copy written for Sohonet
We
sit down with Signature Post’s Re-recording Mixer and Supervising Sound Editor
Alexandra Fehrman to hear about her experience working remotely and
delivering for everyone from Amazon Prime Video to the Daniels with ClearView
Flex.
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Signature
Post is a full-service post-production boutique offering premium mixing on
Atmos-certified stages in a choice of two Los Angeles locations, Santa Monica
and Burbank. Signature’s award-winning re-recording mixers and supervising
sound editors are not just masters of their craft, they are also consummate
collaborators who prioritize clients and their stories.
Among
them is Re-recording Mixer and Supervising Sound Editor Alexandra Fehrman. She
not only mixed dialogue, music, effects, backgrounds and foley for CODA, winner
of the 2022 Academy Award® for Best Picture, but also mixed the many sound
effects for 2023 multi-Oscar winner Everything Everywhere All at
Once.
Signature
has been Fehrman’s homebase for two years, and Everything
Everywhere was the first film she worked on there. She was
nominated for a Primetime Emmy® in 2019 for her work on Amazon Prime Video’s
superhero series The Boys.
How does it feel to have worked on two best
picture Oscar winners back-to-back?
Alexandra
Fehrman: It’s
quite unusual that’s for sure but I’m really happy because both films
definitely deserved all the love they got. They each had a wonderful messagOnce, working closely with Brent, who mixed the
music and dialogue, Sound designer Andrew Twite, as well as Julie Diaz who
supervised the ADR.
There
was some remote connectivity before we got to that point, mainly between Son
Lux and Brent, so the composers could understand the direction of the sound e
of kindness, love and healing. It’s pretty incredible that I ended up working
on both of these. I’m super grateful for that.
How did you end up working at Signature?
I
often enjoy working at independent facilities. I love the boutique feel, and
having the opportunity to work with a small group of people who have a similar
approach to their mixing. Everybody who has been drawn to work at Signature has
the same love for their craft.
How did you get involved with the team on Everything Everywhere All at
Once?
The
sound design crew for the film was already onboard, headed by sound supervisor
Brent Kiser who had booked out the stage at Signature. He took me out to coffee
and let me know they were going to mix at Signature and asked if I would like
to join their team to mix the effects. It was sort of serendipitous in terms of
timing since I’d been wanting to work [at Signature] since they opened, and I
was very excited about the film.
Did you work remotely on Everything
Everywhere?
Our
mix crew worked mostly with (writer-director duo Daniel Kwan and Daniel
Scheinert) and composers Son Lux who usually came in person to the stage. I was
tasked with mixing the many sound effects for Everything Everywhere All at
Once, working closely with Brent, who mixed the music and
dialogue, Sound designer Andrew Twite, as well as Julie Diaz who supervised the
ADR.
There
was some remote connectivity before we got to that point, mainly between Son
Lux and Brent, so the composers could understand the direction of the sound
design and we could also start to build the interrelationship between sound
design and music.
That
said, ClearView was integral to Everything Everywhere in
that we had it open and available during the entire mix so if somebody
absolutely needed to attend, they would be able to jump in.
Will you tell us about creating one aspect
of Everything Everywhere such as the multiple scenes where characters
are ripped from dimension to dimension?
Andrew
described that as one of his favorite experiences designing for this film and
it was one of mine also. The Daniels came up with a large number of ideas for
all these wild connections and we worked out how best to convey where the sound
is supposed to come from. Is the other multiverse calling from the corner of
the screen or is that too distracting? Should we have it sneak in from the
left? So, we were on stage playing with the panning and treatment of Andrews
layered sounds to make it feel like the characters are really jumping between
alternate worlds.
How do you like to work with ClearView Flex?
In
some fashion, I’ve used ClearView on every project that I’ve been
working on since the pandemic. Without it, the work would not have been
possible. We used it on Coda to
playback scenes with one of our producers in France. I used it on The Boys and on upcoming AppleTV+ drama Lessons in Chemistry.
The
principal reason for usage is when key talent is remote and can’t get to the
stage. It’s great to use this tool on days when the director or exec producer,
or anybody who just doesn’t have enough time to drive to the facility still
wants to virtually attend the stage mix. I typically mix dialogue and music
with Rich Weingart on fx, and we have both found ClearView to be an
immeasurable communication tool for those who can’t be in the room with
us.
For
instance, on Chevalier (the new
biographical drama feature from Searchlight Pictures based on the life of a
French-Caribbean musician) the music editor was based in Scotland. He would go
to England for record sessions and was able to remotely join us for the mix
with ClearView. It was amazing to let him hear what we were doing in real
time, for him to give notes and for us to immediately adjust. I was able to
work very closely with him and that would not have been possible without
ClearView.
There’s
another thing I love about it too, which people don’t talk about a lot.
I
think it’s wonderful to have people listening in multiple formats from the
beginning. We don’t listen to all the formats at the same time on the stage.
Before versioning, we mix in the largest format Atmos, 7.1 or 5.1 so it’s great
to get immediate feedback from anyone listening on various headphones to the
two track because this gives us ideas about how many people will eventually
experience the show.
How has the recent experience of remote
working changed typical workflow patterns?
Remote
technology and the impact of the pandemic on work patterns has made so much
possible that was unimaginable before 2019. In the future, I could even imagine
myself not living in LA, which has never been an option before. For me and so
many others, in post and in music mixing, it means there are many more places
we could live and work. We don’t have to be attached to certain cities when
clients aren’t attending the physical stage. It’s opened up a way for people to
mix remotely.
Just
before the pandemic, I did build a one-person dub stage in my back yard to
facilitate working from home. It’s designed to not only sound but look great on
the interior which is what an exec dialing into the live stream will see using
ClearView.
It
is really hard to organize a group of studio execs, a director, the showrunner
and a picture editor to all meet at the same time in the same place. They all
have incredibly busy schedules but ClearView means we can be productive
covering a lot of ground in a mix, and stay on schedule by having the ability
to share that mix remotely instead of waiting until each person can
attend.
What first attracted you to work in sound for
film and TV?
I’ve
always loved music and as a teenager, I was taking guitar lessons. I had a
wonderful teacher who was also a very technical player. One day, I was a little
frustrated at feeling that my skillset had plateaued and I remember leaving
that session and wandering down the hall to find an open door of a recording
studio. All I can say is that it was love at first sight. The control room was
being rewired with cables and connectors everywhere in this beautiful room. I
still remember the smell of the wood. I was just so enthralled by this sight
that I knew then and there that I wanted to mix. A few years later after seeing
some films that really impacted me sonically, I decided to transition into
mixing for film and television.
What drives you creatively each day?
I
don’t always have the luxury of getting scripts when a film or a show is still
shooting, but when I do, that does excite me. It gives me space to imagine the
texture and overall feel of what music and sound will be. I love to collect
ideas constantly even when I’m not on the stage and think about the environment
I am in and how I can use that down the line to propel a story. What I love
about sound is it’s an invisible way to enhance a story. It’s such a powerful
storytelling tool and feeling that I have an opportunity to support and enhance
a story is my favorite part of my job.
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