#465 – Cut/daily Meets... Supervising Sound Editor George Haddad

What is the sound of funny?

According to Supervising Sound Editor George Haddad, who worked on all 10 episodes of season 1 of Apple TV's riotous hit show The Studio, it's subtlety.

The timing of the dialog is the main thing to follow and so you have to carefully choose the right time to add or remove sound.

The mix team and I listen carefully to the music, if any, and make sure not to copy what they’re doing. That way, our sounds provide an additional layer that can complement or support the pace of what’s happening on screen.

— Supervising Sound Editor, George Haddad

With 23 Emmy nominations for the series, including for picture and sound editing, he must be right.

George's career in sound (as IMDB depicts it) began in epic fashion with Highlander II: The Quickening in 1991, and now includes credits on:

• Mad Men
• CSI: NY
• Gotham
• Pennyworth
• 1883
• Daisy Jones & The Six
• Sweet Tooth
• Landman
• 1923

With over three decades of experience in his craft, George knows what he's talking about, so I'm glad I got to ask him some bonus questions about The Studio.

You've worked in sound since the 1990s. What has been the most significant change you've seen in that time to where we are today?

Seeing how the tools we use from then till now have evolved has been exciting.

There are companies out there producing products to not only make it easier but to give us what we need to create more in our own way.

What is the sound of funny? How do you use sound/silence to accentuate jokes, add tension, pace timings, etc?

I love comedy. It’s always my favorite thing to watch and it actually helps me relax after a long day of editing sound and working with actors etc.

That being said, the timing of the dialog is the main thing to follow, and so you have to carefully choose the right time to add or remove sound.

The mix team and I listen carefully to the music, if any, and make sure not to copy what they’re doing. That way, our sounds provide an additional layer that can complement or support the pace of what’s happening on screen.

We’re not just looking to play everything loud or goofy. Subtle sounds can play a significant role in supporting the comedy.

What aspect of working on The Studio are you most proud of - even if no one else might notice?

I love that every scene was a oner, and even an entire episode was filmed that way. It was my first time working with that kind of cinematography.

That opened up so many opportunities to move sound around all the speakers, which was an Atmos mix, and follow the One Shot camera filming style. There was so much panning of feet, music, sound effects, and dialogue.

Even though it was subtle at times, hearing it was very rewarding for a sound nerd like me.

What was the biggest challenge of working on The Studio and how did you overcome it?

The biggest challenge was when I saw and heard the final production sound from filming.

Those sound crews did a great job capturing the dialog from many actors constantly moving up and down hallways, inside rooms, exterior locations etc, but because of the One Shot camera work, the boom operator wasn’t always able to get coverage on the dialog because they would have to stand clear so the D.P can use the space they need for whatever movement was happening.

That meant we had to rely almost entirely on the Lavalier/body mics placed on the cast members.

We had to remove a lot of cloth rustle and deal with dialog bleed from other microphones when we had loud shouting moments.

Luckily there is software out there to help with that (unlike 30 years ago) and the production sound team made sure they got the placement of the microphones in the right spot and recorded with enough level which helped us avoid ADR.