Behind the Title: Formosa Supervising Sound Editor David McCallum -

David McCallum is supervising sound editor at Formosa Group in Toronto, a post company that provides complete sound services for film, episodic, streaming, interactive content and commercials.

A dialogue and ADR specialist, McCallum is a founding partner of the former Tattersall Sound & Picture in Toronto. Some credits include The Handmaid’s Tale, Vikings and Cardinal for the small screen and Kin, The Man Who Invented Christmas and Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children for the big screen.

David McCallum

We reached out to McCallum to find out more…

Tell us about the role of supervising sound editor.
I oversee the sound editorial work for film and television. I coordinate a team of editors and assistants who work collectively to build the soundtrack for our projects. I am a dialogue and ADR specialist. Once the team sets about their tasks, I’ll usually start work on editing the production sound and supervise the ADR recording.

What would surprise people about what that job also includes?
People who work outside the screen industry are often surprised that I spend most of my time working at a computer rather than on-set or on-location. For people who work in film and television or post, the most unexpected aspects of working as a sound supervisor are the budget and administration tasks that come from overseeing a crew.

What is your favorite part of dialogue and ADR?
My favorite part of dialogue and ADR editorial is its attachment to the drama and story. I love working with actors and directors to help get the audience as close as possible to the performances on-screen.

I always start by listening. I need to learn what the movie and the sound are doing based on the choices that have come before me. Before I begin to work, I need to understand what the picture editor, director and location sound recordist have all contributed leading up to my involvement. It takes time to learn the characters and the nuances of their performance(s). So I watch the material, first in a full run to take in the story and then in detail, which is when I comb through the location sound to see what kind of tools will be available to me. Once I have completed these steps, I’m ready to begin dissecting the dialogue material, learning where the problems or issues might be and mapping my way to the end.

The Handmaid’s Tale

What’s your favorite part of the job?
My favorite parts of the job is the discovery that happens along the way. While I do have a lot of experience at my craft, every project is new, with new challenges and unforeseen obstacles. There’s no one-way-fits-all solution to building a dialogue soundtrack. There’s just a series of good decisions that continuously make a scene better. I’m often buried in the minutiae within a scene, so I enjoy those moments when I can sit back and listen to something and think, “Hey, that’s pretty good.”

Do you have a least favorite?
I wish I didn’t work on a computer and in front of a screen all day. It’s tough on the body to be stationary for long stretches of time, while listening to sound for many hours in a row is fatiguing on the ears. This has been made harder during COVID, as more people are working from home.

When I worked as a sound effects editor, I loved it when a group of people would go field recording. I suppose I prefer teamwork, working closely in collaboration with others. I think this is one of the reasons I enjoy recording ADR. You get to witness the actors at work firsthand.

Swan Song

How did your job change, if at all, during COVID?
Technically, my job didn’t change much. I just started doing it from home more frequently. I do have a nice home edit suite, built over the course of a year with the help of our technical engineer Ed Segeren here in Toronto. And like everyone, I now spend a lot my time linking remotely into meetings, screenings and ADR sessions. But our studios at Formosa in Toronto have remained operational and our work has been consistent, so my office studio is an option. With two young children, however, I’ve grown to value the home office. I’m at the point now where I’m planning to split time 50/50 between at-home and in-facility work.

If you didn’t have this job, what would you be doing instead?
A barista.

How did you choose this profession? How early on did you know this would be your path?
I discovered film and television production while at university. I didn’t go to film school but found myself taking more courses in the film and television department each year. In my third year, a professor named Clarke Mackey introduced me to sound. I started recording sound and found my way to post editorial. When I graduated, I knew this was a vocation I was interested in pursuing.

The Handmaid’s Tale

What are some recent projects you’ve worked on?
In the fall of 2021, I completed work on Ben Cleary’s movie Swan Song for Apple TV, which mixed at Ardmore Studios in Ireland, just outside Dublin.

I’m currently working on Sarah Polley’s feature film Women Talking for MGM/Orion. My next two projects are Vikings Valhalla for Netflix and Season 5 of The Handmaid’s Tale for Hulu.

Can you talk about one project that was particularly challenging?
The Handmaid’s Tale is always very challenging. It’s like working on 10 feature films in a row. That’s a bit hyperbolic, I know, but it’s an unpredictable show, and I always feel like I’m starting at ground zero with each episode.

The scripts are challenging to shoot, which puts pressure on the production sound team. The picture editors are always looking to do something unique, and the sound is a huge part of the emotional drive of the show. So it ends up being a complex combination of both technical and creative challenges, times 10. But I do love it. I love working with Elisabeth Moss, who’s the best actor/collaborator someone with my job could hope for. But at times, the work can also be exhausting, harrowing and stressful. Kind of like the show itself, I suppose!

Name three pieces (or more) of technology you can’t live without.