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Soundtracks

An Interview With Mixers Doug Hemphill And Paul Massey

Post-production mixers Doug Hemphill and Paul Massey at Sony Pictures Studios.

Doug Hemphill and Paul Massey are post-production mixers whose recent credits, along with Rick Kline, include 'Air Force One' and 'Jerry McGuire.' Before teaming up at Sony, Doug had won an Oscar for 'The Last of the Mohicans' and Paul had received a nomination for 'Legends of the Fall.'

Q: How do you feel about all post-production sound people being together in one Guild?

Doug Hemphill: Well, it's something we've been seeing coming down the road because of the way our jobs are overlapping more and more, where editors are starting to bring in elements that are more finely tuned - I don't want to say pre-mixes but material that has clearly been designed and put together out of a lot of different elements. I started with editors, recording sound effects-doing some sound design on 'Weird Science' for Steve Flick. So the way things are going now, our jobs intermingling, it feels very natural to me. It's all part of mixing. There are editors that I'm convinced would make really great mixers.

Q: Picture editors?

Doug: No, sound editors. It's a medium of ideas more than technical buttons. I think in about five or ten years sound editors and mixers will be doing such a similar job that it's a logical progression. However, I think that if jobs are going to merge, union members should have the opportunity to either retrain or get additional training, before the cost-cutters come in and start trying to eliminate jobs because of overlapping. Everyone is justifiably concerned about that happening.

Paul Massey: Interesting to note though that technology is actually the driving force getting editors and mixers to do the same job. In the next ten years, the way I see it, mixing boards will be hooked up with random access, effects and music libraries will be on-line, at your beck and call during the dubbing process, and sliding tracks and editing will become part of the dubbing process. Likewise all the temps that picture editors are building on their Avids and Lightworks will talk to the systems the sound editors are using, and tracks that are used in temps will continue to be built towards the final, you won't be reinventing the wheel when you go into a final. All this technology is driving the merger of the editors' and sound locals.

Q: Do you see the day coming when you'll be able to cut effects?

Doug: I don't see that from my point of view now. I don't consider that my job. I know that sound editors now have a lot of pressure on them because the picture editors have access to some really fine libraries with really good effects. So sometimes when they come to a temp dub the picture editor says, use what I used. They're competing now. It's interesting, it didn't used to be that way. I don't consider that my job should evolve to the point where I'm picking sound effects on the stage.

Paul: I actually hope it doesn't because I'm not good as an editor and there are a lot of editors who would probably say they're not good at mixing. But the two jobs are merging, maybe not a complete overlap but they are merging.

Doug: I love cutting sound but I think that's sort of a political hot potato - to be with a sound editor, who is a friend, on the stage, and suddenly I'm choosing the sound effects.

Q: What other differences do you see from the way things are done now as opposed to ten or fifteen years ago?

Doug: Just on a real practical level -- I see a lot of jockeying for release slots which affects the schedules and the time we have. Nowadays people will change on a moment's notice to get a better release slot and we get into a whirlwind of activity.

Q: So do you find a six-day week normal nowadays?

Doug: It varies a lot depending on how comfortable they are with their release slot. You'll hit these periods where it will be seven days a week and chaos. There was a period where I think it was really getting crazy, but I've seen a lot of well organized, well thought out post-production these days. Maybe we've just been lucky.

Q: Do you think shows are getting too loud now, and how do you deal with that?

Doug: Paul has an interesting theory which is that we got this new toy - this big digital six-track format - a number of years ago and we've been going through this learning curve - we've got this new Ferrari so let's really make it run - and, of course, people are now saying we've had it, it's too loud and irritating - we're being pushed right out of the film. Hopefully, at the end of that learning curve, people are finally starting to say, Let's make this work with the story that's up there on the screen and not have a life of its own as a big loud monster soundtrack.

Extra Large With Low End

Hopefully we're at the stage where we're starting to bring levels down, I know we are. What we try to do is, rather than make it sound louder, we'll use low end when we can, which takes advantage of the six-track, eight-track digital formats and it makes it seem bigger. You have the sense of it being bigger but it doesn't hurt your ears like the mid-range. Also, reverb and placement out in the room will all lead to a sound seeming larger without being louder. That's a key thing. Then the dynamics, which have never changed over the years, up and down and quieter and louder -

Q: People say that you have to mix extra loud because theatres are turning their systems down because trailers are too loud.

Doug: That's mixing to the lowest common denominator and we can't do that. I really feel strongly about that. You can't mix for a crummy theatre. You have to mix with a certain level of integrity.

Q: Are you bothered by sound editors over-building?

Paul: There's still certainly a degree of over-building that occurs on a lot of shows by some editors. However, the delivery requirements have meant that they have to - the time schedules being so short, especially on some of the initial temps which are very important - they feel they have to overbuild in order to cover the various directions the mix might go. They have to be able to come up with alternatives in short order, that's possibly part of it. However, when we get into final mixes, we're seeing a lot of sound effects tracks coming in that are slightly pre-built. They've come from libraries or other shows where they've already been pre-combined or pre-panned on workstations.

Q: Is that a problem?

Paul: I don't think it's a problem as long as it doesn't go too far because, in a lot of cases, those workstation environments are unable to monitor exactly the way we're going to be monitoring on stage. So as long as serious EQ and very specific panning maneuvers are avoided, I think that's okay. The advantage obviously is that we're getting units coming in a much more mixable fashion so that when we do have a couple hundred units, it's a lot more manageable right off the top. There are not many raw tracks coming in anymore where you have an actual field recording and you have a lot of work to do, it's already been pre-worked.

Q: What about the issue of directors falling in love with the temp?

Paul: At this point the temp isn't just something that's quickly put together. The temps become very important, almost more important than the actual final release to some political standpoint because, for a director, there's a lot riding on that first temp when the studios are perceiving the performance of the film, possibly adjusting their marketing campaigns and advertising budgets, release schedules, etc., all based on that first temp and first preview result. That may be a little extreme but certainly there's a lot of pressure on directors. So there's a lot more effort going into temps now.

Q: How long do you get to mix a temp now?

Paul: Where we used to get two days it's often now three to five days and mixed in stereo or even six track. So there's a lot more effort going into that first temp and, although it's obviously a little rougher than it hopefully will end up because of the time factor, a lot of them are extremely refined now. When a director then falls in love with his temp, I think there's a lot more reason to justify that now.

I think we're at the edge of an era that's going to be very exciting in terms of the technological impacts on the craft of mixing and the craft of editing. Things are, in some ways, easier to do now than in 1990. However, with that ease comes the fact that you can do a lot more so it's really not easier to mix and it's not easier to edit because of the added complexities. It's interesting how the technology is shaping all the creative decisions being made in films now. However, I think that, with the 6-track and 8-track mixes that we are capable of producing now, there are a lot of directors who would like to get rid of the distractions that are occurring in the sound field in the room and concentrate more on pulling the audience along with a good story.