Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome to a world of deception. I'm
Christy and this is Montecito after sunset. Today we are
breaking down episode four of this gripping audio soap opera
and I have joining me today supervising sound editor of Monacito,
Trey Booty.
Speaker 2: Hey, Trey, Hi, see you guys, you too, Thank you.
Speaker 1: So much for joining us. Myself and creator and executive
producer Grant Rudder.
Speaker 2: Hey, hey, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: I know you too have spent lots of time talking
Monacito already and working closely together to get this show
on the road. And we have got episode four landing
this week, causing a lot of chatter, a lot of
buzz online, and I cannot wait to break down some
of these behind the scenes moments with you guys. Of course,
this episode opens with a new voice, which is really exciting.
So we finally meet Bradley Belasco, and this is very
interesting to me. I got so excited somebody new to
tell us a little bit more about the characters and
what's going on here. It's like, we need someone like
Bradley to help tell the story of Monacito. But to
what extent is someone like a character like Bradley, going
to have their own story as well.
Speaker 3: Bradley's a very complicated character, as we'll find out or
introduced him on this kind of professional level. He's the
chairman of the board and he's all business, but there
are there's a lot of layers to Bradley. He is
Deacon's father, Helene's husband, and will also see him as
a father in law to Mina. I mean, is always busy,
so she's got everyone where she wants them, and she
has her own plans for Bradley and where that she
fits into the world and how he can help her.
Speaker 1: And we really get some moments of vulnerability from Helena
here too, which was also exciting. A new dynamic to
Helene with the break in that she had at her house,
and we also learned about her past health issues. It
seems like she's dealing with a little bit of mom
guilt too, which I think is probably super relatable to
some of the listeners. Is she going to be our
voice of reason here in Montecito, because it's starting to
feel like we really need that, sort of like an
Eileen Davidson on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Good remember
all the soap fans love Eileen. Is Helena going to
be our Eileen Davidson?
Speaker 2: Yes, in a way.
Speaker 3: No one's perfect in this world, but she's one could
say she's over an overbearing mother, maybe too involved, so
like they all have their faults, but yes, when it
comes to Mina, she's had Mina in her life for
such a long time. She knows exactly who she is
and how she operates, and obviously she hates it, but
she her eyes are wide open, and so she's always
navigating her relationship with Mina and with Deacon and trying
to assist Deacon. And I don't think she ever really
let Deacon grow up in that sense where she was
able to let go because she knows that he's in
this horrible position. But we'll find more out about her.
She was sick for a while. The mom guilt is real,
but I think she's really ultimately the way we wrote her.
Speaker 2: Is she's just trying to be a supportive parent.
Speaker 1: She also seems like the kind of lady who would
have a beautifully decorated home and a bright, manicured garden.
And you guys certainly really set the scene at her
house where we're in the garden with them tree. I'm
really curious, how do you approach something like that? How
do you essentially set the scene? Are you visualizing it yourself?
Is there a thought process there?
Speaker 4: Sure? It starts with a conversation with Grant, because he
kind of gives me the north star of where to
go and paints the picture of what he thinks the
garden's gonna be, like the enormity of the house, of
the mansion, of the space to really sell like the grandeur.
So I'm looking for, like I almost pull some like
some park sounds and bees is buzzing around, anything that
would kind of be in this secluded area. I went
to a little spot in Lincoln Park where I grabbed
just some audio on a in the middle of the
day or there wasn't too many people around, just to
grab some extra kind of like summary springy sounds to
layer in under there. We talked about the water features
that repeat, because of course, like these people would have
statuettes and they would have multiple water features in different
places to really create an atmosphere in a vibe.
Speaker 3: Right. Yeah, for outdoor spaces, I wanted I wanted Helena
to have wind chimes because we were in Klena's garden
a lot, and there's a certain meditative quality of grounding
and a natural essence to this wind chimes. And then
for the Roman estate and their mansion, I would like
to have water sounds like you'll hear a fountain, you'll
hear the pool.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of water there.
Speaker 3: So they each kind of have like their own unique
atmosphere where hopefully we could train the listener it'll be
a little bit easier for them to have that kind
of identity. It's like the way shows have sets. We
have these kind of preset sounds for these locations that
we recur, so that way, you know, there's a little
bit of an echo where in the Roman staircase entry room, Yes.
Speaker 4: Yeah. The other repeating one that's a little more subtle
is there's the really faint in the background. You hear
like a grandfather clock in study. Yeah, that's coming always repeating.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And this episode we had to play around with offices.
We were at this real ten worldwide conference room. Give
me some ideas if you have any when it comes to.
Speaker 3: How to make that sound interesting. So we have a
lot of entrances and exits. So I wanted to have
the sliding door, just thinking like executive style, and I
just thought that was just something unique to the space
that we could give it as a special treatment.
Speaker 1: See how episode four really climaxes with this JJ stumbling
into the boardroom, meeting in the conference room, and that really,
like you said, is a quiet, boring place zoo. How
do you you're not outside and you can't go and
grab the bees buzzing around? How do you liven up
a conference room?
Speaker 4: That is a very yeah, challenge extended for things like that.
I do feel like in those moments there is so
much story being pushed in the dialogue that I don't
necessarily want to take too much away. But Bradley is
talking to Beth Andy Gina, and I in my head
am like he seems like a very casual guy, right,
the kind that was leaning back in the office chair,
and so I think, okay, well, maybe underneath very subtle
under choice lines where he might have been leaning back
to just put a little chair roll sound or even
grab a quick snippet of I've got one behind me
that kind.
Speaker 2: Of has a little squeak to it.
Speaker 4: Just record the little squeak going and try and create
a little bit of that vision that you could pick
up on. So you try to color with the movements
the chair going or the arms on the desk or
things like.
Speaker 3: That, and we let the music do a lot of
the world building too. We have Mina's theme, we have
other kind of little They had the exchange where Riley says,
have you guys met and they both say at the
same time, we've met Methani, Gina and Mina. So we
have some little percolating music under there so assist. We've
gone a little heavier with music in places where we
didn't really have so much atmosphere, and then sometimes we've
had to pull back the atmosphere too.
Speaker 2: There's a beach scene coming up in the show.
Speaker 3: And that was I really struggled with that one, but
Trey figured out out, thank God.
Speaker 1: Well, that's kind of part of what I'm trying to
wrap my head around is how this all comes together.
And in addition to all these little sounds and the music,
we've had some big things that are like the taser
and the fire alarm that are really meant to tell
the story, and those.
Speaker 2: Are super important.
Speaker 1: How do you guys work together to make it all
come together to what we this awesome episode that we
end up hearing.
Speaker 4: Granted, and I've been working together for so long. I
actually got started in this whole space working with Grants,
So we've developed somewhat of a shorthand with each other
a lot some of it. So when I'm putting it together,
there are specific cues in the script. Big moments like
the taser going off is going to be in their
ocean waves for a beach scene might be there. When
I'm putting it together, I make sure I grab a
rough idea of what that can be, and then as
I go along listening to the dialogue, I think, where else,
what are some other things that might be in here?
Speaker 2: Are they talking?
Speaker 4: Standing still? Are they walking and talking? And that's something
that comes out specifically in a couple scenes where you know,
Mina's talking to jayj And in one cut it was
more like they were standing still, static, but it felt
kind of.
Speaker 2: Like in need.
Speaker 4: It's some more forward motion, but we didn't necessarily want
to do it with the music because there was already
music going, So we just add some scene changes, footsteps
and maybe they're transitioning from going inside of the restaurant
out into the balcony or something like that, and I'll
do a rough pass of a basic sketch and then
I'll send that over to Grant and then he'll add
his flavors to it, or we'll hop on the phone.
He's like, oh, this is pretty cool. But I was
thinking it would be more like, maybe more muffled. There.
May be the music should sound more like it's a
live band in the other room instead of in front
of them. Little things like that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not creating these spaces, right, this is a
big thing all through episode one. But Tray really did
a great job with those scenes in creating that space,
especially when JJ was chasing after Mita right before the
fire alarm pull and all that. That was a last
not last minute, But it was later in post that
the episode had a little bit more time to play with,
and I was like, hey, let's see what we can do.
I mean, the dialogue is it's cap sure here, but yeah,
we can play with the environment, and Trade did a
great job.
Speaker 4: We actually ended up stretching that sequence out so that
we could have more breathing room, so you could really
draw out the transition from the kitchen into the main
space into the balcony and hearing different crowds of people
from different perspectives, so's there's a little conversation going that
you can almost hear exactly what they're saying, where it's
like she's passing right in front of them, but also
having murmurs in the background.
Speaker 2: I would even layer.
Speaker 4: In murmurs that would be the crowd from the other
room that she's no longer in, but I filter way down,
so it's coming through the walls underneath the balcony, chitter chatter,
and then trying to get her and JJ's dialogue sitting
just on top of that. So it just feels alive.
It feels a little hectic, a little chaos. So it's
all functions as like a big crescendo along with the music.
Speaker 1: I can't wait to listen back to the episodes again
and listen for all these things.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that we know what was all going on behind this.
Speaker 3: I'm so grateful to Tray for the time and the
care that he put into all these episodes. You know,
we've always worked on shows with a quick turnaround, but
we've never had to cut back on our quality, and
that's why I knew.
Speaker 2: He'd be perfect for this.
Speaker 3: It was never a question that I would be working
with him on this project. I talked about it for years.
I'm just so impressed with the work that he did,
and I'm so proud of the product. It is no
week episodes and no week scenes, and we carried it
all the way through.
Speaker 4: I will say it was incredibly fun. Yeah, an incredibly
fun project in grand Andrew did a killer job writing
the scripts. It was fun, especially in those second, third,
fourth passes, kind of adding all of the sparkles and
everything really shining.
Speaker 1: So much fun. And as we look to episode five,
very exciting. Mina is on an absolute rampage. She is
getting her way left and right. I'm starting to wonder
if anyone will ever be able to stop her.
Speaker 2: And honestly, I'm getting a little concerned for Geo Grant.
What should we.
Speaker 3: Expect next week? There's a lot going on. We pick
up right where we left off. We're back in the
conference room. Bradley has taken JJ to his office, so
we're back with Mina and Bethany Gina and there Bethany
Gina wants things to change. Mita wants things to remain
the same, but also she's asking for something herself. They're
not letting they're not letting go. And then things change
and we're going to be visiting Geo and Deacon on
a little date. But of course it's Montecitos, so it's
not that's not great for too long.
Speaker 2: Things are gonna change and.
Speaker 3: It's gonna get a little crazy towards the end, so
we're just going up.
Speaker 1: We absolutely cannot wait for another episode to drop on Tuesday.
And I know everybody watching and listening out there probably
has questions for Grant and Trey themselves, and if you do,
please post them in the comments below here if you're
watching on YouTube, and of course Montecito and Montecito after
Sunset are available everywhere you get your podcasts, and you
can go ahead and check us out on Facebook as well.
Leave your questions there, Trey, if people want to, I'm
guessing hire you after hearing about this great, fantastic work
you did, or just keep up with you on social media.
Where can they reach out to you?
Speaker 4: I do have an Instagram It's at Trey Booty. It's
my first and last name tr A E, B U
D D E. Or they can shoot me an email
Trey Booty at gmail dot com.
Speaker 1: We love that and Grant how about you.
Speaker 3: Oh, you can find me at It's Grants Rants on Instagram,
but please interact with us over on the Facebook page
and I'm happy to answer questions there too.
Speaker 1: Yes, and make sure to hit that subscribe button or
follow on all podcasts apps so that you never miss
the next dynamic episode of Montecito. Thank you guys so
much for hanging out with us. We'll see you again
for Montecito after sunset.