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Alexandra Fehrman on mixing Everything Everywhere All at Once & CODA: "A perfect opportunity to use Dolby Atmos"

Everything Everywhere All at Once is a film that you need to watch more than once – not in order to decipher some elusive hidden meaning, but simply to be able to take it all in. Re-recording mixer and supervising sound editor Alexandra Fehrman only needed to watch it once to convince her to take the job, although she almost passed on the whole thing…

Everything Everywhere All at Once was the surprise hit of 2022, brought to audiences by A24 – the company behind Midsommar, Hereditary, Moonlight, Lady Bird, Uncut Gems and HBO's Euphoria

Mashing together black comedy, science fiction, fantasy, martial arts and animation and themes of money troubles, immigration, marriage issues and complicated mother-daughter relationships, the critically acclaimed film is an expertly calibrated assault on the senses. Writer-director duo Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (collectively known as the Daniels) needn't have worried if people were going to get it: it grossed over $100 million worldwide.

At its core, the plot centres around a Chinese American immigrant who, while being audited by the IRS, discovers that she must connect with parallel universe versions of herself to prevent a powerful being from causing the destruction of the multiverse. What transpires after this involves alternative universes, an unrelenting Jamie Lee Curtis, talking, googly-eyed rocks, sausage fingers, a string-pulling gourmet raccoon chef, and a bagel that creates a black hole that’s capable of tearing the multiverse apart.

“I was burnt out and I was planning on taking a little time off when I was approached to mix this film,” admits Fehrman, “and I didn't know much about it. They said, ‘Just watch it’. 

"I was approached by the supervising sound editor and other re-recording mixer, Brent Kiser. I said, ‘I'm gonna watch it, but I'm gonna tell you my intention is to take a hiatus. I'm probably going to pass, not because I don't want to work with you, but because I am very tired’. 

"I watched the film that night and I called him immediately at 10pm. I was like, ‘I am so sorry about anything I said. I don't want to take time off. This movie is amazing. I can’t believe that I even suggested that I might not want to work on it!’ My reaction was that it was the craziest film I'd seen in a long time. I was honoured to be approached to be a part of it.”

It was the craziest film I'd seen in a long time. I was honoured to be a part of it.

Fehrman usually mixes dialogue and music for film and TV, and was tasked with mixing the many sound effects for Everything Everywhere All at Once, working closely with Kiser, who oversaw the music and dialogue mix, and sound designer, Andrew Twite, who completed a lot of the initial sound design work. With such an intricate and multilayered plot, it’s no surprise that the Daniels also had a very clear vision for the film’s sound design:

“They are very into sound design,” Fehrman confirms. “They are geniuses. They had such a clear vision of how the film was supposed to feel throughout every minute in all those small, tiny details. When I watched it back for the first time I could see their vision come together; they think in the details. They did a lot of stuff on their own that we sweetened and added to. 

"During the mix, they already had a pretty solid vision for what they wanted, sound design-wise, and we were working in Dolby Atmos, so it was a great experience to expand everything. We had a lot of sonic space to make sure that the focus moved in the right direction, because there was so much going on, we didn't want to focus on everything at the same time. We had to really pick and choose moments and the things we wanted to highlight.”

There was so much going on, we didn't want to focus on everything at the same time.

In terms of fight scenes, the film has many – blending expert choreography with humour, courtesy of some inventive weapon choices. The Daniels gave the sound mixing team references for each unique fight sequence:

“Notice when you watch the film, some of them are very heavy impacts with lots of actual fight sounds – punches and so forth,” she explains, “and some of them are really dreamscape-like. 

"They’re more wooshes and booms and not really realistic sounds for fighting – and that was very much intentional. When you watch the film, it paces up that way and it gets more and more intense with everything, sound included.”

That reminds Fehrman of one of her favourite fight scenes, which sees the film’s villain fight off and (inventively) murder numerous police officers with weaponized sex toys whilst dressed in an Elvis costume.

“I really love the hallway scene,” she smiles. “It’s a really great scene because it's really fun, and her choice of weapon was a new endeavour! Everything was packed into one so it was really fun sound-wise and there was all kinds of stuff to play with.”

On the other end of the spectrum, a tender scene towards the end of the film sees Evelyn reconcile with her husband Waymond, in that moment suddenly appreciating what he has brought to her life.

“It’s a simple moment, and it’s still very impactful to me. In the laundromat, Evelyn is realising her love for Wayman and as she looks at him, there's this glowing red light between them that's flickering on her face. With that, there's some sound design, and there's also music in the sound design. 

"I didn't want to get in the way of that because the music was so beautiful, so it was a little bit challenging to find that balance where you really feel her heart glowing and just expanding with love. 

"I mixed it in a way where it got introduced really subtly, and then sort of overwhelmed the space, but still without competing with the music. That was one of my favourite moments.”

It was challenging to find that balance where you really feel her heart glowing and just expanding with love.

For the more jarring scenes where characters are getting wrenched from dimension to dimension, this required a different approach:

“That was a really fun part because we're ripping our characters from one place to the next, very quickly,” she reflects. 

“That was a perfect opportunity to use Atmos using sounds that were designed to call them into a different reality. So you'd have things like little radio clicks or something that was coming through a little fuzzed, and then all of a sudden, we could expand all of the sound design to envelop, open up and then close really quickly in the mix, so that you really felt like you went somewhere else. 

"There is a lot of panning of sounds designed for all the different places, and we could really weave in and out of those recognisable things from the alternate universes.

That was a perfect opportunity to use Atmos using sounds that were designed to call them into a different reality.

“What makes this film so powerful is that everything is glued together really perfectly,” she considers. 

“Everybody really cared about the message. I've seen the film, I can't tell you how many times, frame by frame, in multiple theatres, and I cry every time. Friends were sharing their personal stories with me about how it repaired a relationship with their parents or that it had an effect on them that was bigger than the experience of just watching a film. It feels so special to be a part of it.”

CODA

Another recent critically acclaimed film Fehrman worked on was 2021’s CODA, which centres around an aspiring singer who is the only hearing member of a deaf family, who rely on her translation skills to keep their struggling fishing business afloat. 

The film was named one of the top 10 films of 2021 by the American Film Institute and received Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay. Fehrman mixed dialogue, music, effects, backgrounds and foley for the film – “the whole shebang,” she grins.

“With this film I got brought on later, so they had already started the sound design work. But I watched it and I called Sian Heder, the director, and gave her my ideas about which things we could really highlight. 

"It's such an interesting experience to have one person who is hearing and the rest of the family who is not, and deciding what things should be realistic, and what things should be subjective. 

"I would say the entire film was built out from a hearing person's perspective, until we chose moments of the mix to dive into the perspective of the non-hearing characters.”

The film was from a hearing person's perspective, until we dive into the perspective of the non-hearing characters.

In a poignant scene, the film’s main character, Ruby, performs a duet at her school. As the duo start, the audio fades out to reveal the perspective of her family, who experience the moment without sound, relying on the reactions of those in the crowd to gauge the response to her voice.

“That scene in particular was so difficult for me, conceptually, to go from a full performance, where we are completely surrounded by music and people in the auditorium, to absolutely nothing. I have to admit, I was a little bit scared. 

"We prepared a tonne of sound design that was low rumbles, or just air or something to pad that space, because it felt so naked when you went to full silence – but Sian really wanted that. Now I watch it as a viewer and I see how powerful that is because it is uncomfortable, and it's uncomfortable on purpose. 

"I have to say that fading out of that – everything to nothing – is a very difficult thing to achieve, actually, because it had to feel just right. You didn't want it to feel like it sucked out, and you didn't want it to feel like it just gradually faded away, because we're going straight into their perspective. 

"It was a really difficult shape of fade to find to make it so that it didn't seem wrong, and so that it felt like something was shifting perfectly in time with what we were seeing.”

Fading out of everything to nothing is a very difficult thing to achieve.

The family’s livelihood depends on its finishing business, which Ruby is expected to join after she graduates from high school. Fehrman explains how the family’s boat and waves became an integral part of the sound design in their own right:

“In the opening sequence, there are waves, and waves are something that really set a tone,” she explains. 

“It's like an invisible tone, where they can either sound really ominous and scary, or they can sound really calm and beautiful. I really wanted that opening scene to sound like a good experience, like a happy place, because the biggest connection she has with her family is on the fishing boat and spending time with them. 

"I did a lot of sound design work with Russell Topol for that opening sequence, and it was really important that when she arrives at the harbour, it's very busy and hectic – and we wanted to feel that shift. There were a lot of moments like that where we wanted to help accelerate feelings through sound, but I was very conscious about which sounds would be heard in both perspectives,” she points out.

“For instance, when we go into the bar scene with the brother, he's not hearing all of the speaking and stuff, but he's still aware and following and tracking what's going on in the room, so there has to be other atmospheric sounds.”

When she arrives at the harbour it's very busy and hectic; we wanted to feel that shift.

Heder wanted it to feel as if the boat itself was a character in the film, which required a fair amount of sound design work from Fehrman.

“We started to give it its own story arc,” she explains. “In the beginning of the film the boat is a little bit more healthy than at the end when the Coast Guard boards it and ultimately finds that there is a problem. 

"We wanted that to be like a subconscious soundtrack: that the boat was getting more and more sick, a little bit more rumbly, a little bit more spurty and more droney, so it got a little bit darker as the story went on.”

When the film cuts to the non-hearing characters’ perspectives when the Coast Guard boards, a lot of thought was given as to when to switch into their perspectives.

“Because we obviously don't want to lose the action or the urgency of them arriving and boarding that boat – it still needed to feel scary,” she nods. 

“So we still wanted to hear the boat hitting the other boat and the waves coming in, then ripping through the water, boarding the boat and then switching into the perspective of the non-hearing characters, who weren’t aware at all about why this was happening. That was a moment that we played with quite a bit.”

It has to be pristine, especially with clients and actors waiting. Focusrite makes that really easy.

Fehrman usually mixes out of her home mix and edit suite, which she also uses for pre-dubs, while the majority of her finishing work is completed at a Signature Post in Burbank, California – including Everything Everywhere All at Once

Given that Fehrman balances background noise, dialogue, music, sound effects as a job, it goes without saying that her studio kit is of paramount importance to ensure the best possible results.

“In my home studio I use the Focusrite Red 4Pre Thunderbolt interface as my main interface,” she explains of her must-have kit. 

“I have a preamp that's attached to it, but sometimes I'll use the onboard preamps as well. The reason why I really like it is because it's so flexible and I can use the Dante routing so that I can connect anything I want, depending on what kind of day I'm having. 

"I've even done some music recording projects using it where I'll set musicians up in other places in the house and be able to connect through the routing matrix, and it's really helpful.

The Focusrite Red 4Pre is so flexible; I use the Dante routing so that I can connect anything I want.

“I purchased it in 2016, and of course we use them at the studios that I work at, as well,” she adds. 

“They're always up in those racks. We use Focusrite pretty heavily at Signature Post as well; we use their interfaces and headphone boxes, and for when we record ADR we'll plug the actors into the headphone playback system. 

"Again, it's really great and easy to use the routing, so you can just set somebody up with a headphone mix real quick. It has to be pristine, especially with clients and actors waiting. It has to go smoothly, and you have to be able to switch things around on the fly. Focusrite makes that really easy,” she smiles.

Image credits:

Everything Everywhere All at Once: Main image courtesy of A24 / second and last images: Allyson Riggs

CODA: Apple TV

Alexandra Fehrman first image: Alex Dox