Oct. 1, 2004
Academy Award nominee and production sound mixer Danny Michael has added to his long list of credits Paramount Pictures’ recent film, “The Stepford Wives.” A subversive and comic look at rampant consumerism and the quest for perfection, the film exposes what it really means to be human by looking beneath the veneer of an idyllic community nestled in our very imperfect world.

Featuring an extraordinary cast, the $100 million remake of “The Stepford Wives,” stars Nicole Kidman, Matthew Broderick, Bette Midler, Christopher Walken, Faith Hill and Glenn Close in a comedic thriller about a community that dare to be perfect and learn that to err is human.

The 1975 original horror classic starred Katharine Ross as Joanna, a woman who moves to Stepford, Conn., along with her husband (Peter Masterson) and her best friend, Bobbie (Paula Prentiss). As the two women meet the other housewives who live in Stepford, they begin to notice that all of them are interested only in cooking, cleaning, and pleasing their husbands.

More than six months in the shooting, the remake employed extensive use of music playback in large venues (ballrooms, exteriors, etc.). Michael, who recorded the raw sound on set, used a pair of BAG END INFRAsub-12 self-powered subwoofers extensively to provide a full bottom end for the music when played on the set and for the “thumper track” needed to cover those large spaces when live dialogue was being recorded.

Michael explained what a ‘thumper track’ is. “Let’s say you have a scene where two actors are talking but there are a number of people in the background dancing to a piece of music. If the music were played at the same volume you hear it in the movie theater, it would overpower the dialog. So we need a clean way to play the music beat for the dancers while not destroying the dialog that we are trying to record.”

So he uses a “thumper track.” “It’s a very low frequency - usually around 37, 38 cycles - thump that duplicates a musical beat. The ‘thumper’ is played at a low enough frequency that it won’t interfere with dialog so we can record clean, live dialog,” he said. “Then in post-production, the ‘thumper track’ is used as a guide to lay down the actual music track and then easily removed from the sound track.”

Michael’s analysis of the subs’ performance: “As usual, the BAG END units performed flawlessly and provided a solid 37 Hz. thump tone for the background dancers and performers to work from.” He said. “One of the keys for us is that the INFRAsubs provide high quality sound without relying on cooling fans that would interfere with the recording of dialogue.”

Several years back, Michael was looking for a low frequency source to produce the “thumper track” that had to fit some very specific parameters. It had to be portable, it had to be self-powered, it had to be capable of good low-frequency range. And one of the major requirements - because it would be used on set - it had to function without using a fan.

“We needed a good low-frequency source that had little or no harmonics and would give us a clean 37- to 40-cycle thump,” Michael said. Through research on the Internet and some word-of-mouth, we came to the conclusion that the BAG END INFRAsub-12 fit our requirements and we decided to look at it.”

The INFRAsub-12, powered by an internal 400-watt amplifier and controlled by BAG END’s exclusive INFRA dual integrator, also internal, has the capability of producing a flat acoustical response down to an incredible 8 Hz. And at just 57 pounds it’s relatively light. The enclosure measures only 15½ inches high by 18 inches wide by 15¾ inches deep.

“It was perfect, so I was moved to look into it,” Michael said.

Well, it wasn't quite perfect. BAG END engineers envisioned the INFRAsub-12 being used primarily in recording studios and home theaters, not being dragged around the out of doors in all kinds of weather. But BAG END also builds a very successful line of loudspeakers for performing artists specifically designed for hard road use. So after listening to Michael’s detailed explanation of what he needed, they customized a standard INFRAsub-12, adding handles to facilitate portability and devising a metal grill to replace the standard cloth grille thus creating a more rugged enclosure to stand up to the rigors of out-of-doors elements and frequent relocation.

And then, in the words of Yoda, perfect it was.

Michael, a native New Yorker who vows to remain there despite the tug of Hollywood, is very much in demand, geographical problems not withstanding. Launching his career in the mid-70s, his early years in the industry were spent cutting his teeth on documentaries and short film projects. By the mid-80’s Michael was working with a virtual whose-who of directors and actors. His first “big time” motion picture production came in 1984 when he was the production sound mixer for the film “Alamo Bay,” directed by Louis Malle and starring Ed Harris and Amy Madigan. Since then, he has worked on more than 50 major motion pictures, and worked with such well-known directors as Ben Stiller, Sidney Pollack, Ron Howard, Alan Parker, Mike Nichols, Ridley Scott, Frank Oz and Curtis Hanson, to mention just a few.

Michael was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on “Mississippi Burning” in 1989 and in 1990 won a British Academy Award for that film.

Just a few of the motion pictures on which he has worked include (in addition to “Mississippi Burning”): School of Rock (Jack Black, Joan Cusak, Sarah Silverman), “8 Mile” (rapper Eminen, Kim Bassinger, Brittany Murphy), “Changing Lanes” (Ben Affleck, Samuel L. Jackson), “Hannibal” (Anthony Hopkins), “Shaft” (Samuel L. Jackson, Vanessa Williams), “Glengarry Glen Ross” (Al Pacino, Jack Lemon, Alec Baldwin, Alan Arkin, Ed Harris) and “Billy Bathgate“ (Dustin Hoffman, Nicole Kidman).