In 1998, Director Darren Aronofsky made a name for himself with his acclaimed independent feature Pi, followed by the Academy Award-nominated drama Requiem For A Dream in 2000. In 2002, Warner Bros. began production of Aronofsky's daring Sci-Fi drama The Fountain, only to have production halted when actor Brad Pitt opted out for the lead in Troy. By 2004 The Fountain had returned, completing principal photography early in 2005. With the film now in Post Production, Stephen Barden and Craig Henighan have reconvened with the Requiem team in midtown Manhattan to help realize Aronofsky's most anticipated work to date. Interview by Bronson Delisle BD Sound Dogs Toronto last worked with Darren on Requiem For A Dream. With The Fountain, both Darren and yourselves are collaborating on a project of equal creative ambition but of much greater scale and scope. What are the positives resulting from this "re-meeting" of the minds? SB Working with any director for the second, third or fourth time, allows for shorthand to exist; a level of understanding is already in place. CH He is one of those directors that cares so much about every piece of fabric, that you have to push your work into new territory. This film is a lot different than Requiem; it has a specific pace and tone that requires the sound to be absolutely perfect in function and in form. SB I should also mention that it isn't just the great relationship with Darren but also with his entire crew, which is virtually the same as it was on Requiem, especially in post. Brian Emrich, another sound designer from Requiem who also worked on Pi, is back, as are the keys in the cutting room: Jay Rabinowitz and Matt Meyer. Clint Mansell is composing and, of course, Eric Watson is producing, it really feels like a reunion of sorts. Darren is an actor's director. The attention that he gives to the subtlest aspects of performance is enlightening. This is exciting when it comes to cutting dialogue and ADR because Darren is not just looking at the picture with a secondary thought to how something sounds, or its diction, or the emotion contained in a character's voice - he's very sound-conscious. BD You've established a "satellite operation" at Sound One in New York. Describe the team and how you've met the challenges involved in a New York/Toronto operation. SB The "Sound Dogs New York" gig is currently manned by Craig Henighan, Alex Bullick and myself, with Brian Emrich stepping in on some guest solos every once in a while. Craig is heading up the sound effects job and is working closely with Brian who has been busy since the early spring 2005 modelling key sonic components of the film. I am looking after the dialogue and ADR end of things, with support from Nelson Ferreira and Jill Purdy back home looking after shooting some ADR with actors residing in the Toronto area. Alex is our first assistant and is, frankly, the one that keeps it all together from a technical and logistical point of view. He keeps in close contact with the cutting room, the shop back in Toronto, our contacts at Sound One and the composer's team in Los Angeles and New York. This level of coordination, data management and scheduling is no small feat, which Alex handles with the utmost fluidity. To say that we couldn't do this job without our secure FTP server in Toronto would be an understatement. FTP is even being used for shooting material back and forth between Sound One and Brian's cutting room at home in Brooklyn. That is, of course, faster than Brian negotiating midtown Manhattan traffic. Constant email updates are crucial and, as "quaint" as it might seem, Apple's iChat instant messaging software is constantly used between cutting rooms and stages in Toronto, New York and Los Angeles as well as our respective homes. (Interestingly, we are now using iChat with iSight cameras to provide a more personal connection during ISDN and telephone patch ADR sessions as well.) While she's not in New York with us, our anchor back in Toronto is Sue Fawcett, our second assistant editor, who is also handling a great deal of data and schedule management. Sue is definitely my "without whom" on this job. BD What's the technical makeup of the New York operation and your fusion with Sound One? SB The Fountain has taken over the entire top floor of Sound One's Broadway location. The producer and director's offices, cutting room, VFX, music editor, composer, and Sound Dogs are all down the hall from one another. I can't stress enough what a huge creative plus this is. The level of interaction that our proximity to one another allows is an enormous benefit. Consultation, input, informal creative and logistical meetings are just a matter of a walk down the hall. We brought all of our gear from Toronto. As always, with Sound Dogs, we are a Digidesign shop. Craig is working on a Pro Tools HD|2 system running Pro Tools 6.9.3 on a Dual 2.0 GHz G5. Alex is on a Pro Tools HD system with the same software on the same CPU. Both Craig and Alex are using Canopus ADVC100 digital video converters to read the picture that is provided to us as QuickTime files by the cutting room. No video tape - ever! I am cutting on a Pro Tools Mix3 system on a 733 MHz G4 running Pro Tools 6.4.1 software. I took a slightly less hearty system as my need for heavy DSP was not as great. Assuming that my track count wouldn't be as high was an underestimation on my part, however. The fantastic production tracks that came from location mixer Patrick Rousseaux were somewhere between 3 and 7 tracks wide from slate to slate and all of the temp mixes we have done to date have recorded dialogue to at least 8 track stems. Carrying all of that material all of the time has lead to some enormous sessions, but a little bit of track and session management goes a long way. We have also carried the Sound Dogs networking mentality with us to New York. All of our cutting machines and our personal laptops are networked with a Mac Mini 1.42 GHz G4 acting as our "server". The picture cutting room is also connected to this server. We have Gig-E and 802.11G networks running. Could we work anywhere nearly as efficiently without this network in place? Not a chance. The network was designed by our Toronto sys admin guru Trent Richmond and configured even before we left for New York. It was plug and play when we arrived at Sound One. Our temp dubs at Sound One have been helmed by Dominic Tavella, with whom I have worked previously. Dominic also mixed Pi for Darren. Again, the creative shorthand that already exists as a result is a huge benefit. Dominic is an extremely gifted mixer and it is a great privilege to work with him again. Our interaction with Sound One has been fantastic. What a great facility. It boasts outstanding technical attributes and is constantly forward thinking, and when you walk through the doors, you are immediately greeted with the vibe that the place is "filmmaker friendly first". BD What new and interesting recording and sound design work has resulted from your work on The Fountain? CH Brian and I went to Guatemala in April to record a weeks worth of Jungle ambiences, howler monkeys and exotic birds. We've used that material in a straightforward fashion and have also used it as building blocks for some of the more "sound design" moments in the film. We've recorded fresh material for all the scenes, which is a great luxury. Brian, Alex and I have recorded in hospitals, museums and on crowded streets as well as in quiet locations north of New York. All of this new material will make it into the film. We've also spent time in Bio-Medical labs at NYU getting some specific sounds that will serve the film well. SB Well, I have got to tell you, I am very much looking forward to my Mayan group recording session that is coming up in the next few weeks. I don't want to give too much away, but there is a great Mayan battle scene in this film that is just going to be made even more intense by some authentic sweeteners that will be recording at Sound Dogs in Toronto. Who knew that Toronto was a hotbed for Mayan actors! BD What's been the most positive aspect of working on The Fountain thus far? CH Just to be part of the team of artists that Darren and his partner Eric Watson put together is an immense honour. SB Simply, the "familiarity" that came with working with the same director and his crew again. The immersion back into Aronofsky creativity has been refreshing. Add to that the excitement of working in a new city in a different facility and carrying with us the tried-and-true Sound Dogs attitude of "let's try this and see what happens". It has been a great ride so far -- I'm sure it will continue to get better, if not more sleepless. < back