Field Trip: Warner Brothers Studios

A Hollywood landmark!

Once you hear it, there’s no mistaking what you’re supposed to see – the oafish Patsy clomping together two coconut halves, always two steps behind Arthur as popularized in the 1975 cult classic Monty Python and the Holy Grail. But where did that idea come from? Where did this style of sound design emerge?

Sound effects first became incorporated into the “talkies” in the late 1920s with the work of audio pioneer Jack Foley. The field he developed – the art of creating and recording live sound effects (often with unconventional materials) in sync with a finished reel during the post-production process – revolutionized motion pictures in the early years of cinema and continues to permeate the industry today. This type of work is rarely required within the scope of traditional theatre (unless it is a specific choice for the production), so it was a real treat for the MFA sound design students when we had to opportunity to explore the sound stages at Warner Brothers Studios, taking an in depth look at one of their Foley facilities.

This field trip (coordinated by Professor Vincent Olivieri as part of DRAMA 255: Trends in Modern Sound Design) began on the cool morning of December 6, 2019. After we carpooled up to Burbank, we left our vehicles with the valets and made our way past the multiple ongoing studio tours to the commissary where we grabbed a quick bite to eat and some hot joe (side note: they have a killer breakfast spread). After a few minutes to take in the enticing aromas of scrambled eggs and bacon, we headed back outside to meet our host Alyson Lee Moore, an accomplished Foley artist with over thirty years of experience in the industry, half of which she has spent with Warner Brothers. She is also a two-time Emmy award-winning Foley artist (a recent win shared with the department for their work on HBO’s Barry) with numerous Golden Reel nominations from Motion Picture Sound Editors.

One "street" of the studio

Alyson first took us around the various sets situated about the lot – a small township built out of scenic skeletons and optical illusions meant to be filmed from specific angles. Each unit is highly configurable – some even had false walls (they were quite convincing, even up close) creating striking visual partitions within the spaces. Everywhere we looked, there were full crews of carpenters, electricians, and stagehands hard at work preparing for the next set. At times, I felt a bit like a pedestrian on a construction site, but no one seemed to mind us: they are likely used to random people walking about. We also spotted some unique staged statements scattered about meant for quick selfies from tourists. We obviously had to take a few for ourselves…

MFA Sound Design Students, 2019-2020

Next, we headed into the museum on the lot where technical aspects from titles in the Warner Brothers catalog were on display – from the beautiful gowns worn by Lady Gaga in A Star is Born (2018) to a scenic reproduction of Central Perk from Friends (1994-2004) or the forced perspective table used in The Hobbit (2012). Towards the end of our stroll through the museum we exited off into a small enclosed room. Here, the audio from the film Gravity (2013) was played in a stemmed format so that we could listen to the sound effects, recorded dialogue, and soundtrack independently. Afterwards, we listened to all three together to hear how the tracks were crafted to complement each other – the spatialized mixing in ProTools really brought everything to life. We concluded in, where else? The gift shop!

Costume pieces and props from A Star Is Born (2018)

One of the many stages located on the lot

Next, Alyson took us around for a peek at some of the various sound stages while we waited for the working Foley artists to go to lunch (we didn’t want to disturb them while they were working). There were dozens of various sizes (some akin to aircraft hangars), and most of them had full crews within loading in the next production or striking the previous one. Each stage has a unique placard located next to the entrance with a comprehensive list every title that had been worked on in that space. Then, we meandered through the main properties storage facility on-site which, to me, looked more like the best stocked antique store that you could ask for. Alyson said that this was a frequent haunt for her, as many of the items required for Foley could normally be considered props. We finally came full circle, ending up back at the commissary where we departed for the recently vacated Foley studio.

The Foley studio, which was underground in the post-production facility, was comprised of a main room where all of the actual Foley would take place, a kitchenette-style area with large tubs for water work, a smaller side room dedicated for storage, and a control room complete with studio-grade recording equipment. From Alyson’s description, three artists would be working in the facility for a given project – two Foley artists and a mix engineer. She also let us in on some of the more… unique sounds that she has had to come up with over her career, like the use of semi-frozen gelatin to capture the likeness of footsteps on an alien planet. The main space was full of odds and ends (all noisemakers), a pit full of sand, gravel and debris, and some great shotgun microphones. After she fielded our questions for a bit, we had a chance to make some noise of our own. Then, we headed upstairs towards the daylight and contemplated lunch. 

As the day ended, we headed out with Alyson to one of our favorite cafes right as an afternoon downpour swept over the city. We spoke more with her about some of the specifics of her work, but also what she enjoyed doing in her free time, ongoing hobbies, and the ever-present question of work/life balance. Something that I found insightful is that although longer hours are sometimes inevitable, her daily schedule was fairly regular with hours from around 8 am to 5 pm. After the rain let up a bit, we said our goodbyes and made our way back to Irvine.

All in all, it was a fantastic day full of spectacle and even more insight into a boundlessly creative line of work. Throughout the tour, one descriptor kept coming to my mind that perfectly encapsulated the career and underlined its inherent connection to live theatre - resourcefulness.

I’m incredibly grateful that we had a fantastic quarter in our Trends class last fall and that so much of it was able to be spent out in the field or exploring other industries within sound design; this final excursion was the perfect cherry on top.

Biggest of thank yous to Vincent Olivieri, Alyson Dee Moore, and all the wonderful folks at Warner Brothers.

Photos by Garrett Gagnon, Vincent Olivieri, and Meghan Roche.

Track and Field 2019

In my Trends in Modern Sound Design class, we often do an iterative hot-potato project called Track and Field.  It's an opportunity for the students to work on efficiency, conceptualization, and workflow. Here's how it works:

1) On the first day, each student brings in a 30-second piece of audio of their own creation.  The audio can be anything, from field recordings to original music to a short narrative. Students bring in both a rendered audio file and individual stems, and may spend no more than 60 minutes in the studio working on it.
2) Each submission gets passed to another student, then uses the original material as the starting point for their own work. Again, they must limit themselves to 60 minutes of studio time and 30 seconds in duration, but other than that, they can do anything they want. Students turn in both a rendered audio file and individual stems.
3) We repeat that over and over, with a matrix set up in such a way that each student gets to work on each thread.

This quarter, I had nine students, so there are nine threads.  I've taken each thread and strung each iteration together in sequence, so you can hear how one thread changes as different designers get their hands on the material.  Enjoy!

Creating Sounds from Scratch: Final Projects

One of my favorite classes to teach at UCI is called Drama 267: Creating Sounds from Scratch. It’s a class with a bit of breadth, starting out discussing modular synthesizers (oscillators, modulators, LFOs) and using software emulators to explore how the pieces fit together.  We spend about a third of the class on that topic, but the last two thirds of the class focuses on modular audio/control programming using a piece of software called Max/MSP. Max/MSP can do lots of things, but my focus tends to be on logic and control methods. Over the quarter, we learn how to get midi and OSC messages into the software, how to manipulate the information in useful ways, and how to use it to control sound and midi objects (both software and meatspace). We explore many methods of control, simple midi keyboards, including iphone/ipad devices (various software apps), Jazzmutant Lemurs, Wii Remotes, and (occasionally, but not this quarter), xbox Kinnect devices.

The students have two big projects to work on for the class, and the last one is to build a user-modifiable sonic event. Each project has to have some sort of narrative arc and needs to be controllable using a piece of hardware.  The final projects are always very interesting, but this year, they were truly exceptional.  Here’s a taste:

Jacques is one of our advanced undergraduate students, and he held his own in this graduate course quite well.  His final project used an iphone to simulate a computer keypad for defuse a bomb. He used Max/MSP to send a visual code to the iphone, which needed to be replicated by the user in order to successfully defuse the bomb.  At each successful code entry position, the user was rewarded with a snarky comment.  If the user made a mistake, she blew up.

Adam is our other advanced undergraduate student, and create a simple baseball game.  A pitcher threw a ball, and the user used the iphone to swing.  Based on the parameters of the swing, the user would miss or hit the ball in a certain direction. In the background, we can hear cars passing by, and if the direction that the user hits the ball matches the position of the cars during their pass, the baseball would hit the car, resulting in a very angry driver coming over to give you what-for.

Andrea and Ben (team first-year) used wii-remotes to execute samples and navigate through an EDM song. Buttons controlled snare sounds, shakes controlled kick sounds, and only a rapid-fire user-executed snare sequence would advance from one section to the next section.

Kelsi and Matt (team second-year) used eight wii-remotes to create a version of the Hunger Games ‘reaping’ sequence. Each student in the class was able to volunteer to be a tribute, and once the tributes were selected, they faced off using their remotes as both scythes and bow-and-arrows.  I, playing the part of Donald Sutherland, got to send various genetically-modified animals to pester them as they fought.

Brian and Mark (team third-year) created a four-person game using iphones that let the four players try to kill each other with different weapons.  Each weapon had a different negative or positive impact on the opponent, and as the game progressed, lovely 8-bit sound effects accompanied the destruction.

In general, I was really impressed by these projects.  I used to teach this class every year, but I’ve had to switch to teaching it every three years.  I can’t wait to see what turns up when I teach this class again in 2018!

UCI Sound's class of '17

All of us who are part of the UCI Sound Design Program are excited to announce our two incoming students next fall. Here they are, the Class of 2017:

Andrea Allmond is currently working on staff at Dallas Theatre Center.  She's a Texan through and through, which is terrific for us, since our current resident Texan is graduating this spring. Andrea did a lot of conceptual sound design work in her undergraduate training, and she's filled out her technical chops at DTC working on the sound crew. Also, she boxes (!)

Ben Scheff will be moving all the way across the country from Boston (my favorite East Coast City).  Like Andrea, he's been out of school for a few years.  He is currently the Sound Engineer at Boston Conservatory and the TD at Circus Smirkus.  When not working those gigs, he also freelances around the New England area.

Mike and I are delighted to have Andrea and Ben join us next year.  We had a number of terrific applicants, and we're really looking forward to our new additions.  

Onward and upwards!

Cinthia Palmer: Honors in Sound Design

Mike and I are proud to announce that we have a new Honors in Sound Design student. Congratulations to Cinthia Palmer, who was granted provisional honors status at a meeting of the design faculty yesterday!

Cinthia came to UCI in the fall of 2011 and quickly made herself an indispensable part of the sound design program. She's taken a number of graduate level classes and has worked on a number of mainstage shows, including assisting on Orlando and serving as an actor and chief foley artist for The Radio Plays. She's creative, bright, and always thoughtful, and we're proud of her and her achievement as a sound designer.

You can check out Cinthia's work at her portfolio website.  

Congratulations Cinthia!

Sinan Zafar, BA, UC-Irvine

UCI commencement exercises will be held today for the undergraduate students.  Among those students receiving their Bachelors Degrees will be Sinan Zafar. Sinan is our first real sound design undergraduate student at UCI. He showed up on our radar over two years ago, and quickly made himself indispensable at UCI. He worked on large projects with the graduate students, was the go-to designer for workshop productions with his classmates, and took a significant number of graduate level classes. This year, in addition to all of that, he also designed two shows for the UCI mainstage season. Not surprisingly, he also became our first Honors in Sound Design student.

Sinan will be moving to LA following graduation to pursue his creative work, and the future has great things in store for him.  Congratulations, Sinan!!

Beth Lake and Jeff Polunas, MFA, UC-Irvine

Congratulations to Beth Lake and Jeff Polunas, our most recent graduates of the sound design program here at UCI! They're both terrific designers, and Mike, BC, and I are proud of them and wish them great success!

Beth hails from Arizona by way of Colorado, but she also spent time at Jacob's Pillow out in Mass.  Her thesis design was Arcadia, and she's looking forward to relocating to NYC.

Jeff spent formative years in Ohio, but had been in California (including work for PCPA) for quite a while now.  His thesis was a design for Dance Visions, our faculty-choreographed dance concert. He'll stay around the socal area for the time being.  Jeff is also getting married this summer, so it's quite an exciting time for him!

They have both been terrific students and designers, and I look forward to the great things they'll do in the future!