Behind The Scenes
Visit our main page for mpegs of the series.
Episodes 1 - 6
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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Tatiana Swan & David Koenigsberg
Discussing the wrap of episodes 1-6.
January 30, 1999
Photograph by John C. Graves
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Episodes 7 - 10
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
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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
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Harry Sabin
Studying his part as the lead guest character (Percy), in episodes 7 & 8.
November 1999
Photograph by Gene Graves
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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
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Peter Beckman & John C. Graves
Finally getting a break from multi-channel digital recording.
November 1999
Photograph by Connie Rivera
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Alex King
Command Post is all cleaned up and ready for another day of recording.
November 1999
Photograph by Jo Kennedy or Connie Rivera
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Peter Beckman
Awaiting his next, big scene.
November 1999
Photograph by David Koenigsberg
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Episodes 11 - 13
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
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Jo Kennedy, Hazel O'Connor & David Koenigsberg
The stars help set up the recording studio.
January 2001
Photograph by Peter Beckman
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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David Koenigsberg, Connie Rivera & Jo Kennedy
Connie gives David what he fears the most, a hug.
January 2001
Photograph by Peter Beckman
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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
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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
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