Behind the Riveting Sound of ‘Ratched’

Six-time Emmy winning writer/director Ryan Murphy's Netflix series Ratched tells the origin story of Evan Romansky's fabled Nurse Ratched of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest fame. Here, Technicolor's supervising sound editor Gary Megregian and re-recording mixers Joe Earle and Doug Andham discuss their restrained use of sound for the asylum interior, designing dread tones to lend eeriness to the atmosphere, mixing pervasive music cues, and more!

---

Interview by Jennifer Walden, photos courtesy of Netflix

---

Please share:

• More

The mental hospital in Netflix’s Ratched series is less loony bin and more day spa; that is, if you like your relaxing tub soaks on the boiling side. Sonically, the halls aren’t filled with the vatic jabbering of nutjobs or ranting madmen. Instead, a serene atmosphere sits heavily on the upholstered seats in the grand lobby and common rooms, giving the illusion of calm and order. In a way, it’s a reflection of the main character Mildred Ratched — a controlled exterior hiding a conflicted interior.

Here, the Emmy-winning Technicolor sound team of supervising sound editor Gary Megregian, MPSE and re-recording mixers Joe Earle, CAS and Doug Andham, CAS talk about their opportunities to support the show’s creative visual effects (like color shifts and split-screens), the benefits of mixing a music-dominant soundtrack in Dolby Atmos, defining spaces with reverb, designing mind-altered states using various editing and mixing techniques, and more!

Ratched | Official Trailer | Netflix

L to R is Joe Earle, Doug Andham, and Gary Megregian

What was your workflow like for Ratched? Were you affected by COVID and remote workflow mandates?

Gary Megregian (GM): We finished the show a little less than a year ago. That was pre-pandemic shutdown so that didn’t affect our workflow at all. It was a traditional approach. It’s interesting thinking about ‘back in the day’ when we could do things that way but now we have to adjust workflows for the pandemic.

Ryan Murphy and Executive Producer Alexis Martin-Woodall know the show inside and out…

Joe Earle (JE): Typically, we get a day or two to ourselves before the picture editor comes in for a first playback. They bring their assistant who has helped them build out some of their temp tracks so nothing gets lost in the mix. Ryan Murphy and Executive Producer Alexis Martin-Woodall know the show inside and out so we try to enhance what they have provided but also use our well-designed elements and our mixing skills to blend, spread, and envelope you in the atmosphere.

With the limited series shows we will typically playback for Alexis first, and then we might see Ryan. On Ratched, we had completed several episodes before Ryan came in. At that point, we may only get a small handful of notes from Ryan.

…so we try to enhance what they have provided but also use our well-designed elements and our mixing skills to blend, spread, and envelope you in the atmosphere.

Doug Andham (DA): Since we completed this show last fall, before the pandemic, we were able to mix on our stage. So, there was none of the unusualness in our process that’s going on now.

This was done on our stage in the Paramount lot. We mixed in Dolby Atmos. Gary [Megregian] and his team on the sound design, sound effects, and dialogue gave us tons of stuff to work with. Then, all the stuff that he worked on with the picture editorial team was also delivered to Joe and me. We were given a full day to go through the show and shape it before we presented it to the picture department and get it to where they felt it was true to the spirit of what they had done on the temp. Of course, our temp track was fleshed out and mixed in Atmos, and then mixed down to 5.1 after that.

We had a separate print master day where we were able to listen to the show in 5.1. Since we were mixing in Atmos the whole time, it was nice to get to do that. We were pleasantly impressed with how the Atmos was folding down to the 5.1 mix.

It was nice because you have these big, grand shots in the show and we were able to flesh out the backgrounds — like the rain and thunderstorm in the beginning, and then contrast that with the hospital’s eerie quiet.

RATCHED (L to R) SARAH PAULSON as MILDRED RATCHED and CYNTHIA NIXON as GWENDOLYN BRIGGS in episode 106 of RATCHED Cr. SAEED ADYANI/NETFLIX © 2020

From an aesthetic point of view, what were the showrunners’ tastes for the mix? Did they have specific tastes for how loud and often music should play? Or how loud the backgrounds should be?

JE: Ratched is an elaborate, colorful and glamorous film noir. It has this old movie feel, so the score needed to be huge and wide — reminiscent of old Hollywood. Ryan is a big fan of music that helps create the mood and edginess. Even in the bars and restaurants, the diegetic music plays as part of the score for that scene. Part of the mood in the hospital lobby scenes is this wafting, distant piano score that gives these scenes a heavenly feel. It’s light and airy.

Even in the bars and restaurants, the diegetic music plays as part of the score for that scene.

Ryan also uses the lack of music to accentuate a moment. For example, during the lobotomy scene with the ice pick in Ep. 2, you get a little break from the score which suspends that moment. You hear that great crack of the ice pick penetrating the skull, and then we’re back. It’s really interesting how often we use the music to build and then give you the silence before the effects. The added bonus is having the right sound for the payoff. Our editorial crew, led by Gary [Megregian] always seems to find the “right” sound for the payoff.

DA: In order to create those dynamic moments, Ryan’s a fan of us getting to play it nice and big when it’s appropriate and getting quiet in moments to help establish the creepiness too.

RATCHED (L to R) EMILY MEST as NURSE AMELIA, SARAH PAULSON as MILDRED RATCHED, ALICE ENGLERT as NURSE DOLLY, CHARLIE CARVER as HUCK FINNIGAN and JERMAINE WILLIAMS as HAROLD in episode 101 of RATCHED Cr. SAEED ADYANI/NETFLIX © 2020

Gary, what did this ‘old film’ feel mean for you in terms of sound editorial?

Sound-wise, it was about sculpting the locations and…trying to work the sound in relation to the music.

GM: The show itself is very noir-like. They reference Hitchcock a bit. And really, it was more about simplicity than it was about going over the top with things. I was able to work early on in the first episode with picture editor Shelly Westerman and her assistant Travis Weaver quite a bit as they were building the show. I was coming up with soundscapes for the hospital and for the town of Lucia where the hospital is located, The Sealight Inn, and different areas.

Sound-wise, it was about sculpting the locations and, when they transition into these more design-heavy sequences, trying to work the sound in relation to the music.

Working in Atmos, you have more space to spread the music out and have the dialogue sit up front. Did you do that for this show? Or, did you mainly keep the music up front?

JE: Our approach varied from scene to scene. The source music was played smaller so that it wasn’t necessarily in the rear or Atmos channels. We played it L-C-R with it being favored into the center.

But when you get to the score, we definitely used all the channels, especially in big crowd scenes, like restaurants and bars and big action scenes. Doug will throw some of his walla into the surrounds…

DA: just to envelop the audience…

JE: and to enhance the atmosphere. And I’ll throw some group walla in there really wide, spread it into the uppers and into the rears. We also leaned into the surrounding channels more during wartime battle scenes, or when the police and dogs are chasing Edmond through the woods, as well as the weird puppet show.

DA: Some of the main sequences in the beginning of Ep. 1, we have different rains in the top speakers and I tried to have rolls of thunder go from left to right and go from the tops to the sides and rears to create that feeling of movement like you’re enveloped in the storm.

…we have different rains in the top speakers and I tried to have rolls of thunder…create that feeling of movement like you’re enveloped in the storm.

We picked our moments when we could really utilize the Atmos surround field. But we keep in mind that there will be playback in smaller formats. So, we check our mix in 5.1 to make sure that it is translating the way we want it to.

JE: Ryan is a writer and so every single word is of the utmost importance to him. We really massage the shows to — even when they are big — get out of the way of the dialogue so that every line can be heard. It’s very important to me as a dialogue mixer that the most important storytelling element is always intelligible to the audience. I hate it when I’m watching something and I miss a line because I’m taken out of the fantasy world for that moment.

By the time Ryan comes in to review the show, we usually only get a few notes from him.

The dialogue does sound great! And there are some potentially challenging locations, like the seaside motel (The Sealight Inn) where Mildred Ratched stays, and of course the spacious areas in the hospital. If those were challenging locations for the production dialogue, you’d never know it by listening to the final track!

JE: Thank you!

There were challenges because some of the rooms, especially in the hospital, are big rooms, and have a natural room bounce to them. If you go to a different miking or to an ADR line, then you have to match that room bounce. We have to match everything to that — match our Foley, our ADR, and our group. The reverb or slap we use has to sound like what is on the production dialogue.

As far as The Sealight Inn, those were typically very quiet environments. So quiet that when we get next to a lamp in the room, you hear the incredible high whine of the electricity running through the lamp. That’s something we can typically notch out, but some have harmonics and so it takes several notches to get that buzz or whine out and then it cuts to a different angle and there is no whine. Or more often it’s a different pitch and collection of whines. So, it takes a lot of massaging to get the dialogue to sound smooth. Those are some of the typical issues we encountered on this show.

DA: When I’m working on backgrounds, I always try to give Joe support where he needs it and to stay out of his way when he needs me to do that. Like, in that hotel location, we were playing waves off-stage, rolled off so you felt like you were next to the ocean. With that, we were able to give Joe some tones to help keep everything sounding smooth. It’s a little bit of smoke and mirrors to help Joe with some of the dialogue when he needed it.

In the opening location, we’re inside this grand church and there’s such beautiful reverb. The walla that we hear, was any of that production or was it group ADR that you effected with reverb?

JE: In the church, there’s not much slap on the production dialogue but we wanted the feeling that this church was huge. So I added reverb and delay to the original dialogue. There was production crowd there but that was also enhanced with group ADR. Some of it was dry so you can understand what they’re saying but then some is really wet so that you get that bounce you’d get in a huge room like that. It’s a mixture of everything.

I did put a separate delay on the uppers and the rears so you get that sense of depth.

I did put a separate delay on the uppers and the rears so you get that sense of depth.

For reverb, I was using Audio Ease Altiverb and I also have a big Church patch in the Lexicon 960 that I particularly like.

One of the things about the church was that there was some kind of warm hum but I wanted the dialogue to be a little purer. With iZotope RX, I could find that warm hum and diminish it — but not totally take it out because it was in the range of the dialogue. I wanted to diminish it a little bit so it wouldn’t sound like there was a hum through the entire sequence. But having that cleaned-up dialogue with that big, clean bounce made it feel just right.

When Mildred first visits the hospital and she’s standing in the grand reception area, you’d think that space would sound more ‘live’ but it didn’t. It was quiet and restrained…

DA: They wanted us to keep it quiet. Even though this was in a mental hospital, there weren’t screams coming from everywhere all the time. It’s more like this quiet creep with these little textures you are hearing throughout the show. That was done on purpose because they really wanted the story to be about the characters but they did want this eeriness in the hospital.

Sometimes there’s a dread tone we have in there, to add some darkness.

There was a mixture of tones. You’ll hear a little activity there in the lobby with the nurses, a bit of the elevators but a lot of the hallways are played pretty stark. Sometimes there’s a dread tone we have in there, to add some darkness. It was more about experimenting with the different atmospheres just to help with the creepiness. That way the moments like Mildred discovering the nurse having sex in the bathroom, you don’t know what’s going on when you hear the noises in the hallway. We’re able to build that off-screen and fill the space with banging and groaning. You don’t know what’s happening until she throws open the door. It was definitely a choice for the hospital to keep it this eerie, dreadful place.

JE: In the lobby and in the waiting areas, in the common areas, they’d have this really ethereal music going. It’s more reverb then it is dry music. It’s more like the bounce back you’d get from a deep reverb, to make it feel like it’s amorphous and coming from everywhere. It’s not coming from a particular instrument in the corner or a speaker in the corner; it’s coming from everywhere. That was one of Ryan’s favorite things about the common areas.

RATCHED (L to R) SARAH PAULSON as MILDRED RATCHED and DANIEL DI TOMASSO as DARIO in episode 101 of RATCHED Cr. SAEED ADYANI/NETFLIX © 2020

You’d expect the inside of the hospital to sound like Bedlam. But it’s not that at all! It’s quiet and controlled. How were you able to use sound to play with the varying tones and moods of the hospital in relation to what’s happening in the story?

GM: The one thing we were told from the beginning was that the hospital, while it’s a place to treat mentally ill patients, it’s not a loony bin. So we treated it almost as a spa. There wasn’t a lot of activity. You never heard much activity from the patients. The busiest areas would be the lobby and the common area, but that was so minimal. There weren’t a lot of wallas. It was mostly tones.

Then, when we shifted to the hallways, the life goes away. You feel the tone more than you hear it.

RATCHED (L to R) SARAH PAULSON as MILDRED RATCHED and CYNTHIA NIXON as GWENDOLYN BRIGGS in episode 103 of RATCHED Cr. SAEED ADYANI/NETFLIX © 2020

Visually, there are interesting effects, like the split-screen scenes and the color changes — the scene will turn green or red. How did that influence your mix on those scenes?

DA: There were sound design aspects that we had, like a whoosh or ethereal quality they created with sound design. On the stage, as the scene shifted colors, I would take some stereo sound design elements from the front and have them go over us, or out to the sides and go behind us. I’d still keep the sounds up front, but I’d make the sound envelop the audience. So, I did that to support the color shifts.

…as the scene shifted colors, I would take some stereo sound design elements from the front and have them go over us, or out to the sides…

Later, with the interesting wipes they were doing visually, we would move the wipe sound design around the room, depending on which way the screen was wiping.

I got to do a lot of subtle panning in the show.

JE: It was interesting that they decided on that color shift, going to green to denote envy or jealousy or whatever emotion they were trying to add to the show by doing that. It took us all by surprise the first time we saw it. But it plays into the show in the long run.

The score is never at a loss for building around that change as well.

The score is never at a loss for building around that change as well. So, by the time you reach the end, it’s really dynamic and the sound design is big. It’s a neat little trick that they did.

It’s interesting because music editor David Klotz — who is our music editor on every Ryan Murphy show — I’d ask him if we should do something here with the music, but he’d say nope; it’s all there in the sound design and the score is just playing and building and building and the color shifts are supported by sound design.

What about your approach to the sound design, Gary? How did you support those visual effects with sound?

GM: There’s that scene in Ep. 1 when Mildred is walking down the hall before she walks in on the nurse. When the color shifts, we pull out most of the hospital ambience and we introduced more designed tones into the room. We’d get out of the traditional sounds of that room and go into lower frequency tones, dissonant tones to shift, aurally, the perspective of the shot.

Music took over for a big chunk of that, too, in those moments.

Music took over for a big chunk of that, too, in those moments.

The picture department had ideas for those visuals. I probably dealt more with the picture department than with Ryan and Alexis. I’ve been working with Alexis for close to 10 years now and she trusts our process. They do so much on their end to shape the show, giving us a road map of where we need to go. The dialogue and picture editors are the proxies for Alexis and Ryan because they work so closely with them. So, I work closely with the picture department, probably more so on this than on other shows or in other camps.

RATCHED (L to R) CHARLIE CARVER as HUCK FINNIGAN, JUDY DAVIS as NURSE BETSY BUCKET and SARAH PAULSON as MILDRED RATCHED in episode 103 of RATCHED Cr. COURTESY OF NETFLIX © 2020

There was a lot of music in this show; it was nearly non-stop. It did stop for critical sound design moments, like Mildred and the ice pick scene in the hotel room. Did you know there was going to be so much music when you were creating the sound design? How did that impact your approach to creating sounds?

GM: We did know that. And when we started working on sounds we had a temp cut of the episode. We could get a sense of how they wanted to design it and we knew that music was so heavy. One nice thing about playing the hospital more like a spa was that we knew there weren’t going to be too many sounds conflicting with the music.

We used the tub clanks and the steam whistles…as a way to create tension and play along with the music.

The important thing was to build up tension when we needed it, like in the Tub Room when they lock Mrs. Cartwright in the bath. We used the tub clanks and the steam whistles and water bubbling as a way to create tension and play along with the music.

The actual doors on the tub on set were flimsy. So, we had to help with that to sell the idea that they’re strong doors with solid latches that couldn’t be broken.

RATCHED (L to R) SARAH PAULSON as MILDRED RATCHED in episode 103 of RATCHED Cr. COURTESY OF NETFLIX © 2020

Did Foley help with that? Did Foley play an important role, or was it mainly hard effects?

GM: Foley was a huge part of it. It’s those details that glue everything together. We’re using the same Foley team that I’ve used for a long time — Foley artist Noel Vought and Foley mixer Jacob McNaughton. They do an amazing job of giving us sounds that sit in the cracks and accentuate the details.

Foley is the glue that holds things together for the show.

It was a combination of hard effects and Foley. I feel like the Foley is the glue that holds things together for the show. It’s fascinating to see what Foley brings to a scene and a shot or effect. It gives you that detail that’s so hard to cut from a library. When we’re cutting hard effects we’re hitting the accents and Foley is getting all the little details, the groans and creaks that tie everything together.

RATCHED (L to R) JON JON BRIONES as DR. RICHARD HANOVER in episode 104 of RATCHED Cr. SAEED ADYANI/NETFLIX © 2020

Did you have a favorite scene for sound in this series?

GM: My favorite in general was the first episode. That’s where we establish the world, and we did so much work with Shelly and Travis. She would send me a sequence and their ideas for sound from the cutting room. We were taking those ideas and elevating them.

[The picture editors] were great in letting us do what we do but also collaborating to make the show what it is.

I can’t speak highly enough of Shelly. She’s an amazingly collaborative picture editor, as are the other picture editors Peggy Tachdjian and Danielle Wang. They were great in letting us do what we do but also collaborating to make the show what it is.

We spent the most time with Ep. 1 and we did the shows in order. We would get sequences occasionally for other episodes down the road but for the most part we’d get a complete show. The first episode, though, we worked on it a bit at a time before getting the first turnover to finish the editorial work.

RATCHED Episode 106 of RATCHED Cr. SAEED ADYANI/NETFLIX © 2020

What was the most challenging scene for you to mix?

JE: There’s a couple of sequences in the later shows, a back story on Mildred and her brother that tells you about how they grew up. This is interspersed with a puppet show. That was interesting because it’s going back and forth — sometimes you’re in the puppet show and sometimes you’re in real life and the characters are talking through it. So it’s linear but at the same time you’re intercutting visually between a puppet show watched by children and Mildred and the puppet show within the puppet show which is Mildred and her brother in the past. So that was a challenge.

There’s calliope music that starts the puppet show and that becomes score. The score takes us through the sequence. To help the transition between the puppet show and the real-life actors, we played the laughter of the children on the left side of the screen and the real-life actors on the right. But then the image would change sides and so too would the sound.

Another scene would be the electrocution scene.

RATCHED (L to R) VINCENT D’ONOFRIO as GOV. GEORGE WILBURN in episode 108 of RATCHED Cr. SAEED ADYANI/NETFLIX © 2020

DA: The electrocution scene was definitely tricky because we have an electric chair in one room and the visitors room on the other side of the glass where people are watching it. We’re in the execution chamber at the same time. That was tricky to keep that super-powerful, loud electrocution feeling going when we’re on the other side of the glass. We experimented a few different ways with playing it behind the glass but there are times on some cuts where we play it straight across because processing the sound was taking away from the power. It took some experimentation to get that sequence right.

There are some other flashbacks with Mildred, where she is a nurse in the war and she’s in a MASH tent and we have distant war sounds going on. That was tricky because Mildred and the soldier are whispering. It was tricky to keep that intimate but still keep the danger of the war present.

RATCHED (L to R) JON JON BRIONES as DR. RICHARD HANOVER in episode 105 of RATCHED Cr. SAEED ADYANI/NETFLIX © 2020

Another tricky scene was with Dr. Hanover at the spring dance in the hospital after he shoots up the amphetamine. There are speed changes in the film and the music speeds up. There are changes in the laughter and walla. That was a tricky, challenging scene for sound design.

The camera spins and so we were able to move crowds, laughter, whooshes, and the music all around to match the movement for when it slowed down and sped up. What helped us there was what was going on with the movement of the camera. We were able to work our mix around that. But let’s say the camera spins left, I might have the effects go right and Joe would take the music a different direction. Then all of a sudden, we’d take the sound away and you’d hear muffled breathing from Dr. Hanover. It was a trip!

JE: We did pitch bends and all kinds of things like speed changes in the music. It was done well and David Klotz did a great job on the music in having it not sound like it was being manipulated digitally. It had a more natural feeling.

There was a lot of great sound design and a lot of good laughter. Gary shot a lot of great group for that. Doug did a tremendous job of moving the elements around to make it even more unsettling.

DA: Then it would all stop.

In this show, depending on the episode, there was a ton of trickiness. There was a water treatment in Ep.3 and we had to grow the danger of this therapeutic tub because they were essentially boiling this woman alive. We were building up with the bubbles, steam and whistling, and the music. And the characters are talking at the same time. So that was tricky.

We were building up with the bubbles, steam and whistling, and the music.

There was another water treatment scene in Ep. 4 with Charles, and it’s this Creature from the Black Lagoon homage as he’s stumbling down the hallway afterward.

There were multiple scenes that posed interesting challenges and it was a lot of fun to play with.

JE: The show gets weirder and weirder as it goes.

DA: Ryan always creates these very rich worlds that are vibrant and lets us work with the soundscape to help shape the story. You never know what you’re going to get with Ryan. For the story that he’s telling, he might go another direction with the sound. It’s fun to work for him because we are always on our toes.

RATCHED (L to R) JON JON BRIONES as DR. RICHARD HANOVER in episode 104 of RATCHED Cr. SAEED ADYANI/NETFLIX © 2020

In terms of sound editorial, what are you most proud of on Ratched?

GM: I’m proud of our collaborative effort with the picture department and the team of editors I have. Jason Krane, MPSE is one of the best dialogue editors I’ve ever worked with. John Snider is our sound effects editor. We have a full team at Technicolor that helps give support when we need it, and they were primary in shaping the show.

That’s what I’m most proud of, that we’re able to work well within our family.

We did so little ADR on the show and that’s a testament to the production mixer John Bauman, CAS and Jason as well, and Joe [Earle]. We tend not to clean too much before we send our dialogue to the stage. There were scenes we did get ahead of time that the picture department needed us to work on to Denoise and clean things up for them. But, we like to send things to the stage because Joe’s chain is so clean. He doesn’t do a lot, but he does a lot. It’s a very minimal approach. He doesn’t hit stuff hard at first. We had some time on the show to dial in the processing to see what he could get rid of. Then, we could re-attack certain scenes to take some more noise out. But we did very little ADR and that’s a huge testament to the crew.

I feel like it’s a team effort, with the picture department too! I’ve worked with these editors on other shows. And it’s a family. That’s what I’m most proud of, that we’re able to work well within our family. We’ve got a lot of good people and talented people, from the engineers to the assistants. I can’t speak highly enough of the crew that we have and the team that we put together. To be able to be a part of what Ryan and Alexis have put together is the most rewarding part of all of this.

Please share this: