Shogun's Emmy-nominated re-recording mixers Steve Pederson and Greg P. Russell teamed with sound supervisor Brian Armstrong and mix technician Greg Ortiz to transport audiences back to 1600s Japan. Pederson handled dialogue and music, while Russell handled sound effects and ambience. Because the series was filmed in Vancouver rather than Japan, they were able to work with ambience that was quite different from what would be expected in Japan at the time.
“The focus has always been on authenticity, and that was our cue throughout the entire production process,” Russell told THR. “To transport the audience to rural, feudal Japan in the 1600s, one of the things that's important is staying true to their culture, respecting their culture, but it's also this really rich, bold soundscape. There are amazing, big dynamics in this show with weapons and swords and arrows and cannons, but there are also incredible quiet, really interesting nuances throughout this show. Using all these textures and amazing sounds to emulate all the urban sounds and maintain a sense of size and scale of movement and space was really important. But there's an incredible intimacy to this show, the drama of this show, and staying true to the soul of these characters was key.”
Rain plays its own character in the show, serving as a backdrop to many of the character conversations, but for Pederson and Russell, balancing it all together in scenes was a challenge, and they credit the on-location premixing and production team for helping them get the scene right.
“Greg and I have very similar tastes in terms of prioritizing dialogue,” Pederson explains, “and while we’re working on dialogue and music, an effects mixer’s ear is often biased toward effects — he’s thinking about Foley, rain, and things like that, but what I love about us mixing together is that we hear everything.
“Going back to what Greg said earlier about feudal Japan in 1600, unlike the modern world, there was always some kind of noise going on around us. What we were going for with this show was quietness, because it's a natural world. There are no motors or planes or anything like that. So, we started by cleaning up the dialogue. I'm grateful to the sound editing team for cleaning up a bit of the modern events that were happening on set. Then, once that was mixed with the background that came to me and covered me, we cleaned it up a bit more. I think we were successful in extracting the modern world that brings quietness, and the subtle background that supports what it was like back then.”
The series has been praised by Japanese historians for its authenticity, and the show's sound was no exception. “I don't think I've ever been involved in a project that was so scrutinized, from, 'That's not the right cricket,' to the sword sounds. There was constant criticism that it was too Western,” Russell adds. “It's not thick enough. The metal sounds are too Western. So it was really great to respect their culture and their keen ear for this time and place and what it was.”
Pederson adds, “At one point, there was a comment that told Greg and me, 'Okay, we've got to really pay attention to this.' We were outside and there were birds. This location was near water, and one of our Japanese editors, who'd been in Japan, said, 'Is that a waterfowl? It looks like a country bird.' And we were like, 'We've got to really listen carefully to this.'”
Another challenge for the sound team was the earthquake scene, which Russell says evolved quite a bit. Initially, there was music accompanying the scene, but then they changed course and decided to “make it as quiet as possible before the flock of birds have their weird reaction. It's the calm before the storm, but there's movement and you hear little sounds like trees breaking and gravel shifting on the surface before the big overall movement. It's one of my favourite scenes in the show.”
Together, the two captured ambient sounds of the ground shaking, the screams of the injured, and the devastation off-screen.
“On set, you're lucky if you even hear the dialogue, but everything else is added in, from rocks moving to footsteps,” Russell says. “You hear all the atmosphere, birds, horses, people, and all of that stuff is added in later. It's a creation.”
This story first appeared in the August issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
