SCORING BIG
Rifling through Alan Meyerson’s catalogue of engineering and mixing work takes a while. His oeuvre is packed tight like extras in a wartime epic, but where one dot on the battlefield happens to be the calibre of a Julia Roberts or Johnny Depp. Films like Inception, Interstellar, Wonder Woman and Dunkirk are just some of his score credits, thanks to his longstanding relationship with Hans Zimmer and composers like James Newton Howard and Danny Elfman.
He’s also mixed records for Bryan Ferry, New Order, and Etta James, which has afforded him a unique reputation in Hollywood as being the go-to guy if you want a tougher, more aggressive film score sound.
When Meyerson kindly agreed to take me under his wing as part of a Churchill Fellowship, it didn’t take long to experience the sheer magnitude of a Meyerson job. He invited me to observe orchestral sessions for two big budget Hollywood film scores: Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (composed by Henry Jackman) at the Barbra Streisand Scoring Stage, Sony Studios in Los Angeles. Then Thor: Ragnarok (composed by Mark Mothersbaugh) at Abbey Road Studio 1 in London.
Following these recording sessions, I shadowed Meyerson and assistant film score engineer Forest Christenson during mixing sessions at Remote Control Productions, Los Angeles. I was going to get the whole picture, all the way to the final act.
AN ARRAY OF MIC OPTIONS
The score for featured a full symphony orchestra, choir, piano, celeste, harp and
