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FEATURES 2001: A Space Odyssey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 40 years later
RED Camera Phenomenon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Candid interviews from the top
NAB 2008. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 A random walk tells all
14 DEPARTMENTS President’s Letter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 From the Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
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Letter to the Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Food for Thought. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 A little more time
Technically Speaking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Dither and sample rate conversion
European Roundup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
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A Sound Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Been There Done That . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 The Lighter Side . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
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Cover design: Gilda Garcia
C A S Q U A R T E R LY
SUMMER 2008
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THE PRESIDENT’S LETTER
Celebrating Our Achievements Congratulations to all of our CAS members who are nominated for Emmy Awards this year. We wish every one of you the best of luck and salute your achievements. The CAS 45th Annual Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing are scheduled for February 14, 2009, at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. Congratulations to our Career Achievement recipient for this year, Mr. Dennis Maitland, CAS. We are looking forward to a lovely evening. I want to remind everybody that this fall we have elections for the Board of Directors. I encourage all of you who want to take an active role in the scope and operation of the Cinema Audio Society to please seriously consider running for office. The CAS is a volunteer organization and depends upon the dedication of its membership to grow and prosper. During the upcoming season, the Board of Directors is attempting to lead the CAS in a more “green” direction. In this regard, we will continue to focus on decreasing our use of paper. We will seek to further ensure the efficacy and reliability of our electronic ballots as we continue to make this transition into a more environmentally conscious approach to doing business. Thank you to Ed Greene, CAS and the panel participants for putting together the “What Happened to My Mix” seminar held at Warner Bros. A big thank-you goes to our Corporate Sponsor, Warner Bros. Studio Facilities, for the help with the location. Welcome to our new office manager, Patti Fluhr, who has taken over the reins of managing the CAS office. Our heartfelt thanks go to Robin Damski for all of her dedication to keeping us together. She has helped us make a smooth transition. We wish her the very best of luck with her relocation to Savannah, Georgia. Despite a year that has presented many challenges to our members because of the tenuous labor situation, we should all remember that we have a great deal to be proud of. Keeping this in mind, let’s not forget the importance of continuing to celebrate our achievements together. Thank you for all of your continued support, Regards,
Edward L. Moskowitz, CAS President, Cinema Audio Society
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CINEMA AUDIO SOCIETY MISSION STATEMENT
Five – that’s the number of Academy Five – that’s number of Academy Awards won bythe sound mixing teams Awards by soundaudio mixing teams workingwon on Euphonix mixing working Euphonix systemsonsince 2001. audio mixing systems since 2001.
®® Winner forforSound Mixing Winner2007 2007Oscar Oscar Sound Mixing
“The “TheBourne BourneUltimatum” Ultimatum” ®® Winner forforSound Mixing Winner2006 2006Oscar Oscar Sound Mixing
“Dreamgirls” “Dreamgirls” ®® Winner forforSound Mixing Winner2005 2005Oscar Oscar Sound Mixing
“King “KingKong” Kong”
® Winner Mixing Winner2003 2003Oscar Oscar®forforSound Sound Mixing
“The The Return of of thethe King “ “ “TheLord LordOfOfThe TheRings: Rings: The Return King ® Winner Winner2001 2001Oscar Oscar®forforSound Sound
“Black “BlackHawk HawkDown” Down”
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To educate and inform the general public and the motion picture and television industry that effective sound is achieved by a creative, artistic and technical blending of diverse sound elements. To provide the motion picture and television industry with a progressive society of master craftsmen specialized in the art of creative cinematic sound recording. To advance the specialized field of cinematic sound recording by exchange of ideas, methods, and information. To advance the art of auditory appreciation, and to philanthropically support those causes dedicated to the sense of hearing. To institute and maintain high standards of conduct and craftsmanship among our members. To aid the motion picture and television industry in the selection and training of qualified personnel in the unique field of cinematic sound recording. To achieve for our members deserved recognition as major contributors to the field of motion picture and television entertainment.
Not Enough Animation Awards
As I read Randy Thom’s Letter to the
OFFICERS
President: Edward L. Moskowitz Vice President: David Bondelevitch Treasurer: R.D. Floyd Secretary: Peter Damski BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Agamemnon Andrianos James Coburn IV John Coffey David Fluhr Ed Greene
Doug Hemphill Melissa Hofmann Sherry Klein Paul Massey Michael Minkler Lee Orloff
ALTERNATES
Bob Bronow Paul Marshall Joe Foglia Ken Polk OFFICE MANAGER
Patti Fluhr
Editors … in the Spring 2008 CAS Quarterly my mind jumped back to a Spring 2006 edition of the Quarterly. In that publication I wrote an article about the new category of DVD Original Programming with the groundbreaking award going to Family Guy Presents: Stewie Griffin—The Untold Story. Not only was this a new category, at the time, but it was also an animated comedy. Awards for that animated DVD program went to rerecording mixers Jim Fitzpatrick and Sam Black, CAS, and to Dan Cubert for Original Dialogue Recording. Thom said many of the films he works on are animated, and that CAS members have not nominated animated films. Clearly we have but not many. What I would suggest is that Thom join the Cinema Audio Society and nominate some of the projects he’s been a part of. Describing his work, Thom said, “An animated film is often at least as difficult and sometimes considerably more difficult, technically and creatively, than creating a track for a live-action film.” In the article I did with Fitzpatrick and Black, Fitzpatrick said almost the same thing as he described how sound is approached in
an animation film. Fitzpatrick said, “With live action you try to place things very literally with perspective. If someone is far away, you play them like they sound far away, but with animation that is usually not what they want, because it is all about the joke. Someone may be moving away from you but they want you to keep it right up there in your face to make sure nobody misses that joke.” As I returned to Spring 2006 on CinemaAudioSociety.Org to reread the article “DVD Original Programming, Outrageous and Uncensored!” I realized, as Thom points out, that the Quarterly has not given the field of animation enough coverage. Just as I was about to suggest that someone write an article on Thom, I heard that CAS member David Fluhr will be interviewing Thom on his creative and challenging work involved in creating a track for an animated film. Guess there were others who were also sparked by Randy Thom’s letter to the editors!
LETTER TO THE EDITORS...
FROM THE EDITORS...
“Those summer … ni-hights!!!!” Remember John Travolta pumping his fist into the air while belting out those notes atop a set of bleachers in the movie Grease? That was 30 years ago! But forget 30 years ago. In this issue of CAS Quarterly, Richard Lightstone, CAS remembers Stanley’ Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey some 40 years after its original release. Also, G. John Garrett, CAS gives his thoughts about this year’s NAB show from Las Vegas and provides a refresher on dither and sample rate conversion in his regular “Technically Speaking” column. Production mixer Paul Vik Marshall, CAS provides an insightful interview with the folks behind the revolutionary RED Camera. In her “European Roundup” column, Carrie Giunta, CAS discusses the potential effects of an actors’ strike on the European sound community. Matt Foglia, CAS provides insight into the portion of some TV programs known as the “Snap-In” in his “A Sound Discussion” column. He also discusses the joys (and rarity) of working with clients who budget extra time for the mix in his regular “Food for Thought” column. And, as always, you can read about the adventures (and misadventures) of your CAS colleagues through their “Been There Done That” and “The Lighter Side” submissions. This publication is produced as a service to our members and all of the contributors provide the content on a voluntary basis. This is your magazine and while we try to provide entertaining and informative articles, we would like to hear from you about thoughts for future articles. Please feel free to contact us via email at casquarterly@cinemaaudiosociety.org. We welcome your input, feedback and continued support.
–Aletha Rodgers, CAS
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©2008 by the Cinema Audio Society. All rights reserved. CAS®, Cinema Audio Society®, and Dedicated to the advancement of Sound® are all trademarks of the Cinema Audio Society and may not be used without permission. C A S Q U A R T E R LY
SUMMER 2008
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W A R N E R
• ADR
A Little More Time b y M a t t Fo g l i a , C A S
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F A C I L I T I E S
• FOLEY • RE-RECORDING • SOUND SUPERVISION • SOUND DESIGN & EDITORIAL
• DVD AUDIO MASTERING
You really get to appreciate it when a client is able to give you the extra time to mix. but for TV. Whether editing on the AudioFile, ScreenSound or Pro Tools, we’d have about a day for prep and a day for mix. Billing might have been broken down a little differently, but this allowed the mixer to create a mix instead of just getting through one. These days, I can count on one hand the number of cable TV series I’ve mixed over the past 10 years that have followed this “two days for a half-hour show” formula. That’s a day to split out elements, clean up dialogue and music, add effects, make sure everything is properly routed for the various deliverables and, oh yeah, mix. In fact, I’ve had a number of series that had me do all of this for an hour show in one, 10-hour day (or so they try)—even using the often time consuming LM100 while doing so. SUMMER 2008
S T U D I O
• SCORING
• AUDIO RESTORATION
I was so excited with my gig earlier this week. When I was delivered the media, I noticed that it was a half-hour show, but that the client had booked me for two days. Figuring it was the common scenario of the client not knowing when they’d be ready to mix, so they book two days but only want one, I started hammering away. When the client showed up and told me that we had the full two days to mix and review—and that they would budget more time if I felt I needed it, I had a flashback to my earlier days of assisting (after I picked myself, and my chair, up off of the floor). I remember my mentors often having two days to work on a half-hour show. Day one would primarily be a “prep” day. This entailed stripping audio from tape or, if we were lucky, trying to get an OMF to work using those Biblesized 2 GB SCSI drives. I’d split out tracks, do dialogue and music clean up, adjust the music edits that always seemed to be three frames off, spot effects and then, if there was still time, we’d start the mix. Quasi-film style,
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The SR Dual Receiver Budgets shrink, schedules get tighter and tighter, people get accustomed to the ease-of-change and speediness of nonlinear mixing, executives don’t sign off on content until the day before air; what can you do? I’m not complaining, most work is fun but some is, well, work, and while I appreciate my clients’ faith in my abilities to knock out a quality mix in a timely fashion, you really get to appreciate it when a client is able to give you the extra time to mix. One of my favorite personal mixes (as far as cable programming goes) is for a half-hour show that gave me two days because the producers wanted the mix to be a part of the storyline—complementing all of the picture edits and emphasizing the drama and tension; imagine! Now, a year later, I’ve got another series that is letting me contribute to the mood of the narrative by giving me time to “feel” the elements of the mix and assist with the storytelling. This is the stuff that makes me feel like a real mixer. Of course, as I finish writing this, I’m coming off of a double shift because this “two day” client could only get me for one day this week to mix their second show; so I did a double. It’s still the thought that counts, right?
Now in two flavors
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Since we’re largely recording digital files to disks these days, I thought it would be good to do some research and write a little about two digital operations that affect our work: Dither and sample rate conversion. I looked in the usual places and spoke with Jeff Lipton of Peerless Mastering (http://peerlessmastering.com) here in the Boston area. Jeff is mastering a series of records for me and has great ears, incredible gear and the most accurate room I have ever visited. So I figured he’d know a thing or two that I don’t and I was right. First, dither. The standard digital broadcast audio signal is 16 bits at 48kHz sample rate. Most of us record at 24 bit depth, which gives better dynamic range. A 16-bit audio has room for 65,536 dynamic differences, whereas 24-bit audio can resolve 16,777,216 levels1 This translates to a theoretical limit of 96dB for 16 bit and 144dB for 24 bit, so there’s a good reason to record 24-bit audio. When you are recording material for eventual broadcast or CD release, you have to wind up at 16 bits. There are three ways to do this; truncation, rounding or dither. Truncation involves just lopping off the eight least significant bits from the 24-bit signal. What’s the big deal with this? Those LSBs are all low-level stuff anyway, maybe even noise, right? Well, maybe. There are a couple of problems with truncation. First, you will lose low-level program information, so quiet audio will get muddy or could go away. Second, the quantizing becomes more coarse with lower amplitude, and may not be in correct proportion to the previous sample, disturbing the
sound.2 Third, the smaller number of amplitude changes available (65,536) results in harmonic distortion at even high amplitudes.3 From this we can conclude that truncation introduces distortion. Next there’s rounding. Rounding the excess bits in a 24-bit signal to the nearest 16-bit number introduces similarly regular errors in the result, and the sound is noticeably affected. Now for dithering. Dither is the process of introducing a very low-level noise to the signal before rounding it to 16 bits. Noise! In your pristine sound! This noise is actually lower than the Least Significant Bit at 16 bits. What this does is spread the regularly occurring errors around so they are no longer “regular” (i.e. harmonically related) and you don’t hear them! There are several different kinds or shapes that dither can come in, which are often chosen depending on the program material and largely up to personal taste or the box or program that’s doing the dithering. It’s important to note here that if you are doing any processing to the sound, you should do all your work at 24 bits and dither when you’re done processing. Jeff says that HDCD (High Definition Compatible Digital) dither and Pow-r Dither from Weiss Engineering are the best you can do. And from my experience, HDCD does sound great. Now you’ve got some nice 48 or 96kHz audio that has to get squeezed onto a CD, at 44.1kHz. You have to convert the sample rate to 44.1. Every DAW will do this, but outboard boxes will do the job noticeably better. Why not record at 44.1 to begin with?
1 http://www.tweakheadz.com/16_vs_24_bit_audio.htm 2 The Art of Digital Audio, John Watkinson, p167 3 http://www.users.qwest.net/~volt42/cadenzarecording/DitherExplained.pdf
Well, when you quantize an analog signal and play it back, it is subject to aliasing. Aliasing is the appearance of additional sounds that were not recorded in the original due to what I’m going to call the vagueness of digital quantizing. Now you might say, “Wait a minute, quantizing is not vague, it’s exact! 44.1, 48, 48.048, 96, etc.” That’s true but 96,000 samples is not an exact representation of the original. But it’s twice as accurate (or half as vague) as 48kHz in representation. Aliasing noises occur with frequencies above half the sample rate, and can be higher or lower in frequency than half the sample rate, and it’s a naturally occurring artifact of D to A conversion. So the lower the sample rate, the more aliasing there is. There’s a great java applet that demonstrates this at http://www.dsptutor.freeuk.com /aliasing/AD102.html. So even though 44.1kHz is roughly 92% of 48kHz, the aliasing is a little more audible than at 48. At 96kHz, even more of the aliasing is pushed out of the audible spectrum. So we record at 48 or 88.2 or 96 and do SRC to get to 44.1. All I can say about the specifics of upsampling and downsampling is that they involve lowpass filtering of the material before it’s resampled, and lots of mind-boggling math, sometimes both multiplying by one number and dividing by another to get the final sample rate. For most dialogue your NLE will probably do just fine, but for music and critical listening material you should consider something from Weiss or Izotope. There’s a great interactive comparison of various DAW and outboard SRC functions at http://src.infinitewave.ca/.
C A S Q U A R T E R LY
SUMMER 2008
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2001: a space odyssey
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S U M M E R 2 0 0 8 C A S Q U A R T E R LY
by Richard Lightstone, CAS I remember it like it was yesterday: April 6, 1968. I was still a teenager when I first saw Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey in 70mm Cinerama with six-track stereo sound. To put it in perspective, the film really blew me away. On April 25, 2008, 40 years later, I was blown away again. This time at a special screening presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater. The event started at 7:30 p.m. and was hosted by Tom Hanks, followed by a lively discussion after the screening with actors Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood, special effects supervisor Douglas Trumbull and animation effects artist Bruce Logan. The evening ended about 11:30 with the audience wanting more. This was a beautifully restored 70mm print, presented in its original ‘road show’ format. Which meant there was a 10-minute musical prelude before the curtains opened and a 10-minute ‘Intermission,’ also with music— just like I saw it in 1968. There is no doubt that 2001 is a visually stunning film, with pioneering visual effects created by Trumbull and Con Pederson and photographed by Geoffrey Unsworth. But it is the inventive and stark soundtrack that brings this great film to life. Still to this day, when you hear the first notes of Richard Strauss’s “Thus Spoke Zarathustra,” who doesn’t “see” the opening “Dawn of Man” sequence? What about when the ape-man throws the leg bone into the air, and it match cuts with the spinning satellite and then hear Johann Strauss’s “The Blue Danube”? Kubrick had commissioned a score from Alex North who had also written the score for Spartacus and Dr. Strangelove. Stanley used the famous classical pieces during film editing as a guide and it so delighted the executives at MGM that he kept it. One of the film’s most striking features is that there is no dialogue for the first 25 minutes, only sound effects and music. The same goes for the last 20 minutes of the film. Who could forget the haunting voice of the HAL 9000 supercomputer? Voiced by Douglas Rain. “I’m sorry Dave, I’m
afraid I can’t do that.” During filming, Stanley Kubrick had Nigel Davenport reading HAL’s lines off-camera so that Dullea and Lockwood could react to them. Apparently, Kubrick thought that Davenport’s English accent was too distracting. So after a few weeks, he dismissed him and for the remainder of the shoot, HAL’s lines were read by an assistant director who, according to Dullea, had a cockney accent so thick that lines like “Better take a stress pill, Dave” came out like “Better tyke a stress pill, Dyve.” Later, Martin Balsam was hired and recorded HAL’s voice in New York but again when Kubrick heard the recording, he wasn’t satisfied so he finally found Douglas Rain to rerecord everything during post production. In the scene when HAL is being disconnected by Dr. Dave Bowman (Dullea), HAL pleads for his ‘life’ and finally sings “Daisy.” All we hear is HAL’s singing and Dave’s nervous breathing. In a word, brilliant. This sequence was inspired by a computer-synthesized arrangement that Arthur C. Clarke had heard in 1962. Kubrick began shooting on December 17, 1965, at Shepperton Studios in England with the “Tycho Crater” excavation scene. Then in 1966, he moved production to the MGM-British Studios in Borehamwood, until completion. Kubrick feared flying so he edited most of the film on the Queen Elizabeth 2 and while traveling across the United States by train. The film’s world premiere was on April 2, 1968, at the Uptown Theater in Washington, D.C. Kubrick deleted 19 minutes from the film just before the film’s general release on April 6, 1968. It was released in 70mm with a six-track stereo magnetic soundtrack and projected in the 2.21:1 aspect ratio. In the fall of 1968, it was also released in 35mm anamorphic with either a four-track magnetic stereo soundtrack or an optical monaural soundtrack. 2001: A Space Odyssey was sound-edited by Winston Ryder (1915–1999), who won the BAFTA Award for “Best Sound Track” in 1969. J.B. Smith was credited as the chief dubbing mixer and H.L. Bird as sound mixer. Sadly, uncredited was Robin Gregory who was the production mixer. The film received four Academy Award nominations for Directing (Kubrick), Writing (Kubrick, Clarke), Art Direction (Tony Masters) and Special Visual Effects (Kubrick). Kubrick won the Oscar in the Special Visual Effects category. Unfortunately, 2001 did not receive an Oscar nomination for sound mixing. For the record, that year the nominees were: Bullitt, Finian’s Rainbow, Funny Girl, Oliver and Star! The winner was Oliver. 2001: A Space Odyssey is best viewed in its 70mm format but for you home-theater buffs, Warner Home Video released a two-DVD special edition in Dolby 5:1 that you can enjoy over and over again. C A S Q U A R T E R LY
SUMMER 2008
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Growing Pains and the
RED Camera
Phenomenon:
What is your title and what do you do at RED?
Ted: What I do for RED has evolved quite a bit, since I am the first on the job at RED. At the beginning, I was heavily involved in the early-development stages of figuring out what we were going to build and how—then it gets handed off to the really smart guys at RED that can do the building. These days I spend most of my time interfacing with the industry all over the world, giving presentations and speeches about RED and generally being a diplomat for the RED world and how we connect to the outside world. Who at RED would be most qualified to answer questions about audio and the camera?
Ted: Stuart (English) is best to answer your specific audio questions. That’s part of his focus. Ted calls himself the “Leader of the Rebellion.” What is your title and what do you do at RED?
Stuart: “Workflow Wizard.” I work on whatever touches the camera—power systems, audio devices, the end-user.
Jon: RED’s modular design is actually observable on a variety of levels. Physically, the camera allows for internal modularity, where RED will continue to offer upgrades in sensor technology as progress is made in new designs and capabilities, rendering obsolescence obsolete. Where performance increases are limited by space or design, entire camera upgrades will be made available with full trade-in credit (Epic). The external modularity of RED allows for the use of all PL mount lenses, as well as 35mm still optics with the use of dedicated adapters for Canon, Nikon and a variety of other mounts. Battery systems (V-Lock), monitoring options, mounts, radio control, and remotes are all industry standard, allowing an infinite degree of accessorizing. Lastly, and perhaps most important, is the modularity of RED’s internal operation, offering the ability, through firmware upgrades, to continue changing and improving the camera, while continually adding features and capabilities. With each firmware build, owners get brand-new cameras, capable of doing things that other manufacturers would introduce new models to achieve.
What makes the RED Camera so popular?
Jim Jannard, the founder of RED, brought you on board very early. Can you talk a little about that?
Ted: RED’s popularity in my opinion all comes from the spectacular images it creates and the streamlined and logical workflow
Ted: Jim is a pretty passionate and persuasive person. It took me a lot to leave the best gig ever at AJA Video—but the chance to
RED is not an HD camera at all. What it really is, is a digital version of a 35mm film camera. –Ted Schilowitz for working with these super high-res files. Plus, the company is uniquely open in its development strategies and pathways.
“THE REVOLUTION” B y Pa u l V i k M a r s h a l l , C A S The RED Camera is taking the industry by storm. Since the RED Camera’s release in August of 2007, more than 1,000 units have been sold and there is a waiting list (reservations) of more than 4,500. How could RED release these cameras so quickly with several versions of firmware and hardware without hiccups and kinks along the way? I personally have worked with a dozen RED Cameras in the past year and have had to work through many audio issues. By troubleshooting the audio challenges of the RED, I was able to record good to excellent sound. Why did I have to work so hard to get acceptable sound? I wanted to know more about the RED Camera and the company so I contacted RED’s leaders: Ted Schilowitz, Stuart English and Jon Sagud. The following are interviews conducted via email. 14
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C A S Q U A R T E R LY
be a part of the team to make a truly groundbreaking 4k digital movie camera was too exciting and challenging to pass up. So with AJA’s full support I went to start RED with Jim.
People often refer to the RED as an HD camera. Is it an HD camera?
Where did you work before you ended up at RED?
Stuart: Good question, but no. It’s a cinematic quality digital camera that lots of end-users will happen to apply to HDTV productions.
Stuart: Ampex, Abekas and Panasonic Broadcast, at the latter I worked on a variety of products from the DVX-100 up thru Varicam.
What do you think makes the RED unique and how does it differ from some of the HD cameras on the market?
How many firmware and hardware versions of the RED are out there in the field?
Ted: RED is not an HD camera at all. What it really is, is a digital version of a 35mm film camera. PL mount, 35mm-sized digital imager and a machine that shoots raw progressive frames and encodes them using our REDCODE technology. What do you think sets the RED apart from other cameras?
Stuart: …color fidelity, dynamic range, size and affordability. It’s the complete package, including desktop editing ability and great audio. Can you address the modular capability of the RED and how it relates to innovative changes?
Ted: There have been 16 major firmware upgrades of the software that runs the RED since we started shipping. Most people are running on build 15 now, and the beta is build 16. That will go into release mode soon. What is build 16 and how will it improve sound on the RED?
Stuart: Build 16 is the latest version of firmware for the camera, and although it’s mainly focused on image quality and compression optimization, it does improve absolute audio to video sync (lip sync). Can you talk about the evolution of audio and the RED. C A S Q U A R T E R LY
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Stuart: We simply wanted an equivalent quality to audio as we were delivering on the image side of the equation. When was audio incorporated into the RED?
Ted: The sound hardware was always on the RED ONE. We enabled it via a firmware update a few months after we started shipping first units. What are your RED factory standards for audio sample and bit rates?
Stuart: RED ONE provides four discreet channels of uncompressed, 48 Khz, 24 bit per channel.
inputs (used with a RED-supplied XLR to mini-XLR adaptor cable) full scale (FS) level will be +18 dBU (6.5 Volts RMS). Microphone input sensitivity is influenced by the gain setting of the internal preamplifiers. For microphone inputs (used with a RED-supplied XLR to mini-XLR adaptor cable) at minimum pre-amplifier gain (20 dB) full scale (FS) input sensitivity will be -4 dBU (0.48 Volts RMS), and at maximum pre-amplifier gain (54 dB) full scale (FS) input sensitivity will be -34 dBU (0.015 Volts RMS). When will mixers be able to utilize inputs 3 and 4?
Stuart: Suggest that’s a question for mixer manufacturers. 3/4 mainly gets used for mics at the moment.
Does the camera run at variable frame rates?
Stuart: We do not consider those variable frame rates, rather Project Time Bases. In any case, yes—23.98, 24.00, 25.00, 29.97, 50.00, 59.94. It’s a world camera. Variable frame rates can run from 1 fps to 120 fps. When using a double system in recording audio, what frame rate does RED recommend? 29.97ND, 23.98?
Stuart: Either one. Most often that turns out to be 29.97 fps non-drop. RED’s audiometers do not have numbered increments or hash-mark references. What does RED suggest is best for setting levels on the audiometer?
Stuart: The recommended levels fall out as follows—for line
Can the RED take an external Time Code Jam and if so, how does the TC Jam work?
Stuart: Sure. Just use the standard 5-pin LEMO and send the camera time code at the same frame rate that it’s capturing. Sync is established at the start of record. Can the RED send Time Code to external sources?
Stuart: Not at this time, but it will be added in a later firmware release. I have heard you say that you are a development organization and how far you have come is truly amazing but some out there in the field feel as though they are being used as beta testers, working out the bugs that should have been addressed before shipping. Do you think that
with the RED Camera the purchaser has some responsibility to help you work out the kinks in making the RED the best that it can be especially knowing that the RED is cutting edge and the company is addressing challenges much faster than competitive camera manufacturers?
Ted: We have always been very upfront about our strategy at RED—development and improvement is always happening at RED. If software is beta, we are clear to let the camera owners know that. There is not hard and fast responsibility for RED Camera owners to help with testing, many do, some don’t—it’s just the way our company has evolved. We could have waited another year or so to do first shipments, but the customer demand for our 4k camera was so high. We learned so much by having cameras move through their early life with early users (all that were well aware that these were first cameras shipped) to where they are now, that simply could not have been accomplished in a private lab setting. We are not perfect—far from it, but most that use the camera have incredible results (I see them all the time), and we are quite proud of that. Despite my challenges with the RED audio, I have followed the workflow through editorial and the end result has been good. My advice to mixers working with the RED Camera for the first time is the following: The audiometer does not have numbered increments or reference hash marks. There is a green horizontal bar that will turn into yellow with additional external line input. I have determined, with the help of several DIT engineers, that an acceptable level is around three quarters of the green horizontal bar before it hits the yellow.
Make sure you know what type of TA3 to XLR cables you are using to go into the RED. Some TA3 cables have pads in the cables themselves (RED cables) and some require external barrel pads such as the Shure step pad or the Audio Technica step pad. If you need to pad down and you do not have an external step pad, come down off your master outs of your board to make adjustments. You will experience a 60-hertz buzz on monitoring off of the RED audio return. This buzz may not be apparent all the time but I have found that the fan to the RED Camera creates a loud 60 hertz-like noise on return and will disappear when the camera goes into record mode and the fan shuts off. Make sure your camera operator sets the fan to turn off in record mode. Other noise on the audio return most likely will be grounding issues from the HD monitor, techno crane, DIT station or VTR cart. Make sure everyone is plugged into the same AC source. In the days of film, after a setup we would hear “Check the Gate.” Now, with these new cameras, we hear “Check the Chip.” The Media Manager while “Checking the Chip” will give the audio mixer a chance to make sure his or her audio is making it to the RED Camera chip and that levels are acceptable for editorial. Sound Devices has done some interesting audio testing on the RED Camera (RED ONE) (Go to http://www. sounddevices.com/notes/cameras/red-one/). The RED Camera user site, (reduser.net), is another source of information for those going out in the field and wanting to be prepared for hiccups, kinks and glitches.
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A Random Walk at NAB b y G . J o h n G a r re t t , C A S
h eft) wit tooles (l and a T n h o ip J nkensh John Bla rack recorder -t 788T 8
Deva 16
SSL’s new Matrix
RED ONE
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The NAB show in Las Vegas is usually an interesting place to see new products, meet colleagues and get sore feet. The 2008 edition was no exception. I spent a couple of days wandering through the exhibits and here are some things that I found interesting. Sound Devices demoed a working model of their new 788T 8-track recorder. It looks a lot like the 744 on “performance enhancing” substances. I found these InVision shockmounts in the Redding audio booth. They have some of the best isolation I’ve heard. Among Zaxcom’s new or improved products is the Deva 16, the first really portable 16-track recorder. They’ve added the Compact Flash slot to the 5.8 and the 16 as well. Also, new this year is the Mix-8, an 8channel fader panel with simple metering and trim functions. I usually look at consoles to see if there’s anything new under the sun. A lot of manufacturers are making changes under the hood, but since I don’t sit at a big desk every day, I’m not hot on any particular trail. SSL’s new Matrix looks interesting. Sixteen analog inputs (with 16 “B” inputs) and ready to go with your favorite DAW. A 32x16x16 router, MIDI controller, and inline DAW monitoring make this smallest of SSLs an interesting new direction for the big desk kings. YouCom had a nice-looking little box on a pedestal all by itself, and their Parrot seems pretty cool. It’s a mic pre, recorder (to SD card) with blue tooth transceiver, aux out and variable telephone return level. Made for radio reporters, you can record material and send the files to the studio via cellphone, or use your phone for a live field-studio link. There’s a USB connector as well, so you can transfer files to a computer for editing and use the Parrot as an external sound card with good connectors. Seems like it would make a dandy IFB for live shots too. In the camera department, the RED ONE was pulling in the crowds. I stood in line and watched the 20-minute demo of probably the best-looking projected images I have ever seen. The designers built in a 24-bit audio chain, but tests show it doesn’t perform to quite 16 bits. With mini XLR connectors and less than stellar audio performance, it seems that RED will not put double system recording in jeopardy any time soon. Lectrosonics continues innovating with the D4T/D4R combination, a digital radio system that takes four analog inputs and transmits them on a single-digital carrier to analog or AES outputs on the receiver. C A S Q U A R T E R LY
inVision
Mix-8
YouCom
R D4T/D4
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Before
the Storm by Carrie Giunta, CAS
W
Without a doubt, Europe is an integral part of a global film industry. The challenges that the U.S. film industry faces affect all aspects of European cinema. Although it’s an ocean away, we breathe the same air. Colin Brown, Britain’s film commissioner, best said it, “When Hollywood sneezes, the global film industry catches cold.” As productions are wrapping all over Europe this summer, the notion of another strike in Hollywood could put a tickle in the throat of Europe’s cinema sound industry. I set out to inquire how people in sound are preparing for an anticipated SAG strike, especially in terms of their strategies for covering ADR. What I discovered was a general atmosphere of calm. Cool, calm and collected best describes the attitude of the sound crew on the new Quantum of Solace, the next James Bond film, filmed partly at Pinewood Studios in London. The sound department is preparing as if the strike will happen. Supervising dialogue editor Simon Chase was on set listening out for potential problems. In order to spot difficult areas in the dialogue tracks early on, it was helpful for him to have access to the initial assemblies of scenes. The idea is to have all the bases covered in case it isn’t possible to get an actor back to record ADR. Chase even traveled to Italy to record some ‘guerrilla ADR’ on the set of the film. On one hand, as far as ADR done for technical reasons is concerned, they will be over-prepared. On the other hand, dialogue changes might become more complicated as the
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story unfolds. For instance, if, as Chase pointed out, “new ideas for the story come up during the strike, then I guess we’ll need to be a little creative with our problem-solving.” Chase hastens to add, “I don’t think it will be a problem with this movie though as the script reads very well.” Diagnosis: There really is no way of knowing just how prepared they will be. To avoid catching a summer cold, Europe’s sound industry is certainly going to have to maintain good health practices. Its strategy for staying as fit as a fiddle is one of preventative medicine. The best we can all hope for is that the potential strike will be a moot point, and will be settled before this publication goes to press. Whatever the status of the situation may be at that time, let’s hope it is more of a hiccup than a sneeze!
Snap It In
I
In the United States, we’re getting gypped. No, I’m not talking about the value of the dollar and its lackluster buying power. I’m talking about the amount of airtime our TV shows get. It seems that some of the networks are giving our international friends a little more content, extending shows even further than we get stateside. How are they doing it? With a thing called the “snap-in.” Alternate versions of shows have been around for decades. The three-hour awards show gets re-cut for one- and twohour re-airings, hour shows get chopped for half-hour syndication, sporting events trim the fat for additional broadcasts. The common theme is that the original versions had already aired and were longer to begin with. Now, given the rather commercial heavy domestic time slots, networks are asking for additional footage to cut into their internationally delivered programs. On a current half-hour series I’m mixing, the show runs 21:30 total with bumpers. At the end of the program on the master tape are sequences of additional footage. The purpose of these additions is to allow a continuous 24minute version of the show to be assembled without bumpers. Instead of 8:30 in commercials, our international friends only sit through about six minutes of commercials. This requires a good time code calculator as the editors have to make up not only an additional 2:30, but also the time for the removed bumpers. I’ve noticed this practice primarily for shows airing on networks that are fans of undipped tracks and the LM100. So where does this extra material come from? Given the nature of the content, it can’t be anything that adversely affects the storyline; as those who don’t have access to the material would be missing out on something vital to the program. Usually it’s footage that was rightfully deemed
b y M a t t Fo g l i a , C A S
Example 1
Example 2
unnecessary when assembling the original version of the cut. Not that the footage is dull or boring, it’s just not vital. Although, in my experience, a number of these snap-ins contain some of the more interesting material. Now, according to many producers I’ve spoken with, snap-ins can be real pains in the butt to put together since they have to extend the storyline of something that was already considered clear and concise to begin with. And they have to be timed-out perfectly. So, what do these sessions look like? In the Pro Tools session snapshot seen in Example 1, after the fourth and final segment of the half-hour show (labeled “Act IV”), there are three shorter segments (see the close-up in Example 2) that I’ve labeled “Snap I, Snap II and Snap III” (I’m a fan of Roman numerals). As seen in Example 3, the picture slate for Snap-In 2 indicates where in the program the snap is to be cut in. So this snap, at 2:30;00 in length, needs to be inserted at original master time code 1:15:32;27. With this addition, the show is now 2½ minutes longer. After the snap-in, the original show resumes. Now, however, the material that was at 1:15:32;27 is moved down the timeline two minutes and 30 seconds. Likewise, the slate seen in Example 4 indicates that Snap-In 3, with a running time of 28:01, is to be cut in at 1:01:07;20. Note, the insert points of the snap-ins
reflect the original master time code. Basically, it’s as if they are to be assembled in a linear, tape-to-tape fashion (as opposed to inserting a section and then having the rest of the show ripple to the right as would be the case in an AVID, for example). Example 5 shows an alternate approach to preparing the snap-ins. Instead of having strictly new content, the producer decided to rework a section of the program and incorporate new material into existing material. The slate indicates that the content from the original version (from 1:16:00;21 through 1:16:40;22) is to be lifted with the snap-in replacing—and extending—the original content. To me, this seems a little more idiot proof as opposed to having, say, seven snap-ins that are to be inter-cut throughout a particular section in order to extend the content. On one episode, I remember the first snap-in preceded a word and the second snap-in followed the word so that the cut would go: Original Program— Snap-In 1—Original Program (for, literally 40 frames)—Snap-In 2—Original Program. That’s just putting too much faith in your fellow man (and snubbing Murphy’s Law right in the face)—something I wouldn’t advise. So how do you go about mixing these snap-ins? Well, you have to make sure that, for continuities sake, everything matches; EQ, compression, level, etc.,
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because a picture editor somewhere in some far-off land is probably going to splice that section right into the middle of your mix. Those folks who tend to work in reels have this down to an art. Being able to open a new session and have the level match seamlessly to the prior reel’s session is truly a talent. Being that these snap-ins are part of the same
the material that’s part of the snap, then locate to the time code point where the snap material is to be inserted (as is indicated on the slate). Usually the snap is a continuation of the scene already playing or will become the beginning of the next scene (as opposed to being some random, stand-alone section). I will then check the EQs and levels of the
plug-in information to the snap. Pretty straightforward. Things become more of a guessing game when music is added and runs to the end of the snap, but the results should be similar. One thing I don’t tend to do is add dissolves in and out like I would normally, as this material will be butt-cut in. I do add small enough fades so that the material does-
Example 4
Example 5
tracks that the snap will be cut into, copy the associated plug-in parameters (assuming the source mics are the same), note the volume level and then apply the
n’t “pop” in, but won’t reveal a dip in level once cut in to the preexisting show. As you can see, “snap-ins” can actually be a snap.
Example 3
session, things are quite a bit easier (not to mention that these particular examples are quite sparse in a track count sense). I usually play the beginning of
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David Barr-Yaffe CAS has left Monk’s crazy world after the strike to complete Season 2 and is currently mixing Season 3 of Brothers & Sisters for ABC/Disney. Tim Salmon and Jessy Bender are on the stix.
Joe Foglia CAS and Kevin Santy have just finished a wonderful feature film in Miami, Florida, and West Chester, Pennsylvania. Based on the book Marley & Me and directed by David Frankel. A story about the world’s worst dog, starring Owen Wilson and Jennifer Anniston. My crew in Miami was Mike Pisano, and in Philly, based out of Local 52, New Yorker Timothia Sellers. Opens December 25. Then back on Scrubs for Season 8 with Anna Wilborn who is now engaged to Ted Mayer. Good luck T&A!
Michael Keller CAS recently mixed Hellboy II: The Golden Army for Guillermo del Toro in London at De Lane Lea Studios. Hello once again... David Smith, my boom op and I are doing another movie together called 500 Days of Summer for Fox Searchlight. Refreshing to be doing a single-camera comedy. Haven’t done a singlecamera show in eight years. I highly recommend it! – Mixer Lori Dovi CAS
Gavin Fernandes CAS has been working on several projects: Final mixing for Cruising Bar 2, FX mixing for Le Grand départ, and pre-dubbing for Young Victoria & Babine. After that, it’ll be holiday time with all three generations of the family on a cruise of the Baltic.
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We are a month into production of Season 1 of Sanctuary, a TV series for Sci-Fi. I am broadcasting splittrack master dialogue to multiple RED 1 Camera systems. My backup is to a Fostex PD 6. This is my second year of broadcasting master dialogue to multiple cameras. If you would like to hear my newly re l e a s e d a l b u m , p l e a s e v i s i t
www.theearthkings.com. My regards to you all. –Kevin Sands CAS
Jim Fitzpatrick CAS and Lisle Engle have been mixing the HBO series The Life & Times of Tim at Todd AO Burbank Stage A. Jim is mixing new episodes of Family Guy and American Dad! at Todd Hollywood Stage 6. Jim is also mixing the feature Paranormal Activity for Amblin Entertainment at Todd Hollywood Stage 6. Jim recently edited and mixed several projects in his home studio including the FOX television pilot Defenders, a blues documentary Echoes ’Cross the Tracks featuring Morgan Freeman, Warped, a film documenting several years of the Punk Rock Warped Tour, and an independent children’s TV pilot Sensitive Charles. Agamemnon Andrianos CAS, Douglas Shamburger and Alex Names will start Season 5 of Desperate Housewives for ABC Television in July. Greetings from the HOT sunny South. Currently, Je f f re e Bloomer CAS and his crew of Tony Cargioli and Kellen Bloomer, are experiencing the strangest show to date— Nailed with director David O Russell, shooting in Columbia, S.C. It has been quite a ride. That’s all I have to say about that. I guess we are all waiting to see what SAG is up to and that will determine where we will go next. Hi to all my friends and fellow mixers around the country. Let’s hope for a continuation of work and a healthy, prosperous year! I just finished production sound mixing a feature film for Paramount Pictures entitled Without a Paddle 2 up in Portland, Ore. –Erik Magnus CAS
Does life end at death? Does the ‘soul’ part of us live on? The Lovely Bones, an intriguing, uplifting book by Alice Sebold, is being turned into a fascinating film by maestro director Peter Jackson. Tod A. Maitland CAS covered the first eight weeks in Pennsylvania during late 2007 and Hammond Peek CAS (me) is finishing off the New Zealand end of the shoot in “Kong” stage, Wellington. Here I am with my hit team, the delicate Jo “Don’t argue with me” Fraser on boom, ruggedly tall utility assistant Ferand “The Quiet One” Peek, and astute trainee Joel “You got a problem with that?” Anscombe-Smith. This is my seventh film with Peter Jackson and although it can be frustrating on set at times sound-wise, I have great respect for Peter’s integrity and filmmaking nous. He respects his audience, knows how to tell a damn good yarn, and at the end of the day the final soundtrack will always be impeccable, multi-layered and extremely rich.
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The Universal Pictures movie Land of the Lost stars Will Ferrell and is directed by Brad Silberling. Lemony Snicket’s a Series of Unfortunate Events, same sound crew. Temperatures at 112 degrees and winds up to 35 mph! The sound challenges were at their peak! (The only thing missing in the background are the Sleestaks & dinosaurs!) Have a happy summer, stay covered up! –Pud Cusack CAS, Ross & Ross
Kent Sparling CAS has been busy mixing James Gray’s Two Lovers with Tom Johnson, and Eduardo Sánchez’s Seventh Moon with Mark Berger (for which he also composed the score). Projects for later this year include sound design and mix for Frazer Bradshaw’s Monotone Life and an as yet untitled feature documentary for the Oceanic Preservation Society. World Wide Audio and Leviathan Productions have joined forces and are starting production on a new slate of projects this fall. In the meantime. Georgia Hilton CAS and her staff are busy editing the feature film Hey Diddle Diddle and will be starting sound design this month. Additionally, Georgia is completing sound design on the feature Severe Clear, a documentary shot by soldiers in Iraq, for Leviathan Productions. Additionally, we just finished picture and sound for more than 20 Web episodes for the Manic Attack’s website. Sita Sings the Blues, a feature that Georgia mixed, premiered in the United States at the Tribeca Film Festival to sold-out shows.
Mac Ruth CAS is just wrapping up the feature film Bunraku on location in Bucharest, Romania, with longtime boom operator Pal Szuros and local third Marius Cozma. Nice cast, nice show. Mixer Patrick Hanson CAS, boom Serge Popovic, and utility Richard Geerts are working on My Own Worst Enemy for NBC. Greetings to all. Kenn Fuller CAS, Tom Payne, Jaya Jayaraja and Ron Hairston Jr. are saving the world on Season 3 of NBC’s Heroes, having spent much of the writers’ strike creating the sound for the pilots Zip (also for NBC) and Danny Fricke for Sony.
Brian Simmons CAS is spending the summer shooting Shanghai for the Weinstein Company in London and Bangkok. Set immediately preceding Pearl Harbor, the movie features John Cusack with Eastern stars Yun-Fat Chow, Ken Watanabe and Li Gong. Boom Cecilia Lanzi and cableman Rikki Hansen complete the crew. Scott Harber CAS and Jon Klein are working on the untitled Larry Charles project starring Sacha Baron Cohen in various locals in Texas and Arkansas. We are having mucho fun out here. Then we may be doing a production which involves a company move from Arkansas to Jordan. After that comes Israel and Germany before heading home to finish before the SAG deadline of July 1. Hopefully, things will be sorted out by the time this gets printed. Here’s to a lovely summer everyone! 24
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Steven A. Morrow CAS has just wrapped up The Ugly Truth, a feature film, shot in Los Angeles, Calif., with boom man Craig Dollinger and utility Aaron Grice. Stephen Halbert CAS, with brother David and Albert Aquino, are at CBS Radford working on The Cleaner for A&E. Two months of 60-hour weeks and two months to go. We like it!
John Pritchett CAS and boom op David Roberts along with Shawn Harper did the first two months of Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life near Austin, Tex., but had to leave to go onto Oliver Stone’s controversial biopic W., about who else—George “W” Bush. It’s due out in October. Josh Brolin plays W. John and Dave finished Ed Harris’ Appaloosa in Santa Fe. Due out this fall, Appaloosa is a classic Western starring Viggo Mortensen, Renée Zellweger and Jeremy Irons.
Jay Rose CAS has released a third edition of his popular Producing Great Sound for Film and Video (Focal Press). The 464page text covers the entire audio process from acoustics and mic technique at the shoot to editing and mixing. The new edition adds more about single-system DV cameras, tapeless workflows, and both documentary and narrative production styles. “There’s probably nothing in here that CAS members don’t already know,” Rose says, “but it might make things easier when explaining what we do.” Details and downloadable samples are at www.dplay.com/book.
Richard Lightstone CAS along with boom operator Jeff Erdmann and smooth operator Damon Harris, are on Season 2 of Dirty Sexy Money. We began shooting in May and should complete the first 13 episodes by late October. If luck and viewers hold, we’ll get the “back nine” and it will be smooth sailing until next March! Pray SAG doesn’t mess the town up. Mark Ulano CAS here: We, (Tom Hartig, boom, Adam Blantz, second unit mixer, & Rodney Gurule, UST) recently completed the Kevin Macdonald film State of Play starring Russell Crowe, Helen Mirren & Ben Affleck in Washington, D.C. We are now in Albuquerque, N.M., on Terminator Salvation directed by McG and C A S Q U A R T E R LY
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starring Christian Bale and Sam Worthington. This will take us to the end of summer, when we will be starting up Iron Man 2.
Glenn Berkovitz CAS and boomers Mark Grech and Danny Greenwald have moved on from their much-loved (and unfortunately, canceled) engagement on ABC’s October Road. We’ve day-played many places (LOTS of second/double-up units), and now we’re on Fox’s Courtroom K pilot. ADV: Neat, clean sound crew seeks full-time accommodations—will consider sublet—no pets, many parties… Darryl Linkow CAS continues assignments for Entertainment Tonight and The Insider for CBS Paramount Domestic Television and is looking forward to both of these shows moving to CBS Radford Studios in early September and switching over to shooting with their new Sony hidef cameras. Also, Darryl will be returning to mixing Talkshow With Spike Feresten for Fox Network, when it starts shooting Season 3 in August. And, with any luck, we’ll see Darryl once again making guest appearances in front of the camera on Talkshow, to add to his growing list of actor credits on the show! Bob Israel CAS reports a busy spring and summer of commercials and network promos with more to come. With the help of boom ops Allister Mann, Kevin Williams and Cherith Cutestory, Bob has worked with a number of celebrities in recent weeks including Cher, Cindy Crawford, Jamie Lee Curtis, Bear Grylls, Hulk Hogan & Laila Ali, Jerry Springer, Howie Mandel, Rachel Hunter, Janet Evans, Zach Levi and Ron Perlman. Bob is recovering well from his recent motorcycle accident and should be as good as new by the time you read this. Philip Perkins CAS has been “constructing” and mixing the music for Peter Esmonde’s doc feature TRIMPIN: The Sound of Invention. This has involved constructing and mixing for 5.1 a full score out of 30 years’ worth of miscellaneous location recordings of Gerhard Trimpin’s music and installations, anything from home-recorded flugel horn noodlings to large museum installations to a full-up 26
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world premiere concert with the Kronos Quartet last year. James LeBrecht and Dan Olmsted will be mixing the show in the Alan Splet Theatre at the Saul Zaentz Film Center in Berkeley. Phil took some time off to attend his son Zachary’s graduation from UC Santa Barbara ... a BA in film and media studies. The curse is passed to another generation.
Bob Wald CAS and boomers Bob Maxfield and Jeff Zimmerman, are just finishing the first season of a new series for ABC Family called The Secret Life of the American Teenager. Considered a dream show by its cast and crew, Teenager has lived up to its roots. Producer and writer Brenda Hampton, who also produced the long-running 7th Heaven, became famous in the industry for her very sane nine- to 10-hour workdays and incredibly enjoyable working atmosphere. In fact, most of the old 7th Heaven crew is back. Bob says, “We really do feel like some of the luckiest folks in the biz. We generally come to work at 7 a.m. on Monday and 7 a.m. on Friday and we’re usually driving home by 4 p.m. Plus, we shoot the same number of pages as most other shows. When we do have some night shots, they are always accomplished with light splits or even tenting. Brenda Hampton and her team have proven for many years that it’s possible to produce a quality, profitable show without sacrificing their personal lives and ours. We wish that other shows could operate this way. If you love overtime, this isn’t the place, but if you love going home with time left for a life, this is pretty darned perfect! Between seasons Bob is back to work as an agent for Dilbeck GMAC Real Estate.
Steve Morantz CAS and crew have been busy post-strike. I went back to finish mixing Season 1 of Samantha Who? for ABC Studios, did a Nickelodeon pilot The Norton Avenue All-Stars and a feature Hanging Out Hooking Up Falling in Love, then we jumped back to get an early start on Season 2 of Samantha. With me are my usual suspects; Aaron Wallace, Mitch Cohn and Thomas Popp, as well as day players Ron Wright and Scott Solan. Show is down for the summer so I am available for second units or to fill-in for someone if they need a day off.
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Jürg von Allmen CAS writes: News once again from sunny Switzerland—I just finished the ADR recording of the new “Swiss-Bollywood film” Tandoori Love, directed by Oliver Paulus. I am starting with sound design and final mix of Mein Kampf (My Struggle). Rather than trying to present a historically accurate version of Hitler’s early life in Austria, the film, directed by Switzerland’s Urs Odermatt, mixes reality and fiction with a hefty dose of irony.
Jonathan Gaynor CAS and boom guy Tim Cargioli have escaped the heat of the Southeast for awhile recording Miramax’s Youth in Revolt in Michigan. They have the enthusiastic help of Detroit’s own James Brown as cable/2nd boom. This summer at Larson Stage 3, Sherry Klein CAS and David Raines are mixing Season 2 of Burn Notice. At the Larson/Seward Stage 6, Sherry and Brian Harman CAS are starting on a new FX series Sons of Anarchy and currently mixing a Lifetime MOW Fab 5.
Steve Nelson CAS, front man Knox White, and finally, Adam Blantz, are slowly circling the drain here on Universal’s Fast and Furious. It’s been a good long run and it will be over soon with nothing but uncertainty before us. I hope that by the time you read this they haven’t driven the bus off the cliff (again!), all current labor issues are settled and we are back on track to a busy year. Good luck to us all! Scott Waz CAS enjoyed ADR mixer credits for M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening and upcoming films Our Lady of Victory and Mama, I Want to Sing.
Carl Rudisill CAS finished mixing the production Little Britain USA, the new American version of the popular BBC sitcom. It began filming in April and wrapped late May with James Peterson (boom) and Mason Donnahoe (2nd boom). Carl is also currently mixing Endgame Entertainment’s A Good Old Fashioned Orgy, which will wrap in early July. In addition to production sound mixing, Carl’s company, North Star Post and Sound, Inc., is currently supporting the second season of Army Wives with use of
the remote ADR room installed by Carl. Additionally, the company has provided ADR services and voice-over needs for One Tree Hill, The Life & Times of Tim, and Sit Down, Shut Up. North Star’s supervising sound editor and mixer is Alex Markowski. Best of luck to everyone this year!
Fred Tator CAS and Chris Philp CAS are spending the summer mixing Weeds and Greek again at Larson Studios/Seward Stage 6. Greek is in its second season on ABC Family and Weeds is in its fourth season on Showtime. F ra n k M o r ro n e CAS and Scott Webber wrapped up this season of Lost and are scheduled to mix The Cheetah Girls, Princess Patrol and Roy Disney ’s Morning Light through the summer. I’ve been working on two films, one for the History Channel and one for National Geographic about Air Force One. We have traveled to the Middle East, Africa, and a swing through the Eastern U.S./Midwest. –John Murphy CAS
Michael L. Clark CAS adds: I am finishing up on the soap General Hospital: Night Shift for ABC Daytime & then going on to a Season 4 of CBS’s sitcom How I Met Your Mother along w/ on booms David Cazares & Steve Schuneman, utilities Bob Hunt & Ralph Davis and recordist Greg Orrante. We’re looking forward to playing along w/ our most excellent cast & crew (we even like our camera operators!) and wonderful director Pamela Fryman. The last six months have brought a lot of developments to the career of Tom Hambleton CAS. In September 2007, he gave a lecture in sound and another in music for animated films at the Fantoche Festival in Switzerland. He also helped the festival director develop the “Talking About Sound” program, helped curate a program of early animation with interesting sound, where he got to meet one of his heroes, Larry Sider, who did the sound for Street of Crocodiles. Two weeks later, he was giving a master class on his film sound approaches, coaching young filmmakers doing their 72-hour marathon film shorts sponsored by Avid, and was on C A S Q U A R T E R LY
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the international jury at the Imago Festival in Fundoa, Portugal. Upon returning to the States, he was faced with too much work so he built the first-ever Dolby tuned and approved dub stage in Minneapolis. Minn. Work in 2008 has included the following: mixing the hit Food Network series Diners, Drive-ins, & Dives (in its fourth season and nominated for a Primetime Emmy for Best Sound Editing and Best Mixing), scoring the History Channel show MonsterQuest, providing a package of music to the new PBS series Make TV, to scoring, designing and mixing the new Smithsonian IMAX film 3D Sun, to designing and mixing the documentary Tsunami Children of Aceh, the feature Black Mail by Hurt McDermott of Chicago, the Minnesota feature Dawning by Gregg Holtgrewe, to the feature 5-2577 from Patrick Read Johnson of Los Angeles/Chicago (When Good Ghoul Go Bad and Angus) produced by Gary Kurtz and Fred Roos, and the exiting new indie feature by David Russo of Seattle The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle. Tom is really hoping to get some sleep this late summer and fall, but it looks like there are more shorts and features and TV shows on the horizon... Drat! I mean...
Michael “Kriky” Krikorian CAS writes: Seth Gilbert and I, Kriky, hosted our 2nd Annual Sound Department’s BBQ on May 25, 2008. Overall, we had around 40+ sound folks show up throughout the day. We do this so folks can make new contacts that spawn into new working relationships. We hope to continue this BBQ for years to come and make it an annual Sound Department tradition. We had giveaway items from a few of the major sound equipment suppliers in Los Angeles and Connecticut. We served roasted pig, brisket, ribs, and chicken along with a bunch of side dishes. From Warner Bros.: John Reitz and Gregg Rudloff recently completed The Changeling, with director Clint Eastwood on Warner Bros. Re-recording Stage 10. Up next for John and Gregg is Appaloosa with director Ed Harris, Whiteout with director Dominic Sena and Gran Torino with director Clint Eastwood. Ron
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Bartlett and Doug Hemphill , CAS recently completed Tropic Thunder for director Ben Stiller and Yes Man for director Peyton Reed. Up next for Ron and Doug is Max Payne with director John Moore on Warner Bros. Re-recording Stage 9. Gary Rizzo and Lora Hirschberg completed Batman: The Dark Knight with director Christopher Nolan. Steve Pederson and Brad Sherman CAS are mixing He’s Just Not That Into You with director Ken Kwapis, Spring Breakdown with director Ryan Shiraki, and Chess for director Jerry Zaks on Warner Bros. Rerecording Stage 5. Greg Watkins CAS and Tim LeBlanc recently completed The Love Guru for director Marco Schnabel on Warner Bros. Re-recording Stage 6 and are currently mixing In the Electric Mist with director Bertrand Tavernier. Up next on Re-recording Stage 6, Skip Lievsay CAS and Mike Herbick will be working on It Might Get Loud for director Davis Guggenheim. Skip Lievsay and Rick Kline will be mixing Rock On for director Todd Graff on Warner Bros. Post Production’s new feature Re-recording Stage 12. Gary Rogers CAS and Dan Hiland CAS are mixing the Warner Bros. Television pilot Captain Cook’s Extraordinary Atlas, directed by Thomas Schlamme, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Smallville on Warner Bros. Re-recording Stage 1. Todd Grace CAS and Ed Carr CAS have been keeping Warner Bros. Re-recording Stage 2 very busy with the TV series Californication, Chuck, & The Mentalist. They have also been working on pilots Bad Mother ’s Handbook and Roman’s Empire as well as feature films The Gift with director Greg Marcks and Under New Management with director Joe Otting. Mike Casper and Tennyson Sebastian are mixing One Tree Hill, Pushing Daisies and the new Lions Gate TV series Crash at Warner Bros. Re-recording Stage 3. Adam Sawelson and Doug Davey are currently mixing the feature An American Carol, directed by David Zucker. Their television season continues with ER and The Unit on Rerecording Stage 4. Kathy Oldham continues to mix Two and a Half Men and is also working on the Warner Bros. Television untitled David Kohan/Max
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Mutchinick project on Warner Bros. Rerecording Stage 7. Rick Norman and Peter Sullivan are mixing Warner Bros. Television’s new series Privileged on Warner Bros. Re-recording Stage 11. Charlie McDaniel continues to have a busy schedule mixing According to Jim, The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, Old Christine and Rules of Engagement on Warner Bros. Re-recording Stage 8.
Jon Ailetcher CAS, boom Dave Hadder and utility Fred Johnston just finished up Season 4 of Weeds for Showtime. From Universal Studios Sound: Rerecording mixers Andy Koyama and Chris Carpenter have finally emerged from Stage 3 looking a little green— they just wrapped up a marathon mix on The Incredible Hulk for Marvel Entertainment. Up next for the team is the romantic comedy Traveling for Universal starring Jennifer Aniston and Aaron Eckhart.
July. John W. Cook II CAS and Peter J. Nusbaum CAS just finished a pilot called The United States of Tara written by Diablo Cody (Juno), which will air on Showtime. The boys are also back for another season of Scrubs and The Office in Studio A . Gerry Lentz CAS and Richard Weingart CAS are playing House with some Heroes in Eureka and look forward to having everyone back in Studio 5!
Steve Weiss CAS is riding fader on Season 2 of TNT’s series Saving Grace with Chris Tiffany, swinging boom, and Dennis Carlin on utility.
Buck Robinson CAS is currently busy mixing the new series The Middleman for ABC Family Network. Debbie Pinthus is boom operator with Mike “Fuzzy ” Anderson in the utility spot. Earlier this
summer, Buck mixed another double-up episode of Cold Case for Warner Bros. Television with Pinthus booming and Seth Cooper handling the utility duties. I will be mixing a WWII picture called No Better Place to Die directed by Dale Dye this summer in Normandy. Best wishes. –Peter V. Meiselmann CAS
Richard Branca CAS from Sony Pictures Studios reports: Gary Bourgeois CAS and Greg Orloff CAS recently completed Don’t Mess With the Zohan in the William Holden Theatre. Jeff Haboush CAS and Greg Russell CAS finished mixing Tale of Two Sisters and are currently mixing Armored in the Kim Novak Theatre. Gary Bourgeois and Bill Benton are predubbing Step Brothers in the William Holden Theatre. Greg King and Rick Kline concluded
their mixing of Hancock in the Cary Grant Theatre. Tateum Kohut CAS and Steve Ticknor are finished dubbing Pink Panther 2. Greg Orloff and Skip Lievsay CAS are currently mixing Burn After Reading in the Burt Lancaster Theatre. Production sound mixer James Ridgley CAS just finished Lily and the Syphon for Matter Splatter Pictures with Daniel Quintana as boom operator. We also just finished a corporate project for the Mary Pickford Foundation, introducing young kids to a series of silent movies from the early 1900s, including Mary Pickford’s The Hoodlum, Sparrows and The Poor Little Rich Girl from 1917. In June, I go to the feature The People I’ve Slept With for People Pictures, LLC. Again with Daniel Quintana as boom.
Chris Jenkins CAS and Frank Montano just finished finaling their mix for Wanted over on the Hitchcock Stage with director Timur Bekmambetov. This summer blockbuster for Universal stars Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy and never lets up on the action. Up next for Chris and Frank is Death Race, teaming up again with director Paul W.S. Anderson. Jon Taylor CAS and Christian P. Minkler are putting the finishing touches on 2929 Entertainment’s The Burning Plain for director Guillermo Arriaga. Up next for Jon and Christian is a Universal feature called Role Models, starring Sean William Scott and Paul Rudd. Michael Olman CAS and Ken Kobett CAS in Stage B are gearing up to spend a busy summer behind the console. They’ll be welcoming back Desperate Housewives, 24 and Battlestar Gallactica. Bill Nicholson and Tom Meloeny CAS start their eighth season of Criminal Intent and the second season of Lipstick Jungle. Roberta Doheny and Bob Edmundson will start Ghost Whisperer and Season 2 of Life in
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From left: Tim Cargioli,
Jonathan Gaynor, CAS
On Set
Kenn Fuller and crew on the set.
th (from mantha Who? wi On the set of Sa , Steve Morantz, lace left) Aaron Wal y” Cohn and Thomas Popp. m am “S h itc M S, CA
and James Brown busy on Youth in Revolt in northern Michigan.
Land of the Lost sound crew: (The Sound Bandits) Mixer Pud Cusack, CAS, boom Ross Simpson, and 2n d boom Ross Levy , shown here in th e Trona Pinnacles.
Frankel, Joe i Sellers, David Tim y, nt Sa n vi Ke & M e. CAS on Marley
Foglia,
Left to right: Aaron Grice, Steve Morrow, CAS and Craig Dollinger hard at work on The Stepfather. Still pics from Emmanuel Clemente’s recent docu shoot titled: Trouble in Paradise: Gracia Burnham Story. Location: Philippines.
From left to right: Scott Stolz,
John Coffey, CAS, Todd Jean-Pierre, Michael “Kriky” Krikorian, CAS Steve Morantz, CAS, Reggie Bryant, and Richard Lightstone, CAS. Photo: Paul Marshall, CAS Phil Perkins with son Zach and wife Nancy at Zach’s graduation from UC Santa Barbara.
or Caroline camerman), Maj nd (a ll ha Sc r te pointing. We Director Pe n Murphy, CAS h Jo d an nd tla ar McP nd in Dubai. are on the grou
Sunshine
Hammond Peek, CAS and crew on The Lovely Bones. 30
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Our daughter brings us the sun every day (even in rain). She is 10½ months old and really great (like all the children). Regards to all of you from over the ocean. –Jürg von Allmen, CAS