Burn Notice, found on the USA network stars Jeffrey Donovan as a blacklisted spy who uses his skills to help those who are in desperate need all the while he tries to figure out why he has been blacklisted. Scott Clements, CAS, was tapped to work on the pilot as the production sound mixer and has been down in Florida shooting the show ever since. He recently took the time out to talk to S&P about his Emmy nom and his work on Burn Notice:
S&P: This is your second nomination for Burn Notice, how is it to be part of the Emmy group again?
CLEMENTS: Our first nomination was for season one in 2008. At that point, I had never really considered being nominated for anything, so it came as quite a surprise getting the call from a friend of mine letting me know we had received the nod. It was amazing to go to the celebration and sit in a room full of people being recognized for their outstanding work, and then to realize that’s why you’re there. And now it’s even more amazing to get a second nomination. It kind of makes it feel like maybe it wasn’t a fluke after all. It’s also pretty amazing to be listed next to Glee, Mad Men, Boardwalk Empire, Dexter, and House. Come on! That’s pretty good company, right?
S&P: Burn Notice is quietly finishing its 5th season. What makes you keep going back to the show?
CLEMENTS: When we started shooting Burn Notice, there weren’t really any other shows shooting in Florida. I felt very fortunate to have them hire me. Then the economy tanked, and there we were, still working. Burn Notice has been really good to me. There are other options in Florida now, but I am extremely loyal to them for all they have done for me. I tell my fellow crewmembers, “I’ll be on this till the wheels fall off,” or as long as they’ll have me.
S&P: Who is on your crew with you?
CLEMENTS: I’ve had the same crew with me since the pilot. Fred Kupfer is my boom operator. As he loves to say, “it all starts at the stick,” and I could not agree more. He truly is amazing at what he does, and what he does is be grumpy! No seriously, Fred is an exceptional boom operator and I’m very lucky to have him. And my utility is Jacob Kemp. Jacob is great, because no matter what happens, he can handle it. He’s great at the every day utility tasks and wiring, but he can also step in on boom, mix a surprise splinter unit, or even fill in for me mixing when needed. I can basically count on my guys one hundred percent. I never have to worry.
S&P: If someone was to sit in your mix for a day, what would be the first thing you would tell them about the show?
CLEMENTS: Honestly, I would say that we’re pretty much like any other crazy episodic show. We generally don’t get a rehearsal, and most of the time there is no take two. Burn Notice is shot on a seven day schedule, and that will usually include some type of explosion, a shoot out, a chase sequence or some other random crazy stunt. It’s a very tight schedule, and the crew hopes for about an eight page day. We shoot two cameras minimum, and yes, usually wide and tight. We’re generally on location in the streets of Miami about five and a half days out of the seven, and the locations are ridiculously noisy. I guess that would be the first thing I would tell them…
S&P: What’s the hardest thing about working on Burn Notice?
CLEMENTS: Definitely the noisy locations. They can be quite challenging. We have shot directly under some of the busiest interstates, right next to major construction sites, in the middle of open bars during the Miami Heat basketball playoffs (try getting those guys to quite down) and directly across from the largest music festival in South Florida while they were doing their sound check. But on the up side, our cast and crew are amazing. The actors stop mid-scene for airplanes, trucks and other noises. The locations department and production assistants jump on noises too. The entire crew always has our back. And that’s the only way we can deal with all the noise problems that constantly harass us.
S&P: Tell us a little bit about your workflow on the show.
CLEMENTS: We shoot on Red Cameras and run 48K, 23.98 timecode. We feed timecode to the cameras with the Deneke SB3, and don’t bother with a reference audio feed to the cameras. I record to the Deva and burn a channel one “mix only” compact flash for telecine. Our media manager ingests the “mix only” card to the same hard drives he ingests the video to. Telecine syncs and prepares dailies and editorial deliverables, which they upload to a server for the editors to download. I am still required to deliver my “all tracks” ISO channels on DVD-RAM per studio requirements. After the picture locks, audio post syncs back to my “all tracks” files, and that’s what the dialogue editor works with.
S&P: Would you rather be a high ranking official in the CIA or be the President of the US for a term?
CLEMENTS: Ha! I think I would be fine in either position as long as our writers were writing the scripts for me. Then I could be blowing things up and shooting bad guys with no consequences.
S&P: How do you rig your cart for Burn Notice?
CLEMENTS: Well as mentioned earlier, it all starts with the stick. We primarily use the Sennheiser MKH50 on the booms. We are totally dependent on wireless boom, and I’m not sure we could do this show on a hard wire. We use Sanken COS-11D lavalieres and Lectrosonics SM transmitters. On the cart is the Venue system, Deva IV, Mix 12, Lectrosonics IFB, Comtek, and a Sound Devices 702T as a backup. It’s all pretty standard stuff. The one trick I couldn’t live without is the Lectrosonics antenna amplifier. Any time we start getting out of RF range, we can run the antenna out one hundred and fifty feet with no signal loss. It’s an amazing trick to have up your sleeve.
S&P: Outside of the show, what can we find you doing?
CLEMENTS: My family is number one for me. I have an amazing wife and wonderful nine year old son. I live in Orlando, which is about three and a half hours from Miami where we shoot, so every weekend is the round trip. After thirteen to fourteen hours a day, I need that family recharge time. Other than that, I used to try and dig holes in the Earth with a golf club, but after my last game, I’m pretty sure it’s time to give that up.
S&P: Over the seasons, how have the different locations changed the way you work on set. If they haven’t, talk about some of the locations that keep you on your toes.
CLEMENTS: The locations haven’t necessarily changed the way I work, they are consistently noisy, but interestingly enough, our Director of Photography has; or more accurately, the changeover in our DPs. We are currently shooting with our fourth DP in five seasons. It’s amazing how drastically their different approaches have changed the way we have to work as a sound department. One thing I’ve learned is that you have to be ready to constantly change the way you work. If you get stuck in a way that used to work for you, unable to change your style to adapt, your sound will suffer. There is one thing I always keep in mind though. I was talking with our brilliant rerecording mixer Sherry Klein, who is a complete miracle worker by the way, and she mentioned that if I can get her a voice that really punches through, a voice that has some umpf to it, then she can deal with some unwanted background noise. That is something that I always strive for, that extra punch in the voice. Sometimes that means going to a wire when you are convinced the boom should sound better. But hey, if the wire sounds better, it sounds better.
S&P: How is your relationship with post sound?
CLEMENTS: I love those guys, every single one of them. I’ve had the unique privilege of working pretty closely with them over the five seasons. Because our lead actor was in pretty much every scene in season one, I made the terrible mistake of agreeing to take on the ADR for our Miami actors. I must admit I have never been in a proper ADR session and had no idea how to do it, but we do an OK job of it now. Because we handle the ADR, I’ve had some great conversations with most of our brilliant post sound folks. They truly are an amazing group. I often find myself on set burying my head in my hands, frustrated at how bad the day is going. Then I see the show on Thursday night, and I am amazed at how good it sounds. It’s like, “I remember that sounding terrible, and now it sounds great!” I know they didn’t ADR it, because we do the ADR on our end. I said it before, but I’ll say it again, Sherry Klein is a miracle worker with the dialogue. She sometimes chops one word together from three different takes just to make sure it’s understandable. The mix between dialogue, sound fx, and music is always spot on. The dialogue always floats just above and you never have to struggle to hear it. Sherry and I share the nomination with David Raines, who is another amazingly talented individual. He mixes the sound FX. They only have two days to do the entire mix for a one hour drama that’s packed with car chases, explosions, and shoot outs. Not to mention saving the dialogue from jack hammers, semi trucks, and car horns. Most shows get five days to mix, and Sherry and David only get two. I am truly honored to share this nomination with them.
S&P: If you were able to bring this year’s statue home, what would it mean to you and your career?
CLEMENTS: I joke with my wife that we could put the Emmy in the trunk of her car so when she has to get something out she can say to her friends, “Oh I’m sorry, it’s right here under the Emmy. Does your Emmy ever get in the way like this?” If I bring it home, I’m a bit worried that producers will be worried they can’t afford me, so they won’t bother calling. But hey, that’s a problem I’m willing to deal with.
S&P would like to thank Scott for taking the time to let us in the mix of Burn Notice. You can catch the Primetime Emmys September 18th and the Creative Arts Award show September 10th.
3 Comments
Wow! I am impressed with how the crew manages such difficult tasks! And does it beautifully! Congratulations to all of you on the nomination and I hope you win!
I’m Scott’s mother so I am prejudiced, but, I love Burn Notice and I always notice how great the sound is. When he told me that he wanted to do sound for movies and TV as a career, he was in the hospital recovering from a terrible accident. I was totally taken back. He was in engineering school and I thought that was the track his career would take. When I look back though, while he was growing up, he always had a camera or a tape recorder in his had making mini movies, taping the high school band or recording the ballet company performances. Wow, an Emmy nomination….his late father would be soooo proud.
Man, that’s awesome. It’s @ time y’all got some recognition. Congrats. I hope you win.