Sound - What it Takes in the Big Leagues

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Paul F

Veteran
The spectrum of sound work is anything from the one-man-band doing the entire production and post to the stupendous efforts of an action movie. With the showing of the Academy Awards tonight, I looked at the candidates for sound. I thought it might be entertaining to see how many people it takes to do sound for a major feature. The sound credit list for Rogue One:

David Acord ... sound designer
Marco Alicea ... audio/video transfer
Adrian Bell ... sound mixer: dailies
Jonathan Borland ... sound effects editor (as Jon Borland)
Adam Bourne ... assistant adr mixer
Ronni Brown ... foley artist
Peter Davis ... 2nd sound assistant - daily
Nick Docter ... sound intern (as Nicholas Docter)
Luke Dunn Gielmuda ... additional re-recording mixer (as Luke Dunn-Gielmuda)
Danielle Dupre ... assistant re-recording mixer
Dickie Earll ... sound assistant: Action Unit, Re-shoots
Coya Elliott ... assistant supervising sound editor
Ryan J. Frias ... foley editor (as Ryan Frias)
Glen Gathard ... a.d.r. mixer
David Giles ... sound assistant
Josh Gold ... sound effects editor
J.R. Grubbs ... sound effects editor
Jim Hok ... 1st assistant sound: additional photography, action unit
Gareth John ... production sound mixer: re-shoots
Doc Kane ... ADR Recorded by: Disney Sound, LA
Nick Kray ... adr mixer
Scott Levine ... engineering services
Josh Lowden ... Skywalker Sound Executive Staff
Edgar Meza ... IT Support
Michael Miller ... adr mixer
Milos Momcilovic ... 1st Assistant Sound - Splinter Unit
Steve Morris ... Skywalker Sound Executive Staff
Jonathan Null ... Skywalker Sound Executive Staff (as Jon Null)
Margie O'Malley ... foley artist
Rashad Omar ... production sound mixer: action unit
Paul Paragon ... production sound mixer: add photography 2nd unit 'B Cam'
David Parker ... re-recording mixer
Kimberly Patrick ... foley editor
Carrie Perry ... scheduling
Ivan Piesh ... digital editorial support
Eva Porter ... client services
Richard Quinn ... dialogue and adr supervisor
Frank Rinella ... foley mixer
Renee Russo ... post production sound accountant
Christopher Scarabosio ... re-recording mixer / sound designer / supervising sound editor
Michael Semanick ... additional re-recording mixer
Hugh Sherlock ... first assistant sound: dailies
Andy Smit ... a.d.r. mixer
James Spencer ... dialogue and ADR editor
Michael Lee Taylor ... second boom operator: second unit
Trey Turner ... assistant sound editor
Tony Villaflor ... additional re-recording mixer
Sam Walsh ... assistant adr mixer
Stephen Webster ... a.d.r. mixer
Tim White ... production sound mixer - splinter unit
Stuart Wilson ... production sound mixer
Matthew Wood ... supervising sound editor
Luke Dunn Gielmuda ... foley editor (uncredited)
Noah Katz ... digital support (uncredited) / engineering services (uncredited)
Michael Kohler ... adr mixer (uncredited)
David Peifer ... digital editorial support (uncredited)
Richard Quinn ... supervising adr editor (uncredited)
Trey Turner ... assistant dialogue/adr editor (uncredited)
 
I suspect that this list does not include all of the production people but? There are an awful lot of production mixer credits.

The other thing is that unlike most films space action films tend to do a lot of ADR because the sets don't sound anything like they want the space to sound like. Especially if you are doing a bunch of indoor green screen that is supposed to be taking place out doors. It is really hard to get the "room" out so often they just plan on ADRing.

OR IMDB has some of the same issues that Wikipedia has in that it's user updated. They do a pretty good job but if you don't check your listings regularly errors will creep in. They do some verification when stuff is submitted but errors are mostly caught by users.
 
Paul F said:
The spectrum of sound work is anything from the one-man-band doing the entire production and post to the stupendous efforts of an action movie. With the showing of the Academy Awards tonight, I looked at the candidates for sound. I thought it might be entertaining to see how many people it takes to do sound for a major feature. The sound credit list for Rogue One:
... (list of 58)...
Click to expand...

I'll see your 58 and raise you 1!

"Bourne Ultimatum"

Source: https://shotonwhat.com/the-bourne-ultimatum-2007



James Ashwill ................... Foley Mixer
Christopher Assells ........... Sound Effects Editor
Karen Baker Landers ........ Supervising Sound Editor
Bob Beemer ..................... Sound Mixer / Sound Re-recording Mixer
Eddie Bydalek .................. Sound Recordist
Rick Canelli ...................... Adr Recordist
Krissopher Chevannes ....... Adr Recordist
John T. Cucci ................... Foley Artist
Robert Deschaine ............. Adr Mixer
Dino Dimuro .................... Sound Effects Editor (as Dino R. Dimuro)
Robin Atkin Downes ......... Adr Artist
Benjamin Dunker ............. Cableman
Joe Dzuban ..................... Sound Recordist
Kirk Francis ..................... Production Sound Mixer
Hector C. Gika ................. Sound Effects Editor (as Hector Gika)
Peter Gleaves .................. Adr Mixer
Dan Guachione ................ Boom Operator: New York (as Daniel Guachione)
Per Hallberg .................... Supervising Sound Editor
Dan Hegeman .................. Sound Effects Editor (as Daniel Hegeman)
Chris Hogan ..................... Dialogue Editor (as Christopher W. Hogan)
Xavier Horan .................... Assistant Sound Editor
Craig S. Jaeger ................. Supervising Foley Editor
Chris Jargo ....................... Adr Editor
Bobby Johanson ................ Adr Mixer
Cecilia Lanzi ...................... Replacement Boom Operator
Lawrence Loewinger .......... Second Unit Sound Mixer
Kimaree Long ................... Dialogue Editor
Anna MacKenzie ................ Supervising Adr Editor
Rhys Maitland-Jones .......... Sound Mix Technician
Craig Mann ....................... Sound Recordist
Scott Millan ...................... Sound Mixer
Philip D. Morrill ................. Assistant Sound Editor
Tony Negrete ................... Assistant Sound Editor (as Tony R. Negrete)
Michael Novitch ................ Additional Sound Recordist (as Mike Novitch)
Dan O'Connell ................... Foley Artist
Thomas J. O'Connell ......... Adr Mixer
Kelly Oxford ..................... Supervising Foley Editor
David Parker .................... Sound Mixer
Michelle Pazer .................. Adr Editor
Evan Rautiainen ............... Additional Sound Recordist
Ian Sands ........................ Production Sound Mixer: UK Additional Second Unit
Ann Scibelli ...................... Sound Effects Editor
Brian Simmons ................. Production Sound Mixer: UK Additional Second Unit
Gary L.G. Simpson ............ Additional Sound Recordist (as Gary Simpson)
Frederick H. Stahly ............ Dialogue Editor
Peter Staubli ..................... Sound Effects Editor
Greg Steele ....................... Adr Mixer
Gary Summers ................... Sound Mixer
Rachael Tate ..................... Adr Recordist
Jon Title ........................... Sound Effects Editor
Tami Treadwell ................. Adr Recordist
Karl Wasserman ................ Sound Utility: New York
Drew Webster ................... Sound Recordist
Ian Wright ........................ Boom Operator
David Young ..................... Audio Engineer (as David M. Young)
Greg Zimmerman .............. Adr Recordist
Henry Dobson ................... Dubbing Supervisor (international Versions) (uncredited)
Rick Gould ........................ Adr Recordist (uncredited)
Mark Sheffield ................... Sound Mix Technician (uncredited)
 
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Paul F said:
Ryan,

For Rogue One, what percentage of the shots had Foley? How long did it take to edit?
Click to expand...

As with any project that has plans to distribute internationally, EVERYTHING is covered for M&E purposes. It's a bit hard to answer the question "How long did it take to edit?" because if a project only gave me 7 days to do the job, then I will pace myself so I complete the job in the time allotted. If a project gave me 5 months to spot/edit then I will adjust my pace accordingly. It all depends on the time. If a film only budgeted 4 days to do it, I'd be very skeptical, but regardless, I'd still prepare the tracks (and cut many many corners) so that the re-recording mixer would have an easier time mixing the material. There's nothing worse than mixing tracks that are horribly organized... The mixer would spend more time trying to figure out what the editor did, which means less mixing time and less creativity.
 
davefisk said:
I'm not Ryan, but I'd bet you a week's salary any shot with a person (real, CG, or even bipedal android) had Foley.
Click to expand...

Well that is generally true for any film that budgets Foley since one thing Foley always covers is CLOTH, for the dubbed versions and footsteps are generally high on the hit list. A show that does a lot of Foley, and if I had to guess I would guess that this one would be on the high end, also gets to do a lot of fun stuff. Personally I love Foley. Given the option I would probably do a lot more Foley than most films do. When we were doing ads and had a small Foley stage we did a lot of Foley for the ads (really unheard of). We could have cut all/ most of it but we got a LOT of interesting stuff doing Foley on the shows and all of it went into the library so even shows we couldn't do much Foley on got a boost from all the shows we did do Foley on.

But a lot of features, at least in the dark ages I was working, didn't do a lot in Foley past cloth and FS. A bit here and there, but not a lot. For the ads we often did 50% or so of the hard FX in Foley. An average film at the time?, maybe 1% - 3%, not counting FS.
 
Noiz2 said:
Personally I love Foley. Given the option I would probably do a lot more Foley than most films do. When we were doing ads and had a small Foley stage we did a lot of Foley for the ads (really unheard of). We could have cut all/ most of it but we got a LOT of interesting stuff doing Foley on the shows and all of it went into the library so even shows we couldn't do much Foley on got a boost from all the shows we did do Foley on.
Click to expand...
I'm right there with you. I did a full foley mix for a short scene I shot about a month ago and even though I had never done it before I had a blast doing it. Something about it is so satisfying when it all fits together! :happy:
 
iain.bason said:
I notice that the only boom credit is "second boom operator: second unit". Why would that be?
Click to expand...

I suspect that only the people whose contract specified they get a screen credit are listed. If you work through an agent it probably is in the standard contract. If you hire yourself out, you probably do not think of that.
 
Actually I think the list is from IMDB and that is all user updated.

But you are correct that if it's not part of your contract you are at the whim of the director and producers RE: credit. On a union show some is built in with the union contracts but is/ was a fair number of non union post facilities. Production though would have been a union gig so I suspect that the boom op either hasn't updated the IMDB page or they managed to wangle an upgrade in their credit to production mixer (which would explain why there are so many listed).

It's not rare for a position lower in the pecking order to do some tasks higher up and every once in awhile they will get a credit bump as recognition.
I worked on a show that had an "apprentice", must have been a budget thing? Anyway he worked essentially as an assistant, was actually on the show longer than most of the editors. His official position never changed but he was given a title bump to assistant for the credits. I also know of an assistant who did a bunch of editing and got a bump to editor. On the flip side I have worked on two Carroll Ballard films, one as an assistant (first one on the crew and the last one to leave the crew) and once as an editor and in neither did I get screen credit. Actually in the first one none of the assistants but the official "first assistant" (what is also called a "supervising assistant") got screen credit. It saved SONY a few cents in making prints, they chopped about 100 people in various positions out of the credits to shorten the film.
 
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