From Saddles to Switchboards: Sound Maestro George Haddad Crafts the Symphony of “1923”
Now in its second season, Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone prequel, 1923, turns on the hardships of the historic Dutton clan—wolf intrusions, driving snowstorms, and Ellis Island. In Montana, Cara (Helen Mirren) holds down the ranch while her husband, Jacob (Harrison Ford), wheels and deals to keep Zane (Brian Geraghty) and his mixed-race family together. Spencer (Brandon Sklenar) faces a treacherous journey from Europe to the US, then from Texas to Montana. His beloved, Alexandra (Julia Schlaepfer), is up against no small obstacles of her own, entering the country through steerage and the ignominy of being processed at Ellis Island. And having escaped the cruelty of a residential school, Teonna (Aminah Nieves) is evading capture in the wilderness.
For supervising sound editor George Haddad, one of the biggest challenges in 1923 is staying authentic to the era, particularly in the realm of technology, but it’s also one of the perks. “The different ships and trains, for a sound person, it’s a nerd paradise. The most fun I had, personally, was doing an episode with the phone operators department,” Haddad said. Back in Season 1, he and his team consulted with train historians and historic car collectors, and purchased libraries of engine sounds. “But any chance we have, we’ll record it ourselves,” he said, with the team putting together a particularly massive library of horse-related sound. “There’s saddle movement, rain movement, there are a lot of elements that go into horseback riding. The same goes with the cars—the engine, the suspension. We come in with a lot of different layers of sound and find the right balance,” Haddad said.
Far more so than their contemporary family, the Duttons of 1923 are at the mercy of the elements. Scenes in the snow have a hushed quality, but when a storm comes in, it whips around the characters with credible ferocity. “We like to play it real, we’re not looking for a big Hollywood sound,” Haddad said, with his team using a mix of existing libraries, Foley team recordings, and production recordings from filming to get the weather right. “We don’t exaggerate the sound, whether it’s boots crunching or ice. We basically play what we see on camera.”
The process for layering sound in natural versus urban environments poses different challenges. “Oddly enough, when you’re out in the woods and there’s nothing happening, there’s more detail exposed, so we have to be really careful not to repeat any wind sounds or birds or distant sounds, whether it’s a gunshot or a horse,” Haddad said. Urban scenes, meanwhile, are research-intensive, from studying the types of stores that existed in 1923 to ensuring the background voice dialogue is true to the period. “Once I see an episode, I’ll call [loop group leader] Fabiana Arrastia and say get ready, we need this kind of language, that kind of language,” Haddad said. “Luckily, being in Los Angeles, we have access to so much talent out there. I wouldn’t say it’s easy to find, but it’s certainly available.”
On a show like 1923, dialogue is paramount, exemplified in a scene like Alexandra’s intake at Ellis Island. A cacophony could have surrounded her first immigration interview, but the space is quiet, all the better to take in her experience going terribly awry. “We had massive amounts of layers of different accents, and then we had to focus on Alexandra going through her ordeal,” Haddad said. He and his team added layers of sound to the stage, then removed anything that distracted from the scene’s dialogue and Alexandra’s experience. “In certain scenes, we play a supporting role — we don’t want to overdo it, we don’t want to distract,” Haddad said. “I’ve done other shows with these producers, I kind of know what they’re looking for. They have a layer of preferences. Dialogue is always going to win.”
Featured image: Brandon Sklenar as Spencer in season 2, episode 4 of 1923 streaming on Paramount+. Photo credit: Lo Smith/Paramount+.
