Behind the Screen: Talking Sound for 'New Day Dawning' with Annabell Mallard

Working with Sound Designer, Anthony Narciso, Theatre students Bailey Fenn, Elle Hartman, and Annabell Mallard assisted with sound for the filming and post-production process of New Day Dawning. As sound assistants, they oversaw setting up the audio system for filming, putting mics on the actors during the filming sessions, and post-production editing of the recordings.

Annabell Mallard is a current Theatre major interested in pursuing the BFA Management degree when she gets the chance to interview. Her previous Auburn current includes “Together Apart”, Sound Assistant and she is currently working as part of the Production Management Team for the student festival, The Future is Here: A Student One-Act and Performance Festival.

They each were assigned different songs and their job was to mix the vocalist and backing tracks so that the audio sounded natural in the space the actor was filmed in. 

Mallard says her favorite part was being in the space and recording with the actors. “Since Covid, I have really missed being in a theatre space and producing theatre. Being back in the swing of things and having the film crew there made the whole process feel very alive, and that is something I have been missing with Zoom theatre.”

We asked Mallard how the process was different to the sound roles she has had for live theatre production and she told us it is more similar than you think.

“We were essentially mixing one song on a very small scale compared to mixing a large production,” Mallard says, “The ideas are the same, but the application is a little different. It was also a little difficult using mics with actors that are wearing masks but overall, from a sound standpoint the principles were the same!”

The above picture is a screenshot from Adobe Audition Session from The Impossible Dream, one of the songs Mallard mixed.

There’s still time to watch New Day Dawning and hear all of the sound assistant’s hard work. Get your tickets now at theatretickets.auburn.edu.

Last Updated: March 27, 2021