A Victory for Two Writers & a Minor Victory for a Sound Person

I recently found out that one of the projects I worked on (Anyone But Me) won a Writers Guild of America award for Outstanding Achievement in Writing in Original New Media. The titles of five of the episodes in this series were mentioned in the award, and one of the episodes I did the production sound on was included (Girl Talk).

When you’re a part of a crew, everyone does their best to help the creators realize their vision. Each role is important, from the PA’s to the Craft Food Services people, to camera, make up, and talent. But when you’re doing the location sound, you have a particular intrest in protecting the script.

Being on set can be kind of crazy. There is very limited time, and everyone is usually in a foggy, sleep deprived state. Everything that could possibly go wrong does. It can often take a full camera crew and a team of grips 45 minutes just to light and frame single shot, and the producers and directors keep tabs on all of this, and always keep a steady eye on the clock.

When it comes time to actually shoot, you can feel the anticipation to nail the scene, so they can tear it all down and move on to the next one. Most of the people on set have an idea if a shot is working, and if the image on screen looks and feels right. But only a few people can hear the sound, and of those people, only the sound person is listening with a critical ear.

Our job main job is to capture the dialog. We are entrusted to make sure the words the writer carefully composed are clearly recorded. There are times when the a take looks perfect, but for whatever reason the sound isn’t perfect (the actors overlapped lines, a distant car horn overlaps a key line, a light starts buzzing, etc.). When everyone expects to wrap a scene and move on, you have to speak up, notify them of the problem, and sometimes request another take. It’s the last thing anyone wants to hear, but you need to stand your ground. You’re the sound person. You’re fighting for the script.

Now don’t get me wrong. I had nothing at all to do with the writing of this show. This award belongs 100% to Susan Miller and Tina Cesa Ward. It’s just nice to know that a script that I fought so hard to protect and clearly record successfully made it’s way from the set to the critic’s eardrums.

I was fortunate enough to bump into Tina at my local health food store and congratulate her myself, but I’d also like to say congrats to Susan and the rest of the crew, and to the sound people who worked on the other episodes. This was the first time this award was given to a web-based series, so there’s a historic quality to the victory as well. If you want to check it out Anyone But Me, I have the Girl Talk episode included in the My Reel page of this site, under the Production Sound Services tab. Now… on to the next shot!