Behind The Scene : WHIPLASH with Sound Mixer Tom Curley CAS | URSA Exclusive

We were thrilled to meet up with Academy Award Winning Sound Mixer Tom Curley, CAS to breakdown some scenes from the film that supercharged his career : 2014’s “Whiplash”.
A film that began as a low budget indie project, “Whiplash” was shot in just 19 days. Helmed by then unknown writer/director Damien Chazelle, the film went on to gross $49 million against its original budget of $3 million and swept the 87th Annual Academy Awards, winning awards for : Best Supporting Actor, Best Film Editing, and Best Sound Mixing, as well as nominations in the categories of Best Picture, and Best Adapted Screenplay. The score also received a Grammy nomination in 2015.
Join us, as we go Behind the Scene on one of the most exciting films of the last decade!
Massive, heartfelt thanks to Trew Audio in Burbank, LA for letting us film this one at their space!
During this time of massive slow down around the world, we are very grateful for the sound community. We see the many ways you are all keeping busy, keeping motivated, and keeping connected, and it’s a great inspiration to us! Thank you for watching our series, for sharing, for commenting. Stay safe, stay strong, and be nice to one another.
Tom Curley, CAS :
www.curleysound...
Presented by Kim Kylland:
/ kyllandmusic
Trew Audio:
www.trewaudio....
Filmed & Edited by Bird Murmur:
birdmurmur.com
Brought to you by URSA Straps:
ursastraps.com

[@LikeAGentlemanPlease]

I just seen this movie about 2 hours ago. And for the last 2 hours I’ve been researching everything about it. This is now my favorite movie now.

[@AlaskaSoundRecordist]

They gave the sound guy a lot of pre-prod? A dream gig.

[@jean-francois-bernard]

It rarely happens in real life!

[@linelevelmedia7357]

Always wanted to know more about how the sound was done in this movie, thanks so much for the video! And a great job by Tom!

[@rahoolsyam9538]

11:54 he was talking about IR's (Impulse Response) amazing to hear these are done and to hear about these in these kinda interviews is amazing not only this but hearing toms bts workflows and every other recordist/mixers work and you guys delivering and showing these to us for free is like treasure for me and its always inspiring.Thank you guys

[@KyllandMusic]

Thank you Sage !! So glad you are enjoying our videos ! ❤

[@rahoolsyam9538]

@@KyllandMusic once again thank you because u guys r doing great thing these r very valuable PS since we r in lockdown hope there was more so that i could binge watch :)

[@KyllandMusic]

@@rahoolsyam9538 we will definitely have more videos coming out soon :)

[@flaviopresutti]

Amazing movie and interview! Thank You!

[@simonbysshe]

Super interesting stuff. Thank you Kim, Todd & Tom!

[@ar_jo2023]

Unknown Heroes! Thank you so much for the interview :)

[@HubLocationSound]

Awesome! Thanks Ursa for this free content.

[@RallenMan]

Excellent interview. Great info and stories. Thanks.

[@highlycreativedigital5472]

i so appreciate this content.

[@AllenCavedo]

Second time I’ve watched this. It is the best most informative sound mixer interview I’ve ever seen. And it reminded me that even though I keep thinking of buying a new 888, I have a barely used 788T and CL-9 in the closet that is perfectly capable of doing excellent sound work on a film. I should fire it up and get busy with it again.

[@TheUnMarketingGroup]

A great interview. Thank you!

[@trailmix1969]

Tom, great sound on a project that was invigorating from the day you read the script. Nice collaboration with director and camera to work things out ahead of time. The downtown open air set, as one challenge observed and met. Had worked with JK on The Closer tv show and he was a nice person. Not wanting to be wired was a challenge you met well. That he can speak up helps that situation. Glad you and the sound team, including playback, got the recognition you deserved. Thanks for doing the interview with Kim

[@conornoel9149]

I dont mean to be off topic but does anybody know a trick to get back into an Instagram account?? I was dumb forgot my login password. I would love any tips you can give me!

[@zakaialfred9543]

@Conor Noel Instablaster ;)

[@conornoel9149]

@Zakai Alfred Thanks for your reply. I found the site on google and I'm waiting for the hacking stuff now. Seems to take a while so I will get back to you later with my results.

[@conornoel9149]

@Zakai Alfred It worked and I now got access to my account again. Im so happy:D Thanks so much you saved my ass :D

[@zakaialfred9543]

@Conor Noel You are welcome :D

[@chrisquyen]

I've been doing so much research on sound over the past month trying to get myself educated for as much as possible as I embark on my feature film journey. This was so insightful and really gave me so many things to think about! Thank you so much for this content.

[@lampadinha]

This is so amazing! Congrats to all of you guys!

[@lemfryazino]

thank you for amazing and inspiring interview

[@andresserna6455]

This is gold! Thank you so much

[@davidbrownlow5245]

Good one, thanks again, wanted see/hear something like this since my first mixing job in 1983

[@jmendel8]

Another great one. Thanks, Kim and the URSA team! Also thanks, Tom!!! Keep em coming.

[@alessandrogargiulo]

Thank you!

[@barnabyhall6739]

Really, really great stuff. Thank you.

[@jcdq123]

Amazing. Thank you so much for sharing

[@AllenCavedo]

Just as great a video on the third viewing.

[@JamesClark1991]

Awesome!!

[@bensyoutubechannel1902]

Thank you for putting out this content. I’m looking at improving my skills and this really helps!

[@wilhelmvoigt809]

Thank you for putting out awesome content like this. Very very informative, helpful and cool. That Oscar win moment with him describing that feeling of always watching the Oscars and then nominated to winning it is just WOW. "Jumping outta plane". Thank you and looking forward to the next ones.

[@alexistyle-official]

Awesome !

[@mxcrec]

An outstanding movie and a fantastic work of art by these audio guys. Thank you. It is so inspiring to hear what professionals do to capture the best possible sound. Again, thank you for sharing.

[@brysimm404]

Everybody loves the CMIT boom mic. Go blue, if you can afford it 👍

[@pdsf521]

This is great

[@thornne]

Thanks for sharing man! Great story! Can't believe that you couldnt wire main charakter and still made a great job. However I'd probably try to convince him as hard as I could to wear one, haha. Not an easy job without one. Anyways, congrats on making great movie and all the awards!

[@Dustbrigade]

Thank you for sharing! Was a pleasure to get some insight. One thing I am curious about was the riding of the recording gain for the dynamic music scene. Then we get to understand that all the mics were wireless, including the boom. How was the gain structure like? I thought if anything, it would distort at the TX first, why not just keep the tx low, set the recorder close to unity gain from the RX, then ride the faders and leave any gaining for post production? tltr: What is the reason for adjusting recorder gain during takes when the mics are wireless?

[@SoundSpeeding]

I wondered that too. Thought perhaps maaaaaybe he meant it is "(nearly) always wireless", and that for the scenes with very wide dynamics then perhaps it was wired????

[@rabiranjanmaitra6971]

Great

[@JimandSairs]

Hey that’s v interesting. I’m a cam op. Did you plate any shots to get the boom closer? And did they cross shoot to allow actors to overlap? thanks

[@SoundSpeeding]

Did he use hardwired booms for the scenes with really large dynamics?

[@tobiasandersson9663]

Hi !! this is great !! but what mic is he talking about, the 816 ??

[@technoman215]

Sennheiser MKH816