AES New York 2009
Broadcast and Media Streaming Session B12
Sunday, October 11, 5:30 pm — 7:00 pmB12 - Production of a Soap Opera
Panelists:
Dominick Maldari, All My Children
Bill Mozer, One Life to Live
R.T. Smith, All My Children
Abstract:
There's a lot more than meets the eye when it comes to mixing a soap opera. It may be considered a dying art, but the production mixer must deal with overworked actors having difficulty following a script, complicated, 3-dimensional blocking, lighting grids that make booming the action more difficult, and botched blocking. All this every day after being handed only a script and the most rudimentary information as to what's in store.
In addition, the A-1 must determine when booming is not feasible and the use of RF body mic-ing is the lesser of two evils. That's where an agile A-2 assist comes into play. These mics have the added difficulty of having to be hidden when in use. His techniques of doing this are very important as time is always of the essence.
Finally, when all is said and done, the tapes are sent to postproduction to have sound effects and music added to the final product, as well as whatever effects are deemed necessary. The postproduction engineer also makes fixes to the relatively few and inevitable flaws that occur in this high speed taping environment.
Dominick Maldari, 5-time Emmy award winner in this endeavor, will give an overview and also discuss the mixing aspects. Emmy award nominee Bill Mozer will go over the audio assist's techniques, and R.T. Smith will talk about the art of postproduction.
