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182 – The Power Of The Dog with Tara Webb & Leah Katz

We talk with Tara Webb (Sound Editor & Re-Recording Mixer) and Leah Katz (Dialog Supervisor) about the sound of Jane Campion’s The Power Of The Dog. They tell us about defining a character through sound, building expansive landscapes and using ADR to refine the story.

Links:

Leah Katz on IMDB

Tara Webb on IMDB

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The Following is a lightly edited and repaired, A.I. generated transcript of Tonebenders episode 181 Sound Design for Boxing & MMA Roundtable. Please excuse any typos or translation mistakes made by the algorithm .

Tim Muirhead/Host

Tara Webb/Sound Editor & Re-Recording Mixer

Leah Katz/Dialog Supervisor

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Narrator 1:36
You’re listening to Tonebenders the sound designers podcast. Let’s do this….

Timothy Muirhead 1:49
Hello and welcome to Tonebenders. My name is Tim and I will be your host for today. I was lucky enough to see an advanced screening of the new Jane Campion film The Power Of The Dog. This film takes place in the early 1900s on a ranch in Montana, and it has the feel of a Western. But there are no horse chases, or massive shootouts. The characters find ways to hurt each other that are much worse than bullet wounds. Starring Benedict Cumberbatch as an almost unspeakably vile human being. The film sets a mood of foreboding early on, and keeps that tone through clever sound design. For the most part, it’s a quiet film, but each sound we hear really counts. Joining us today from Australia are two of the film’s sound architects. First up we have Tara Webb, Tara was a sound effects editor and the Re-recording mixer on power of the dog. Tara looking at your IMDB credits, you seem to have a ton of sound editing and sound design credits. But only recently re recording mixer credits have started to pop up. Can you tell me how that’s been going?

Tara Webb 2:46
It’s been going well, I guess it’s one of those things where I have been doing it for a little while. But then you only then kind of start getting the credits a bit later on and stuff. So I have been kind of pre mixing and that kind of thing for a few years now. And then kind of took the leap to officially be mixing and it’s been good. It’s terrifying. But I really, really, really enjoy the sound side of everything coming together and stuff. I mean, when I first started, I was very lucky as an assistant to be always involved in the mix and get to see it all come together. So it was always my favorite. I’m not great at, the kind of managing the room kind of thing. So I do I do. I am still working on that a lot. But it’s good. It’s fun. It’s challenging, but I like a challenge. So

Leah Katz 3:33
I can say she’s very good at working the room and she is incredible at making decisions and listening to the people in the room. The directors and producers. She’s excellent as a mixer .

Timothy Muirhead 3:47
Oh, that’s excellent. That voice you just heard was Leah Katz. She was the dialogue supervisor on power of the dog. Leah’s past credits include The King, The Nightengale, Peter Rabbit one and two and Mortal Kombat. All films that Tara worked on as well. How long have you two been working together?

Leah Katz 4:01
A long time? A long time. Yeah, Tara and I have been working together for a while now very lucky to be able to work with her because she’s fabulous.

Tara Webb 4:14
Likewise!

Leah Katz 4:16
We both started out with a supervisor named Andrew Plain who really supports women, and has always mentored editors straight out of uni. And so I got my start with him. And then I was still working with him when Tara started up a few years later.

Tara Webb 4:34
Yeah, and then we’ve been we’ve worked on quite a few projects together. We do freelance so we don’t always do the same projects. But I always do love when I get to work with Leah because she’s awesome and a great dialogue editor to

Leah Katz 4:47
We make a good team.

Timothy Muirhead 4:49
So Taro as the Re-recording mixer on Power of the Dog, what food groups were you in charge mixing?

Tara Webb 4:54
So I was mixing the effects, foley and backgrounds and Rob Mackenzie was doing the dialogue, and music,

Timothy Muirhead 5:02
you were also a sound effects editor on the film as well. So do you enjoy mixing stuff that you’ve cut?

Tara Webb 5:07
I do. Like it definitely makes it easier because I know where the sounds are on the different tracks and stuff. I mean, I do also love being able to mix other people’s work as well. Like for instance, being able to mix Dave Whitehead’s stuff was just awesome. Because he’s just such an amazing sound designer. It’s also nice to then have a different perspective. So having someone else cut, then I can maybe bring something to it that they haven’t thought of. And vice versa when they cut things that I wouldn’t think to do as well. It’s the same when I also then do sound effects editing, I love passing it on to another mixer so that they can bring their own perspective to it.

Click on Page 2 below, to read the rest of the transcription of this episode.

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