In the Mix
March 26, 2010

As drafts of Workaholics Anonymous fly in and out of the editing lab, the film inches closer and closer to final cut. But meanwhile, there is something completely different to worry about.

"There are many aspects of post-production," said Producer Allison Freitas, "and it's important to give a lot of time for each, especially sound design and mixing." Throughout the editing process, the Rab staff has already been busy with the film's soundtrack, which includes dialogue, ambience, sound effects, and music.

"In the grand scheme of a film, audio is the only thing that needs to be absolutely perfect," said Director Robert Bartolome. "If something is off about the sound, it's a guarantee that the audience will notice it immediately. There's no real leeway, and it usually can't be passed off as 'artistic choice,'" he laughed.

Joel Martinez, a boom operator and assistant mixer, commented, "We've made dozens and dozens of audio layers for each of the scenes. We have to add every little detail--background noise like phones and copy machines, room tone, the sound of fingers typing, even little movements of clothing as characters pass by." Martinez joked, "I think Rob [Bartolome] just wants to see how many tracks of audio it takes to crash the computer."

These waveforms represent audio
tracks, layered on top of
one another to create a sound mix.

To put things in perspective, a single scene, taking place on a busy office floor, currently has fourty-two seperate audio layers. "There are a lot of sounds no one will even notice," said Bartolome, "but it would be obvious if they weren't there."

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