The Verge: PatrickPatrick Baltzell has been the sound engineer for most of America’s most-watched events in the past few decades. He’s sitting alone in the convention halls of NAMM, a trade show for the music making industry. Though I instantly recognize his signature thin frame and curls of white hair, no one looks as Baltzell stands to greet me with unbridled enthusiasm. It’s likely everyone in this room has no idea who he is. But Baltzell was not only in charge of the audio for the past 19 Super Bowls (excluding this year’s) — he also currently designs and mixes sound for the Grammys, Oscars, and presidential inaugurations.
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8 comments:
Okay, this article was crazy cool. The title was slightly misleading to me, because it didn’t seem like they talked about the six-minute setup time all that much, but I was pleasantly surprised by the emphasis on sound. The Super Bowl was actually in Atlanta last year, and I remember our teacher telling us about how crazy fast the setup is. I think he mentioned that it’s mostly volunteers with one specific job or two, and you literally wait there ready for the first half to end so you can start, and you run onto the field and put together your part really fast. It sounds crazy hectic and cool. Unfortunately, you have to be 18 to do it, and at the time, I was like 15 days away from being 18 and couldn’t! I thought it was interesting he mentioned they pre-record most background vocals and instruments because that’s typically how my school operated our shows. The soloists were always live, but we had everything else pre-recorded in case. I think this guy has a really freaking cool job; I wish I can do what he does someday!
The process of designing and executing the sound design for the Super Bowl is breathtaking. Not only does the process start a whole six months in advance, but there is only six to seven minutes to set up a stage, lighting rig, and sound rig for one of the most widely televised events of the year. Typical concerts take multiple hours to load in, and yet, arguably one of the most viewed “concerts,” the Super Bowl halftime show, gets a mere six minutes to load in. Watching the time lapse was absolutely mesmerizing. The crew flocks in like a colony of ants, and with perfect precision, set up the entire show flawlessly. In such a time constrained load-in, even the slightest mistake will be fatal. The crew must be able to problem solve quickly and effectively. It does make me wonder, though, how many times do they rehearse the load in? The strike? I'm almost certain they can’t do the change in six minutes on their first go. But how many does it take? This article provided such an incredible insight into how the show is designed and executed, and I was quite pleased with the knowledge I’ve gained.
This interviewee has been doing this, and many other high profile shows forever and he seems to have it down to a science. The first impressive thing they mention is how fast the show has to be set up, six minutes for moving everything from the parking lot, into the space, and tested before the show begins. One of the questions was about pre-recording songs and he said that barely ever happens, which surprised me because that’s a standard rumor that you hear, but they do pre-record just in case. The design turnaround time was also impressive because it was so short. From page to stage is about six months starting at the initial creative meeting. He specifically mentioned that every year they are trying to outdo themselves once again, which I’m sure is a tall task and I wonder where the end of the line is. The show can’t keep getting bigger and badder because there is a limit, and I wonder when that will be.
I feel like this year more than other years people are really talking about the half time show. Props to this interviewer for getting such an in-depth look into the Super Bowl Half Time show! I hope more articles like this can come out with emphasis on other aspects of the show like the media, set, and costumes. Honestly, I think I’d be most interested in an article discussing the process of costuming the show. The quick changes and beauty of the costumes was one of the things I found most impressive about this year. Sometimes Broadway World will take videos of iconic quick changes. Replicating something like that for the Super Bowl would be awesome! I also loved how this article did not shy away from getting answers about lip syncing and specific artists and their shows. Hopefully Baltzell doesn’t end up in any hot water for his honesty.
The superbowl halftime show has always mystified me. I can’t even imagine what the manager(s) of the halftime show, especially the technical director has to go through in that 6 minute set up and take down. The halftime show I am especially interested in is Prince’s, and how the assembly of the stage went. It sounds like those 6 minutes are extremely stressful. There has to be a ton of hours of set up to get everything in order for the six minutes of load in to be successful, and I wonder where everything goes when the halftime show is over. I also wonder how involved the performers are in the technical aspects of their show, such as the set and the backup musicians and everything. It seems like an extreme amount of work for fifteen minutes of performance, but I know it is 15 minutes of an explosive performance and there are a million parts that go into it.
‘Sports ball’ has never been my thing, but I did grow up watching all the Super Bowl commercials and the halftime show. This year was the first year in a while that I did not see the halftime show live (and I have yet to even watch the recording, but will be doing it soon). Once I started getting into theatre was when I really got interested in the production aspects of it. The fact that these technicians can set up this massive event in six minutes is mind blowing. Imagine if they had the whole day to set this up, I wonder how long it would take then! Hearing the sound engineering aspect of all of this is especially interesting, given that the performance relies almost entirely on sound and music to work. It must be helpful to have someone who has done this kind of install multiple times being the organizer. That way they know the exact ways to approach it. Hearing his story of being the engineer when Prince performed at the halftime show had me captivated. It sounds like it was an incredible experience.
I never really got into the Super Bowl, but I did always wonder how the stage just showed up and disappeared right before and right after the halftime act. Now I know. And as a stage technician, I can truly appreciate just how impressive a feat it is to load in a full show in six or seven minutes and get it back out in just as many. I can barely get anything done in six minutes. It takes me two or three just to find the hardware I need for a task I was handed five minutes ago. I also learned a good deal about professional audio through this article. The interviewee seems exceedingly experienced and has his load-in/load-out craft honed down to an exact science. I am always impressed with the head-down, power-through, no-nonsense attitude of seasoned technicians and how they come in to do their jobs and that alone.
While the title of this article is a little misleading as I was expecting an analysis of how everything is brought on stage, set up, and tested in six minutes, not just the sound equipment. However, I did find myself reading through the entire article and was fascinated by the attitude that Baltzell approaches the super bowl with. He knows that he is not going to have the time to set up the speaker system that would be ideal for the arena, and he is okay with setting up only what he needs for the performers and integrating the stadium’s PA system for the audience. My favorite part of the article is when he is talking about if the performers are actually singing on stage, and for the most part, I believe him. The idea of a protection track makes perfect sense, however, I still find it hard to believe that what we hear during the performance is the majority, live. With how loud football stadiums can get, I do not understand how a microphone could get much usable sound from the performer with all of the screamings in the background.
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