By Randi Altman
The plot of Peacock’s Mrs. Davis? Well, in a nutshell, it’s about a nun, Sister Simone, and her handsome ex-boyfriend traveling the globe to destroy an AI called Mrs. Davis.
Bryan Parker
This year, the series was nominated for an Emmy Award for its Sound Editing team, which includes supervising sound editor Bryan Parker, in addition to Kristen Hirlinger, Nathan Efstation, Roland Thai, Matt Decker, Sam C. Lewis, Sam Munoz,Ellen Heuer and Nancy Parker. We reached out to Formosa Group’s Bryan Parker to find out more about his Emmy-nominated work.
How would you describe the soundscape of Mrs. Davis? What makes it unique?
This show needs to feel loose and funny and quick, but it needs to have a backdrop of very high stakes and dramatic tension behind the characters’ banter. Algorithms love tropes. Sound helps the action moments feel very hyped up and larger than life where necessary, but we left room for those action moments to feel over-the-top and funny as well.
What direction were you given by the showrunner?
Tara Hernandez didn’t want a sci-fi sound aesthetic for this show because she didn’t want it to feel too detached from our current world, I think. For the actual Mrs. Davis app and the phone sounds that it makes, I made several versions ahead of time, before episodes were locked, and we established that palette with a few rounds of notes.
For all the trope-y moments like the sword fight, motorcycle chase, etc, Tara wanted to lean into the hyped cinematic aesthetic to make those sound huge. I think the serious sound design in those scenes enhances their comedy value considerably.
What episode did you submit for Emmy and why? What was it about that episode that you feel made it worthy?
We decided to submit the pilot episode for consideration just because it covers so much ground: three continents, four languages, sword fight, desert island fireworks, convent, cartoony jam explosion and ensuing car chase, motorcycle chase through a toy clown factory, etc. We thought it showcased a diverse lot of different sonic strategies in one package.
What was a challenging scene or sequence from that episode?
The swordfight was the most challenging, not just because of the amount of detail and action, but because getting the right tone took some attempts. It’s funnier if it feels very serious and violent and horrifying and has just a little extra dollop of gore on top, starting with the sister who leaps through the air with the sword in her stomach, to help give the audience permission to laugh.
What was an example of a note you were given by the showrunners?
We received a few notes in the pilot to keep the location of Reno, Nevada alive, showcasing slot machines more in the background and adding a jackpot chime when Simone slides down the door and falls. It speaks to her past there and sets up Episode 102. There was a lot of throughline work like that in Tara’s notes.
What tools were used on the show? Anything come in particularly handy?
Kristen Hirlinger and Nathan Efstation, our dialogue editors, used Auto Align Post and iZotope RX quite a bit during the series to rescue some iffy production dialogue since we wanted to replace as little as possible in ADR.
The actors shot all out of order in all different locations as the episodes move from country to country, and we were so constricted for ADR time that we elected to rescue as much production as we could ahead of time, pulling alts, cheats, anything.
Where did you work out of studio wise?
Editorial was all done through Formosa Group with my team, and the mix was at Warner Bros. with the esteemed mix team of Todd Grace and Ed Carr.
What haven’t I asked about Mrs. Davis that’s important?
Well… you haven’t asked the huge sound design for the main title. The big groan-y machine sound in there is a dishwasher door at Formosa Group that I recorded one night when I was working late!
(Editor’s Note: Check out our interview with one of the show’s directors.)
Randi Altman is the founder and editor-in-chief of postPerspective. She has been covering production and post production for more than 25 years.
