Tonebenders Podcast

Brad Engleking tells us about working on the sound for the amazing documentary, Fathom. The film is about scientists that are recording humpback whale calls and trying to decipher their language. Fathom features some of the most beautiful whale recordings ever captured.

In this episode we talk to Emmy nominated co-supervising sound editors Bernard Weiser and Brent Findley, from the hit series Ted Lasso. They do a deep dive on how they built a massive stadium full of fans chanting "Wanker" from a small loop group for source. They also discuss the rapid evolution of the ADR process in pandemic times, having now done two seasons under various levels of lockdowns. Some things they hope stay going forward and others that they can do without.

In this episode we talk with Craig Henighan (Supervising Sound Editor/SFX Re-Recording Mixer), Paul Massey (Dial/Music Re-Recording Mixer) and Ryan Cole (Dialog Supervisor) from the Shawn Levy directed film, Free Guy. We talk about finding sonic space for dialog when total chaos is happening on screen, dealing with visual effects changing with each new delivery and ADR during a pandemic.

In this episode we talk with the team behind the music documentary Billie Eilish: The World's A Little Blurry. Joining us are director RJ Cutler and members of the sound team including re-recording mixers Elmo Ponsdomenech & Jason "Frenchie" Gaya as well as Supervising Sound Editor Richard E. Yawn. They talk about the challenges of having source footage originally recorded on everything from VHS to iPhones, mixing music for concert footage and keeping Billie's home life sounding intimate.

In this episode we talk with Supervising Sound Editor Mac Smith and Re-Recording Mixer Brandon Proctor, from the new film Nine Days. They tell us how they created the sound for a story that takes place on another plane of existence and yet is entirely recognizable. The film centres on a wall of TVs that that needs sound to lead the viewers to what is (and isn't) important to the story.

Al Sirkett and Lucy Mitchell tell us about their experiences building new stand alone studio spaces in their backyards. They tell us everything they learned, what they would do different, and how much it has changed their lives.

In this episode we are joined by the sound team from the hit Disney Plus series WandaVision. Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Kim Foscato (Co-Supervising Sound Editors) as well as Danielle Dupre (Re-Recording Mixer) tell us about the immense pressure to complete the series to match Marvel's cinematic standards while working under pandemic restrictions. The also discuss how co-supervisors share the work load, creating sounds knowing they will become cannon and the workflow of processing White Vision's voice.

Way back in January, the great Mark Mangini penned a little blog post outlining some audio tropes that he was hoping to put to rest. That post inspired some slack threads, facebook posts, and a good general discussion about how we can be more original and creative when tasked with designing sounds and situations that can have quick and easy answers. In this not-so-serious conversation Mark gets together with Tim, Teresa and René to break down some tropes, spell out some reasons for going there anyway, and maybe…just maybe…we retire the now infamous Wilhelm.

We talk to Peter Albrechtsen (sound designer) & David Barber (re-recording mixer) about the intense and unique sound work done on director Robert Machoian's film The Killing of Two Lovers. Visually the film plays out over long steady shots, while much of the films plot takes place off screen with sound taking the lead. The director also chose not to have a composer and instead use sound design, almost as musique concrète, to build the tension.

We talked with an amazing lineup of guests about all angles of recording in the desert. George Vlad, Thomas Rex Beverly, Bethan Kellough, Zach Goheen