Interview with Adrian Rhodes, Sound Mixer for Chicken Run

The Dolby^® Digital Surround EX™ mix of the DreamWorks' film Chicken Run, by Aardman Animations, the creators of Wallace and Gromit, was mastered at De Lane Lea studios, one of the UK's premier mixing facilities. Adrian Rhodes, co-owner of De Lane Lea and mixer for this project, sat down with us in March of 2000 for a chat.

You are not new to the world of Aardman animation, so how have your mixes progressed over the years?

Nick Park of Aardman and I have been working together for many years on various projects. The first Wallace and Gromit film was a mono mix, but we quickly progressed to Dolby SR mixes for the next two. Chicken Run is Aardman's first venture into full-length feature films and we're very excited to be mixing not only in Dolby Digital, but taking advantage of the extra creativity available with Dolby Digital Surround EX.

How does mixing sound for animation differ from that of a live action film?

For a mixer it is one of the most creative and artistic forms of sound mixing you could ever dream of. There are controlled dialogue tracks, no camera noise, no ADR problems that you have to deal with, and instead you start with a totally blank sheet from which to create your new world. Although it is a fantasy world of animation, we are still trying to build a realistic soundfield to enable the audience to enter the bizarre world of the chicken farm in Yorkshire, England. We really have to try and get the audience to believe in the reality of a world populated by claymation characters.

What will be the biggest challenges to you on this mix?

Because every single sound effect and ambience is artificially created, the attention to detail has to be enormous. The animators at Aardman are so precise in their picture movements that the movements of sound have to complement the action seamlessly. As well as sound movements, the sound perspectives have to be created to make a scene seem believable. This perspective can be quite a challenge when you have a whole pen teeming with chickens.

Lip sync is also extremely important in these films. Of course the dialogue is recorded first, and then the animators work to the actors' performance. We must ensure in the dubbing theatre that the character is not ruined by poor sync.

How are Dolby technologies helping with the creation of this mix?

Dolby engineers have been involved from an early point in the production process. We used the new Dolby Digital double-head system to play back our temp mixes in regular multiplex cinemas to test audiences and to DreamWorks personnel.

Now we are starting to enjoy the extra benefits of using the Dolby Surround EX system and it is proving to be extremely useful. Several scenes in the film contain complex machinery shots, and to match this complexity in the picture, we are creating complex sound effects of cogs, bleeps, buzzes, etc. We find we can position these wherever we want in the dubbing theatre and can smoothly pan all around the room to match the picture movements. I wish this system had been available to me for previous mixes I've worked on.

Do you see Dolby Digital Surround EX as an advantage mainly for spot effects or for atmospheres?

I am very conscious in a mix not to distract the audience from the film by overuse of the surround channels, but it is still a huge advantage to be able to pan more accurately and place sounds exactly where I want them: movement through the screen is now wonderfully precise. In general my atmospheres are simply to create ambience that shouldn't be localized to specific areas, but I still enjoy the extra space that Dolby Surround EX creates for any reverbs that I feel I want to add to the back channels.