Another Day, Another Dahmer

by Amanda Beggs CAS

Without fail, one of the first questions I always get asked when someone finds out I worked on Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is, “How did you handle that subject matter?” Even for people who work in this industry, in sound, the top question hasn’t been about anything technical, “what mics did you use?” or “how did you film all the driving work?” People have been more curious about how I and the rest of the crew survived six months working on a relatively accurate show about one of the most prolific serial killers in the United States. With good reason, as at times, the subject matter did get very dark, the scenes very intense, and the prop food very … realistic. It was also a grueling shoot in terms of locations, night shoots, and multiple units shooting simultaneously.

Without fail, one of the first questions I always get asked when someone finds out I worked on Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is, “How did you handle that subject matter?” Even for people who work in this industry, in sound, the top question hasn’t been about anything technical, “what mics did you use?” or “how did you film all the driving work?” People have been more curious about how I and the rest of the crew survived six months working on a relatively accurate show about one of the most prolific serial killers in the United States. With good reason, as at times, the subject matter did get very dark, the scenes very intense, and the prop food very … realistic. It was also a grueling shoot in terms of locations, night shoots, and multiple units shooting simultaneously.

Before I go any further, I have to acknowledge and thank my crew of Boom Operator Zach Wrobel and Utility Sound Technician Saif Parkar, as well as the mixers and crew who came in to handle our second units. I was also very fortunate that Netflix responded positively to my request for a Y-16a trainee as a member of our Sound Department. Due to the length of the show, I was able to have three trainees; Britney Darrett, Leslie Metts, and Brandyn Johnson cycle through for about two months each, as well as host some incredible day-player trainees. Almost every single one of those trainees have gone on to become a full-time union Utility or Boom Operator, so I want to stress the importance of pushing for a trainee as a normalized member of the Sound Department! This is how we train the next generation of sound professionals.

With such intense scripts, I knew we were in for some emotional performances from our cast. Like any sound mixer, I place the utmost importance on capturing an actor’s dialog as authentically as possible, to avoid the need for ADR or looping. The biggest challenge for myself was staying alert and ready for an actor to jump from a whisper to a scream with no forewarning, and have that volume change from take to take. For Boom Op Zach, he had to work with the same level of attention, but with the added challenge of staying out of eyelines, while avoiding the countless reflections and shadows on our sets lit mostly with practicals. The all-metal gold bookshelf in Glenda’s apartment was a favorite for reflections. Saif, the Utility Sound Technician, was given the challenging task of wiring a main actor dressed in only a white T-shirt, fitted to his body; and to prepare for lots of physical exertion. During our first week, we realized the heartbeat of that actor was being picked up by the wire, and it was substantial enough that I was a little concerned. Luckily, a quick conversation with post let me know the heartbeat was removable.

As on any show, we have to work within the confines of the shot to capture quality sound. This show definitely gave us some challenges in regards to nontraditional coverage and shot design. This meant we had to rely on good sounding wires, creative booming, and many, many plant mics. On several occasions, there wasn’t even enough room to fit a boom pole to get the mic in the best spot, so Zach and Saif would resort to hand-holding the mics in the shock mounts, a move that was dubbed “the Brokaw.” Zach also had what I assume was a very exciting day of being strapped into a harness so that he could boom from the roof of one of our house locations. One of the benefits of having a trainee on the team means that the trainees could gain useful booming practice, under the supervision of the Boom Op, when grabbing off-camera lines. Post is always happy to get as many off-camera lines as possible, and it can sometimes cover the scene in the same way wild lines would, while saving production time. It’s also the perfect way to have a trainee work on skills that can only be acquired through physical practice, but in a less high-stakes environment like capturing on-camera sound.

One of the Sound Department’s worst challenges is always the dreaded “wide and tight” shot when multiple cameras are in play. Luckily, the option to either paint out the boom or simply do a plate shot for an upper third replacement has become not only more common, but also generally more well-received by cinematographers, directors, and producers. I had a conversation with our producers early on about whether we’d have the ability and budget to plan on painting out booms when it came to wide shots where getting a clean boom track was critical. They were very open and receptive. I always try and make that option the last resort, as I am aware of the potential costs each time we ask to break the frame, but there were a good number of moments on Dahmer where we absolutely needed permission to be in the shot, and luckily, we were given it. The interrogation/interview scene of Jeff by the two police officers was held in a room built on one of our stages—complete with two-way mirrors and windows. Because of the amount of dialog, and the emotional performances, the director wanted to cover the scene with multiple cameras, which of course, meant a wide two-shot, as well as singles. Breaking the frame allowed us to get the booms where we needed them, and still complete the scene as the director wanted.

I’ve been working with my Utility Saif for more than a decade. On one of our earlier movies together, the Boom Operator gave Saif the nickname “The Gardener” because of his ability to hide a plant mic pretty much anywhere. This is a skill I find highly invaluable, and then I lucked out twice on Dahmer because Zach is also a master gardener. DPA 4098’s have become such an integral part of my gear. With their small size, but directional pickup, a well-placed 4098 can rival a boom mic in some instances. The obvious choice is to place them in cars, which we did plenty of times, but we also hid them on set in various locations. Then there was the “desk stand” setup—exactly as it means, a desk stand that I’ve attached an Ambient QuickLok to the end where a mic clip would normally live. This allowed us to quickly drop any mic on a shock mount onto the set and place it on the ground, behind doors, on or under furniture, etc.

Hiding plant mics is a skill, but it’s even better when you can get away with having a plant mic “hidden” in plain sight. On this show, that required collaboration with our Props Department. Because this was a period piece, and there were many scenes that required prop microphones, I met up with our props team early on and we discussed where it would be helpful to have working mics that also looked appropriate for the time period and scene. We had tabletop mics in the many courtroom scenes, handheld mics for reporters on the scene when Dahmer’s apartment was being emptied by the police, and lavalier mics for the many recreations of historical interviews that were planned, from Geraldo to 60 Minutes.

For the handheld mics used by reporters, my job was to source real working mics that would closely match the prop mics our Prop Master had already rented. A silver Shure Beta 87A was the winner. The tabletop mics picked for the courtroom scenes were luckily already working mics. These came in handy because our judges’ robes were made of a surprisingly loud material, so a wire placed on a judge just picked up a lot of clothing noise. The courtroom scenes also lent themselves to a lot of big wides, to showcase the entire room, so having some working mics directly in front of certain characters was very advantageous. Recreating the few sit-down interviews that Jeff and his family did was relatively easy, we just had to find a lav and clips that looked close enough to the ones worn originally by the real people.

To circle back to the main question I’m always asked, how did we keep our spirits up and push through the six-month shooting schedule? I think it really came down to the makeup of the department, and how we would take turns lifting each other up. Everyone would cycle through days that just really wore them down, and so the rest of the team was always there to try and provide either a moment of levity or just an ear for venting. We always made sure everyone was hydrated or had snacks, and we quoted dialog from the show incessantly. We’d all latch onto some phrase or line that sounded particularly ridiculous when said out of context, and then we’d just repeat it unremittingly, usually in a passable-to-awful Wisconsin accent. Then of course, we had to start or end each day with our favorite phrase, which I believe Saif came up with: “Another day, another Dahmer!”

Our Set Lighting Technicians started one of our favorite silly traditions—the rubber chickens. Our Dimmer Board Operator had one on his cart and would squeeze it at random times throughout the day, and eventually he brought in a whole bag of mini-chickens and handed them out. I kept mine zip-tied to the front of my cart. Everyone would be spread out across the stage, or location, and you’d hear one go off, and then this cascade of multiple chickens screaming would echo in return. It never failed to make us all feel better, as silly and dumb as it was. Our final shooting day was a fun one filled with John Wayne Gacy drowning someone in a bathtub—end on a high note, they say! As a wrap gift, I gave our Dimmer Board Op a giant chicken, and when squeezed, the chicken would yell for forty seconds uninterrupted. Needless to say … it was glorious.

But that’s how you do it, that’s how you survive half a year working on a project that highlights the worst and darkest of humanity. You surround yourself with good and talented people and you allow them to have the natural ebb and flow of human emotions without holding them to some ridiculous and impossible standard of perfection. I am very proud of the work we did on Dahmer, and I owe that absolutely to my team.