Posts

Many thanks to Robert Sephton for taking time out to do this Q and A. This next week marks the three month anniversary of this thing. I am quite pleased with the way it is going so far, but I would love any comments or suggestions about where it could go. I want this to be interesting not just to people within the sound community, but to people who have an interest in film in general. So any improvements I could make to achieve that goal, please feel free to email me or comment… So without further ado, on to the fun! ...

Walking out of supervising sound editor/re-recording mixer Larry Blake’s Virtual Post-Production Sound Paradigm presentation on Monday night I couldn’t help feel a little torn. Don’t get me wrong I love gatherings like those, especially when they are helmed by someone who seems to be as controversial as Blake is in his field. Expectedly strong feelings were thrown over both sides of the fence, I just always hope the friction in the room grinds out a jewel of some sort. A great primer on all this hubbub can be found here. Though dated, the meat of the conversation among these great mixers is very relevant, yet these opinions both valid and passionate, really do nothing to unify our small community. If anything they create animosity instead of helping the collective push toward creativity, style and innovation in mixing. Personally, I really see no way to gauge which approach is better if the end result pleases the client. Blake implied during his presentation Monday night that If Joel Silver walked on to any dub stage in town he wouldn’t care if there was a Neve DFC or a Digidesign ICON sitting in front of him if when the mixers hit play Silver loved what he heard. Much like the craftsmen and women in both camps have stated in unrelated discussions, in the end mixing consoles are just creative tools, so when a film hits theaters and audiences emotionally invest in the story with the quality work on an interesting and creative soundtrack then it doesn’t matter what the film was mixed on. I think more then anything it is the sound people involved that makes the aural experiences memorable not whether the console had motorized panners. I guess I really can’t see how control surface mixing’s weight in this craft will ever crush traditional mixing desk re-recording(see exhibit A), so it really just comes down to personal preference. Don’t get me wrong I love the competition between rival companies because it is a catalyst for innovation in our work, and admittedly I don’t like the idea of one company controlling all the sound editorial and mixing technologies. So I guess I am not drawing a line in the sand, I see each technology when utilized correctly able to make me smile in a movie theater when something sounds cool. I would like to put a disclaimer at the end stating that I am fully aware that money fan these flames more then anything and as I also noticed I didn’t address it in this editorial at all. I just like to believe behind every successful film console there is a great re-recording mixer and that its the skill and experience of these mixers that is what I love about film sound not that the branding on the console. ...

A sound job with great taste, Ratatouille scurries into theaters June 29th. Sound supervision was cooked up by Randy Thom and Micheal Silvers. No strangers to animated film sound this is their second Pixar film together. They won the very first sound editing Oscar for an animated film with 2004’s The Incredibles. Thom mixed the show along side Zodiac re-recording mixer Michael Semanick. Semanick won an Oscar during his LOTR fellowship and with 2005’s Kong. Original dialog recording credit went to Doc Kane who has three Oscar nominations for his duties on Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Incredibles. Kane, a busy and distinguished ADR mixer in his own right, works out of ADR B on Disney’s Burbank studio lot. Michael Giacchino another The Incredibles alum, composed the music for the film. Giacchino also an established television composer has been busy on Lost and Ailas as well as writing the music for Gary Rydstrom’s directorial debut Lifted. The Oscar nominated animated short is playing before screenings of Ratatouille this Friday. ...

Though I doubt the sound schedule was anywhere near 28 weeks long, taking place 7 months after the events of the first film, 28 weeks later runs into theater this friday May 11th. Prodiuction sound mixer Simon Hayes handled the brunt of the location sound with Sound designer/supervising sound editor Glenn Freemantle reanimated to tackle sound editorial and mixers Brendan Nicholson and Ian Tapp dubbing @ Pinewood studio’s Theater one just outside of London. The film score was composed by John Murphy another survivor of the first film… Though I admire the simplicity of the “28 days later’s” video photography I am stoked that the sequel went with a little classier look and though the story seems to rehash some theme’s from the first installment the trailer already indicates that big sound events will take place… ...

" Knocked Up" arrives in theaters June 1st. The LA TIMES recently named director/writer/producer Judd Apatow The Mayor of Comedy; That said, Supervising sound editor George Anderson could be the mayor of comedy sound editing. Anderson has supervised sound on the last four movies that Apatow has produced or directed. Starting in 2005 with “The 40-Year-Old Virgin”, Anderson supervised “Talladega Nights”, “Knocked Up” and the soon to be released “Superbad”. Re-recording mixers Scott Millan and David Parker join Anderson on the dub stage. Millan won an Oscar in 2005 for his work on “Ray” and is finishing up his work on the “The Bourne Ultimatum”. Parker Won an Oscar in 1996 for “The English Patient” where he worked along side Water Murch and mixed “Zodiac” earlier this year. Production sound mixer David Macmillan also and Oscar winner most recently for 1995’s “Apollo 13” shot this summer’s remake of “Hairspray”. Loudon Wainwright III and collaborator Joe Henry scored the film. Wainwirght also has a supporting role in the film and acted in Apatow’s TV series “Undeclared”. ...

Hi All, Just wanted to take the time to explain the purpose and goal of this blog. I started this in hopes of creating something that focused on feature post sound, showcasing all the talented people and world class facilities that often are faceless entities or job titles in the finishing of films. I found it strange that other post production disciplines press release their involvement but sound, for the most part, remains a mystery. Internet hype is everywhere for upcoming films, but rarley does sound get the attention it deserves. To change this paradigm, awareness and recognition are paramount. So, I view this blog as a more extensive, sound only imdb.com: a one-stop shop for all things film-sound including, but not exclusive to info on the dubbing stage(s), and scoring stage(s) used, as well pictures, mini-bios of the supervising sound editor(s), re-recording mixer(s), production sound mixer(s) and composer(s). I do understand that with this kind of endeavor there is an amount of potential toe stepping involved, so I intend to keep the posts, at least initially, to finished films that already have info available online. I hope that this idea is appealing to fellow colleges and hopefully fan-boys and girls of the internet are already amped up about upcoming films. Obviously, I am trying very hard to post accurate information but any and all comments or corrections are encouraged and appreciated. In addition, I know calling this blog “fimsounddaily” should really entail daily posts. I hope with enough support for this idea I can get the post frequency up to “daily” but until that point it’ll be a little more sparse. I hope this blog can evolve into something that will include tech announcements and reviews as well as interviews with crew members and maybe even op-ed pieces, but again, all of that will come with interest and time. If you would like to get in touch with me I have a link to my email in the sidebar; please spread the word, suggest anything you would like to see on this thing, and hopefully, “…If we do our jobs well and throw in a little evangelizing, we can make sound as important part of filmmaking as it should be."-Gary Rydstrom ...

Content Unavailable — This post was referenced by other articles. Data preservation for the cinematography community.

In a summer of sequels “Shrek the Third” rides into theathers May 18th. Bringing that CG created fairytale world to life, let alone sound funny are Richard L. Anderson, Thomas Jones Supervising Sound Editors, Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson Re-recording mixers, and Harry Gregson-Williams Composer. Animated soundtracks have always lent an enhanced level of creative license, and though the majority of feature releases replace most production sound with foley and/or sound effects, every single auditory event are left to the sound editors, mixers, and composers to design from scratch. Richard L. Anderson and Thomas Jones are no strangers to animation, co-sound souping Dreamworks’ “Over the Hedge” and “Flushed Away” over the last two years. Anderson just received the “career achievement award” at this years MPSE Golden Reel awards for his work on everything from “Raiders of the Lost Arc” to “Being John Malkovich”. Andy Nelson and Anna Behlemer coming off back to back sound mixing oscar nods for ““War of the Worlds” and “Blood Diamond” respectively, mixed the film at Fox’s Howard Hawks dub stage, one of the three feature stages located on the Centery City lot. Harry Gregson-Williams returns to the swamp having scored the first 2 shreks. As Tony Scott’s go to guy, Williams has scored all of Scott’s features since 1998’s “Enemy of the State”. Though I do not have confirmation of this, I believe the score was tracked ar Air Studio’s in London, being that almost all of the most recent Dreamworks animated films including “Shrek 2” were scored there… ...

Wow. Leaving the Samuel Goldwyn Theater on Wilshire last night I couldn’t help feel inspired, The Science and Technology Council of AMPAS presented a show called **The Sound Behind the Image. Kevin O’Connell, re-recording mixer and 19 time oscar nominee was the MC and introduced Ben Burtt one of the first people to coin the term sound designer, who took us on an informative and exciting tour of the history of sound in action adventure films arriving at star wars where he expanded upon some of his experiences while on the working on the film. After Ben’s solo presentation Burtt, O’Connell and almost all the re-recording mixers from the star wars trilogy, arguably the most influential few films in the world of sound, sat down on stage to rap about their experiences and journeys while finishing those soundtracks. Its amazing to think about how far our craft has come in 30 years, all in all a tremendous event highlighting some of the great pioneers of our community. The Academy is planning more of these, I can only hope that they help the rest of the academy and with any luck some of the general public understand how much creativity and effort go into what they hear while in a darkened theater. Hopefully, events like this that can attract broad audiences with the academy’s reach, so filmmakers and audiences alike can discover how important a quality soundtrack is to the storytelling process. Bravo to the sci tech council, way to toe the mark! ...

“Fantastic Four 2: Rise of the Silver Surfer” lands into theaters June 15th. The second Marvel property sequeling this year, guarantees loads of aural opportunity with its metallic beach bum villain. Craig Henighan and John A. Larsen co-supervised the show, with the bulk of the sound editorial being done on the Fox lot. Henighan and Larsen have been working together since last year’s “X-Men 3 “. Mixing took place on Sony’s William Holden dub stage, with Gary C. Bourgeois and Greg Orloff as DX/MX and FX mixers, respectively. This is their second marvel movie this year, hot off the heals of February’s “Ghost Rider”. Eric Batut, coming off another big film with last year’s “Eragon,” shot production sound. John Ottman, also a returning craftsman from “Fantastic Four” (Larsen and Batut also worked on it) scored the film. Ever the multi-tasker, Ottman both cut and scored last year’s “Superman Returns.” ...