From writer/director Marion Kerr comes the indie web series Misdirected. Currently debuting its first season, the show centers on Freddie (Lauren Mora) who’s struggling with a recent diagnosis of amnesia. Now spit back in to a world she can’t remember, her friends Josh (John T. Woods), Gerald (Ross Philips) and Cameron (Joel Kelley Dauten) try everything they can to help Freddie remember the life she once had or the life they think she ought to have…
The cleverly edited episodes by Emily Chiu paint a comedic canvas that are engaging and fun to watch. Short. Sweet. And they keep you wondering – a perfect mix for the I-don’t-have-time-for-this web watchers. While the 9 episodes were visually captured by cinematographer Alex Simon, it was Michael Flowe who found himself recording the five days of production audio. He later sat in the post mixing chair to design the sound for the project.
The Atlanta, Georgia native talked to us about starting out, being a one-man-band, and what it was like to re-record his own production audio work.
What attracted you to putting on a pair of headphones and recording sound?
I studied sound design in college and our first project was to create an audio scene of all of our own captured sounds. This experience really put a spark in me that sound can create and mold the way you see a picture. After that, I was working as a sound designer at a production house in Atlanta. Their production sound mixer moved so they asked me to fill in – which began my production sound career.
What is it about sound and being part of the storytelling that you like the most?
I enjoy collaborating with people who enjoy the creative process and understand that we all need each other to make a greater product of art.
With smaller budgeted projects like Misdirected, what do you look for so you can say yes to a project?
Normally, I always look to the people that are involved in the project. I have a pretty strong discernment when it comes to people and character off of the first meeting, so I use this to help me decipher which projects are worth taking a risk for.
When you read the script, was there anything that stood out to you in terms of sound challenges?
I knew the Freddium episode (ep 5) was going to be a challenge just because of the amount of people and quick interjections that it had. Since Misdirected had a smaller budget, I had to blanket mic people instead of properly placing wireless mics on each character.
What type of sound package did you put together for the show?
I recorded with a Sound Devices 788T with a CL-8. I used a Schoeps CMIT-5U microphone. For wireless, I used Lectrosonics UM400 and UCR411A with Sanken cos-11. I used Sony MDR-V6 headphones.
On Misdirected, you were a one man band –recording, booming, laving. Looking back, how much more effective would you have been in recording good production audio if you were able to have a 2nd or 3rd on your team?
The entire crew was 9 people. Looking back on it now, a 2nd would have been very helpful. This type of production usually can be done by myself, and with a little more equipment, it could have really helped to improve the quality of sound in the difficult scenes.
Production was smart and kept the number locations to a minimum, but what kind of obstacles were you running into on set?
Being relatively new to production sound at the time, I didn’t have all of the tricks of the trade tools that I carry now as a sound mixer; things like, blankets, carpets and bass traps for echoes. The driving sequence in episode two was a little fun. I was hidden in the back seat and I placed a lav on the ceiling while hand holding the shotgun. All the while getting giggles and laughs from the crew watching the giant sound man squished down between the seats with all his gear on.
Were you able to boom most of the work or did you set up a double system with lavs as well?
We had 6 people max in a scene, I probably should have had wires on all talent; however, I thought I could make it work by booming close and placing wires on two of the characters. Now that I’ve run it through post, I realize that it makes editors and sound designers’ jobs extremely difficult to not have the option to pull from any characters’ microphone.
You also managed to design the post sound on the project. Did you know that going into the project?
I did not actually. At the after party, I reminded Lauren and Marion that I loved working with them so much that I would be willing to run it through post. About two weeks later, they called me and took me up on the offer.
Sweet. Was this the first time you did the post work on a project?
I did post on my own sound for a short called Here for Now with the company Untold Creative, which was very design heavy; however, it was extremely different than Misdirected because the main character had no dialogue. Misdirected was a nice new challenge for me due to the well written, witty dialogue.
When you started listening to the tracks after picture was finalized did you yell at yourself for any “troubled” production audio?
Learning comes pretty quick when you’re in the field for production sound; everyday I gain knowledge in how to get cleaner audio. Since it had been almost a year since we were in production, I yelled just about every time I hit the spacebar because I knew exactly what I did wrong at the time and how to fix the easy mistakes I was making, such as, “Hey dummy, in a room with hardwood floors and blank walls, do you really think you can cover 5 people at once with 3 microphones?”
What kind of resources did you use for your final mix?
I really like the creativity in grabbing my own sounds as much as I can and avoiding sound libraries if the time permits. Because I come from the post sound world, I always tend to record more on set than normal mixers because I want to give whoever is designing a lot of real environment options. I ended up going out and recording a few ambient tracks for things like the apartment, outdoor conversations, and the car scenes because I didn’t like the room tones that were captured on the day.
In episode one, we first meet Freddie and Josh in a hospital waiting room – listening through headphones, I really got a sense of the room. There was so much ambience going on in the background – phones, conversation, ambulance. When Josh admits at the 1:53 mark that he is actually Freddie’s friend – you cut out all the ambience for a few split seconds. What was your thinking behind that – it added a nice touch.
This was a beautiful suggestion from Marion, to kind of suck the air out of the room. It emphasizes how Freddie’s perspective changes at that moment.
The same goes for the second episode. Freddie and Josh are on the street and we hear birds, cars, and all the layers that we normally take for granted. Was your approach to the sound design to keep these characters in close to a real world as possible?
I treated all 9 episodes almost as one timeline, so the deeper we go into it, the further away from reality I can stray. You get little pieces of almost comedic sound play from the subtle things, like the drop out of ambience in Freddie and Josh’s conversation in episode one and the creaks in the floor when the boys lean to watch Freddie walk in the living room. These help lead to the absurdity of the warped time botz-ing at the end (in a future episode) where we are taken completely out of reality.
Dialogue is obviously important to any story. Did you find yourself looking to ADR any of your own work?
ADR is a separate job for a reason. To do it well without it being noticed is an art and a skill that I have not acquired yet. There is one ADR line in the whole series and if you can’t tell where it is, I’m not going to tell you.
Haha. Well played.
How many days did you spend in post?
Collectively, I probably knocked out two episodes per day, minus the Freddium episode which probably took a full day. I had other projects going on at the time so since Marion and Lauren are so wonderful and gracious to work with, they allowed me to take a few days off here and there, stretching it out to about a month.
Did you use strictly Pro Tools?
I used Pro Tools and iZotope. I really like iZotope’s ozone 5 for general EQing and I used a touch of it for a bit of shine at the end of each episode. I also used RX2 Denoiser for unwanted room noise, Decrackler for clothes rustle, and the Spectral Repair for pesky tweaks that I needed to make.
What were some of the complications in the post work when it came to matching microphonces?
I definitely use the lavs as back ups, but I like the tone that the lav and boom create together. If I can, I will use about 20% lav and 80% boom. I find that it makes a really rich, warm tone for each character. I spent a lot of time matching lavs and booms before I purchased my Sankens and Schoeps, which I have found that their tones cut extremely well together.
Footsteps are something some sound designers really enjoy doing. How much of the steps and floor noises in Misdirected did you feel compelled to play to? When did you look to them, when did you think it was ok to keep them subtle?
In Misdirected, I only recall a couple of times where I played to footsteps and that was because the room level allowed for it. I didn’t feel the need to emphasize footsteps very much because of the comedic tone of the piece. The only time I used it strategically is when Freddie finds something from her past (season finale) and stomps back into the room. There was an edit I had to fix and creating footsteps back into the room allowed for seamless transition.
Throughout the episodes like in ep 5 when we see the cast playing Freddium, you add a little flavoring of music to the scene or during the finale in ep 9. How did you look to define that line between too much and just right?
Lauren and Marion gathered and provided all of the music. They searched out unknown bands and pieces that were affordable and attainable. Honestly the line between just right and too much was a collaboration between the three of us. They were really hands on with the post production of Misdirected, which was so wonderful because I love being around them and they are so great to work and create with.
So, how many puking sound effects did you go through before deciding on the one during the flashback scenes?
Ha! I went through about 50 and hated them all. I ended up making my own. My wife had made a lovely lentil soup that was in the fridge that I added 2 cans of chick peas to. I laid on the carpet over a towel and took a measuring cup and poured it and sloshed it and stirred the soup. The guttural sounds were all my own. I’ll be accepting the Oscar for best personal vomit design. Thank you.
Haha, that is hilarious.
The credits played a small role in the storytelling, adding a joke here and there or an added story point – how much did you look to put in there with the sound design or was that coming from the director/producers?
I thought the credits were beautiful. Marion and Lauren have such a funny sense of humor in choosing these scenes to tie up episdoes. They were a nice ribbon to this quirky piece. They all needed replacing sounds except for one that we all three decided was staying because it was so bad it was funny: the sweeping sounds when they are cleaning up the party.
I’m sure Marion had her own vision on the story of sound, can you tell us what it was like collaborating with her on some of the episodes?
It was such a joy working with Marion because she has such a great laugh and when she would come in for playback, she would laugh so hard at the jokes that hit well, even if she’s seen them a hundred times. With her on my left and Lauren on my right, it was like I was in between a laugh track, which made me feel wonderful. They had a great way of making tweaks and changing things I had done in such a positive way that there was never a conflict or disagreement. We had open discussions on how to change things and make things better. I would work with either one of them on anything else in a heartbeat.
If you had to lean towards one or the other – do you prefer production or post sound?
Story of my life. I come from the post world and I love the aspect of creating and building with sound, but I also love being in the field and actively being a part of the crew and capturing process. I am more often in the field than behind the desk, so I have no answer for you. I love both of them.
Exactly. Who says it can’t be both.
If there’s a season 2 of Misdirected – do you hope you get invited back?
If I find out there is a season 2 and they have hired another sound guy, I’ll probably just sneak into Marion’s house one night and I’ll botz everything in her house. So yes, I would love to get invited back. The crew that they put together was such a pleasure to work with. I would love to work with them again.
Is there anything you’re working on currently?
Actually, I am working on a documentary with Untold Creative called After the End, in which I did the production sound and am now finishing the design and mix. I am happy to announce it will be released in a couple of months on Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and DVD.
Is there a website people can find you at?
Right now, my website isn’t active, but it will be michaelflowe.com. For now, you can e-mail me at Michael.C.Flowe at gmail dot com with any inquiries.
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