IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - June 2022 - 20

Penguins Mumble and Lovelace welcome Treadwell to the
Happy Feet Two premiere in 2011.
Chilling with some penguins, among them Williams (second
from left), after wrapping up for the day on Happy Feet Two
in Sydney, Australia.
supervising sound editor, for programming
the cues into the automated system,
rolling the synchronized machines,
and ultimately recording and playing
back the takes. Greg had been a recordist
himself and kind of took it upon himself
to train me. He explained what he was
doing and why he was doing it, and encouraged
questions. Eventually, he just
reached over, grabbed the arm of my
chair and pulled me behind the console.
He would supervise me and teach me
at the same time, and I was able to get
some hands-on experience with our television
clients. "
Two Feet Forward
Treadwell would later reunite with Deschaine
to work on what she calls one
of the most " enjoyable and rewarding "
experiences of her career, the Academy
Award-winning animated film Happy
Feet. In creating a world filled with singing
and dancing penguins, the movie's
director, George Miller, was adamant
about recording all of the characters in
a scene together and have them play off
20
of each other. This is common for animated
television, but at the time, it was
new territory for an animated feature.
Such a request required a more detailed
setup, Treadwell explains, with baffles to
achieve as much isolation as possible,
and microphone configurations for up
to six performers, all recording at once,
but on separate tracks for editing. And
if that wasn't enough traffic to conduct,
throw in the antics of the late actor
Robin Williams and the setting became
even more unpredictable and chaotic.
Miller wanted to ensure that everything
was always recorded, and it was up to
Treadwell to make sure that machines
were rolling and that every microphone
was up, even when the craziness was going
down.
" We had no clue what was going to
happen, " Treadwell admits. " The fun thing
about the process on Happy Feet was that
they would do several runs through a
scene, sticking to the script. Once they got
a few good performances as written, Robin
would ask George, 'Can we play now,
boss?' George would say yes, and then it
IEEE WOMEN IN ENGINEERING MAGAZINE JUNE 2022
just went wherever Robin and his fellow
penguin actors took it. A fair amount of
those ad libs ended up in the final cut. Part
of the joy of watching that movie when it
was released was hearing some of the stuff
the cast came up with during those 'play'
takes and how brilliantly they were used
by George and the sound editors. "
The film was such a success that
Treadwell and Deschaine were offered the
opportunity to join the team for the sequel,
Happy Feet Two, which was being recorded
in Sydney, Australia. Although living and
working in Sydney was " a wonderful experience, "
she adds that it wasn't without its
challenges, the first being that the recording
was to be done at Trackdown Studios,
which is a large scoring stage. With orchestral
recordings, the sound must have some
life, with an almost natural reverb. For dialogue
recording, especially dialogue that's
supposed to be outside, the sound needed
to be as dry and clean as possible. As a result,
heavy fabric curtains were hung, custom
baffles built, and carpeting laid down
to create a deadened voice recording setup
inside of the large stage.
IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - June 2022

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