Mix Presents Sound for Film & TV Looks at The Big Picture with ‘Twisters’

Culver City, CA (September 10, 2024)— The 11th annual Mix Presents Sound for Film & Television event will feature a variety of panels, workshops, keynotes and more, and now presents the inaugural presentation of The Big Picture, a panel looking at the past, present and future of film sound with an eye-opening look at the audio of the Twister films.

The panel, exploring the classic 1990s eco-thriller Twister and its modern-day sequel, 2024’s Twisters, will be a must-see at the 11th annual Mix Presents Sound for Film & Television, an all-day event to be held Saturday, September 28, on the Sony Pictures Studios lot in Culver City, Calif.

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From ‘Twister’ to ‘Twisters’: A Generation of Sound Art & Technology

When Twister premiered in May 1996, digital tools had become common in film and television production, but by no means everyday. Mag dubbers still filled machine rooms, though DAWs and hard drives had been moving in alongside. Neve introduced the DFC that year, and DVDs made their commercial debut. Netflix.com, which would deliver those DVDs by mail, was still two years from launch. By the time Twisters premiered in July 2024, re-energizing the thrill of going to a theater to see a summer blockbuster on the big screen, well…a lot had changed. In this special inaugural presentation of The Big Picture, moderator Tom Kenny sits down with two-time Oscar-winning supervising sound editor Stephen Flick and Dolby Atmos remix engineer Doug Mountain from Twister, and four-time (15 nominations) Oscar-winning re-recording mixer Christopher Boyes and Oscar-winning supervising sound editor/sound designer Al Nelson from Twisters, to talk about those generational advancements, while keeping in mind that though technologies may change, the art of sound storytelling remains the same.

Al Nelson • Sound Supervisor / Designer • Skywalker Sound

Al Nelson began his career in the machine rooms of Skywalker Sound over 25 years ago slinging mag for Star Wars, Jurassic Park and Titanic. Coming up through the ranks, Al was fortunate to grow under the mentorship of such sound icons as Ben Burtt, Gary Rydstrom and Randy Thom amongst many others. Today, Al is fortunate to collaborate as a sound designer with many new and influential filmmakers. Al’s recent projects include Top Gun: Maverick, Jurassic World: Dominion and Twisters. Al graduated with a degree in music composition and technology from Florida State University.

Doug Mountain • Supervising Sound Editor – Rerecording Mixer • Warner Brothers Post Production Services

Doug Mountain has been recording, editing and mixing audio for film, television, and music for over 35 years. He is currently one of the leading authorities on digital audio and editing.

Doug is currently a Supervising Dialog Editor and a Rerecording Mixer for Warner Brother Post Production Service at the Warner Brother Studios in Burbank California.

He has previously been a consulting engineer for National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Among his work with the Academy Doug has been a Sound Designer and Engineer of the Grammys Awards for the past 23 years.

In recent years, Doug has had a successful return to Sound Editing and has worked on such notable projects as The Walking Dead (AMC), Fear the Walking Dead (AMC), All American (CW), Catch-22 (Hulu), Animal Kingdom (TNT), APB (Fox), The Mick (Fox), Community (NBC), Duets (ABC), Paranormal Activity and Paranormal Activity 2 (Paramount), Super 8 (Paramount), Community (NBC), Duets (ABC). Alita: Battle Angel (Fox), Sidways, The Mist, Spiderwick Cronicles, Hotel for Dogs, Bride Wars, Breaking Bad (AMC), Numbers (CBS) and many more.

Doug has been most recently been the driving force behind Warner Brother’s Atmos Upmixiing of previously released feature films including Enter The Dragon, North by Northwest, and Twister.

His past engineering credits include Product Specialist for AMS Neve, Spruce Technologies, Waveframe, and Director of Technology for Todd-AO DVD.

He has been a Studio Engineer for Todd AO, Widget, and IMN Creative Services where he designed and built multiple dubbing stages in the Los Angeles area.

Doug was also member of the Engineering Design Team for Ascent Media’s DMDC facility. The largest post production facility in North America, Located in Burbank California.

Stephen Hunter Flick • Supervising Sound Editor • Independent

Stephen Hunter Flick is a multiple Oscar-winning Sound Designer with an esteemed career spanning 35 years, having worked on some of the most beloved films in modern Hollywood history. He employs traditional as well as cutting-edge techniques to create the modern soundtrack. Flick challenges the entire sound effects team to work in a tight, collaborative manner, exchanging critique, processes and ideas to make the sound effects track more “organic” and logical to the sonic world of each individual picture.

Flick comes from a background in music, puppetry, and college theater with a B.A. from San Jose State, ’71, and Graduate Studies in Cinema, USC, ’75. He continues to play Jazz Saxophone and Flute in a number of traditional and contemporary ensembles. He has taught Saxophone and Sound Design professionally, and has been teaching at USC Cinema since 2013.

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The all-day event includes a series of expert panel presentations, technology demonstrations, and profiles of the sound for many of the year’s top films and television/streaming series. It is held in the world-renowned re-recording facilities of Sony Pictures Post-Production Services. The Keynote Conversation will feature Ai-Ling Lee and Onnalee Blank discussing “Finding the Beat, Establishing the Tone.”

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Sponsors at presstime include Avid, Meyer Sound, Sweetwater, Women’s Audio Mission, Focusrite, ADAM Audio, Advanced Systems Group, FOX Studio Lot, Guitar Center Pro, Pro Sound Effects, Blackmagic Design, NBCUniversal, Citygate Studios and Remoto.

For more information on programming and registration, please visit Mix Presents Sound for Film & Television.