‘The Pitt,’ ‘Andor’ and ‘The Studio’ Sound Teams on Creating Chaotic Emergency Room Environments, Fist Fights and More
In order to create the sounds of the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital in HBO’s “The Pitt,” supervising sound editor Bryan Parker had to do a medical crash course into the sounds of an over-crowded emergency room. “When we’re working on creating medical sounds, we’re not going for anything flashy. We’re trying to make fans watching feel as if they’re there next to Dana and feeling the stress of trying to manage two different patients that both need Robby at the same time in the different trauma rooms. We tried to make it feel really human and authentic.”
As “The Pitt” offers an intimate look into a day at an understaffed medical hospital, each episode follows an hour into a single 15-hour work shift, exploring the various lives of the doctors, nurses, and medical students inside. During the “7:00 PM” episode, the tension is finally broken as Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle) breaks down over the death of his mentor, Dr. Adamson.
“We’ve been setting up about the show taking place on the day of the fifth anniversary of Dr. Adamson’s death throughout the last 12 episodes, and Robby’s struggles to desperately hold it together. From a sound perspective, he’s away from a dozen or more patients who could use his help at the moment, and the sound of all those voices, equipment, and the sound of the gurneys becomes distant,” reveals Parker. “We bring in sounds of his memory of the day that he made the call to turn the ECMO machine off for his mentor. The flashbacks of the equipment sounds are ringing in his head and the blood rushing in his ears becomes prevalent, and the stress of his whole day just becomes more than he can bear.”
The soundscape of the cold environment inside “Severance’s” Lumon Industries reveals the biggest mystery inside of the fluorescent walls in “Chikhai Bardo,” confirming that Gemma Scout (Dichen Lachman) has been alive and inside the office building all while her husband, Mark Scout (Adam Scott) has been working with her on the severed floor. While creating Mark and Gemma’s love story told through the past and present day, supervising sound editors Jacob Ribicoff and Bob Chefalas wanted Gemma’s world to sound like a hazy memory.
“Jessica [Lee Gagné] wanted the episode to feel dream-like and feminine, while taking the soundscape that we’ve gotten familiar with inside Lumon, and turning it on its head,” says Ribicoff. “The flashbacks of Gemma and Mark’s romance were filmed in 35mm film, so we wanted the footage to have that old 35 mm sound,” revealed Chefalas. “Whenever we went into one of those flashbacks, the sound went into mono, where the audience can hear in one speaker. Once it opened up into the present day at Lumon, all the sounds opened up in all speakers.”
Getting inside of a main character’s shoes can be a difficult task sonically, but in creating the world of Los Angeles in Apple TV’s “The Studio,” supervising sound editor George Haddad wanted fans to feel the anxiety and stress newly appointed Continental Studios head Matt Remick (Seth Rogen) experiences. As the show utilizes long one-take shots to show the behind-the-scenes of what it’s like to work on location in a legacy film studio, Haddad explains that the sound in “The Oner” had to create a claustrophobic atmosphere to showcase the filmmaking experience on set.
“My team didn’t get a break in sound, and the challenge was how not to be repetitive or how not to be boring, because we’re in this one house the whole time, going from backyard to living room to Matt’s car. We have to create the tension that is building between Matt and Sarah Polley, but also have to remember that they’re filming a movie. There’s moments where the sound gets quiet because they’re on a set, and everyone has to get quiet for the final shot. When Matt wants to help Sarah, the sound has to be fluctuated around him to follow the dialogue on the script to match the chaos.”
When following the “Andor” actors on set in real-time, co-supervising sound editor and sound designer David Acord wanted the ambiance of the Ghorman Massacre in “Who Are You?” to put audiences headfirst into one of the most pivotal moments for the Rebellion. “With a character like Syril, who is in the thick of the massacre, we wanted the sound to reflect that he really doesn’t want to be there in the middle of a protest. When we get into Cassian’s perspective, he’s talking with an earpiece in, and he can’t quite hear what’s being said. We want to make sure everyone watching feels that feeling of not knowing what the sound coming through his earpiece is saying.”
When Cassian and Syril finally confront each other in the climax of the episode, Acord wanted their long-awaited brawl to reflect the horrific events taking place outside the Ghorman town square.
“There are no weapons or lightsabers used in the fight scene. It’s just two guys throwing fists at each other in the most brutal way imaginable because they want to kill each other. What happens in the bar is purely feral fighting in sound, and it’s in juxtaposition to the massacre that is happening outside,” says Acord. “The sound fades away from what’s happening outside with the droids killing civilians until that one moment when all the lasers start ripping through the bar. As sound designers, we’re creating a continuous building of tension all throughout the process of recording, and hopefully, the sound matches what the audience sees on screen.”
As “The Pitt” offers an intimate look into a day at an understaffed medical hospital, each episode follows an hour into a single 15-hour work shift, exploring the various lives of the doctors, nurses, and medical students inside. During the “7:00 PM” episode, the tension is finally broken as Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle) breaks down over the death of his mentor, Dr. Adamson.
“We’ve been setting up about the show taking place on the day of the fifth anniversary of Dr. Adamson’s death throughout the last 12 episodes, and Robby’s struggles to desperately hold it together. From a sound perspective, he’s away from a dozen or more patients who could use his help at the moment, and the sound of all those voices, equipment, and the sound of the gurneys becomes distant,” reveals Parker. “We bring in sounds of his memory of the day that he made the call to turn the ECMO machine off for his mentor. The flashbacks of the equipment sounds are ringing in his head and the blood rushing in his ears becomes prevalent, and the stress of his whole day just becomes more than he can bear.”
The soundscape of the cold environment inside “Severance’s” Lumon Industries reveals the biggest mystery inside of the fluorescent walls in “Chikhai Bardo,” confirming that Gemma Scout (Dichen Lachman) has been alive and inside the office building all while her husband, Mark Scout (Adam Scott) has been working with her on the severed floor. While creating Mark and Gemma’s love story told through the past and present day, supervising sound editors Jacob Ribicoff and Bob Chefalas wanted Gemma’s world to sound like a hazy memory.
“Jessica [Lee Gagné] wanted the episode to feel dream-like and feminine, while taking the soundscape that we’ve gotten familiar with inside Lumon, and turning it on its head,” says Ribicoff. “The flashbacks of Gemma and Mark’s romance were filmed in 35mm film, so we wanted the footage to have that old 35 mm sound,” revealed Chefalas. “Whenever we went into one of those flashbacks, the sound went into mono, where the audience can hear in one speaker. Once it opened up into the present day at Lumon, all the sounds opened up in all speakers.”
Getting inside of a main character’s shoes can be a difficult task sonically, but in creating the world of Los Angeles in Apple TV’s “The Studio,” supervising sound editor George Haddad wanted fans to feel the anxiety and stress newly appointed Continental Studios head Matt Remick (Seth Rogen) experiences. As the show utilizes long one-take shots to show the behind-the-scenes of what it’s like to work on location in a legacy film studio, Haddad explains that the sound in “The Oner” had to create a claustrophobic atmosphere to showcase the filmmaking experience on set.
“My team didn’t get a break in sound, and the challenge was how not to be repetitive or how not to be boring, because we’re in this one house the whole time, going from backyard to living room to Matt’s car. We have to create the tension that is building between Matt and Sarah Polley, but also have to remember that they’re filming a movie. There’s moments where the sound gets quiet because they’re on a set, and everyone has to get quiet for the final shot. When Matt wants to help Sarah, the sound has to be fluctuated around him to follow the dialogue on the script to match the chaos.”
When following the “Andor” actors on set in real-time, co-supervising sound editor and sound designer David Acord wanted the ambiance of the Ghorman Massacre in “Who Are You?” to put audiences headfirst into one of the most pivotal moments for the Rebellion. “With a character like Syril, who is in the thick of the massacre, we wanted the sound to reflect that he really doesn’t want to be there in the middle of a protest. When we get into Cassian’s perspective, he’s talking with an earpiece in, and he can’t quite hear what’s being said. We want to make sure everyone watching feels that feeling of not knowing what the sound coming through his earpiece is saying.”
When Cassian and Syril finally confront each other in the climax of the episode, Acord wanted their long-awaited brawl to reflect the horrific events taking place outside the Ghorman town square.
“There are no weapons or lightsabers used in the fight scene. It’s just two guys throwing fists at each other in the most brutal way imaginable because they want to kill each other. What happens in the bar is purely feral fighting in sound, and it’s in juxtaposition to the massacre that is happening outside,” says Acord. “The sound fades away from what’s happening outside with the droids killing civilians until that one moment when all the lasers start ripping through the bar. As sound designers, we’re creating a continuous building of tension all throughout the process of recording, and hopefully, the sound matches what the audience sees on screen.”