How The Historical Sound of ‘Franklin’ Was Made – with Ruy García and Tom Fleischman

Apple TV+ miniseries Franklin is a biographical drama about Benjamin Franklin and his pursuit of military aid from French King Louis XVI for the American Revolutionary War. Set in the late 1700s, the series showcases the vibrant textural and tactile sounds of that era, and sets the scenes with French-speaking crowds and ambiences with birds native to the French countryside. Here, supervising sound editor/re-recording mixer Ruy García and re-recording mixer Tom Fleischman talk about sourcing period-appropriate sounds like rifles and muskets, recording French language loop group and era-appropriate foley for wigs, dresses, heels, and chandeliers, and working with production effects for Franklin's printing press. They share their approach to the mix, working with composer Jay Wadley's score, and much more!

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Interview by Jennifer Walden, photos courtesy of Apple TV+; Ruy García; Tom Fleischman

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Details make all the difference in the Apple TV+ series Franklin, which transports audiences back to the late 1700s France when Benjamin Franklin petitions the French King for military support against the British in America’s Revolutionary War. Every stunning visual detail is brought to life through meticulously crafted sound – from French-speaking loop-grouped crowds that populate the streets to wooden-soled heels that reverberate through the halls of opulent mansions. Every sonic detail — big and small, on-screen and off – was carefully planned out, edited in, and mixed with precision.

Here, 2x-Emmy-winning supervising sound editor/re-recording mixer Ruy García and Oscar-winning re-recording mixer Tom Fleischman discuss their approach to creating and mixing the lavish world of Franklin. Both García and Fleischman have worked with Franklin‘s director/executive producer Timothy Van Patten before, on his award-winning HBO series Boardwalk Empire.

García talks about building in details using a trove of production effects – including Franklin’s printing press – that was integral for maintaining the accuracy and feel of the show, and era-appropriate foley that included wig and dress recordings, creating discrete fires for each fireplace, sourcing weapon sounds for that time period, and how the instruments on-screen (like Franklin’s Glass Armonica) were handled. Fleischman, who mixed dialogue and music, talks about finding the right balance for the crowd sounds to fill out the world without obstructing the dialogue (spoken with heavy French accents at times), working with composer Jay Wadley’s beautiful orchestral score, mixing the series moment by moment to make sure each detail comes through, and more!

Franklin — Official Trailer | Apple TV+

When did you get started on Franklin, and what did the showrunner(s) want you to tackle first? Was there a specific scene or sound(s) they were particularly focused on?

Ruy García (RG): We started looking at material in January 2023 and put a library together for Coleen Sharp and Joe Hobeck (picture editors) to use on their temp tracks. There were some pretty specific period-appropriate weapons used during the American Revolutionary War for Ep. 2, like mortars, cannons, Brown Bess and Charleville muskets for the Americans, Ferguson and Pattern 1176 infantry rifles for the British troops, etc.

L to R: Ruy Garcia (sound supervisor/re-recording mixer), Missy Cohen (music editor), and Tom Fleischman (re-recording mixer)

Isaac Derfel (sound effects editor) and I assembled a lot of French ambiance and nature tracks and live mansion and palace interior tone recordings, including distant and close up antique doors, and voices and movement with natural echo. Having worked with Timothy Van Patten (director/executive producer) before, I knew we would need a lot of intricate background action sounds.

Each episode had its own special needs. Bells are a prevalent leitmotif throughout the series as a means of communication. Even in quiet scenes, we can always hear the help working in the background. All the fireplaces are cut with discrete crackles to snap and pop with intentional timings. We also had fun with the peacocks during the garden party.

Tom Fleischman (TF): I didn’t begin with Franklin until the mix began so I came in later. I did see an editor’s cut of the first episodes before we began, but I began the mix with Episode 1 and proceeded through in order. Since the mix schedule is limited, my process on episode shows like this is to just get everything up and mix it, taking it a scene at a time. One of my biggest challenges throughout the series was to make some of the actor’s French accents as intelligible to an American audience as possible.

Franklin is a historical drama set in 1776 – mostly in France. Can you talk about setting the scene sonically for the show – from finding era-appropriate source sounds for the BGs and props to foley for period-appropriate shoes and clothing?

RG: Tim had obviously done a lot of research, which he shared during our spotting sessions. He suggested some literature that was very useful to understand what that era sounded like. There’s a book titled Le Tableau de Paris by Louis Sebastian Mercier that goes into fantastic detail explaining all you saw, heard, and smelled around that time. There’s also Taschen’s gorgeous edition of Kubrick’s Napoleon, which includes all his unbounded investigation of that era.

A fellow sound designer was nice enough to share his library of French birds and countryside sounds and I have a lot of period sound effects collected from previous projects.

Steven Visscher (foley editor) and foley mixer Jo Caron’s foley team had fun with heels, chandeliers, clanking swords and rattling horse straps, recording with perspectives that matched what’s on the screen so we could continue the movements off-camera. We had a separate day of recording just for the dress and wig movements, which as you know, are very prominent in this show. They also did intricate metalwork recordings for the king’s workshop.

Recording historical Foley for Franklin

TF: Obviously, most of this work is done in preparation for the mix, and my job is to make it all play naturally along with the dialogue and music elements. Music was an extremely important element in the soundtrack so dialogue, music, and sound effects had to be balanced in such a way as to allow each of them to play their parts in telling the story. Jay Wadley ’s score was a driving force in the track and supported the emotional moments in the story spectacularly.

Did you capture any field recordings for the show? Or, did you get any recordings from production for specific doors, bells, clocks, carriages, or things like that?

RG: Production sound mixers Stéphane Bucher and Josselin Panchout supplied pristine dialogue tracks and tons of beautiful production recordings, all with precise documentation and eloquent notes. We had the usual boom and lav recordings plus a plethora of LCR crowd, ambience, rehearsal takes, and wild tracks that were invaluable for keeping the accuracy and feel of the show, especially in the wide shots.

Matt Rigby (dialogue editor) took extreme care cleaning and restoring the tracks to remove any non-period-appropriate noises without losing the integrity of the recordings. I believe we had more PFX than dialogue tracks.

A big part of setting the scene is building crowds for the streets of Paris, the taverns, the port, the garden parties… Can you talk about the loop group for the show?

RG: That was one of our first discussions starting the show. Ruth Hernandez (ADR supervisor) and Marissa Littlefield (ADR editor), who also worked on EP. 1, are both extremely talented and have vast experience working with demanding group scenarios. We had very specific cues with period-appropriate texts and we had to make sure everything was covered, from mobs of drunks to Latin preachers. Ruth did a lot of research into the period to figure out how people lived in those days – who would be at the market? Who would be at the court? What did they do? Where did the battle where Lafayette was wounded take place and what was the outcome? What would the soldiers shout? Basically, we wanted to keep it as authentic and immersive as possible. There are also a few background characters, like the wig thief, market barkers, or the cobblestone pavers that Tim wanted to accentuate. We then sweetened and widened all the outdoor and party crowds with effects recordings.

The French group was cast and coordinated by Audrey Abiven and recorded at Creative Sound. in Paris. The British group was coordinated by Vanessa Baker at Goldcrest in London. We used a boom operator and an LCR array to match what we had on production and then Tommy [Fleischman] painstakingly panned and placed every voice in the right soundscape.

TF: The most important thing in mixing loop group recordings is to make sure that nothing distracts the audience from what’s going on in the scene, and to make it play naturally and realistically to support what’s in the background picture and what’s happening in the story.

…the crowd needed to be loud and boisterous without interfering with the important dialogue (with difficult accents)…

Small moments, like Beaumarchais almost being run down by a horse and carriage, can be made more realistic by carefully placed vocal reactions, but too much, or too loud, or too long can break the suspension of disbelief and ruin the scene.

Another example would be the club scenes with Temple and his pals where the crowd needed to be loud and boisterous without interfering with the important dialogue (with difficult accents), and the equally important source music playing in the club. A lot of care goes into how loop group ADR is used in the mix.

What went into the sound of Franklin’s printing press?

RG: What you hear is mostly the original press recorded on location plus some sweeteners for stress and extreme close-up details.

What about the FortePiano and the Glass Armonica? And other instruments or singing for the show?

RG: Music supervisor Michael Hill with music editor Missy Cohen oversaw the pre-records and all music sequences. They made sure the right instruments were employed, with the sensitivity that these also had to work sonically and dramatically.

Thomas Bloch performed the Glass Armonica; his repertoire goes from Messiaen to Daft Punk. His hands are what you see on close-ups. There are also a couple of places where I processed glass harmonica samples as sound design elements.

Rebecca Cypess – a dean of Rutgers music department and expert on Madame Brionne and women in classical music – performed the actual FortePiano recordings, including “The March of the Insurgents,” which we see Mme. Brillon practicing at the top of Ep. 4. She then plays it for Franklin with a small ensemble in her salon, and finally at the 4th of July party where it’s performed by the orchestra on the steps of the Chaumont mansion. She played a 200-year-old instrument they unearthed in Philly.

The on-camera stuff was done with Budapest East Connection, with arranger Peter Petjsik, who understands the period, including natural valveless horns, wooden fifes, etc. Jay Wadley (composer) and his mixer Daniel Kresco incorporated this sonic palette into the score and Missy cut it all together.

What’s been the biggest challenge in mixing the show?

RG: Every mix is a learning opportunity. Schedules keep getting shorter, so you have to plan ahead and be ready to prioritize objectively without sacrificing quality. Tommy led the way and I mostly did my best to make sound effects and atmospheres feel organic and not placed, striving for an immersive experience without getting in the way of the story.

My goal is to make every line of dialogue intelligible to the audience. If you can’t hear the words it’s very hard to follow the story.

TF: My biggest challenge as a mixer was dealing with some very heavy French accents which were on the verge of unintelligibility (I’m looking at you Marquis de Lafayette) and one actor in particular (who shall remain unnamed) who mumbled his way through his entire performance.

Ruy handled all of the sound effects in the show beautifully and I was left to work out the dialogue and music. The music was a joy to work with, as was most of the dialogue. It was all very well prepared and well recorded. My goal is to make every line of dialogue intelligible to the audience. If you can’t hear the words it’s very hard to follow the story.

What’s been the most unique part of working on the sound of Franklin?

Tim Van Patten and Tom Fleischman finishing the mix on ‘Franklin’

RG: It was a fun and relaxed process. It comes from the top down. Tim was decisive and clear about his expectations and needs; Catherine Farrell and her post team had anticipated any issues that could come up and were always flexible to adapt to whatever challenge we faced. Plus, we had a sound crew at the top of their game with all the support from Soundtrack NY. It was easy to stay focused and creative.

TF: Learning more about Benjamin Franklin and the history of our country. For me, the great thing about our jobs is in the stories we tell. Each one is unique.

A big thanks to Ruy García and Tom Fleischman for giving us a behind-the-scenes look at the sound of Franklin and to Jennifer Walden for the interview!

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