Sound Striker Featured in an article for the Cinema Audio Society (CAS)
Michael Keeley CAS is another mixer who invested in a private studio and has been remotely mixing for a while. Michael is a freelance mixer but has constructed an extremely high-end space with Dolby Atmos capabilities. Below he describes his remote workflow at Sound Striker Post that I find very familiar to my own experience.
Michael Keeley CAS MPSE:
“About five years ago I built a Dolby Atmos home studio, where for the last couple years I have been doing remote projects.
I work with the editors and Foley remotely and they send me their individual PT sessions, where I assemble and do the predubs before taking it to a larger dub stage for the final review.
For projects that needed to have reviews done remotely, I would export a QuickTime video with the mix for the clients to review. Lately, I have had the clients use Google Docs. That has been very useful since everyone can edit it, and the EP or showrunner can instantly approve or deny a note from others. This has streamlined the process and helped to avoid back-and-forth notes.
After addressing notes, I would then QC and deliver the final mix stems. The challenges with this workflow have been making sure the clients are listening back on full-range speakers or a decent pair of headphones (I love and recommend the Blue Mo-Fi headphones) and not laptop speakers or enhanced bass headphones, etc.”
The various listening devices, room acoustics, and bandwidth available to clients have possibly been the most significant technical hurdles of remotely approvals. When remote approving from more extensive facilities, I have often been able to ensure correct acoustics for my clients because they would have a listening space built in their production office or lot. But, with clients wanting to approve on the go, communication about how certain types of devices may color their listening experience has been a massive hurdle. There is software available that can model speakers and use IRs of your dub stage space, which could be useful. I have personally had great results on broadcast/streaming projects when clients’ own Smart TVs and are able to stream the QuickTime audio and video to their home system to better approximate the end viewer experience. But, the very best way to make and give notes is on the dub stage, where your soundtrack will never sound better and worse all at the time, as this space is designed to reproduce and reveal everything.
Keeley does point out that there are some advantages to mixing from home, such as “having a more flexible schedule, not having to commute, and spending more time creatively on certain projects when needed.” I like wearing bunny slippers.
But he also expresses that there are cons. “I seem to work longer hours at times when at home, and it’s a pain to have to be my own tech support occasionally,” he explains. It is easy to get lost in overcoming an error that won’t go away or a scene that derails you. Time management becomes a practice of discipline.
It is very possible to mix in quarantine and do it very well. But, in addition to it requiring practical study in how your room translates, how your technology works, and a significant financial investment, there are unavoidable effects on the creative process. Keeley expands, “I miss the energy and rapport of being at a facility and the one on one time with the client.” I could not agree more.
I am currently slated to begin a new project, and I am faced with creating a mix for a new team, a new distributor, with a new mix partner without ever spending time with them in the same room. I won’t be able to ask them in the moment whether we should foreshadow something or diminish its presence, or completely misdirect. As I prep for this project, I find myself watching hours of projects produced and written by the same team to observe sonic patterns and preferences and taking notes for a future video conference call I hope to have.
A client-turned-dear-friend would often say when she would enter the dub stage, “Let’s play in the sandbox!” Besides technological hurdles, the creative process changes with physical distance. It is the input of my supervisors, the knowledge and creativity of my music editors, the dance with my mixing partner, and experiencing first-hand the visceral reactions of my writers, editors, producers, and directors that I lack most. It is the professional and creative hive mind that often creates the magic of an impactful narrative. While I know our industry and sound mixers continue to find ways to meet the demands of the ever-changing landscape of our industry, I can’t wait to get the band back together, all in one room to do something amazing together again. Perhaps we can incorporate the bunny slippers.