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With the sixth season of the hit show Dexter debuting tonight on Showtime, we thought it was a good time to share an interview Dolby did on our behalf last month with the show's sound mixer Greg Agalsoff. Our own Chris Chiarella reviewed the fifth season of Dexter on Blu-ray Disc over the summer and remarked on how clean the season's soundtrack was, courtesy of Dolby TrueHD 5.1-channel surround. "Dialogue is dependably clean... Everything is well-balanced against the effective music, and the clarity and punch of the audio always delivers a real you-are-there immediacy," said Chris. You can read more in his Dexter Season 5 Blu-ray review.
Also, Dexter fans can enter to win a copy of Dexter - the complete fifth season on Blu-ray Disc, along with some cool Dexter swag: an I Love Dexter black T-shirt and a Dexter and Harrison bobblehead doll (a prize package valued at $111.89 MSRP). Visit the Dexter sweepstakes page to enter.
What follows is a transcript of the interview with Dexter sound mixer Greg Agalsoff. A video version of this interview is also available on YouTube:
Q. How did you become a sound mixer?
A. I started back in 1976 over at Universal when we had a studio system at one particular studio for quite awhile and ended up for many many years as a sound utility technician and then moved up after 3 years to boom operator, which I did for about 19 years. You had mentioned the John Hughes films, had been in that capacity for 6 or 7 of his films. It has been quite a run, this has been a very interesting business to work in, as we all know. There's people coming from all parts of the world to be in it, the long hours get to you after a while but everyday there is a little bit of magic in it and you always look forward to going to work when you get up.
Q. How did you become involved in Dexter?
A. I became involved here through some people I knew that were doing the sound, they brought me in one day to do second unit, and actually I didn't start season 5, but some of the people that I was acquainted with on the sound crew, the mixer James Clark was moving on to go do another series and they asked me if I'd be interested in doing it. It fit well into my schedule and I was very excited about the show, I thought it would be a lot of fun to do.
Q. How does improved audio playback in the home affect your work?
A. Because of the new technology, because of the fact that people have all the new speakers, the new setups and all that... the left to right - it's nice. You feel your work is appreciated a little more. You're going to want to try to give everything you can to the audience. The technology we were using 10 years ago was reel to reel and now we're using 24-bit digital with a huge dynamic range. The tools at the disposal of the post-production people are able to help us out so much more too with lifting a line here and there. You just feel like your work is appreciated a little bit more, sound's making it live.
Q. Do the producers of Dexter give you a lot of freedom when capturing audio?
A. They have been so good to us, they've given us so many people to help us out, with the location people who are always in there trying to get things shut off before we arrive. We really don't have many restrictions placed upon us. The idea that we're able to use the tools that we want, whether it's a radio mic or if it's an overhead mic of course we want to get the overhead in wherever we can. They really haven't placed any restrictions upon us and the freedom has been very helpful.
Q. What is your personal home theater setup?
A. Currently we have a 5.1 we don't use too much, we're in the process of redoing our system now. We have a particular room picked out for viewing and we're looking forward to doing something with it. Probably be a good Christmas gifts to ourselves.
Special thanks to Craig Eggers and the gang at Dolby for arranging conducting this interview and to Greg Agalsoff for his participation. Tune into Showtime this fall for Dexter Season Six.
