Photo Source: Amazon Studios
On a show like Amazon’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” every day on set is a maelstrom of activity. Amidst the chaos, the production sound mixer has to manage and mobilize their team to capture high-quality audio recordings and honor the actors’ performances. On “Maisel,” this task falls to Mathew Price.
Speaking to Backstage, Price shares why he calls the Amazon series a “a 1950s technicolor movie-musical screwball drama,” how the crew has become a large family, and the importance of knowing when to pick your battles and when to let things go in the interest of creative harmony.
What does a production sound mixer do?
It's my job to ensure that the quality of the recordings of the vocal performances are clean, clear, and reflect the acting that takes place while we’re filming. I always work on set while the cameras are rolling and the actors are acting. I'm also the head of a three-person department, which includes the boom operator as well as the sound utility [technician who] often acts as a second boom operator.
How did you become a production sound mixer?
I always say there are two kinds of people: the “would-be frustrated musicians” and the “would-be high school fight nerds.” I’ve always been on the frustrated musician end of things. I love music. I thought maybe I'd work in recording studios with music and musicians, but I wound up becoming a film major [and] after school, worked for a video production company where I learned all about sound recording.
From there I went freelance and did a lot of documentary work before I met a cameraman who invited me to a party where I met a sound mixer who asked me to be a boom operator for him. It was a four-week job, there was no money, but I was young and hungry, so I grabbed that opportunity. His name was Lee Orloff, and he just got a [Cinema Audio Society Filmmaker Award]. So somehow I hooked up with the best, which was an amazing learning experience. While I was working with him, I got the bug to mix on my own for narrative work as opposed to documentary work. The thing about documentary work was you meet so many amazing people and real stories are fascinating but the technology is a little limited and I wanted to do more.
So I wound up mixing a few short films. I borrowed some equipment and I put my name out there. I was willing to work for [free] and the whole point of it was to get more experienced and to meet more people because I knew as a freelancer, it was really about who you knew.
5 Top Sound Design Courses You Should Know AboutWhat does a day in your life look like on “Mrs. Maisel”?
When we first come in at the beginning of the day—often 7 a.m. Monday—the first thing to do is set up the cart and check our batteries. While we set up, [they] do a blocking rehearsal where the director, script person, [and] actors work out the shot. They’ll do that in private and then they come out and invite the whole crew.
A lot of the beginning of the day is just prepping for when we actually roll. My utility [technician] will hand out headphones to the director, a script person, producers, camera operators, and we get our boom mics put up. When it all comes together like a symphony, we get ready to rehearse.
I try to keep my cart quite close to the set, but I don’t want to have to be on top of it because everything is radio mic for the most part. I usually set my sound cart up near the video monitors because I like to take a feed from the video people so I can watch on my monitor—I need to see exactly what the shots are. There’s an area called video village, which tends to be where the directors, producers, and script people are [so] they can watch on the monitors. A lot of times I’ll have to run onto the set if I need to make an adjustment on a radio mic on an actor. So I like to be nearby.
My job is pretty much done at the end of the day when I get my track over to our camera people. I’m not the dialogue editor, though I have sat in on sessions where I’m able to hear my actual raw production dialogue tracks while they go through it and decide if they need to do any looping, any [Additional Dialogue Recording], or if they want to drop in music or sound effects.
A Day in the Life of a Sound Editor: Ron Bochar of ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’Every show has its own style and presents its own challenges. But for me as a sound mixer the basis of it all [is the] actors. [They’re] talking in spaces and I need to record them as best as I can. That is the through-line. We [are] actually recording performances. Performances usually make a theme. The camera's great and it's beautiful and everything they do to make pretty pictures, but without the emotional content as a vocal performance, I don't feel like you have a theme. Our primary goal is to capture a really rich vocal performance.
The joy of “Maisel” is that it's so carefully thought out, brilliantly choreographed. We have time to do it right. Every episode is like selling a major motion picture. I call, “Maisel” a 1950s technicolor movie-musical screwball drama. And for season three, we really upped our game because we're doing the music live, which presents a whole world of challenges. But Amy Sherman-Palladino is a real stickler for wanting the sound of the space that we're filming. So, they weren't actually playing live while we were filming, but [we filmed] the recording of them within the same space and Amy feels that it really matches when it really matches the space. It makes it feel real as opposed to what most people do, where they take a group into a studio and those studio recordings become the basis for your playback as opposed to doing it in the actual location that you're filming it.
How do you hire your crew?
I try to be very loyal to the people I work with, but it doesn’t always work out. First, I look [for] people [who] know what they’re doing. Especially for a show like “Maisel,” which is such a big show and present[s] so many wonderful challenges for the sound department, we really need a top-level crew. [It’s] really critical that I have a very good boom operator because the boom operator is not only just putting a mic over the actors, but they have to watch out for the frame line of the camera, make sure that the mic doesn’t get into the shot, look for shadows on walls that might be seen. I like the collaborative process, so there have to be good people who know how to communicate and treat other people well.
What advice do you have for an aspiring sound mixer?
I wish [I’d known] the politics of being a sound person on set because the sound department is dependent on every other department. We need wardrobe to help with wiring. We need electric for power. We need the grips to help put up the flags and help us with shadows on walls. We certainly need to work well with the camera department. And a lot of times, sound is given short shrift on a set because everyone's rushing to get the shot and sound has been called the bastard stepchild of the world. I wish I had learned politics better earlier on in my career. How to ask [for] what it is you need in a way that will most effectively get it for you. But also knowing when to ask, knowing which battles to pick, knowing when to let things go, and knowing when to fight for clean tracks. And that only comes with experience.
For more on how to get work on a film crew, visit Backstage’s crew hub!
Allie is Backstage’s director of editorial operations, whose professional background includes women’s interest, news, health, beauty, and, of course, entertainment. Despite a crippling fear of singing in public, she still believes she’ll be a Broadway star one day.
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June 29, 2020 at 09:34PM
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A Day in the Life of a Production Sound Mixer: Matthew Price of 'The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel' - Backstage
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