Andreas Franck is a Sweden-based engineer who specializes in sound design and re-recording for movies. Some of his most acclaimed film scores include The Square, Force Majeure and Triangle of Sadness, an awarded Atmos mix.
Andreas works both in his home studio as well as in a larger post-production room. In this interview, he tells us about how Trinnov helped make his mixes translate from one room to another, and of course later to commercial cinemas.
Please introduce yourself
My name is Andreas Frank. I work as a sound designer and re-recording mixer, mostly for feature films, sometimes TV series. I've been doing this since 2001. I got the CSD Award in Cannes for Triangle of Sadness, the first Dolby Atmos movie I did.
What was your introduction to Trinnov like ?
I do a lot of mixing, but I do the whole sound design part of the movie and then do the mixing myself. You can sit in a room like this for three or four months, so you have to have a smaller studio where it's more suitable to do sound design and dialog editing.
I looked into that and decided to build a studio in my house. Of course I could work, but it didn't sound that good. I had really good speakers and thought that that would solve the problem.
When I brought it to the dub stage, it didn't translate as I wanted. Then, I heard about Trinnov and I went to Paris to get a demo there. It felt like unbelievable. The sound felt so focused and just totally beautiful.
What are some your biggest challenges at work ?
Every time I get here from my room, I'm always nervous. You've been working for three months at home in your studio, and then you have to present something for the director here. You get really confused sometimes. Is this good for this room or is it good for next step? It sounds good in my room but what's correct?
Editing dialog and mixing dialog is time consuming. The lower end of the dialog especially 200 Hz, 100 Hz. I'm always insecure of those frequencies, even though you have really good calibration. Sometimes you get lost anyway, because you get used to the movie and suddenly you want more bass in the dialog. You get used to it so much so you don't notice that you put on too much. Then when you get out to town and watch the movie you made publicly, those theaters will sound really different. And you have to, in some way, adapt to that. It's a bit tricky to make a product that will work in a lot of places.
Tell us about your experience calibrating Trinnov for the first time ?
In a way, it's super easy. You just push a button and it's done. I spend a lot of time putting the 3D microphone in the right place just to get it perfect. This step takes more time than doing the actual calibration. I mean, that's the main thing. When that's done, you just press play.
I tried to do multiple positions, but I have tended to just have one measurement because I always sit in my chair and I just want the best for me. Of course, if you move back in my room, it's a bit boomy. But in a way, you can put your clients in the back and they will have more bass. Clients often like more bass, but I want to know how much bass there is and know that I'm not pushing it too much.
Has Trinnov influenced your workflow ?
It's less mistakes since I got the Trinnov. I'm not a really technical guy. When we talk about plugins and speakers and all of this, I tend to lean back and let other people do the talking. I just want to have something that is in the rack, delay and phase are properly lined up, and I can do my work. You can hear that it's just so precise.
Would you recommend Trinnov to industry beginners ?
Look at your room first, build it correctly as good as you can. I would say buy cheaper speakers and then buy the Trinnov. I wouldn't sell mine. Not a chance. I mean, of course, you can work without it. But you always have this anxiety, at least I have when I work. Everything should be tidy and properly lined up start so I can really do what I want to do. I'm so happy that Trinnov have done their part so I can do mine.