Behind The Scenes

Visit our main page for mpegs of the series.


Episodes 1 - 6

Hi Folks!  Even though alt tags were created for photo descriptions for blind people, I'm going to use this space to make wry comments on the action--David Koenigsberg

David Koenigsberg (the director), Jo Kennedy (Billi St. Kilda) & Hazel O'Connor (Holly Violet) sitting in the background
Going over a scene in episode 3 before recording. (We use metal music stands to hold the scripts.) On the left is a RCA 77 ribbon microphone we'd rent for narration.
January 21, 1999
Photograph by Reynaldo Rivera


I am not laughing here I'm adding walla.

David leads the cast (away from their mics) for some walla (background voices) for the opening bar scenes in episode 4.
January 23, 1999
Photograph by Jo Kennedy


Walla refers to the kind of sound you hear when there's no discernable words:  Walla, walla, walla.

David adds his own laughter to the walla during a take. (We use towells to get rid of the tinny sound reflection from the metal music stands.)
January 23, 1999
Photograph by Jo Kennedy


The cast & crew were always having fun when they weren't working.

Hazel O'Connor (Holly Violet) & Tatiana Swan, the Production Assistant & sometimes Casting Director
Playing around in the backyard of Command Post Studios.
January, 1999
Photograph by Jo Kennedy


This was not staged; John really did receive a phone call for me when I was setting up a shot.

John C. Graves (owner of Command Post with phone in hand)
In front, the mixing board; in back, the most important piece of equipment in the control room (the couch).
January 30, 1999
Photograph by David Koenigsberg


If you look carefully at the (almost) center computer screen you'll see an episode that we were editing.  (Probably episode 1.)

Tatiana Swan & David Koenigsberg
Discussing the wrap of episodes 1-6.
January 30, 1999
Photograph by John C. Graves




Episodes 7 - 10

Fred Ladd is best known for introducing anime in the U.S. with the series, Astroboy.  Cleve Reinhard was the Vice President of Feature Estimating at 20th Century Fox at the time of this photo.

Sitting clockwise from top center: David Koenigsberg, Cleve Reinhard, Hazel O'Connor, Jo Kennedy, Connie Rivera, Juliana Goitein, Fred Ladd, Harry Sabin, Raphael J. Noble & Ariel Cansino
The table read of episode 8 right before recording.
November 13, 1999
Photograph by Tatiana Swan


Tat was a huge help on the series and everyone loved her.  (For some reason this negative was way off color balance from the rest.  I color corrected it to match by using the couch stripes as reference.)

Tatiana Swan, Casting Director
Taking a break outside the recording studio (in what we call the "non-stop party room").
November 1999
Photograph by Gene Graves


Harry is a well-known animation storyman in Hollywood.

Harry Sabin
Studying his part as the lead guest character (Percy), in episodes 7 & 8.
November 1999
Photograph by Gene Graves


Another negative with screwed up color balance and overexposure.  I used the color of the wall and the slight tint on the hood (above the wall) as reference to match the other photos.

David Koenigsberg, Tatiana Swan & Connie Rivera (Blanqui Sanchez)
Celebrating another finished day of dialogue recording, David gets an orange juice from Connie.
November 1999
Photograph by Jo Kennedy


Recording several mics of dialogue, for 2 to 3 hours at a time, is one of the toughest jobs in the post world.  There's nothing else quite like it.

Peter Beckman & John C. Graves
Finally getting a break from multi-channel digital recording.
November 1999
Photograph by Connie Rivera


Everyday we'd make a mess and then clean it up.  As director, I never once got the chance to attend the non-stop party.

Alex King
Command Post is all cleaned up and ready for another day of recording.
November 1999
Photograph by Jo Kennedy or Connie Rivera


Some of the actors (including Peter here) would hang out after completing their scenes.

Peter Beckman
Awaiting his next, big scene.
November 1999
Photograph by David Koenigsberg




Episodes 11 - 13

We had to have comfortable headphones for our long sessions, so I splurged and bought Sony MDR-7506 headphones.

Jo Kennedy, Connie Rivera & John C. Graves
Reporting back to the recording studio for more episodes. (All those dangling cords are from the headphone amplifier in the ceiling to the headphones on the couch.)
January 2001
Photograph by Peter Beckman


Wow, great!  The stars are doing all the work!

Jo Kennedy, Hazel O'Connor & David Koenigsberg
The stars help set up the recording studio.
January 2001
Photograph by Peter Beckman


Connie delivers!

Connie Rivera, (behind Connie) Jo Kennedy, David Koenigsberg & John C. Graves
At 12 noon we do the table read and sometime between 1:00pm & 1:30pm, we're ready to go!
January 2001
Photograph by Peter Beckman


By the last batch of episodes, we all knew what to do and had a blast doing it.

Hazel O'Connor, Connie Rivera, David Koenigsberg & Jo Kennedy
Hazel telling a joke before we begin. Note that this is the standard configuration for the series. Hazel & Connie would share one mic (an AKG 414) and Jo Kennedy would have her own (AKG 452). They were split up this way since Jo's attack was much softer than Hazel & Connie's. Both mics are on booms with pop screens.
January 2001
Photograph by Peter Beckman


Even though recording takes place on hard drives, I found myself still telling John to roll tape.

John C. Graves
Looking through the studio window into the control room where John records a test onto a hard drive.
January 2001
Photograph by Peter Beckman


They're pals in real life.

Connie Rivera, Hazel O'Connor & John C. Graves
John adjusts Connie & Hazel's microphone & pop screen. (The stars are wearing jackets since the studio would always start cold and end up warm. Hazel hates air conditioning so we would try not to turn it on.)
January 2001
Photograph by Peter Beckman


Directing radio drama and animation dialogue are the hardest mediums I know of.  It's so much easier directing stage, film & television.  In radio drama & animation dialogue _you_ are the only one holding things up.

David Koenigsberg
David never directed from inside the control room. He would always be in the studio, sometimes on a couch with a red felt marker in hand.
January 2001
Photograph by Peter Beckman


After taking shots of us all day I thought I'd take one of Peter.

Peter Beckman
Peter would sometimes use a RCA 77 ribbon mic (shown in the very first photo) or a R44C ribbon mic (seen in the background--just to the right of the pop screen) for narration and the AKG 414 for character parts (as shown here).
January 2001
Photograph by David Koenigsberg


It looks like my head is about to explode!

David Koenigsberg, Connie Rivera & Jo Kennedy
Connie gives David what he fears the most, a hug.
January 2001
Photograph by Peter Beckman


The gals were way underexposed so I tried to bring them up as best I could.

Jo Kennedy, Hazel O'Connor & Connie Rivera
Lunchtime! (Usually around 3 or 4pm as the full hard drives are backed-up to Jaz drives.)
January 2001
Photograph by David Koenigsberg


Half hour episodes average 100 hours of editing.  Sound effects can really slow you down!

The Prisma recording & mixing program on a computer screen
(We did a lot of tweaking to get the screen color back towards a white for you to see.)
Here's an episode currently being edited. Tracks 1-6 are mono with individual equalization controls; tracks 7-12 are stereo pairs which all share the same equalization--which is usually flat. Those are mostly dialogue segments you see on tracks 1-6, stereo ambiance & sound effects on 7 & 8, 9 & 10 and stereo music cues on 11 &12.
2001
Photograph by David Koenigsberg


©2004 by David Koenigsberg.

This page was last modified on Friday, September 15, 2006.


Go Back To:
The Soul Patrol Radio Series
The Soul Patrol
DavidKoenigsberg.com