Sound Editorial for "Stuart Little"

"The Detailed World
of "Stuart Little"
Innovative sound
design for this
computer-generated
children's favorite

Written by Mel Lambert
in October 1999

"Stuart Little," Columbia Pictures' major Christmas 1999 release, combined live-action with state-of-the-art digital character animation and visual effects to bring E. B. White's popular 1945 novel to the screen; it is the story of a mouse adopted by a human family and raised as their son. The main challenge for director Rob Minkoff was to merge live actors, live action and sets with the computer-generated Stuart Little and other CG characters created at Sony Pictures Imageworks. (The firm that provided award-winning visual effects and CGI for such films as "Godzilla," "Contact," "Starship Troopers," "Anaconda," "Starship Troopers" and "Patch Adams.") Voiced by Michael J. Fox, Stuart searches for a sense of belonging and a place to call home in a decidedly "super sized" world. Geena Davis and Hugh Laurie play Stuart's adopted parents, and Jonathan Lipnicki ("Jerry McGuire") his brother George. Nathan Lane ("The Lion King") provides the voice of Stuart's nemesis, the housecat Snowbell.

This big-screen adaptation of America's beloved children's story has been described as the "Babe" story seen from a mouse's point of view, or maybe "Mouse Hunt"- if the mouse could talk and the humans were more amenable. Director Rob Minkoff has worked with the combined animation/live-action concept before - witness his two "Roger Rabbit" shorts, "Roller Coaster Rabbit" and "Tummy Trouble"- and was aiming for a large dollop of family-oriented fun with a highly innovative, yet totally believable, computer-animated character that blends personality with mouse-like characteristics.

The big-screen adaptation of America's beloved children's story can be compared to such films as "Babe," "Toy Story" or "A Bug's Life," in that the world is seen from a decidedly different point of view. The chief difference between these films and 'Stuart Little' is in the dimension of performance based, photo-realistic digital character creation. Where "Toy Story" and "A Bug's Life" created stunning digital characters, they were synthetic characters populating a synthetic world. In "Babe," a combination of techniques, including photographing real animals, animatronic animals and digital facial replacement, were employed to create the talking animals. By contrast, the character of "Stuart Little" is created by entirely synthetic means, and integrated into a thoroughly real world.

From both a visual effects and a sound point of view, both sets of artists began with the same basic elements: the sound of the voice actor- and nothing else. The final movie reflects the collective effort of a team creating something big from very little."

Supervising Sound Editor on the project was Larry Mann, an LA-based freelance editor who assembled his editorial crew at Sony Picture Entertainment's multi-roomed Post Production Lot in Culver City, to work on the intricate sound design required to create the intimate world of Stuart Little. In the past, Mann has worked on such films as "The Quick and the Dead," with director Sam Raimi, "Soul Food," with George Tillman, Jr., and "Extreme Measures," with Michael Apted; sound-editing chores have included "Meet Joe Black," "Anaconda," "Con Air," "The Rock," " Waterworld," "The Shadow" and "Patriot Games." (This versatile individual has also worked on a number of TV shows, including "Chicago Hope," and several Movies of the Week for TNT and Disney.)

Mann says that he worked closely with picture editor Tom Finan, to determine the basic pacing of the film, but was left pretty much on his own to develop the individual "sound signatures" and overall "sonic theme" for the picture. (Mann had worked previously with Finan on "Pet's Sematary," and "Problem Child.") "Our biggest challenge," he considers, "was to create such a convincing sound 'environment' for the CGI character of Stuart Little, so that audiences would forget he was, in fact, computer generated, and treat him just as if he was a.. mouse that was confused about being human!

"We also focused on creating a 'larger-than-life' sonic signature that we could transition into when the action entered Stuart's World, as we referred to it. Being small- and an obvious instant identifier for the targeted children's audience and their parents- we wanted to capture that essential feeling of experiencing the world from Stuart's perspective.

"So whenever we were seeing or experiencing the action through Stuart's eyes- and there are several high-energy chase sequences where this approach became particularly appropriate, including a journey in a boat through the lake in [New York's] Central Park- the large objects around Stuart needed to be 'amplified' and enlarged to make it obvious that we were now in Stuart's 'Inner World.' And that we were kind of overawed by it, just as children are when they first experience the Big City, for example.

"In contrast, the family world that Stuart enjoys- the kitchen and the other rooms within the Little household- were to be treated as 'normal' environments, with all of the sonic details [that] audiences expect from a big-time movie soundtrack like 'Stuart Little.' We styled the Little home- a small house situated between high-rise skyscrapers close to Central Park- like a mid-west location, to emphasize the tranquility and safety aspect for Stuart. But there were exceptions within the house; the washing machine, for example, in which Stuart becomes trapped, needed to be made more threatening and bigger than life."

Assisting Mann in handling the complex task of editing the various dialog, effects, Foley, ADR, backgrounds and related elements, and providing sound design input, were a seasoned crew, several of whom he had worked with as Supervising Sound Editor on past movies. The majority were hired by Mann as freelances, working within Sony Picture's well-equipped editing rooms; predubs, re-recording and print mastering of the final multichannel soundtrack took place in Sony's William Holden Theater, with Paul Massey handling dialog and music mixing, and Doug Hemphill effects and Foley. (Mann had worked previously with the Mixing Team on "Extreme Measures." In early January 2000, Massey and Hemphill were scheduled to move across town to The John Ford Theater at Fox Studios' new dubbing complex.)

Mann's first assistant editor was Ann Ducommun, who also functioned as "Information Central" as the supervising sound editor put it; Suhail Kafity handled FX editing, with Steve Ticknor (who also handled several Temp Dubs- more details later); Cindy Marty Supervised ADR Editing, plus pre-records; Fred Stafford was an ADR Editor; Linda Folk handled ADR Editing; Dave Arnold and Duke Brown handled dialog and ADR editing, plus pre-records; Mark Pappas was Foley Supervisor, working with Foley Editor Gary Wright; while Chris Winter oversaw the inloading of production dialog and related files into the Pro Tools workstations from OMF files created by the picture editors. Wright was also responsible for managing hard drives, coordination the inload of sound effects, pre-dubs, laybacks, assisting the editors and Pro Tools management, troubleshooting, etc. (His official title was "Digital Assistant Sound Editor.")0

All sound editing was handled on individual Digidesign Pro Tools systems, working from production dialog recorded onto timecode DAT machines, plus effects pulled from Mann's extensive library of analog and digital elements. "We were also able to playback our edited Pro Tools Session projects on the [Re-recording] Stage via removable hard drives loaded into the new Sony DADR-5000 [16-channel] Digital Dubbers," which are now fully file-compatible. "That way we could replay elements directly from the Sony drives featured on the William Holden stage used to remix 'Stuart Little'." Extensive Foley elements and ADR were also recorded directly to DADR-5000 hard drives that then were loaded into Pro Tools for editing.

Digidesign recently announced that it had licensed Sony's Advanced Digital Systems Group, developer of the DADR-5000, to provide full plug-and-play compatibility with hard drives containing Pro Tools digital audio editorial tracks without format conversion, real-time transfer or generation loss. Some 200 DADR-5000 units, capable of selectable 16, 20 or 24-bit resolution and network capabilities without external synchronization, are already in use at Sony Pictures Studios, supporting both feature film and TV dubbing stages. A variety of shows, including "Party of Five," "Early Edition," "The Net" and "VIP"- plus major feature films such as Columbia Pictures' "Crazy in Alabama" and "Big Daddy"- have been mixed using DADR-5000 units.

Detailing the "Stuart Little" character with extensive Foley Elements
Because of the CGI nature of the film's main character, all that the editorial team had in the way of production sound was the pre-recorded voice of Michael J. Fox. As Supervising Foley Artist Gary Hecker explains, "We had to create everything else in Stuart's World, including all of his footsteps, clothing rustles, movements, slides and the myriad other 'sonic seasonings' that a mouse makes as it moves around. I placed myself - quite literally- in Stuart's shoes, and created his whole environment on the Foley Stage, [to make] the CGI character appear real and totally believable on the screen. Our intention was to bring life to this charming, computer-generated character."

Creating all of the Foley elements for the boat race through New York's Central Park was particularly demanding, Hecker recalls. "Rather than pull sound-effect elements, we created all of the dynamic sounds of the wind, water, sails here on the Foley Stage. We recorded stereo sails slaps - so that the mixer could establish a very realistic-sounding perspective - plus mono water splashes, waves, winds, and a whole slew of 'detailing' elements that [Larry Mann] thought would be required to convince the audience that Stuart Little- in his "'Inner World' - was really in trouble on this 'Sea in Central Park,' and join him in his anxiety and excitement." Assisting Hecker on the Foley Stage at Sony Pictures was Michael Broomberg, working with engineer Richard Duarte.

"Normally, an editor will pull standard effects for water, winds and one or two other elements," Hecker says. "We wanted to create a total environment; and the only way we concluded we could do that was to actually re-create the Central Park lake on the Foley Stage." An added bonus, Hecker offers, was that all sounds were in hard sync with picture, thus saving the sound effects editors many man-hours of re-syncing effects from a library, or recorded specifically for an action sequence. On these busy reels, Foley Elements were recorded across 16 tracks of Pro Tools for editing by the Editorial Team ready for the Temp Mixes and Predubs. Foley was used to compliment the library of sound effects," Mann offers.

In late-October, the series of predubs were going extremely well, Mann reports. "But we are already four revisions behind the picture changes," he offers, with a grin. "And we need to reconform those pre-dubbed tracks once we see the latest batch of opticals and picture changes. It's a continual 'catch-up' we always play with films like 'Stuart Little,' where there are a lot of last-minute changes being made in the visuals. So we need to be very flexible - and prepared to put in late hours - reworking tracks and pulling new effects as we secure the latest picture changes."

By this stage, Mann reports, "we are premixing in full eight-channel SDDS [Sony Dynamic Digital Sound format], which really does sound great! We mixed a lot of the important boat chase sequence in Central Park using eight-track predubs of water, wind and other boat sounds. The two additional behind-the-screen [inner-left and inner-right] channels offered by SDDS meant that we could build more layers of effects, without blocking out or being masked by the score, which is also quite dynamic at that point in the action sequence. For me, SDDS offers an great deal more creativity - and sound-design options - than conventional [six-channel release] formats."

The process of Temp Mixes began, Mann recalls, started way back in December 2004, a year before the film's scheduled release, and a month after the completion of principal photography.

"We knew that we had a studio screening of some of the early computer-generated scenes in January of this year." Laying up elements for the first Temp Dub, Mann recalls, was greatly simplified by the fact that he could import OMFI [Open Media Framework Interchange] files from the AVID Film Composer system used to edit the visuals. "We used a 24-bit Pro Tools system running at 29.97 Hz [video color-reference, rather that 30 Hz/film], but for the subsequent temps and the Finals, we down-sampled to 16-bit. We did this for two reasons. Firstly, to save disk space, but secondly because we wanted to stay compatible - bit for bit - with the 16-bit AVID system, so that we could take [SDII or AAIF] files [as well as OMFI data] from the picture editors, and save time during reconfirming between different Temp Dubs."

"So I worked on a rough Temp Dub using effects from my library," the editor continues, "which we mixed in just two days. The sound crew were put on hiatus from February '99 thru June, and brought back for a second Temp Dub in June. For that second temp - when we need to see how the soundtrack played against more advanced CGI scenes - I kept everything I had from Temp #1, and worked on refining the sound design and overall 'detailing.' We did another Temp Dub in early August, to see how certain key scenes were playing with the gradually developing graphics and other visuals. In reality, the Temp Dubs simply transitioned into the predubs that we were continually refining for the Finals and SDDS Print Mastering in late November/early-December of this year.

A key contributor to the various Temp Dubs was Steve Ticknor, who was able to use his custom-developed Mix-to-Picture Suite at Sony Pictures to quickly create a more realistic sounding temporary mix than might be possible on a conventional dubbing stage. Ticknor also handled Sound Effects editing, and designed some of the intricate, layered sounds heard on the soundtrack.

"Because of the integration offered by the [Digidesign] Pro Control system we have here, Larry and Rob Minkoff were able to refine the mix more quickly, because I could replace elements real fast, and move sync markers for anything that we wanted to slip on the track."

Ticknor's room features a 32-channel/four-layer Pro Control Mixing System, linked to a full-loaded Pro Tools DAW equipped with three 8:8:8 Converters for 24-channel I/O and capable of 128-track internal playback. An Otari PicMix System built into the control surface handles multichannel monitoring and loudspeaker re-assignments. PEC/DIR control switches for the suite's pair of DADR-5000 Dubbers is also featured. Other recorders include Tascam 24-bit DAT decks and a pair of DA-88 digital eight-tracks. Monitoring is via a 5.1-channel Event Electronics 20/20 bi-amplified system with Ashley 24-bit Protea room equalization and subwoofer. Outboards include an Eventide DSP 4500, a new Drawmer Master Flow DC2476, TC Electronics Fireworks, Yamaha YDP2006, two dbx DDP Digital Dynamics Processors, TC Electronics M3000, plus Lexicon PCM-91 and PCM-300 units. Two flat-screen monitors provide display of system data, and flank a central large-format video monitor for the work print.

"Because of the speed and flexibility offered by this configuration," Ticknor reasons, " I could offer the director different ideas about the way we might realize his wish for the 'inner' and 'outer' worlds of 'Stuart Little,' and how these might be achieved in a realistic and meticulous way. We needed to 'Make the familiar sound unfamiliar.' For example, I was able to sweeten the sound of water with underwater sounds to enrichen the track, and make it more enveloping for the audience. I also processed the sound of bubbles for one scene to make the texture more defined and edgy."

Ticknor also reports that a number of ADR lines were recorded in a small vocal booth in the rear of his Mix Suite. Prior to a screening for studio personnel, "Rob [Minkoff] wanted to see how one or two scenes played with different dialog lines [for the principal actors]. So, rather than move into an ADR Studio, we simply recorded the tracks in the voice-over booth directly to Pro Tools, synchronized them to the work print, and could hear the results in couple of seconds.

"Rob says that he felt right at home in this room. Our mixes translate extremely well to the large stages here at Sony [the William Holden, Kim Novak Stages and Cary Grant Dubbing Theaters], yet retain the intimacy of a smaller suite. When Rob first came here [for the Temp Dub], he'd never used a room like this."

"But, having screened the first mixes to 20 or 30 studio executives - at which [meeting] they needed to make some critical decisions about the film - the sound we produced here was totally on," Ticknor adds. "It translated in a predictable, totally realistic way, and it proved to be a good experience. Having worked to 2:00 AM to complete this mix, I'm real glad that we could make such a good job of the Temp Tracks."

"For example, when Stuart's model car is being driven through a large tunnel in Central Park, and goes over a cliff," Mann recalls, "we needed to add a dramatic sense with a big impact - Steve could do that quickly using the array of [digital ambience and reverb] outboards in his room."

"And the quality of Foley elements that we received for the final Temp Mixes was outstanding," Ticknor says. "Gary [Hecker] and his crew prepared some great tracks for us - he's one of the Top Three Foley Artists in the industry! We had wonderfully detailed tracks for the chase and other sequences. For me, there are two key factors in Foley recording: Sound Quality, which had to be meticulous on 'Stuart Little,' so that we can blend up to a dozen or more tracks without worrying about noise or other [parameters]; and Frame-Accurate Synchronization, which saves us a lot of time on a mix. Gary was able to give us that, and more!"

The Predubs and Final SDDS Mix
For the Predubs and Finals, the project moved into Sony's William Holden Re-recording Theater, equipped with a fully-automated 240-input/72-buss GLOW Harrison MPC digitally-controlled analog console. Seasoned re-recording mixer Paul Massey was responsible for dialog and music, while Doug Hemphill oversaw special effects and Foley. Mann says that the Predubs prepared on removable Pro Tools drive arrays comprised 32 channels of backgrounds, 32 channels of hard effects - "aside from the boat effects, which were 64 channels wide" - plus eight channels of Foley per reel, and eight channels of dialog per reel. The music for "Stuart Little" was mixed in six-channel Sony Dynamic Digital Sound (SDDS). The film's score was composed by Alan Sylvester.

"With more on-screen playback channels available than is offered by other replay formats," Mann considers, "I could provide more sonic 'detailing' on the soundtrack. Those extra inner pair of loudspeakers were used primarily for sound effects and Foley*, including Stuart's movements. The sense of being totally enveloped in high-detail sound was particularly noticeable on this soundtrack."

As Mann points out, "In a big movie theater, with a 65-foot screen, SDDS provides us with five, full-range loudspeakers [and stereo surrounds]. We can use those speaker channels to enhance an audience's sonic experience by providing highly realistic pan movement from right to left. And the additional inner pair means we have more options for effects tracks."