postPerspective Update

Post Sound: Skip Lievsay and Rich
Bologna Talk Collaboration, Judas

By Patrick Birk

Re-recording mixer Skip Lievsay and supervising sound editor are highly regarded members of the audio post world. Bologna has worked on many notable projects, including The Hunt, Marriage Story and Fahrenheit 451. Lievsay, who has an Oscar for his work on Gravity, counts Roma, Ma Rainey, Uncut Gems, Lady Bird and No Country for Old Men among his many impressive credits. The two teamed up to bring director Shaka King’s vision to life and tell the story of Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya) in Judas and the Black Messiah, which was released on DVD and Blu-ray this month.

Judas and the Black Messiah tells the story of the FBI’s infiltration of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party. Hampton becomes a target of the US government, and the FBI co-opts car thief Bill O’Neal (LaKeith Stanfield) to assist them in destroying the Panthers from the inside.

Here, Lievsay and Bologna talk about the collaboration — which took place on a mix stage at Warner Bros. Post Production Services in New York City — the film and more…

In a story that is so dependent on the speeches of Fred Hampton, how did you go about treating the dialogue?
Lievsay: Throughout the movie, we had high-quality recordings for every line. We had a little bit of ADR in some places, but in general, we had a boom and a lav track on every line. In some of the bigger scenes, like the “I Am a Revolutionary” event, we had a lot of tracks, with several microphones for Daniel, and several microphones for the audience.

For the most part, that speech was done live. He spoke directly to the audience, and the audience responded live in the recording. So we had this really fantastic interplay between the character and a real audience. We just had to add reverb or EQ to make it match better.