Nina Rice Pursues Sonic Storytelling with Sound Devices Scorpio and CL-16
In-demand production sound mixer on bringing life to ‘controlled’ environments and setting the sonic stage for the perfect take
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, December 20, 2023 — Nina Rice has been a fixture of film and TV sets in the United Kingdom for more than a decade, with production sound mixing credits on The Crown, This is Going To Hurt, Saltburn, and most recently Barbie. Far beyond simply capturing the dialogue accurately however, Rice has built her career on an ability to take advantage of the creative possibilities of the sound mixer and following her instincts to help curate the exact sonic moods required to encourage great performances. To ensure that she can deliver on this promise on every take, she recently has made the Sound Devices Scorpio Mixer-Recorder and CL-16 Linear Fader Control Surface key components of her professional workflow.
Setting the sonic atmosphere
As a production sound mixer, Rice is one of dozens of professionals on any given film set ensuring that the production goes smoothly. Although her primary role is focused on the dialogue, Rice says that her job has other creative facets that may not be as immediately obvious. “You’re working in a very controlled environment and there’s a lot of collaboration with art departments – hiding speakers on set and planting mics in the right places so that they are doing the job but aren’t visible, or distracting to the actors,” she explained. “One of the challenges of any film set is to establish a sense of lived-in realism that makes the actors on set comfortable and that’s where creative sound work can really make a difference.”
A self-described ‘sonic curator’, Rice says that part of this process is knowing when to be active in helping to bring that vibe forward. In addition to capturing dialogue cleanly, Rice and her sound teams often take advantage of the collaborative atmosphere in filmmaking crews by getting creative with sound playback to help set the mood on set. “It really is more of an art form than people think — you’re adding elements to the moment that help the actors immerse themselves in the scene,” she says. “Sometimes that’s smart use of sound effects to get the environment, and other times that’s playing the right music before a take to get everyone in the right spirit. If you do it right it can really lift a scene.”
“It’s much more than just ‘sticking a mic on’ and recording. It’s storytelling with sound and it’s incredibly important. That being said, when you are doing that, you want to make sure it’s perfect every time. My main kit for that on set now is the Sound Devices Scorpio and CL-16.”
Freedom, visibility, and fidelity
A longtime Sound Devices user, Rice upgraded to the Scorpio just in time for the start of Barbie knowing she would need to make full use of its ample track count. Pairing it with the CL-16 enables her to get hands-on with everything she needs on a busy set with ease. “You always are prepped for anything that can happen on set, but it’s important to have gear that is flexible and easy to move around.” she explains. “The menus and workflow on Scorpio are extremely well-designed, so it was incredibly easy to shortcut anything we needed to do quickly. There’s also a huge time save in having all of that rerouting at your fingertips and not having to physically plug and unplug things every time you’ve got to move. It gave us so much more freedom to do what we needed to do.”
“The USB-C input is also incredibly useful for those spur-of-the-moment creative ideas — you can plug the iPad right in, sync up a song from Spotify, and get it pumping through to inspire the actors."
Streamlining her workflow also extended to the use of the SD-Remote App which enables her to give post-production teams immediate feedback from set and context for the sound recordings that they received. “It’s critical to give post production as much information as possible when you are sending them sound for sync since they aren’t on set themselves,” she said. “I love having the App because I can just hit ‘Create Sound Report’ and send it right off to them with notes so they know exactly what tracks to use and what takes are best. It also makes it easier to keep track of everything and stay organized.”
“Why we do it is for the art and the joy of it all,” she concluded. “It’s about creating something that we can all see together in the theater and enjoy together. Being able to have a rock-solid kit on set like my Sound Devices gear helps make that happen.”
Nina Rice is represented by RA Agency. For more information, please visit: https://ra-agency.online/
About Sound Devices
For 25 years, Sound Devices has created premier audio equipment that helps sound professionals capture superior audio. The company's products have been used on the sets of award-winning movies, TV shows, and documentaries. Sound Devices designs, assembles, and supports its products at their Reedsburg, Wisconsin, headquarters and their Madison, Wisconsin, and Rickmansworth, UK, offices.
For more information, visit www.sounddevices.com.
