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Dialog in the movie Mud


SamWatson

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Hello one and all,

 

I recently saw the movie Mud.  I found it quite enjoyable on many levels.  Good story, great acting - particularly notable kid actors, a soundtrack that perfectly fit the vibe.  As a movie it is a great blend of Mark Twain and Stand By Me.  I was struck by how good the dialog sounded.  And there were many difficult scenes: on small boats with engines running, actors in trees, around lots of water, or any number of situations like that.  Best I can tell via IMDB the production sound mixer was Ethan Andrus.  Anyone know much about the onset work?  How much ADR?  Lots of wires or multiple booms?  Just curious.

 

Cheers,

Sam

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Marc Wielage- that is exactly what lead my wife and me to see it.  The reviews are accurate.  Strong story & characters.  No gimmicks.  And great dialog writing.  (And recording!)  If they ADR'ed parts then it was very well done.

 

Marc Hoppe - Thanks for the info!  I figured most people were wearing wires.  And I kept and eye out for hiccups in T-shirt neck lines from vampire clips or the outline of the wire running down a chest.  None to be seen.  Kudos to whomever did the gig - location and post.

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Hey All,

I was the production sound mixer on "Mud", and a couple of mixers i know notified me about this post. First, thanks so much for the compliments about the sound on the film! Always nice to hear good things from fellow mixers. To answer the questions above:

 

The film was mainly single or double boom, with wires employed when necessary (wide shots or noise isolation), about 20% or 30% of the time. No ADR on the film, except for one line due to actor delivery, not recording quality.

 

Thanks Again,

Ethan Andrus, CAS

 

PS: Thanks Sam for the comment on not being able to see any evidence of lavs; pride myself on good sounding invisible wires. As we all know, that's a challenge we all face, being at the mercy of costume decisions.

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Ethan!  Thanks so much for stopping by the thread & welcome to the board.  Congrats to you and your team on a job well done.  I'd love for you to expound a bit about your methods on the film.  Everything sounded quite consistent which is a feat considering you spent time in boats, trucks, around & in water, up in trees. 

 

For instance:  When hiding wires are you using moleskin or some sort of tape down?  I have Trams and love vampire clips for a quick mount but they can cause hiccups in neck lines of shirts.  And Mud's shirt it so thin & mostly unbuttoned it seems it would be really hard to hide *any* wire.

 

Were you using visor mounted capsules w/ collette cables for the cars or body wires or something else?  It seemed like the mother was actually driving the car rather than a trailer mount which makes it that much harder for the sound department.

 

And in general it seemed like real world locations rather than sets.  Were the powers-that-be conscientious in regards to sound during scouting or were there some difficult locations?

 

Cheers!

Sam

 

p.s.  The feature I just finished had quite a few crew members from Austin.  Great folks.  You guys seem to have a good thing going over there.

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The film was mainly single or double boom, with wires employed when necessary (wide shots or noise isolation), about 20% or 30% of the time. No ADR on the film, except for one line due to actor delivery, not recording quality.

 

Very impressive work.  I saw the film and loved it... and being a sound junky, of course subconsciously eagle eyed into seeing if I spot a lav or whatnot but I did not.  What shotguns were you deploying on the shoot?

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hey all,

to answer some of your questions:

 

studiomprd- what a production mixer can deliver is really limited by location, so I think one of the most important preparations is to attend the tech. scout and do whatever you can to protect your locations from potential noise (inherent or crew made). I work close with best boy electric regarding generator placement. Discuss a list of potential sound problems for each location with the location manager to keep accountability there, ie. know how to turn off things like AC, coolers, other noisemakers etc. I stress need for ITC (traffic control) whenever needed. Lastly, i work under the principle of knowing when dialogue is useable, and not "crying wolf" too often. That way, when I do, the director and production heed my warning, and thing get done to fix it.

 

old school- I know Kay Colvin, and have worked with her on a few occasions and she's great. She's usually working with John Pritchet, whom I also know quite well.

 

SamWatson-I use sanken's not trams, but vampires are probably one of my favorite rigs b/c they make no noise. The problem is they can only be employed in certain situations. Shirts with buttons are the best, i go right behind the highest button that is buttoned (unless it is buttoned all the way up), just make sure you spread the 2 layers of fabric on the button side, and pin into only the inside layer. That said, wiring is kinda black magic, and i have different techniques that i have developed (or borrowed from other mixers) over the years for just about every costume situation. I also use the sanken's rubber boots, undercoat/overcoats, putty, joe's sticky stuff, butyl, moleskin, topstick, medical tape etc. and combinations of them. Regarding car mounts, i typically use hypercardioids/cardioids, pzm's, and wires, think in the scene you are referring to, she is driving the car and is on a wire for noise isolation. The locations were generally pretty good, but very remote, and many times without set power. The director seemed to me to be very much a purist, with not many location "cheats". What you see, is what you get.

 

codyman- thanks for the compliment, think exposed lavs is one of the worst things a mixer can do and i see them way too often in films and TV. I typically use MKH50's and 416's. I've used lots of shotguns, and it's not the best sounding mic out there, but i like the 416 for it's sound, it's tight pattern, it's reliability, and mostly for what it doesn't hear. I will say that it's not about the wand, but more about the magician (boom op). Proper placement (on axis) with a cheap mic, is gonna sound better than bad cueing with a high end mic. Schoeps, Neumann, Sennheiser, Sanken, DPA, etc. are all good mic's. It's just personal taste, and most importantly proper placement.

 

Ethan Andrus, CAS

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