Hearing the Impact: “Mindhunter” & “Mayor of Kingstown” Sound Mixer Christopher Strollo on How MPTERA Could Fuel Pittsburgh’s Economy

About 25 years ago, production sound mixer Christopher Strollo made a decision. He’d been thinking about moving to L.A. or New York to pursue his film career, but he decided to stay in Pittsburgh, where he’d moved after college to hone his craft. As it turned out, making movies in his own backyard has been good to Strollo. He worked on the Jeremy Renner-led drama Mayor of Kingstown, mixed David Fincher’s series Mindhunter, contributed to Richard Linklater‘s film Last Flag Flying, and earned a Cinema Audio Society Award nomination for PBS series NOVA: The Great Robot Race. Strollo also runs his own audio services business and owns the house where he and his wife have raised two kids.

But not all his colleagues have been so fortunate. “Right now, we’re in a very pronounced lull,” Strollo tells The Credits. He supports the federal incentive bill now being considered in Congress, which would provide a 20 percent tax credit for film and TV projects made in the United States. If the Motion Picture, Television, and Entertainment Revitalization Act (MPTERA) becomes law, the program could inspire a welcome influx of work to his community, Strollo explains. “We have a limited number of productions that we can sustain with our state tax credits. In the course of a year, we might get two episodic TV series and maybe two features, and then the money’s gone. If there was a federal incentive on top of that, we could potentially double production, which would make a huge difference for our community and for our economy.”

Speaking from a studio shed in the backyard of his Pittsburgh home, Strollo offers a below-the-line perspective on how projects filmed in Pennsylvania ripple through the community.

You’ve been an active member of IATSE Local 489 in western Pennsylvania long enough to see production ebb and flow over the years. What was it like when David Fincher decided to shoot the second season of the Netflix series Mindhunter in and around Pittsburgh?

It was a nine-month shoot. How often do projects go on for nine months? You can just imagine the hundreds of people who were employed on that project, which was one of the most highly budgeted and effective productions we’ve seen in this region.

That influx of money must be especially welcome in a state which faces, like so much of the heartland, a shrinking industrial base?

Oh yeah. A show like Mindhunter filming here has the same effect as a factory moving into town. In this part of the country, the story is that manufacturing has been part of our lives for so long, but now things aren’t the way they used to be. I can’t emphasize enough how much impact a show like this has had on the local working-class community.

In terms of employment for below-the-line talent…

And also, many people were brought in for Mindhunter from other professions because there was a huge amount of construction. David Fincher took former malls that had been shuttered and turned them into sound stages.

Tax incentives surely play a big role when producers decide where to shoot. Do talented crews and interesting locations help?

We do have a tax credit program, but it’s capped at $100 million, so you don’t see production after production after production going to Pittsburgh or Philadelphia the way you do in Georgia. But we also have a really good crew base and a really good environment to shoot in, which is why somebody like David Fincher wants to come here. Pittsburgh has a huge variety of locations. You can make it look like downtown Manhattan, and within a two-mile drive, you can make it look like the middle of nowhere. So, we have that going for us, but let’s face it, the tax credit is the final deal maker.

If the federal production incentive passes and a 20 percent credit is stacked on top of pre-existing state credits, I’m sure you’d welcome the possible increase in film-related jobs in Pennsylvania.

Absolutely. Before the pandemic, we had a pretty good run, but then you had COVID and then the writer and actor strikes, which sank things pretty seriously here. Around 2023, we had an upturn, but all of a sudden, things just died. When crew positions are demand-dependent, it’s not easy for some people.

Your success as a sound mixer has let you invest in your own equipment, which you can then rent out between projects. That extra income must help you stay afloat during dry spells?

Yeah, and occasionally I’ll work out of town. I don’t go to New York because of union conflicts, but I’ve worked in the Carolinas and out west in Colorado, Montana, and Texas. I’ve developed enough of a reputation that I will get called out to do things in the Taylor Sheridan world, like the last season of Yellowstone and The Madison.

Now that you mention it, Taylor Sheridan produces Mayor of Kingstown, which is shot in and around Pittsburgh, right?

They shot the first season of Mayor of Kingstown in Canada, then moved production to Pittsburgh. I started on the second season. It was originally supposed to be produced in Pittsburgh because they liked our jail, which is a very dramatic, crazy, vintage jail. So now, four seasons of that show have been shot here.

The show often feels cinematic, with the Allegheny River, urban gunfights, and picturesque rural areas.

Mayor of Kingstown is shot with five cameras all the time, which can make it really tough to do sound in my position, but it’s definitely putting food on the table.

The wall behind you looks like a giant waffle. Just out of curiosity, what is that?

Those cube-shaped objects are called diffusers, which means this is a tuned room where I can do post-production mixes with noise reflections eliminated. That creates a clean listening environment for making mix decisions. I’m in the little recording studio behind my house, my shed, where I can work on independent projects and music.

You mention the house. I’m guessing you have a family?

Yeah, I got the full catastrophe [laughing]. The house, the wife, two kids, the dog.

Despite the ups and downs, it sounds like the Pennsylvania filmmaking community has been a good fit for you?

Absolutely. In my whole working life, over 25 years of work, I’ve been able to send one of our kids to college so far; the second one is on the way. I owe a lot to the motion picture industry in my region.

Featured image: L-r: Holt McCallany, Jonathan Groff in “Mindhunter” Courtesy Netflix.;Jeremy Renner as Mike McLusky and Tobi Bamtefa as Deverin ‘Bunny’ Washington in episode 1, season 3 of Mayor of Kingstown streaming on Paramount+ Photo Credit: Dennis P. Mong Jr./Paramount+