Scoring

CrackTreevor Cronin grives a bsehind the scenes look at recording the score for the new Australian feature film, Crackers.

o longer a cottage industry that no one cares about, Australian cinema is now the Nsubject of close scrutiny by the cigar- toking Hollywood wiseguys. Films like Shine, Strictly Ballroom, and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, along with hugely successful Australian directors such as Peter Weir and Baz Luhrmann have raised the standards of what we’ve come to expect from home-grown feature films. Of course, the film score plays a critical role in bringing cohesion and impact to the more glamourous visual and script-based elements of a film. Audio Technology’s Trevor Cronin worked on the Crackers project and gives his account of the recording of the score. Recording the music for a feature film has to be one of the most demanding assignments a music production team can be given. There’s a whole host of non-negotiable factors that put the pressure on: deadlines must be met, and budget restrictions dictate the manner in which you can produce the final product. The final say goes to the director who, in this case, also wrote the script. Crackers was David Swann’s first feature film as Director. Previously he was responsible for the hit comedy series, Let The Blood Run Free, and the award-winning short film, Bonza. Crackers has an impressive cast, including veteran English actor Warren Mitchell, and Aussies Daniel Kellie, Susan Lyons, Peter Rowsthorn, Christopher Chapman, Terry Gill and Maggie King. David Swann and Producer, Chris Warner, were very hands on, attending many of the recording sessions, providing input and encouragement. It was an intense and highly focused work environment, was equivalent to recording, mixing, editing and mastering a double CD of original music in just 3 weeks!

The composer David chose highly regarded musician, composer and arranger Ricky Edwards to create the music for this film. Ricky has an impressive track record, having worked with artists such as Daryl Braithwaite, James Reyne and Jane Rutter. He was part of the very successful team that worked on the award winning Australian film Shine, Crackers was his first feature film as Music Composer. Ricky’s partner, Sandy Edwards, was the Production Coordinator. The timetable for this project was very carefully laid out by the Music Production Manager, Russell J. White. Russell also manages many of the industry’s top producers and engineers, so he has an intimate knowledge of the workings of a recording session. Computer generated spreadsheets were carefully prepared, clearly illustrating to all those involved the schedule of the tasks to be performed.

The studio Melbourne’s Woodstock Studio was used as the recording location. Owned by The Black Sorrows front man, Joe Camilleri, it has the look and feel of a Mediterranean café. A veritable gallery of paintings and sculptures adorn the studio, while couches you just don’t want to climb out of keep clients comfortable. Downstairs in the main recording

48 area there are five rooms, the largest space being the control room quality processors such as Lexicon reverbs and delays, Aphex with the usual set-up of a console, outboard equipment, monitors compressors, Drawmer gates, and equipment from Valley People, and tape machines. There are three isolation rooms, the largest Klark Teknik, Dolby Labs and API. There’s some rarer gear like being the drum room. At the rear there's the machine room which custom-made Ross Giles valve compressors, mic preamps and houses the analogue two-inch 24-track tape machine as well as a valve equalisers. He has an extensive collection of microphones – small isolation cupboard suitable for a speaker box. The isolation a very exotic Calrec soundfield and various Shure, Sony, AKG and rooms all face the engineer, so artists can all see each other, Neumann mics. Add this to Woodstock’s own inventory (see making for easy communication. Apart from the drummer, the ‘Woodstock’s Equipment’) and it could only be described as a whole band can play together live in the control room and still sound engineers dream! enjoy good separation, which makes for a very pleasant recording The film was viewed on a 26-inch monitor placed at the rear of environment. It’s not a large studio, so the recording of a 17-piece the studio, so it was easily seen by all. A hi-fi VHS machine was string section was interesting to say the least. used for playback. The left channel was for the dialogue and sound Upstairs is a New York style open-plan apartment, which is a effects produced by the film studio, while the right channel self-contained home to be used while working on projects. The contained the timecode that was used to lock the digital multitrack living area is a big bright space with polished wooden floors and recorders to the picture. plenty of natural light. This was Ricky’s domain for the intense The recording was in three parts: the orchestra sessions, the writing period, and afterwards accommodated the orchestra during band sessions, and the final mixdown, with studio set-up days in scheduled breaks. between. Recording an orchestra is, as you can imagine, quite an A soundtrack is made up of many musical cues that reinforce expensive process, with every minute of studio time needing to be the emotions being portrayed on the screen. Crackers is principally used efficiently - everything was checked thoroughly beforehand to a comedy and required Ricky to compose some very comical avoid any delays. However, shit happens! On this occasion a huge pieces of music. His brief was to borrow elements from the likes of storm stopped proceedings when the gutters overflowed and sent Carl Stalling, the legendary American composer whose merry gallons of water pouring over the studio’s main power board! We melodies are featured in many classic Disney and Warner were pretty quick to shut it all down and, amazingly, no harm was cartoons. The compositional stage of the project was completed in done to any of the team or the equipment. just over three weeks. The Apple Macintosh workstation was Ricky’s main tool, incorporating ProTools, Logic Audio and Sample The orchestra Cell software. The film was viewed as an on-screen window in his Each section of the orchestra was recorded separately, partly due set-up, while a larger monitor was used for the full screen effect. to the size of the studio, but mainly to allow Ricky to refine each Guide reels were made with a tempo click and the various instru- section’s performance. It also offered a great improvement in mental cues were given synthesised representations. separation, even if the classical purists may disagree with this recording concept. The engineer Some of Melbourne’s top classical musicians, many from the Ricky chose Recording Engineer, Michael Letho, to ‘capture the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, were hand-picked by Ricky. All moments’. I was fortunate to get the gig as Michael’s Assistant on the parts for the orchestra were printed out using the score facility this project. Letho is one of Australia's top recording engineers. He in the computer software. Ricky conducted all the sessions and has extensive experience working on movie soundtracks, both here worked with the players till the desired result was achieved. English in Australia, and on big budget Hollywood Films. Some of his credits isn’t exactly the best language with which to describe music, include – The Black Sorrows, Bonnie Raitt, Daryl Braithwaite, Jane Rutter, Kim Carnes, Look Who's Talking 1 & 2 (film score), Ricky Lee Jones, Rush, Jesus Christ Superstar, Shine (film score), Southern Sons, Sussanah Hoffs and The Seekers. As well as having a great set of ears, he has a comprehensive technical knowledge and is a great communicator. He uses some clever descriptive phrases at work, such as, “dig a bit deeper on that guitar!”, (strum with more attack); or, “I’ll just add some more bog to that”, (body filler, to fatten a sound with EQ and/or compression, etc). Maintaining a good vibe in the studio, and concentrating on the job at hand for 12 hours a day, seemed to come easy. He’s one ‘very on the case’ chap! Letho brought his ‘toolkit’ to the session,which consisted of a large © Marty Williams collection of equipment in tall road cases, Ricky Edwards conducts the orchestra while Michael Letho mans the MCI console. (his ‘fridges’). These contained lots of high

49 however phrases such as ‘tee duh da dah’, combined with lots of The band hand movements, and a few colourful Italian expressions, seemed The orchestral score accounted for the high impact cues, but the to get the point across. majority of the music was performed by a select band of session The guide tempo click and instrumentation were fed into the musicians. The guys in the band were consummate professionals headphone monitor mix, and delivered to the orchestra using fresh from Kylie Minogue and John Farnham gigs. It was particu- single earpieces (generally on the right ear), with the other ear larly interesting to witness these guys playing a section that was used by the musician to listen to their own instrument. Because meant to emulate a church band that played in one part of the of the open back cans, bleed caused a few problems, (we also film. This band was tight, and it transpired that they were way too had to keep an eye on some players, as they had a tendency to tight to convincingly sound like a raggedy church ensemble. slide the headphone off their ear). Closed back units would have Ricky’s answer was to switch off all their headphones! The result? helped, however, most classical players can’t cope with the Watch the movie. isolation they bring. The band was recorded to 24-track using a two-inch analogue The orchestra was recorded onto two ADAT XT digital tape tape machine. It was a less formal affair, with the players being machines, with an additional allowed more scope to machine used for the guide improvise their parts. tracks. Up to three successful Interestingly, these players takes of the various cues were locked into the groove much recorded on separate tapes, faster than the classical players, and were later compiled to and had a much better sense of form the master. This was a timing. very quick method of working, and one advantage of using the Bringing it home ADAT format was the ability to Anyone who has seen Crackers pop out the tape, insert the can make up their own mind as new one, press locate and be s to how successfully the film m a ready to go in a matter of i l was scored, but I have a few l seconds. i W thoughts of my own. I was

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The strings consisted of an r constantly amazed at the a

18-piece section led by M

impact the music had on the violinist Nigel McLean. The © delivery of the script and two basses and four cellos images. Gags that in isolation were located in the drum room Two of the vintage mics used on the session might provoke a few polite and individually miked. Five titters in the audience, ended first violins, four second violins and three violas were miked in up being hilarious thanks to the audio cues. I think only when you pairs, with additional mics for the principals. A total of 22 people work closely on the recording of a film score can you fully were in the studio at that time, and unfortunately the air appreciate how it has to gel completely with the visuals. By way of conditioner was too loud to use during recording! (Some of the example, on one occasion we had a fantastic cellist playing a cues required a swell, starting from silence). ‘weepy’ part to accompany a deathbed scene. When it came time The woodwinds consisted of a nine-piece section. Two oboes to assess the success of the recording when combined with the and a cor anglais were located in the drum room, individually film scene, we just looked at each other and said, “no, it doesn’t miked. The rest of the section were positioned around the main work.” It wasn’t because the performance was lacking in any room, all with a separate microphone. Two flutes, (with one player technical quality, it just failed to have the exact emotional impact picking up the piccolo part on some cues), two clarinets and two that was required. The next day we called in another cellist, and bassoons were also individually miked. with a new interpretation the scene worked a treat. For one cue there was a problem with an oboe solo, so it was Bringing together all the constituent parts of a film to make one transferred via the optical out of the ADAT into ProTools. A slight cohesive, seamless whole, is an awesome task. But when the power change to the pitch and a slight repositioning of the part was of picture, sound and word comes together like pieces of a jigsaw, made and then it was popped back on the tape. Technology was the results are magnificent. A definitely our friend that day! T The brass consisted of a 10-piece section: two trumpets, two trombones, one bass trombone and four french horns. All the Woodstock’s Equipment horns were miked in pairs, apart from the solo instruments. Valves mics include: Neumann M149, AKG C12, Altec 2113, The various takes were compared using digital copy and Groove-Tube M02, Sony C 37A. Ribbon mics include: RCA 77 (x2), rehearsal mode on the ADAT’s BRC, and by switching between SSS Dynamic R47. Other mics include: AKG D12, AKG C5900, input and tape monitoring. The final compilation was put together Neumann U87, Microtech Gefell GMBH UMT 800. Monitors: Quested H208 midfields, KRK 6000 nearfields. Effects: Lexicon PCM80 and utilising the auto drop-in facility. PCM90, EMT Plate and Dual Plate, Great British Spring Reverb, Recording is all well and good; but the highlight of the Roland Space Echo, TC Electronics Finalizer. Recording: 28 channel orchestral sessions came during the scheduled breaks, with their MCI 500 console, TL Audio Valve Mixer and Valve Interface, Otari delicious assortment of fresh sandwiches, chocolate biscuits and, MX80 Analogue Recorder, Studer A80 Analogue Master Recorder of course, copious amounts of freshly brewed coffee!

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