Tonebenders Podcast

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

Magic is always a massive challenge to do sound design for and we can alway use advice on how to tackle it. So we brought in the experts from the team behind the impressive new sound library Conjure, from Echo Collective. Rene Coronado and Brad Dale discuss their approach to magic sound design, recording new material and props, the tools they use in processing and lots more. Check out their Conjure magic library at https://echocollectivefx.com/product/conjure Show Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/256---sound-design-for-magic/ Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com Tonebenders Host This Episode: Timothy Muirhead

The sound work of the recent Netflix series "Avatar The Last Airbender" was a massive challenge on both the sound design and the dialog side of things. We talk with Re-Recording Mixers Joe Barnett & Adam Jenkins as well as Supervising Sound Editors Tim Kimmel & Luke Gibleon about how they made massive battle sounds for powers based on fire, water/ice, earth and air. Plus they talk about how they organize a session to go from editorial to the mix stage smoothly. Show Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/255---the-sound-of-avatar-the-last-airbender/ Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com Tonebenders Host This Episode: Timothy Muirhead

We talk with Norway's own Tormod Ringnes, about his excellent sound work on director Margreth Olin's new documentary, Songs Of Earth. As the film's title implies, the sound of the film is extremely important. We follow the director's 83 year old father as he hikes the rugged and beautiful nature of Norway in every season of the year. From intense ice sound design to desolate mountain silence. Show Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/254---songs-of-earth-with-tormod-ringnes/ Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com Tonebenders Host This Episode: Timothy Muirhead

Tonebenders ran episodes with members of the sound teams of all five nominees in the "Best Achievement In Sound" category at this year's Oscars. So here are some of our favourite clips from each interview. Plus a few un-aired minutes from the Oppenheimer interview that we saved for this episode. Starting with James Mather talking about the epic Fiat car chase scene in Mission Impossible:Dead Reckoning Pt 1. Then Richard King talks about the immense research the team did to get the sounds correct on Oppenheimer. Next is Tom Ozanich explaining his approach to making the huge climatic orchestra scene work emotionally. After that is Erik Aadahl discussing how explosions can't just go "boom" they have to reflect the plot when they happen in the story. Finally we have Johnnie Burn explaining how the two films he worked on last year, Zone Of Interest & Poor Things, intersected with each other. Show Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/253---oscar-pool-sound-category-round-up/ Podcast website: www.tonebenderspodcast.com Tonebenders Host this episode - Timothy Muirhead

Richard King joins the podcast to talk about his amazing last couple of films, Oppenheimer and Maestro. He explains how his approaches varied between the two films, before spending the majority of the talk digging deep into some of the most arresting sound design scenes in Oppenheimer. LA based listeners, don't forget about The Los Angeles Tonebenders Sound Design Meet-Up this Thursday, Feb 29th. We will be gathering on the covered patio at the Thirsty merchant in Studio City. Full Details at https://tonebenderspodcast.com/tonebenders-los-angeles-sound-design-meet-up/ Show Notes & Full Transcript: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/252---oppenheimer-with-richard-king/ Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com Tonebenders Host This Episode: Timothy Muirhead

Dane Davis will be getting the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Motion Picture Sound Editor’s Golden Reel Awards. So I asked him walk down memory lane and talk about many of the amazing films he has worked on over the years. In part 1, episode 250, you can hear him talk about his long and successful collaboration with The Wachowskis. In part 2, we get into his work and relationships with other film makers, including Walter Murch on Romeo is Bleeding! Dane also digs into his latest project "Expats" on Prime. This pyscholicaly complex drama, starring Nichole Kidman, features excellent opportunities for the sound design to tell stories that the camera is not showing on screen. Show Notes & Full Transcript: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/251---dane-davis-part-2/ Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com Tonebenders Host This Episode: Timothy Muirhead

For our 250th episode we got one of our all-time favourite guests, Dane Davis, to come back on Tonebenders. He is going to be receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award at the MPSE Golden Reels this year, so we took the opportunity to have him walk us through his storied career. In this episode, part one, Dane talks mostly about his long collaboration with The Wachowskis. Starting with the indie hit film Bound, through 4 Matrix films, multiple other films and series like Sense8. He shares how he built the relationship with the directors and what it took to keep it strong. Look for Part 2 next week when Dane will talk about his work on other projects, including the excellent new Prime series Expats. Get Tickets to The Golden Reel Awards on March 3rd at https://www.mpse.org Get info on The Los Angeles Tonebenders Sound Design Meet-Up on Feb 29th at https://tonebenderspodcast.com/tonebenders-los-angeles-sound-design-meet-up/ Show Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/250---dane-davis-part-1/ Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com Tonebenders Host This Episode: Timothy Muirhead

The Creator is the recent film by Director Gareth Edwards, that features a sound design philosophy of Retro Futurism. The world is going to war over Artificial Intelligence and the robots, or simulants, powered by AI. Oscar Nominees for their sound work on The Creator, Erik Aadahl & Ethan Van der Ryn, give sonic life to multiple generations of futuristic robots, weapons and vehicles. Show Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/249---the-creator-with-erik-aadahl--ethan-van-der-ryn/ Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com Tonebenders Host This Episode: Timothy Muirhead

Alan Wake II was released in the fall of 2023 to great critical acclaim. In this episode we talk with the sound team about their work crafting sounds for Bright Falls, The Dark Place, radio shows, strange commercials, a late night talk show, and all the other oddities that make up Alan's terrifying world. Joining us for this discussion are Richard Lapington (Audio Director), Arthur Tisseront (Senior Dialog Designer), Anika Neubert (Development Manager) and Kit Challis (Senior Technical Audio Designer). Show Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/248---alan-wake-ii/ Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com Tonebenders Host This Episode: Mark Kilborn

We dig into the ambitious sound work done on Director Bradley Cooper's latest film, Maestro. They recorded the London Symphony Orchestra live on set with out any pre-recorded tracks. I am not sure anything like this has been attempted before? In addition to the huge orchestra scenes, there are intensely quiet scenes, that required a whole different set of skills to pull off. Re-Recording Mixers Dean Zupancic & Tom Ozanich are joined by Production Mixer Steven Morrow and Supervising Music Editor Jason Ruder to walk us through how they pulled off their Oscar nominated work. Show Notes:https://tonebenderspodcast.com/247---maestro/ Podcast Homepage: tonebenderspodcast.com Tonebenders Host This Episode: Timothy Muirhead

We are joined by 5 members of the sound team from The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring. They walk us through their memories of working on this influential film, the sounds they created and the impact this experience had on their careers. Tim Nielsen (Sound Effects Editor), Katy Wood (Assistant Effects Editor, Foley Editor, Sound Effects Recordist), Brent Burge (Sound Effects Editor), David Farmer (Sound Designer) and Chris Boyes (Re-Recording Mixer) have lots of stories to share and have clear bonds that have lasted through the years. Show Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/246---the-lord-of-the-rings-looking-back/ Podcast Homepage: tonebenderspodcast.com Tonebenders Host This Episode: Timothy Muirhead

Paul Hsu welcomes Tim and Teresa into his studio at C5 Sound in New York City, for this in-person interview. He talks about his epic collaboration with director Ari Aster on the film Beau Is Afraid. We dig into many specific moments and the over all approach to this mind bending work, where the sounds both help clear things up and further confuse the audience. Show Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/245---beau-is-afraid/ Podcast Homepage: tonebenderspodcast.com Tonebenders Hosts This Episode: Timothy Muirhead & Teresa Morrow

We talk about the challenge of creating the sound design for Marvel's newest super hero, Kahhori, introduced in the new season of the Disney Plus series, What If...? Supervising Sound Editor/Sound Designer Mac Smith and Re-Recording Mixer Jeff King take us through their design process, how the final mix came into focus and lots more. Show Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/244---what-if/ Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com Tonebenders Host This Episode: Timothy Muirhead

For the first time in a long time, all 4 Tonebenders hosts get together to hang out and do a draft of our favorite genres to do sound design for. Tim, René, Teresa and Mark take turns picking the types of movies we have always wanted to tackle in our own work. We each have to pick one genre from each of the following subsets: 1 - Talkies: Mystery (Knives Out, Memento, Twin Peaks) War Film (1917, All Quiet On The Western Front, Saving Private Ryan) Historical Drama (The Revenant, The Favourite, 12 Years A Slave) Oscar Bait (Tar, The King's Speech, House Of Gucci) 2 - Guns and Punches: Police/Gangster (The Departed, Serpico, Goodfellas) Action/Adventure (Raiders of The Lost Ark, Fast And Furious, Bourne films) Martial Arts (Kill Bill, Crouching Tiger, Drunken Master) Western (Hateful 8, True Grit, Power of the Dog) 3 - Scary Stuff: Zombie (The Last of Us, World War Z, Dawn of the Dead) Slasher (Scream, Child's Play, Elm Street) Thriller (Fatel Attraction, Get Out, American Psycho) Paranormal (The Ring, The Conjuring, Exorcist) 4 - Out of This World: SciFi (Alien, 5th Element, Nope) Fantasy (Lord Of The Rings, Harry Potter, The Witcher) Superhero (Ironman, The Batman, Guardians of The Galaxy) Monster Movie (Godzilla, Pacific Rim, Cloverfield) 5 - Real Life: Doc (March of the Penguins, Kid Stays in the PIcture, They Shall Not Grow Old) Music Doc/Concert Film (Moonage Daydream, Get Back, Woodstock) Bio Pic (King Richard, Social Network, Ferrari) Sports Film (Rocky, Friday Night Lights, Iron Claw) 6 - Lighter Fair: Comedy (Bridesmaids, Zoolander, Rushmore) Family Animation (Puss In Boots, The Bad Guys, Toy Story) RomCom (Harry Met Sally, Always Be My Maybe, Red White & Royal Blue) Musical (LaLa Land, West Side Story, Tick Tick Boom) Show Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/243---year-end-hang-out--genre-draft/ Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com Tonebenders Hosts This Episode: Timothy Muirhead, René Coronado, Teresa Morrow, Mark Kilborn

Crowds are so hard to make sound authentic & alive in sports films. So much work goes into designing large crowds that roar with emotion. In The Iron Claw, the wrestling scenes have crowds that sound fantastic and we have the audio team here to tell us how they created them. From capturing the extras on set and recording loop group, through sound design and final mixing we go into each step to creating great sounding crowds. Production sound mixer Paul Ledford, Dialog/ADR supervisor Martin Gwynn Jones, Sound Designer Brennan Mercer, Re-Recording Mixer and Sound Supervisor Matt Chan and Re-Recording Mixer Graham Rogers tell us about making crowds and lots more. Show Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/242---the-iron-claw/ Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com Tonebenders Host This Episode: Timothy Muirhead

Picture Editor Hilda Rasula is joined by Supervising Sound Editor Mandell Winter and Supervising Dialog /ADR Editor Sang Jun Kim, to talk about their work on American Fiction. This film has excellent writing and acting, so it was up to the post production team to live up to those standards and carry it through to the end. They discuss the tight rope walk of keeping the comedy alive while also not letting it tip over into farce, and making buildings and spaces rich with sonic character to help tell story points. Show Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/241---the-sound--picture-of-american-fiction/ Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com Tonebenders Host This Episode: Timothy Muirhead

Michael Mann's new film "Ferrari", is a personal drama at heart, but we all know that it is the CARS that will draw people to see this one. Fortunately those cars sound amazing and we have the sound team with us, to talk about how they created and designed those sounds. Production sound mixer Lee Orloff, Supervising Sound Editors Tony Lamberti & Bernard Weiser, and Re-recording mixer Andy Nelson tell us about how they recorded the antique cars, how they differentiated the sounds for each vehicle in the races and lots more. This is a spoiler free conversation. Show Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/240---ferrari/ Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com Tonebenders Host This Episode: Timothy Muirhead

Johnnie Burn joins in to talk about his work on the new Yorgos Lanthimos film, Poor Things. He discusses his working process with Yorgos, the sonic differences between the black and white portion and the full color parts of the film as well as how he figured out the vocals for the hybrid animals. We even briefly touch on his work on Zone Of Interest. Show Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/239---poor-things-with-johnnie-burn/ Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com Tonebenders Host This Episode: Timothy Muirhead