It’s the only way for there to be time not only for the integration, but the endless tweaking and adjustments.Īs particular as Esmail is about the role sound plays in his shows, it doesn’t mean he or Buchholz know precisely what sounds will work, or how they’ll work. Part of all the pre-planning is to serve the goal of having something the picture editors to work against and the music team can feed off of during creation. There’s talent and instinct in executing something like that, but it also largely speaks to Buchholz’s ability to manage and earn the “supervisor” role of his title. “The richness is finding what the story of that episode is about, who are we experiencing that story through, and then how do we then align the sound to that perspective.” “He’s so into the details of certain sounds, even creating and inventing sounds that do not exist in our world,” Esmail said. The final mix moves effortlessly between diegetic and hyper-realized sounds - created from his recordings - mirroring the experience of lead character Elliot (Rami Malek). Robot” stemmed from the day-and-a-half he spent with his wife walking around the train station recording sounds. The incredible Grand Central Station and subway soundscape Buchholz created for the first episode of Season 4 of “Mr. Robot” even starts, he flies out to New York to start recording sounds, not simply to start the process of gathering the elements he’ll need, but to start conceiving - by walking through actual locations - the role sound will play. While Buchholz is reading early drafts of the scripts and talking with Esmail, he creates “shot lists” of sounds. That’s how important sound is and what his input has meant to me.” “His curiosity about what I’m thinking throwing me ideas, which I then include in the way I shoot or even script moments. “What Kevin smartly does is he has that process drawn out from writing to prep to actual shooting and finally to post,” said Esmail said. For sound to be used like a storytelling tool - like composition, design, or editing - episodes not only need to be conceived in sound, the collaborations need to start as early as possible. Sound effects are added to make the image believable, because that’s what there is time for in the post-production process after an episode has picture locked and before the final mix. When you see a car onscreen, you often hear that car. So Kevin is there and very informative at every step along the way.” “But for me to really get a handle, even if it’s just prepping and looking for locations, it really is about how can I also include this other 50 percent, the audio, in the final experience. “There’s a deeper connection that you can with sound,” Esmail said. Robot” and “Homecoming”? The answer is supervising sound editor Kevin Buchholz.
So how does a TV creator like Sam Esmail, for whom sound is actually 50 perfect of his storytelling, pull it off on “Mr. This is doubly true of television, where the pre-planning required to fully incorporate sound design into the creator’s vision, and the time it takes to then execute, is incongruous with the assembly line schedule of producing episodes back-to-back, week in and week out. Sound should be 50 percent of filmmaking (it’s an audio and visual art, after all), but too often, it’s not.