Author: Jeff Sneider ♦ Photo: Francine Orr
The brutal world of Fallout strikes a delicate balance between sonic bombast and haunting silence in a post-apocalyptic setting. The Amazon Prime Video series is based on the best-selling video game and takes place in the year 2296, approximately 219 years after a nuclear attack devastated Los Angeles and changed everything.
The live-action sci-fi series is from creators and showrunners Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet, with executive producers including the cast of “Westworld” Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy. While the visual scope of the series is magnificent, the attention to detail in the sound mix is equally impressive.
CineMontage sat down with four members of the Fallout sound team, all working at Universal Studios’ StudioPost, including supervising sound editor Susan Cahill, sound designer Daniel Colman, and re-recording mixers Keith Rogers and Steve Bucino. Enter a big budget series like this.
Before diving in, the quartet made sure to pay tribute to several Fallout colleagues who made invaluable contributions to creating the series’ sound, including dialogue editor Jane Boegel (“a huge asset”), music editor Chris Kaller, mix editor.
“It’s been a pleasure working with this team,” Cahill said.
Ella Purnell stars as Lucy MacLean, a brave vault dweller who makes the bold decision to leave Vault 33 , heads to the surface alone to search for her missing father (Kyle MacLachlan). The show’s sound team took a mesmerizing approach to creating the epic roar of the vault’s opening, with every creak and groan a warning of danger lurking beyond the safety of the massive doors.
“When Lucy walks out of the vault door in the first episode,Bethesda gave us a library of various sounds from different games. Each game was based on a different vault, so I picked out each one. There are little pieces of vault doors that go into this game. So, we start with a little bit of Vault 111 in Fallout 4, and at the end of it opening, you hear from. [Fallout 76’s] Vault 76,” Coleman explained.
“Putting all of this together is a huge thing [because] All these little layers and nuances, but once Steve really gets it into Atmos territory, hearing it on the mixing desk, you can hear the keys starting in the ceiling, sweeping across the room, clanking into the room the front. It’s a full-featured experience that really takes full advantage of Atmos,” said Colman.
“There’s also a key reveal after Lucy Comes Out of the Vault,” Busino explains. Initially, some of composer Ramin Djawadi’s drums revealed the shoreline, which they hoped would be revealed through the sound design and surging The drums were a little too close to the sound of the waves crashing, so Rogers pulled some of that down so we held back. [the coastline reveal]. It’s all about tension and release, because it’s Lucy’s first time out, and most of it is on a big set in Africa – except for the Ferris wheel on the pier, it’s a real location.
Of course, this all happens at the end of the first episode. (That episode of “Target” ended up receiving multiple Emmy nominations.)
“There are Ghouls, Maximus and [Knight Titus] The suit fight, and the moment when Max loses control of his jetpack and flies around uncontrollably. Steve did a great job mixing [with Max] Flying over our heads and bouncing around us,” Cahill said. “We were very interested in ADR, processing the sounds in the set, and playing the comedy and all the action” as it went down.
The Fallout team also singled out the Philadelphia outdoor market scene for being filled with life despite the specter of death hanging over everything and everyone, as it gave them the opportunity to take advantage of the extraordinary effects of Dolby Atmos.
“It’s like the show was shot with that in mind,” Buscino joked.
“As we moved beyond the walls of Philly, there was a conversation in the room about revealing Philly, and I knew that through Loop Group and Walla Sound [and Sound Mixer Tod A. Maitland’s production tracks]once we first get into it, we let it surround us, and that’s where the heavy use of Dolby Atmos really helps, because we’re able to move objects,” Bucino explained. “So on stage, we came up with the two-headed cow Moo Moo, and then we started introducing these mutant animals, so Lucy saw and heard it for the first time, which was a very subtle effect, but it started to make her Open her eyes and see the world she was about to experience.
“Those moments with Max [Aaron Moten] The clothes were flying and I was just being aggressive and having as much fun with it as I could,” Buscino said. “It made sense for the scene and the story – and it’s one of those rare moments where a pun in the realm of Atmos makes perfect sense and works really well.”
Another tricky task the team took on was designing the voices of feral ghouls, such as Roger (Neil Huff) and Martha (Alexa Marchigliano), who begin to turn into unconscious monster.
“What’s cool about these is the transformation we’re seeing… We’re talking to them as they’re in the process of transitioning into feral ghouls, so we’re playing with multiple layers and really working line by line,” Coe said. Mann said. “We brought them in during production, and then we brought them into ADR to make a harsher zombie-style version. We recorded loop groups with them to add some other sounds that we could play with sometimes, and I played on those sounds There are some impersonal things used that I tend to stay away from in all design content, but I have. [here] As a little bit of a FutzBox, add more harshness to it and then add creature sounds on top of it. We edited it very carefully to match the pitch and envelope of their words so that we could play a little more or less in each line, transitioning into a wild state.
The Fallout team was under pressure to build a world that had been around for 20 years and built a very frenetic foundation, but when they heard the audience’s shallow breaths during the series’ first big action sequence, They knew they were doing the right thing, Los Angeles was under attack.
“I’ll never forget the moment when the first bomb went off, because I remember we used it so much in the mix. Jonah asked us to remove the sound of the explosion—the sound of the bomb—and he said, ‘That’s it. When there’s no It’s more impactful when it comes to sound. It’s not always about what you add, it’s about what you choose to take away. At that moment, in the theater, you can feel everyone getting goosebumps.” Hill said.
Since most of the sound team on Fallout had worked with Nolan before, they had a good idea of what Nolan was looking for and thought he was a great communicator in that regard.
“With the overall mix, I kind of understand how he feels and what he likes. He uses sounds to help tell the story, which is great for the sound team because we can create and he trusts our instincts,” Rogers said .
“Jonah created a roadmap in the edit using temp music and temp effects, so we had a roadmap of what we wanted to achieve. But in terms of Jonah’s style, every project is slightly different. He doesn’t Love the set approach to the mix. He’s a very well-rounded filmmaker in the way he sees and envisions each scene, so we just try to help support his creative vision,” Rogers added.
“Knowing it was Jonathan Nolan, [I thought] This was a perfect project that really required all-out effort. I try to bring the most aggressive and intense sound at the right time, and just do the best I can with what Daniel gives me and really focus on bringing out the creativity in it in hopes that he’ll do something like this. Most of the time, these things are popular,” Busino said.
“Based on my experience working with Jonah [during] In the last few years of Westworld, he was very much in favor of saving production as much as possible,” Cahill noted.
“He was very sensitive to ADR, so it was a lot of work cleaning up the original production tracks while maintaining the true sound of the set. [because] He doesn’t like to be deprived of things. He doesn’t like to clean up too much because he really wants to keep the sound authentic, so when we do ADR it’s in conjunction with the production,” she said. “We’re trying to minimize ADR as much as possible to maintain the integrity of production. So it’s a lot of effort to find a perfect match so that we can do a combination and maybe just use a word or two of ADR, or even just one syllable so that it goes unnoticed.
Before starting work on their next project together, the Hulu series Deli Boy , the group weighed the importance of being a guild member.
“[It’s] “It’s critical to our day-to-day work environment, which starts with knowing that you’re working with high-level professionals where everyone is doing their best,” while also providing some protection for members, Rogers said.
“The Guild has given me the opportunity to work on some of the best projects I could imagine, like Fallout. “Also, to protect myself and my family…for a family of four, It’s really important to me to be able to afford health insurance and know that we’re protected,” said Busino, who first joined the guild when he moved here.
Fallout performed extremely well on Prime Video, attracting more than 65 million viewers in its first two weeks, a number that prompted Amazon-MGM to quickly renew the show for a second season.
Regardless of Fallout’s reaction among Emmy voters, it has proven to be a hit with critics and, most importantly, fans of the game, which may be the biggest win of all.
