The guy who puts the puzzle together" is how Michael Marinelli, owner/mixer at audio post company Buzz, New York—sister company of bicoastal editorial house Crew Cuts—describes the role of the mixer.
"We don’t record the music here. We don’t record the production sound. We’re not sound designers," he continues, admitting at the same time that Buzz does a fair amount of sound design. "We have to fill in all the gaps. When a spot leaves here, it should be able to go right to air or to dub.
"The tough thing, sometimes, is trying to maintain a level of sound quality when you don’t know where the audio elements came from or what generation they are," continues Marinelli. "A lot of times, your greatest [challenge] is making something that doesn’t sound that great sound acceptable."
Marinelli relates a particularly tough challenge he faced while working on Visa’s "Elephant," directed by David Cornell of bicoastal Headquarters via BBDO New York. The ad features a little girl who wants an elephant for a pet. "Throughout the spot, there’s a voiceover of what’s supposed to be this little girl thinking, but as an older woman," explains Marinelli. "The [voiceover] was recorded directly into an Avid with a not-so-great microphone—basically, it was done for the purposes of a rough cut."
Attempts were made to re-record the voiceover, but it turned out that the performance could not be repeated. "She gave us some really good stuff [in the re-recording session], but there was something about that unrehearsed first time that wasn’t going to happen again. The [first recording was] extremely low-level [in quality]. I spent about six to eight hours one night after they all left, working with various tools just to get this thing to an acceptable level."
Post importance
Hyatt Choate, an executive producer at BBDO, has worked with Marinelli on a number of ads, including Pepsi’s "Dinger" (featuring Cincinatti Reds center fielder Ken Griffey Jr.), helmed by Steve Chase of bicoastal Reactor Films, which broke during the Oscar telecast and reintroduced the Pepsi challenge. The two also collaborated on Federal Express’ "Action Figures," directed by Bryan Buckley of bicoastal/international hungry man. Robert McIver, a mixer/engineer at Buzz, also worked on the ads.
Why did Choate choose to mix "Dinger" at Buzz? "It was edited at Crew Cuts, so it was convenient because it’s all in the same place," he says. "I’ve mixed with Mike many times before. He does a great job."
Choate notes that mixing is crucial to a spot’s success. "If the video and the audio aren’t working together, the spot’s not going to come off the way it should," he explains. "Adding the effects and the music and having them mixed correctly really can enhance the commercial."
Marinelli also works with editorial houses. "Our clients are editorial houses nine times out of ten, because in the commercial world, the editorial houses act as post supervisors," he explains. "Sometimes the editor may be working on a cut at the same time we’re mixing. I’ll get two minutes of input from the editor, and then I’ll deal directly with the agency."
Buzz also occasionally works with music houses. "If it’s a standard music and voiceover mix, there’s usually no conversation. But if it’s something more intensive, I’ll usually get a call from [the music house] telling me what they’ve tried to do with it and where I might have problems. And a lot of times, I’m on my own."
Buzz opened in ’94 when Crew Cuts decided to start an audio post facility. Marinelli, who had been a mixer at The Post Group and Hollywood Digital, both in Hollywood, has been with Buzz since the beginning. "[Crew Cuts] wanted an audio post house that could be on-site and serve them, but that could also stand alone and serve outside clientele as well," explains Marinelli. "They wanted to have it at their beck and call but still be able to survive on its own."
Marinelli estimates that 75 percent of Buzz’ business comes from Crew Cuts, with the remainder coming from outside clients such as the New York-based editorial houses Invisible Dog, MacKenzie Cutler and 89 Greene Editorial. "Even though [those companies] are competitors with Crew Cuts, they share a very good working relationship," Marinelli says.
But he also knows that other shops may feel uncomfortable working in a competitor’s space, and so he wants to help everyone to feel at ease. "Hopefully, in the beginning of 2001 we’ll do a revamp of Buzz and section ourselves off from Crew Cuts," he says. "We’re going to stay in the same building, but our space may change. To grow Buzz to the next level, I need to take it to that step where fifty percent of our jobs come from Crew Cuts and fifty percent come from outside. It’s the next logical step."
The audio post house currently has two mixing studios. Its staff consists of Marinelli, McIver, studio manager Ingrid Okola and assistant engineer Karyn Kellner. Marinelli believes the success of Buzz comes from its being a singularly focused shop. "We’ve geared ourselves to be specialists in this certain part of the market, which is why we’re as successful as we are. People say we put things through here at a very fast pace, but at a very high-end level.
