Riccardo Gruppuso on the David di Donatello-award winning Ennio

Riccardo Gruppuso, a re-recording mixer and sound enthusiast (and self confessed film and video game geek) based in Italy, delves into working with some of the most important Italian directors in the industry and the best moment of his career so far.

When did you realise you wanted to pursue sound as a career?

It was around my last year in high school. I was sure I wanted to do something around the world of sound or the world of music. I didn't want to become a professional musician and I didn't want to be in the world of music in Italy, because it didn't appeal to me so much. 

I went to one of the most important film academies in Italy. They had a sound degree and I just went for it. I think 99% of movie post production was done in Rome then. I didn't have any direct experience with the movie post production world, but I always had a thing for that, and I just jumped straight into it, and it turned out great!

How did your early experiences playing music influence your later work in sound mixing and design?

That's a tricky question, because I think that sometimes someone mixing a movie can get too attached to the music in a scene or to the music in general, and you can tend to overplay the music in terms of balance and volume. But it gave me knowledge. 

Knowing music helps me when going through a scene, and especially when working with music from composers. We have stems we can go through, and give a little accent or EQ a single instrument in a certain way. It gave me a sensibility towards it that is useful in movie mixing too.

You had the chance to learn from some of the top sound professionals in Italy. Can you share any specific moments or lessons that helped shape your approach to sound mixing?

One of them, Federico Savina, was a great teacher. He was the Dolby supervisor in Italy for years. He was a great sound technician and an amazing person with an amazing mind. 

We spent quite some time with him where he shared his experience with sound, like the importance of giving an interpretation of the sound we were working with. He was so passionate about movies and about sound. Structurally, he gave me and all my former schoolmates a lot. He infused us with his passion for sound.

Winning the David di Donatello for Best Sound for Ennio must have been a huge achievement. How did that feel, and what do you think contributed most to the success of that project?

The documentary is one of the most amazing things I've ever worked on. It's an amazing documentary with interviews, recordings and live performances by the great Ennio Morricone. It's one of the most amazing documentaries I've ever watched. 

It was a big challenge for the whole team for mixing, music editing, and for dialogue. There is a Dolby Atmos version of the movie, which is only available on Blu-ray. I mixed that version, starting from the original 5.1 mix, and we created a new up-mixed Dolby Atmos version of the movie. It was an amazing time. A lot of work went into that and I was so pleased with the result.

You've worked with major directors like Giuseppe Tornatore and Matteo Garrone. How do you approach sound mixing when collaborating with such prominent filmmakers, and how do you tailor your work to match their creative visions?

It's a different thing every time, because everyone has their own vision and their own ideas, but they also change throughout all their movies. You have to try to understand what they really want with sound throughout the movie for specific scenes. It takes a lot of talking to get to the point where most directors are satisfied with what we're doing.

You’re currently wrapping up mixing for The Leopard, directed by Tom Shankland. What has been unique about this project compared to your previous work?

That was probably the highlight of my career; it's the biggest project I've ever been involved with. I felt so honored when I got the call to mix The Leopard. It's been very tough, because it was a big project with a lot of attention, and we wanted to really get the best out of everything. I'm very pleased with the result. I can’t wait for everyone to watch that.

As a freelancer you work at various studios, and one that you have a good working relationship with Italy's Cinecittà studios. They – as is the case with most near-field movie mixing rooms in Italy – use Genelec studio monitors. Given that you must work with Genelecs a lot across various studios, what are the characteristics that benefit you in your role as re-recording mixer / postproduction audio engineer?

It has become the standard reference brand for professional mixing in movies. Genelec monitors are very often found in many rooms for TV mixing, Dolby Atmos and home entertainment mixing here. The main thing is consistency, because it's the main reference of broadcast TV shows for mixing, and they have an amazing way of translating into all kinds of different devices. 

When I hear a mix in a Genelec room, the result is going to be on all the devices that the show or movie is going to be on. I feel sure about the way that mix is going to be sounding in a different environment, because they're so transparent and so clean. There's a lot of depth. 

When I do stereo playbacks on a 5.1 mix to make sure that everything is sounding correct and do little adjustments, I feel the layers throughout every sound. It gives me a lot of security with what I'm doing and on what I'm delivering. 

I'm used to different speaker setups, but I always get the same feeling of transparency, depth and consistency with Genelecs. It's really key in this environment, because it allows me to be sure that what I'm listening to is going to sound exactly the same throughout all of the different channels that the show is going to be on.