for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, a prequel for the character first introduced in MadMax: Fury Road.  So it seemed like a perfect time to reach into our archives and go back to May of 2015, when we did an episode with Oliver Machin about his work on Fury Road. Hear his amazing story of how the sounds of the vehicles used in the film, were recorded in the African desert days before they were destroyed in principle photography. It is one of my all time favourite Tonebenders episodes. As a bonus, Mark Mangini makes a short appearance discussing how important these recordings were to the final soundscape of the film. Make sure to go to our website to this episode's homepage (link below) to see dozens of fascinating pictures of Oliver recording the vehicles. Show Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/262-mad-max-fury-road-with-oliver-machin-re-podcast/ Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com Tonebenders Hosts This Episode: Timothy Muirhead & René Coronado

How do you tackle sound design for a massive car chase scene, that has a fist fight happening on top of the vehicles? For director David Leitch's new film, The Fall Guy, the sound editorial team had their hands (ears?) full to make the movie sound as good as it looked.  In this conversation they go down the road, on how to make a car crash sound impactful, what tools they use for cleaning up tricky dialog and how they deliver the reverb treatments for their sound design to the mixing stage. After that (37:40) Lewis Thompson joins to talk about the upcoming AIrCon virtual audio conference happening from June 10th-14th, 2024. For more info go to www.airwiggles.com Show Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/261-the-fall-guy-sound-editorial-team/ Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com Tonebenders Host This Episode: Timothy Muirhead

For many people that work in sound design, their dream job would be to work on a western. There are the guns, the horses, the creaky floors, and most of all the dusty wide open spaces.  They all provide a great playground to create compelling sound, to support the stories of lawmen and the outlaws they seek to bring to justice. So we got the sound team behind the new western series Lawman: Bass Reeves, to take us through how they made this series sound so great. Dialog & Music Re-Recording MIxer Lindsey Alvarez, Effects & Foley Re-Recording Mixer Brad Zoern and Supervising Sound Editor George Haddad, tell us why they love working in this genre. Show Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/260-sound-design-for-westerns-bass-reeves/ Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com Tonebenders Host This Episode: Timothy Muirhead

In the new film Música (on Prime) we go into the musical mind of Rudy Mancuso. We learn how everyday sounds are re-contextualized into rhythms and music in his brain while he goes about his day. Because the POV of the film changes from what is real to what Rudy is hearing internally, the sound design and mix are extremely important to sell what is happening to the viewer. Re-Recording Mixers Christopher Aud (also Sound Supervisor) and Aaron Glascock take us through how the action "was recorded on set as if it was an orchestra" using up to 100 microphones, placed perfectly to capture each sound clearly. Then Sound Editorial and Mix had to go through everything that makes up the complex rhythms being played on camera by doors, knives, basketballs, and whatever else is handy. Show Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/259-musica/ Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com Tonebenders Host This Episode: Timothy Muirhead

Are you nervous about starting a new project? Don’t worry; so is everyone else, including your sound design hero, Randy Thom. Spotting sessions are a chance to talk through the edit, scene by scene. These gatherings give the director, the composer and the rest of the editorial team a chance to sort out out technical issues and determine the direction and shape the soundtrack is going to take. Randy joins us to talk about about what kind of attitude, questions and objectives he brings to the spotting sessions for new film projects. (This episode was originally released in March 2020) Show Notes & Full Transcript: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/258---randy-thom-on-getting-the-most-out-of-spotting-sessions-re-podcast/ Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com Tonebenders Hosts This Episode: Timothy Muirhead & Teresa Morrow

Laurence Anslow, who recently recorded and mixed the score for the recent Percy Jackson series and also worked on Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, joins us this week.  He is at the top of the game, and yet his workflows as a score recordist and mixer, are a complete mystery to many in audio post.  So I asked him to come on the show and talk us through what a orchestral score recording session is like, how he delivers his tracks and who he is interacting with the most from the rest of the sound team. I learned a lot while talking with Laurence and I hope you are able to gain a bunch of knowledge as well. Show Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/257---the-art-of-recording--mixing-score-with-laurence-anslow/ Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com Tonebenders Host This Episode: Timothy Muirhead