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THE NEXT GENERATION U LT RA- M I N I AT U R E LAVALIER MICROPHONE FEATURES 2008 CAS Awards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 CAS will host the 45th Annual Awards Banquet
CAS Career Achievement Recipient . . . . . . . . . 18 An interview with Dennis Maitland, Sr.
Technical Awards Nominees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 The Future of RF Spectrum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Lectrosonics & Location Sound host a seminar
14
Designed specifically for digital and hybrid wireless usage
DEPARTMENTS 8
From the Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Food for Thought . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Approved by Lectrosonics, Sony, Trantec, and Zaxcom! Same Great Sound and Pure Pattern
President’s Letter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Switching from analog to digital
Technically Speaking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 All about FM signal processing
12
A Sound Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Meeting delivery requirements
Been There Done That . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 CAS members check in
Available in Four Colors: Black, Beige, Gray, & White
The Lighter Side . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
30 For more information on Sanken Microphones:
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THE PRESIDENT’S LETTER
The CAS Awards have grown each and every year. The evening itself has become a momentous night. We take pride in the fact that our Awards have been somewhat of an indicator for the rest of the industry’s Awards. When you look at our Awards page on the CAS website, you can see historically how our Awards represent our professional community. Our community is very strong and reaches very wide, nationally and internationally. This year, we honor one of our own who resides on the East Coast, Mr. Dennis L. Maitland, CAS with the Career Achievement Award. His long and distinguished career is an example of his dedication to the advancement of sound. Mr. Paul Mazursky will be presented with the CAS Filmmaker Award. These distinguished gentlemen have worked together on multiple projects and honoring them will be one highlight of the evening. Guiding us through the evening will be our master of ceremonies, Mr. Sam Rubin, nationally recognized entertainment reporter and member of the KTLA Morning News team. The Awards, on February 14, 2009, will allow our community to celebrate the admiration we have for everyone involved in the business. The unsung heroes who are dedicated to supporting all the participants and endure the sometimes long hours will also be honored on this lovely evening. We will also be recognizing the newly elected members of the CAS Board of Directors as they begin their term. During this year, we have been very proud that our membership has continued to grow. This includes the Student members that we feel are very important to the continuation of the Cinema Audio Society. Our seminars have been very educational and are available online at the CAS website. We look forward to offering more seminars. The “Meet the Winners” from the 45th Annual CAS Awards seminar is being planned for March 21, 2009. The location will be announced soon. There are many distinguishing things about being an Officer of the CAS. One very pleasurable thing is to be able to greet every member of the Cinema Audio Society at the 45th Annual CAS Awards and at other events. On behalf of myself and the rest of the CAS Board of Directors, it is a continued honor to serve the membership and our community. Sincerely,
Edward L. Moskowitz, CAS President of the Cinema Audio Society
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CINEMA AUDIO SOCIETY MISSION STATEMENT
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.
Corrections In the Revolutionary Road ad in the Fall 2008 issue, rerecording mixer Scott Millan’s name was misspelled and re-recording mixer Tony Lamberti’s name was mistakenly omitted. In the CAS Career Achievement recipient announcement, Dennis Maitland, Sr. was mistakenly credited as the production mixer on three films. As Good as It Gets was mixed by Jeff Wexler, CAS, The Way We Were was mixed by Jack Solomon, CAS and Searching for Bobby Fischer was mixed by David Lee.
FROM THE EDITORS...
Happy 2009 CAS members! Having come off a rather interesting year, we’re kicking off our winter issue with an enlightening and entertaining interview with your 2009 CAS Career Achievement Award honoree, Dennis Maitland, Sr. Providing some important information about what the switchover from analog to digital broadcast means to production sound mixers, Steven Corbiere, CAS reviews a recent Lectrosonics seminar, while Matt Foglia, CAS, in his “Food for Thought” column, questions how the switch will affect rerecording mixers. Foglia’s regular “A Sound Discussion” column is geared toward our Student and Associate members this month with a conversation about meeting delivery requirements. The always-informative G. John Garrett, CAS brings us his “Technically Speaking” column. And, as always, you can see what your fellow members are up to in the “Been There Done That” section and don’t forget to heckle them at the CAS Awards ceremony (on February 14) about their “The Lighter Side” submissions. The CAS Quarterly is produced as a service to our members on a voluntary basis. We greatly appreciate, and want, your feedback and suggestions—so send them in! Email us at casquarterly@cinemaaudiosociety.org. We also truly value the support of our sponsors and encourage your commitment to them. Wishing you and yours a healthy and successful ’09!
...with a lot of really cool stuff inside. 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
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The Big Switchover
by Mat t Fogl i a, CA S
I
In a couple of days, we’ll be saying our farewells to the analog transmission of television signals. Except for some “low-power� analog stations, such as community stations, beginning on February 17 (just three days after our 45th CAS Awards ceremony!), all over-the-air TV transmissions will take place in the digital realm. Some of the benefits include the ability to transmit multiple channels within the same amount of spectrum-giving viewers (and advertisers) more options. “Digital� television, however, does not translate into “high definition,� as there will still be standard definition (480i) and enhanced definition (480p) broadcasts. As is the case with most positives, there are some negatives. One of the more annoying drawbacks of digital transmission is the need for signal buffering. For television, this is when the picture takes a second to appear after you change channels—something that isn’t an issue with analog transmission. The same thing happens when playing files from a hard drive, though we usually don’t notice it. However, sometimes your sessions are so dense that the computer needs a second after you hit Play before it starts playing back the audio. This is because it is filling its RAM buffer with the initial batch of audio so that everything will play back properly and evenly after that initial delay. Think of all of those cable television channels trying to be fed down the pipe at the same time—that’s a ton of data and would be a very inefficient process if everything were arriving at your box at the same time. Data compression algorithms are continually improving and throughput (how fast signals can get to us) keeps increasing so, theoretically, our visual and aural experiences will become even closer to those we experience in the studio. So, other than some random phone calls from distant relatives who are more worried about this change than they were the Y2K bug, what does this mean for sound professionals? Will we be able to pull away from VU meter referencing in the States? How about our Full Scale levels—will 0 dBFS be the new minus 10 since the constraints of an analog system won’t be a factor? Will the improved usage of bandwidth 8
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make surround mixes the new delivery norm? As of now, it sure doesn’t seem like this will happen anytime soon. I don’t know of any clients changing their sound specs to compliment the changeover. One reason is that legacy programming (with those shows mixed using current or older specs) is a huge issue. Remember the mid-1980s when every older album became available on CD? Remember that whole “dynamic rangeâ€? thing—when the majority of music releases actually utilized the available dynamic range (and had dynamics)? But when you went from an older release to a newer “DDDâ€? release (recorded, mixed and mastered in the digital domain), the levels were extremely different. Not dissimilar to what happens when programming switches from a TV show to a commercial. It’s as if we’re given two roads when in the digital realm. Road One lets us use the increased signal-to-noise levels to broaden a program’s dynamic range—as happens with classical music—letting the recording of pianissimo sections (and quieter variations) not be overtaken by the noise floor. Road Two lets the user make the audio much “louder,â€? yet significantly less dynamic, by using every available bit all of the time. Many networks have been rather vigilant with keeping their programming fairly dynamic yet at a somewhat constant “loudnessâ€? level—hence the intention, if not proper implementation, of the Dolby LM100. Hopefully, this digital switchover will eventually provide us with an even better means of translating our mixes from the studio to the living room. •
Celebrating over 80 years of
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Opening Spring 2009 ²5IF "VEJP 6OEFSHSPVOE³ @ 8BSOFS #SPT 4 UVEJPT
CAS QUARTERLY
WINTER 2009
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FM Signal Processing:
Begun, This Compression War Has
O
by G. J ohn Gar r et t , CAS
Occasionally, we create mixes that wind up being broadcast over radio or television and it’s important to know something about what broadcasters do to their audio before it goes to the transmitter. I’m going to talk a little about FM radio program processing to help explain what happens. It’s not pretty, as I found out. The first thing to know is that a lot of FM audio gets to the transmitter as encoded audio, or having been run through a codec. ISDN, T1, satellite and wideband VHF FM radio links are the common ways to get audio from the studio to the transmitter and with the sometimes exception of T1 delivery and the FM STL (Studio-Transmitter Link), the program material goes through a codec. At the studio, all program material that comes via satellite is received as an MPEG2 stream which either goes through a decoder and a D/A or is converted to a 44.1kHz, 16 bit linear PCM file. So before anything happens, at least some material has been limited, A/D converted, bit-rate reduced, then expanded. Do you see where this is going? Next, FM bandwidth is limited to 15kHz, mainly to avoid interfering with the transmitter’s 19kHz pilot signal that’s part of the transmitted composite signal. In the early days of FM, receivers weren’t as good as they are today and received signals were fairly noisy and, especially in the high frequencies, disturb10
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ing to listeners. It was observed that the audio energy decreases as frequency increases, from about 1kHz and at a rate of around 6dB/octave. So broadcasters began adding a pre-emphasis curve to the baseband audio, starting at around 700 Hz and increasing at, you guessed it, 6dB/octave. This creates a signal with more equal energy distribution across the spectrum. Note that a 15kHz signal is now 17dB above the same energy signal at 700Hz! The signal is de-emphasized with the inverse curve at the receiver but pre-emphasis still affects other processing at the transmitter.
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The next thing you need to know is that FM broadcasters want one thing: To be the loudest station on the dial. The easiest way to increase loudness is to raise the low mids and mid-frequencies. OK but that makes the highs sound dull in comparison. So guess what? They raise the high frequencies even more! All this compressing and limiting makes the highs pretty splashy. If you made your mix bright on purpose, it’s really going to get killed by the audio processing. The next interesting thing about FM is how stereo is derived. FM is transmitted in M-S stereo, so that non-stereo
radios and those beyond the range of the stereo pilot subcarrier can still receive the program material. So the L+R (or M) signal modulates the main carrier frequency, fine. The L-R (or S) information is put on a double sideband AM suppressed-carrier at 38kHz. Digital coders take the 38K samples/second that coincide with the L-R information and the positive half of the cycles become the L information and the negative half of the cycles become the -R information! Next, we have the relatively recent appearance of HD radio, a digital subcarrier that is capable of reproducing near CD quality audio at the receiver. There is no pre-emphasis in HD radio, so the audio is either split in the processor to go to a digital audio processor, or newer processors will do both. Generally, it gets wideband limited and then out to the A/D converter, where there’s about nine seconds of latency. When you get a certain distance from the transmitter, you won’t be able to
ters with compression and limiting in between and aim for spectral clarity, you’ll sound great but the guy just up the band from you will do a little more processing so he will sound louder, then the guy just up the band from him will process a little more so he sounds louder and before you know it if you don’t want to sound puny next to your competition, you wind up with squishy splashy HF across the FM band. If your mix goes to the station with the highs pushed and limited, guess what? They’re going to get compressed and limited more. Is it any wonder FM sounds the way it does? So my advice with FM is to make good, balanced-sounding mixes, don’t over-brighten anything, and let the processing wars rage on without you. You can also now understand why the same music sounds so different on different FM stations. Next time, we’ll take a look at AM and the emerging (or not!) standards in DTV audio. •
hear the HD signal any longer and the HD radio will automatically switch back to conventional FM. There are a couple of challenges here. First, the analog signal has to go through a delay (remember the nine seconds of digital processing latency?) and it sounds pretty different from the HD signal, having had the holy hell processed out of it. In order to make the switching back and forth between FM and HD less noticeable, stations degrade the HD signal to make it sound more like the analog signal! For a very scary block diagram of a typical analog FM processor, have a look at document page 7 of http://inovon.com /download /Omega_FMManualV2.PDF There are ways to do all this processing and make the signal sound good across the spectrum. The problem is that FM radio exists in a commercially competitive environment. If you do minimal processing to keep some dynamics and keep to a minimum the artifacts from multiple parametric and band-pass fil-
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Meeting Delivery
Requirements by Mat t Fogl i a, CAS
I
In response to last issue’s “The President’s Letter,” which gave a nod to our Student members, we received inquiries from these members requesting some additional information in the CAS Quarterly that may be beneficial to them. Since the initial premise of this column was to provide insight to our Associate and Student members (with some potential refreshers for our Active members), it makes sense that I actually do this after focusing on the occasional, more involved topic (the article about resolving the synchronization offset in HDCam decks comes to mind). So for this quarter, I’m writing about delivery considerations when undertaking a mix. It’s often difficult to imagine a whole process when presented with only the technical considerations—as often happens when studying sound or assisting from outside of the mixing suite. One of the most important things for the sound professional is applying an ideal many of us learned as Boy Scouts: “Be prepared.” For the location mixer, knowing how a scene evolves
adhered to when mixing. As the global reach of products produced in one country have expanded, so has the need for an increase in ease of interchange. Dubbing a film in a different language needs to be as cost-effective as possible on the back end, which means extra work—and attention to detail—on the front end. Having a single sound effects stem, for instance, may work domestically, but for international delivery, having backgrounds and ambiences separate from “hard” effects (generally those sounds associated with actual onscreen picture movement), as well as adding a “filled” effects track (a track that takes all of those natural sound effects that are married to the production dialogue tracks—shirt rustles, chair movements, etc.—and mimics them via a Foley pass) is necessary. Providing the engineer who is mixing the foreign dialogue with an accurate representation of your original music and effects balance helps the program maintain the director’s vision as well as your hard work.
Audio Channel Assignment Chart for HD Video Tape Audio Track
Content
1
Stereo Left (full mix)
2
Stereo Right (full mix)
3
Full Mix Left Minus Narration & Translations - Undipped
4
Full Mix Right Minus Narration & Translations - Undipped
5
Dolby E 5.1+2 full mix
6
Dolby E 5.1 + 2 full mix
7
Dolby E M D & E - Undipped
8
Dolby E M D & E - Undipped
dictates how effectively their craft is applied. For the re-recording mixer, knowing what delivery items are needed once all sound editing and mixing is completed can be the difference between a couple of straightforward layoffs versus a number of huge headaches. We all know the term “DME.” It is much more than a term, however, it is a means of operation. In the most simplistic form, separate stems for dialogue, music and effects should be 12
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With the increased usage of file-based delivery (usually in Broadcast Wave Format), more and more variations of the mix are being requested if not required. Perhaps one of the more dense broadcast television deliverables calls for “undipped” versions of all stems—DME and separate narration. “Undipped” basically translates into “at a constant level,” meaning that there are no volume adjustments, up or down, regardless of what the other stems may be doing. For those not exposed to this format,
it’s a little strange to comprehend—and even more difficult to understand why this would be needed. The stems you deliver with this method are mixes in their own right. The music stem is not affected by the goings on of the dialogue, effects or narration stems—all music is delivered at a constant, even level. Similarly, the dialogue stem is not affected by the goings on of the music, effects or narration stems—it, too, is delivered at a constant level. Usually these mixes have to be made simultaneously with the main, domestic mix. Additionally, an undipped mix-minus narration version—meaning that there’s a mix that represents the show as if there wasn’t narration, is required. For instance, when there is only music and narration—the music level goes up to fill the “hole” where the narration isn’t anymore. Again, all while having outputs that contain the main version. These types of “undipped” requests are important to be aware of when taking on a project, as they require quite a bit of fore-
thought to properly route and complete in a time allotment that doesn’t always take the extra work into consideration. Like anything else though, once you do a couple, they strangely become straightforward. In fact, one of my former colleague’s templates was set up to always mix this way. Whether delivering files or laying back to tape, what happens once your mix is approved is in your hands. Be conscious of those items you need to provide the client once you’re done. It is not uncommon for film re-recording mixers to get calls months after the “completion” of a project requesting an additional variation of a deliverable in order to meet a distributor’s requirements. If it takes you an elongated amount of time to complete the request because you have to undo a lot of things you inadvertently did, chances are the extra time will be on your dime since you should have known better and had your stems set up already. Be prepared! •
outstanding achievement in sound mixing for 2008
outstanding achievement in sound mixing for 2008
outstanding achievement in sound mixing for 2008
motion pictures
television movies and mini-series
television series
Iron Man
Generation Kill
24
Production Mixer
“A Burning Dog”
”Redemption”
Production Mixer
Production Mixer
Mark Ulano, CAS
Re-Recording Mixers Christopher Boyes Lora Hirschberg
Production Mixer
Production Mixer
Mike Prestwood Smith Mark Taylor
Production Mixer Ed Novick
Re-Recording Mixers Lora Hirschberg Gary A. Rizzo
Production Mixer Roger Pietschman, CAS
Re-Recording Mixers
Michael Minkler, CAS Bob Beemer, CAS
Production Mixer
The Dark Knight
“Turning Biminese”
Re-Recording Mixers
Production Mixer
Ian Tapp Richard Pryke
Dexter
Jay Meagher, CAS
John Adams
Re-Recording Mixers
Michael Olman, CAS Kenneth Kobett, CAS
“Join or Die“
Slumdog Millionaire Resul Pookutty
Re-Recording Mixers
Stuart Hilliker Alexandros Sidiropoulos
John Adams
Re-Recording Mixers
William F. Gocke, CAS
Re-Recording Mixers
Quantum of Solace Chris Munro, CAS
The Cinema Audio Society will host the 45th Annual Awards on Saturday, February 14, 2009, in the Crystal Ballroom of the Millennium Biltmore Hotel. A highlight of the evening will be the presentation of the CAS Career Achievement Award to Dennis Maitland, Sr., CAS. Another highlight is the presentation of the CAS Filmmaker Award to actor-writer-director Paul Mazursky. Awards for Outstanding Mixing will be presented in five categories. Winners will be announced in the categories for Motion Pictures; Television Movies and Mini-Series; Television Series; Television NonFiction, Variety, Music Series or Specials; and DVD Original Programming. For the fifth year in a row, the CAS will present two Technical Achievement Awards honoring technical innovation in the areas of Production and Post-Production sound. The evening kicks off with cocktails in the Tiffany Room at 5 p.m., with dinner at 6:45 p.m., followed by the Awards presentation at 8 p.m. To order tickets, contact office manager Patti Fluhr at (818) 752-8624 or e-mail: CasOffice @CinemaAudioSociety.org. Event address: The Biltmore Hotel, 506 South Grand Street, Los Angeles, Calif.
Danny Hambrook
Elmo Ponsdomenech Kevin Roache
House “Lost Resort”
“Independence”
Production Mixer Von Varga
Jay Meagher, CAS
Re-Recording Mixers
Re-Recording Mixers
Gerry Lentz, CAS Rich Weingart, CAS
Michael Minkler, CAS Bob Beemer, CAS
John Adams
Lost
“Don’t Tread on Me”
“Meet Kevin Johnson”
Production Mixer
Production Mixer Robert Anderson, Jr., CAS
Jay Meagher, CAS
Re-Recording Mixers
Re-Recording Mixers
Marc Fishman Tony Lamberti
Frank Morrone, CAS Scott Weber
WALL-E
Recount
Mad Men
Original Dialogue Mixer
Production Mixer
“The Jet Set”
Ben Burtt
Re-Recording Mixers Michael Semanick, CAS Tom Myers
Gary Alper
Production Mixer
Re-Recording Mixers
Peter Bentley
Gary C. Bourgeois, CAS Greg Orloff, CAS
Re-Recording Mixers Ken Teaney, CAS Geoffrey Rubay
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15
outstanding achievement in sound mixing for 2008
outstanding achievement in sound mixing for 2008
Television non-fiction, variety, music series or specials
DVD original programming
American Idol Season 7 Finale
Justice League: The New Frontier
Production Mixer
Dialogue and ADR Mixer
Edward J. Greene, CAS
Music Mixer Randy Faustino
PA Mixer Andrew Fletcher
Edwin O. Collins
Re-Recording Mixers Tim Borquez, CAS Eric Freeman Doug Andorka
Monitor Mixer Michael K. Parker
Playback Music Mixer Gary Long
Pre-production Packages Mixers Brian Riordan, CAS Conner Moore
Audience Sweetener Christian Shrader
Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning Production Mixer Carlos Sotolongo
Re-Recording Mixers Mark Fleming, CAS Tom Dahl, CAS
Deadliest Catch “No Mercy” Re-Recording Mixer Bob Bronow, CAS
Meerkat Manor: The Story Begins Re-Recording Mixer
Great Performances
Nigel Squibbs
“Company” Production Mixer Jorge Silva
Re-Recording Mixer Ken Hahn, CAS
Great Performances at the Met ”La Bohème” Live Production Mixer Bill King
Music Mixer–Live Performance Jay Saks
Re-Recording Mixers Ken Hahn, CAS John Bowen
Steve Miller Band: Live From Chicago Music Mixer Andy Johns
Re-Recording Mixer Brian Slack
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Smashing Pumpkins: If All Goes Wrong Live Audio Mixer Jon Lemon
Re-Recording Mixers Kerry Brown Kevin Dippold Brian Slack
Wargames: The Dead Code Production Mixer Pierre Blain
Re-Recording Mixers Terry O’Bright, CAS Keith Rogers, CAS
An Interview With Dennis Maitland, Sr.
2009 CAS Career Achievement Recipient
b y P e t e r D am s ki , C A S
Interviewing the CAS Career Achievement recipient has always been interesting and educational. This year’s interview did not disappoint. For more than 60 years, Dennis Maitland, Sr. has brought his brand of quality, variety and forward thinking to the motion picture, television and recording arts industries. Maitland is credited with more than 80 feature films. The list is too long to include here, but suffice to say, he has worked on some of the best projects in the history of film. I need to thank Dennis for the time he shared with me. I hope you enjoy reading this interview as much as I enjoyed doing it. 18
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Why did you choose “sound” as a career?
Whenever adrenaline hits, and it’s either “Fight or Flight,” well, I take the “Flight” path. Back in the ’40s, I left Baltimore, Md., before graduating high school and with my parents’ reluctant permission, I joined the Army. I didn’t want to go overseas, staying with the “Flight” side of things. I scored high on the AGC [Army aptitude] test and was given the menu of courses offered by the Army at the time. I looked to see which course had the longest duration, again, to avoid going overseas. I saw one that lasted six months called “Motion Picture Sound Recording Technician.” I had no idea what that was, but I knew what six months was. I told the sergeant “this is what I want to do” and he asked why? I told him I have wanted to be a motion picture sound recording technician since I was “this big.” The school had mixed Commission and non-Commission Officers from around the world. It was very strict, if you failed one week, your bunk was missing the next morning and you were sent to the infantry. I stayed in the top 10 in my class for the whole six months. I wish I had been confronted with a choice like this in high school; I could have been a Fulbright scholar. What projects did you work on for the Army?
Initially, the Army had very few sound technicians. They would go around recording generals’ speeches and sometimes record
the first wave of an invasion. In 1948, when I was 17, I heard of a facility in New York called the SCPC (Signal Corps Photo Center) which is where they made all of the Army training films. I applied as soon as I began the Army’s training program and was offered a civilian job after my tenure of service. After one year at SCPC, my boss called me into his office and informed me he was going to let me go. He told me that I shouldn’t be doing films for the Army but should go do this new thing called television. He made a call to CBS on my behalf, and I was hired on the spot. I was at CBS for the next 12 years.
What made you decide to leave CBS?
What was happening at CBS in 1948?
Many of the directors I had worked with at CBS were also making the transition to feature films. I was pretty well known by these directors and didn’t have to “work my way up” in the feature world.
At that time, there was 10 hours of broadcast programming a day and the rest of the time was a test pattern. Later, I worked on shows like Jackie Gleason, Ed Sullivan, Playhouse 90, Studio One, all those were nighttime shows. I started out as a boom operator and worked my way up to being an “Audio Man,” working on many, many, Emmy Award–winning programs. Many of these programs included musical artists and I worked with the likes of the New York Philharmonic with Leonard Bernstein, Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald and many more. I did films on the side, as a member of the union, while working at CBS. I loved live television because there was no “Hey, wait a minute” in live television.
The fact that they started using videotape and you could redo things. I liked doing the live stuff because it separated the men from the boys. I decided to do feature work, full-time, in 1962. What was your first film job?
I think it was on Somebody up There Likes Me, I was the boom man for the New York portion. What followed from there?
What equipment were you using on your first films?
It was 35mm magnetic film. In the Army, we recorded on 35mm optical. There was nothing like the Nagra available at the time. How did you transport your equipment?
We had trucks to do it. At that time, we supplied power to the camera, 96 volts, and the cable was similar in size to the big four-ought cable used for lighting today. Being in New York CAS QUARTERLY
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City, we had to transport a generator and cables up all of the floors in a building to where we were shooting. There were no ICs [integrated circuits] or transistors at the time, and all the equipment we used had vacuum tubes and was large and heavy. What were your production mics?
We used an RCA 10001 [KU-3A] ribbon microphone. Everything on location was single mic’ed at the time. I always wanted to be an innovator, and while at CBS in the ’50s, and working on Edward R. Murrow’s Person to Person, I started to use wireless microphones. Stevens and Beutelmann were the early
using. A week later, he showed me a device about the size of a cigarette pack that had an XLR input/output, a power cord and a knob to control gain. I powered it up and listened with no input to the device and heard nothing, no hiss or white noise. I told him it must be broken. He told me to plug in a mic, and there was the audio, as clean as anything I had heard before. While the demonstration was in progress, my production manager came up to me and asked what the device was. When I explained, he told me that there was no way he was going to pay as much for the rental of such a small box. The NASA engineer took the small box back to his shop and
“
I have always considered myself an artist. The final product is most important. The equipment I use is like the painter’s brushes or the sculptor’s chisels. I always wanted to use what I thought was the best equipment at the time.
”
wireless transmitter manufacturers that we used. The receivers each weighed about 28 pounds. I don’t remember the brand of the microphone we used. It looked like a “pillow speaker,” one of those round disks like a flying saucer. We did Ginger Rogers once, and I had to tape the mic to her. The mic was so sensitive that we had to put sound-absorbent material between the mic and her chest to avoid hearing her heartbeat. The transmitters were about five inches by seven inches by 2½ inches and weighed quite a bit. They took 10 “AA” batteries. I was on The Pawnbroker with Rod Steiger and he didn’t want to be wired. The studio had scheduled Steiger for two weeks of ADR following production. Steiger came up to me on the set and asked if there was any way to avoid looping, as he was looking forward to spending that time with his wife, Claire Bloom. I persuaded him to wear a wireless mic. We worked on 11th Avenue, on a balcony, with very loud background noise. In order to improve the signal to noise, I taped the microphone to the off-camera side of his face and we got it [the dialogue]. Steiger gave me a $1,000 bonus because he only had to replace four lines due to dialogue changes. At that time, the union attempted to bring me up on charges for using a wireless microphone. “It would put my boom man out of work.” One time, a NASA engineer came to visit me on the set. NASA was largely responsible for the transition to smaller components used in electronics. He told me about a thing called an “op-amp” and questioned why I used such “big” equipment. He told me he would build me a mixer using the new technology that was much smaller and quieter than what I was currently 20
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later returned with a fake box with large volume controls, but inside it still contained the smaller electronics package. The production manager said, “That’s more like it,” and he paid the current rental rate for my “obsolete” mixer! What was the last feature you worked on?
Mars Attacks and Die Hard: With a Vengeance were the last two films I worked on. I retired in 2000. The post people on Mars Attacks sent me letters letting me know how highly they thought of the production sound. So you went out on top!
It’s the only way to go out. What gear did you use on your last film?
I have always considered myself an artist. The final product is most important. The equipment I use is like the painter’s brushes or the sculptor’s chisels. I always wanted to use what I thought was the best equipment at the time. I was on The Last Dragon in 1985 and wanted to record the sound with the new digital technology. This had not been done before and the producer, Berry Gordy, was nervous to try the new technology. I had to record the tracks in both the new digital and the old analog formats. After two weeks of dailies, Gordy was impressed, and we recorded the rest of the film digitally only. I used a Fostex 8-Track recorder. Mars Attacks was a Warner Bros. production, and I had to fight to get my gear on the show. Director Tim Burton persuaded Warner to allow my
gear on the show, but they insisted I record analog only. I said,“when you mix the show you can do it analog, but I’m mixing the show digitally.” I recorded the film digitally in the end and all was good. What was your favorite job?
My favorite job was one that probably only three people saw on the day it was released. It was called A Man Called Adam and starred Sammy Davis, Jr. This was 1966. With Sammy, it was a party every day. He and I became very set-friendly and that soon overflowed to our private lives. What was your “best” job?
As an artist, I think all of my work was my best. I approached each new film with a fresh perspective and changed my work to reflect the needs of the next project. I am getting ready to give a talk on my career and was asked to pick a particular film which stands out to me. I chose Lenny because it was done in a documentary fashion. There was a scene in Lenny where Dustin Hoffman goes bananas in a men’s room. The sound of the room was so reverberant that, on a regular feature, I would have used wireless microphones. I made the choice to go with the boom mic to suit the documentary feel of the film. Director Bob Fosse didn’t like the sound in the
this was a ‘liquor-oriented’ business when I started, and a lot of my contemporaries wiped themselves out of the business because of it. I know that several of your children are working as sound people in the industry. Tell me about them?
I have been very lucky with the people that I have had boom for me and that includes my children. My son Tod is a successful feature mixer, my daughter Kim worked on Sex in the City for five years and is currently working on Ugly Betty as a recordist and second unit mixer, and my son Dennis Jr. was a super boom operator. I took each kid on my crew for two years and then called my top competition to say that ‘my kids didn’t belong with me … if you hire them, you hire the best!’ and I sent them on their way. What would you recommend to young people starting out in the business today?
The first step is to get your foot in the door. Take whatever there is to take. I started at SCPC by loading reels of optical sound film and using a changing bag in a closet. I worked my way up from there. Anything you can do to get in the door. It may feel like a long time and you are not getting anywhere, but it is all a learning process. When I started in television,
“The first step is to get your foot in the door. Take
whatever there is to take.… It may feel like a long time and you are not getting anywhere, but it is all a learning process.
”
bathroom and wanted to loop the scene. Dustin Hoffman loved the original track and refused to replace the dialogue. Later in the film, I would use cheap handheld mics to reflect the downslide of Lenny’s life and sometimes I would remove the windscreen to allow pops on the track. How have you seen the sound business change in your 60 years as an active participant?
I think the business has changed 95% for the better. The use of perspective seems to be lost nowadays. You have to wire all of your talent now and post wants each line to be as clean and close-up as can be. That is so unreal and it irritates me. There is nothing better than an overhead boom. The boom man is an artist as well. He has to know lighting, the camera and the grippery. Anyone who thinks you can just stick it [the boom] in the shot or hang it over the actor doesn’t know what they are talking about. There is no better sound than that. Also,
I would hear the engineers talking in technical video terms, about a sync generator and I had no idea what they were talking about. I would go home that night and do technical dictionary research on what I had heard that day. The next day, I would throw out some of my newly acquired knowledge. Nobody ever knew that I really didn’t know what I was talking about. In this business, you have to have the drive to succeed. I always wanted to be the first … always wanted to be the best. Is there anything you would like to add?
There is so much that you would literally be here for days. I will say that there is no other business in the world like it. You work with talent who are unbelievable. I have worked with some fantastic directors and some that I hope I never see again. There are so many stories to share that I am writing a book about my career, Never Slap the Bellboy, which should be out in another year. • CAS QUARTERLY
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2008 cas technical awards nominees The Cinema Audio Society is proud to announce the nominees for the 5th Annual CAS Technical Achievement Awards. An Award will be presented for new technologies in both the Production and Post-Production disciplines at a sealedenvelope ceremony on Saturday, February 14, 2009, at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, Calif. Nominations were sub-
mitted by the membership of the CAS and a “Blue Ribbon” panel made the final determination of the selected nominees listed below. We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate our 2008 Technical Achievement nominees and look forward to sharing the festivities with them on Valentine’s Day.
production nominees
Aaton Cantar X2 Digital Recorder
Sennheiser MKH-8000 Series Microphones
Sound Devices 788T Digital Recorder
Sonosax SX-ST8D Digital Output Mixer
Lectrosonics Venue Series Wideband RF Receiver
www.ktekbooms.com Visit us Online to Check out Our New Products. NEW
SOF!T TOU C GR H IP
post-production nominees
Audio Ease Speakerphone
CEDAR DNS3000 Dialogue Noise Suppressor
Euphonix Artist Series MC Control 22
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Dolby Media Meter
Lexicon PCM 96 Signal Processor
Sound within reach
K-Tek
®
Te l . 7 6 0 . 7 2 7. 0 5 9 3 • w w w . k t e k b o o m s . c o m • i n f o @ k t e k b o o m s . c o m
ZEPPELIN WINDSCREENS • KLASSIC POLES • ARTICULATED POLES • AVALON POLES • SHOCK MOUNTS • MIC SUPPORT PRODUCTS ®
Lectrosonics Future RF Spectrum Seminar On December 13, 2008, Larry Fisher and Gordon Moore of Lectrosonics, in collaboration with Location Sound Corporation, gave a seminar on The Future of RF Spectrum. The event was presented by Dave Panfili and Steve Joachim and was held in one of the many function rooms at Pickwick Garden. A continental breakfast was offered upon arrival, where many attendees had a chance to catch up beforehand. Moore started the seminar after an introduction by Steve Joachim. Then there was a break for a catered lunch after which, Fisher went into more detail on the subject matter, primarily what our wireless RF Spectrum will look like after February 17, 2009, and how to deal with it. These regulations were impacted as the result of a coalition of wireless manufacturers, spearheaded by The Shure Corp., lobbying Washington to ensure that our voice was heard regarding our need for RF Spectrum.
On August 8, 2008, the FCC finally laid down the gauntlet and made a long-awaited decision that particularly affects us: the television & film production sound mixers and their dealers. This means our right to operate RF equipment from 700-806 MHz goes away officially on February 17, 2009, the same day analog TV stations cease broadcasting (which yes, also happens to be after our beloved Super Bowl ). This band of the spectrum, in terms of Lectrosonics RF channels, will be from Block 27-58 thru block 31-7C. This changes the spectrum set aside for us to 174-216 MHz and 470-700MHz (and 944-952 MHz for broadcast only) under Part 74, for which we must be licensed, as always (FCC Form 601 with Schedule H). Note that these frequencies were SOLD at auction, no longer public domain thanks to our politicians. That’s the bad news. The good news is that right now is as bad as it will get. TV stations are currently taking up twice the spectrum that they need with both digital and analog transmissions. What this means for us is that the analog TV channels will open up a host of space for our usage as well as “White Space Devices” (WSDs). At least for now, the current arrangement is good for two years until it gets reviewed. Bear in mind that WSDs are probably a good thing for us since they will show that open TV channels are now used spectrum, hopefully circumventing any thoughts of a further spectrum sell-off. We might certainly have a louder voice if all were licensed for the reassessment that’s due in 2011. Hopefully, the FCC will update our licensing to accommodate multiple and agile frequencies and multiple locations. Please note that WSDs are not allowed to operate from 470-512 MHz. Also, since certain major markets will get the closest channel above and below TV channel 37 (if they have licensed operators in the 470-512 MHz range) clear of all WSDs, which means Los Angeles will qualify for these as well. They should be TV channels 30 and 40 for us. 24
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Tips:
by St even Cor bi e r e , CAS Please bear in mind that there are also non-licensable users including NASA, U.S. Senate, Broadway, Google and churches, among others, with greater than 100 members. Also, we do not know exactly when the new content providers will start broadcasting on their new frequencies above 700 MHz, but keep in mind it will be illegal for us to operate in them after this date.
•Moving the antenna closer to the transmitter helps the S/N ratio, even by adding an extra length of antenna cable providing you don’t realign the antenna such that you increase the signal pickup of the interfering source. This will effectively increase your desired signal level relative to the unwanted interfering source. •Directional antennae are usually better for reducing interference signals since you can point the null of the antenna more toward the interference, providing you do not need omni reception for transmitters spaced all around the receiver. •Since FM signal quality is dependent on frequency deviation predominately, there is inherently good interference rejection until you reach poor overall signal strength. •Any interference signals 10 db or more below (your) desired signal will be buried in the RF noise floor. •FM capture (basically relying on a strong carrier signal reception within an interfering signal background) is S/N ratio dependent and your reliable reception range will be reduced; a clear channel will obviously result in the best range. •A good “front end” in a receiver is most helpful in reducing interference; therefore, block specific filtering at each “set” of receivers is extremely effective in helping the receivers reject broadband interference and broadband inter-modulation products as well.
•Spacing ENG receiver antennae from each other helps with inter-modulation products between them, which also affect transmitters as some RF gets in them as well. •There is already in place an exchange program for Lectrosonics wireless to bring your 700 plus MHz equipment into legal operating frequency blocks. This is for currently produced equipment only, while some 200 and other series may still be covered depending on the date of manufacture, etc. Please check with your dealer or Lectrosonics for an eligible equipment list. Pricing for each type of gear exchange is available at Location Sound Corp. (818.980.9891) I think everyone came away from the seminar more relieved and definitely far more informed. Gordon and Larry really went into detail beyond the single topic of the RF Spectrum issue. We were treated to a host of related topics to help us understand and deal with the new face of spectral use. I would like to thank them on behalf of all the attendees for their time and effort in this presentation which proved to be invaluable information on all of the subjects covered, many of which were far beyond the scope of this article. This seminar should be available online soon and all questions regarding it should be directed to Location Sound Corp. as well. •
White Space Devices are restricted to operate within the following parameters:
•Must not interfere with DTV or wireless mics. •Must either detect location or go to a Geo-Location database (presumably online). •TV channels 2–51 allow for fixed-base devices of 1 watt (4 watt ERP with 1/4 wave whip antenna). •TV channels 2–20 fixed-base operation only. •TV channels 21–51 allow for mobile operation of 40 mW (100 mW if not on an adjacent channel). •All units must sense for RF transmission every minute and shut down or change channels if RF is detected. (All units tested thus far have failed these tests.) White Space usage results in a site management issue now:
•IT equipment, etc. will have to be coordinated with wireless microphones. •Location work will always require a scan, a Geo-location registration database will help.
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DENECKE, INC... Mark Ulano CAS here. We are on
production here in Berlin, Germany, on Quentin Tarantino’s Brad Pitt starrer, Inglourious Basterds (sic). Tom Hartig is my friend and ‘stalwart’ boom operator and we are blessed with the help of Benny Dunker of Berlin as second boom/ UST. We started here in September and will travel to Paris for a week shooting this week and then back here to completion in February. We then will start Iron Man 2 in Los Angeles. Earlier this year, Tom and I did Terminator: Salvation with Christian Bale in Albuquerque, N.M., and before that, State of Play with Russell Crowe in Washington, D.C. Busy year. A lot of out of town. Fortunately, Tom and I have our families with us here in Europe.
Dick Maitland CAS writes: Posting Season 1 of BBC’s Third and Bird; Season 40 of Sesame Street with show Emmy for Season 39; Season 3 of The Wonder Pets, Emmy for The Wonder Pets Season 2 with Jeffery Lesser. Posting FX for Linda Yellin’s Last Film Festival. Classic Ed Green CAS, on-site Xmas in Washington producer, sticks his head in and says “sounds great.” Ed says, “I can fix that!...” Same show director on cans says, “I’m going to the can.” Producer says, “If you mention my name, you can get a good seat.” TD says, “I’ll sell it to you...” Brett Grant-Grierson CAS is back on Medium along with the usual crew of
Kevin McClellan and Gary Boatner. It’s been an interesting year with a couple of pilots, The Meant to Be’s and Kath & Kim. Also did a couple of pro bono shorts, The Monday Before Thanksgiving for Courtney Cox and Abuelo, an AFI short for MaryAnne Kellog’s directing debut. After a busy summer, Frank Morrone CAS and Scott Weber are into Season 5 of Lost mixing in Disney’s ICON Room Six. They will also be mixing Sideways Japan in February.
Gavin Fernandes CAS is still (as in ‘never stopped’) mixing Young Victoria (six months and counting). During some breaks from this epic, he finished Journey to Mecca for IMAX. In January, he starts Les Pieds dans le Vide...., a parachuting movie for which he volunteered to jump fully miked out of a plane at 13,500 feet. In his own words: “That was more fun 26
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than print mastering naked!”
John Coffey CAS just completed a
stint working for his hours, this time as a cable and boom person. Started slow but got in the groove by the end. I have a renewed and immense respect for how hard the production sound crews work and the professionalism they show in the face of what is often chaotic and difficult and un-sound-friendly situations. I still think the longs days are inhumane and unfair to our families who never see you till the weekend. There is a lot of new gear out there and everyone uses their own blend, so it was good to get my hands on it again. I especially want to thank all my good friends for helping out and tossing me a day here and there. My family is eternally grateful to them for their support.
Steve Morrow CAS is currently finishing up the musical feature Fame with
MGM, to be released at Thanksgiving. Craig Dollinger is the boom operator, and Aaron Grice is the utility sound tech. We also include Scott Fransisco on our team as he’s the Pro Tools operator. Hello and happy holidays to all fellow CAS members from Ike Magal CAS in Sedona, Ariz.
Jeff A. Johnson CAS is currently working on two sitcoms: Gary Unmarried (CBS) and Rita Rocks (Lifetime). Each were picked up for a full season (Seven shows each for the back order.) Both shows are being shot at CBS Studio Center, Studio City, Calif. And both shows are being re-recorded at Warner Bros. Sound by Charlie McDaniel. Gary Unmarried has it set of challenges with Jim Burrows [director] at the helm. Besides his lightning-quick stage blocking, he’s got actors using every part of the set. I sometimes have to use up to seven mics to get a scene. Rita Rocks is set in a ‘Mother rekindles her good ol’ rock band days’ and every other week we are presented with a music scene or two. Fred Ginsburg CAS recently coordi-
nated stateside audio for the live, TransAtlantic HD video seminar held by the BKSTS (British Kinematograph Sound & Television Society). Their annual Bernard Happe Lecture originated at the British Film Institute in London and
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was simul-projected live in full HD and 5.1 audio via the megaband capability of the SoHoNet Trans-Atlantic digital data link. FotoKem in Burbank served as the local host. A return audio feed allowed audience Q&A from Burbank back to London. Fred is a member of the North American Branch, and serves on the High Council (Brit-speake for Board of Directors) of the BKSTS “Moving Image Society.” Anyone interested in membership can contact Fred. It’s been a busy autumn for Bob Israel CAS and boom ops Allister Mann and Kevin Williams, with numerous commercial projects recently completed and a new Sound Devices 788T installed. We hope everyone had a very happy holiday season, and we’re looking forward to a healthy, safe and prosperous 2009.
Robert Anderson CAS adds: Well,
here I am again doing another season of Lost for which I won the Emmy last season, thanks to the amazing post persons we have on the mainland. Thanks to all of them. Let’s go surfing. Hi to all. I have been lucky this year. I started with a film called Spread, starring Ashton Kutcher and Ann Heche. Then I worked on a pilot called Austin Golden Hour. Now I’m on a TV show for Fox TV called Dollhouse. Hope you all had a great year and that next year is busy for all of us. –Coleman Metts CAS
John Pritchett CAS and crew, Dave
Roberts on boom and Shawn Harper, cable, just wrapped up Judd Apatow’s latest laugh fest, Funny People. It’s a comedy about comedians but with a poignant twist. Adam Sandler is the older but no wiser “veteran” who employs a younger and much wiser novice played by Seth Rogen (who else?). The supporting cast included dozens of the best comics in the business from Sarah Silverman to Charles Fleischer, George Wallace to Paul Reiser, and Norm MacDonald to Dave Attell ... to name just a few, and was shot in places like the legendary Improv. There were also several musical scenes which were all filmed and recorded live ... always a challenge.
Jamie Scarpuzza CAS just finished American Virgin (aka Virgin on Bourbon Street) in Michigan.
Jonathan Andrews CAS has just returned from the
Cerrada (High Desert) of Brazil where he was working on another season of Survivor. After that, it was working with Steve Guercio on a Super Bowl commercial for Allstate Insurance with Lebron James. 2008 will end and 2009 will start with Steve again helping make a documentary for Saga Films on the mortgage crisis in Ohio.
PRODUCTS TO HELP YOU FOCUS ON SOUND.
Mixer Glenn Micallef CAS and boom operator Richard Bullock crafted production sound for Summit Entertainment’s Twilight. The shoot involved remote locations in the Columbia Gorge National Scenic Area and a generous helping of extreme weather. It was our first shoot that called for cover sets in the event of sunshine! Micallef and Bullock also recently recorded for the Temple Hill Productions’ Management with Steve Zahn and Jennifer Aniston.
DCODE TS-C
Andy Wiskes CAS and Louis Wiskes combined to record the Polygon/Big Wave production of Tsunami at Kerner
Optical in Northern California. Given the title Tsunami, we set new standards of misery for working: around, in, and underwater. Lots of water. Water all the time. Water, water everywhere .... but on a drier note, we also engineered and mixed choral recordings for a Sprint ad campaign and then explored the wonders of working in the snow for a series of Honda commercials. And finally, into the studio for premixing on Etude, where it’s warm, dry, and quiet. Happy holidays and let’s have more peace in the new year.
DCODE SB-T DENECKE, INC. 25030 Avenue Stanford, Suite 240 Valencia, CA 91355 Phone (661) 607-0206 Fax (661) 257-2236 www.denecke.com Email: info@denecke.com
I’m Associate member Brian Nimens, the founder of Sound Ideas, and I wanted to share with you a great opportunity I had recently to record history in the form of the Chrysler Air Raid Siren which bills itself as “the 1st Choice in Air Defense Warning Systems, sounds loudest warning ever produced!” And I can absolutely agree with that. It’s powered by a Chrysler 180 horsepower Hemi V-8 engine and produces 138 decibels of sound measured 100 feet from its throat. After all, these monsters were designed to be heard over the full roar of a city at work. During the Cold War of the 1950s and ’60s, the air raid sirens stood guard over U.S. cities to warn of incoming enemy missiles. There were a few hundred of these monstrous sirens produced and sold during the 1950s and many of them remained in service for more than 20 years. Fortunately, they were only sounded out for routine tests. Because the air raid sirens were so loud and because it was important for them to be heard over long distances, they were usually placed high on a steel tower or on top of multi-story building. Most people who lived in major metropolitan areas in the United States during the 1950s and ’60s will remember the siren tests. Citizens and neighbors of Los Angeles, Seattle, Kansas City, Chicago, Detroit, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, New York and Miami would have heard the haunting siren wail of a Chrysler Air Raid Siren being tested. I must say that being able to recording the Chrysler Air Raid Siren was like taking a step back in time. We had to find a very remote location to sound off this siren at full blast; especially because we wanted to record from several different perspectives and distances, and that meant we would be setting off the siren several times. We literally had just wrapped up the last of CAS QUARTERLY
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the blasts and were feeling very good about the recording session when we heard a car approaching at speed. Yup, it was the local sheriff, almost fit to be tied. We had no idea that both the police and fire stations had been inundated with calls trying to find out if we were under attack or if war had been declared. And apparently, the livestock in the neighborhood was none too pleased with us as well! It took some smooth talking and many promises “never to do this again” to get out of a disturbingthe-peace charge—but we managed to finish packing up from the session with some outstanding recordings in hand and just a stern warning (as well as the siren) echoing in our ears! All in all, an unforgettable experience and a terrific opportunity to record history for posterity—and a future Sound Ideas’ sound effects collection.
Mark Hopkins McNabb CAS and
boom operators Jeff Norton and Jonathan Fuh on the set of Ghost Whisperer, wish all our friends at CAS a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Successful New Year!
Richard Branca CAS from Sony Pictures Studios reports: Gary Bourgeois CAS, Bill Benton and Deb Adairs CAS are pre-dubbing The Year One in the William Holden Theatre and Burt Lancaster Theatre. Jeff Haboush CAS and Greg Russell CAS are finaling Confessions of a Shopaholic in the Kim Novak Theatre. Paul Massey
CAS and David Giammarco are finaling The Taking of Pelham 123 in the Cary Grant Theatre. Tateum Kohut CAS and Greg Orloff CAS are pre-dubbing Obsessed in the Anthony Quinn Theatre. On Dub Stage 11, Alan Decker CAS and Mark Linden CAS are dubbing The Simpsons. Alan Decker is also mixing It’s That Music with Alexander Gruzdev on Dub Stage 11. On Dub Stage 7, Nello Torri CAS and Derek Marcil CAS are finaling The Dream of the Romans. Rusty Smith CAS and William Freesh CAS are mixing Big Love on Dub Stage 6. Wayne Heitman and John Boyd CAS are mixing Medium on Dub Stage 17.
Jonathan Gaynor CAS finished Dear John just in time for the holidays. Boom guys Tim Cargioli and James Peterson made it all happen once again along with the first-rate crew in Charleston, S.C. We’re looking forward to director Lasse Halstrom’s next one. 28
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2008 was a very exciting year for Eric Lalicata CAS. In May, along with
partners Dan Snow and Ryan Harper, Eric opened Anarchy Post, a fullservice audio post production facility in the media district of Burbank/ Glendale. Anarchy Post consists of a theatrical dub stage (Stage A), ADR stage, Foley stage, a TV mixing stage (Stage B), a spotting/review room and a Final Cut Pro Edit suite. The facility was designed and installed by Eric and Sam Buckner CAS. Upon immediate completion of the dub stage in May, Eric mixed Boogeyman 3 while the rest of the facility was still under construction. By June, the facility was fully operational and providing complete audio post services for three Sci-Fi Network MOWs, and feature films The Grudge 3, Red Sands, Messengers 2 and the highly anticipated sequel to Donnie Darko, entitled S. Darko. In January 2009, Anarchy Post mixes the Red Camera, 3-D feature The Dark Country, starring and directed by Thomas Jane. At the end of the month, Anarchy Post switches gears and mixes the animated feature Garfield Pet Force. Eric looks forward to an exciting 2009 and wishes the CAS membership a prosperous and successful new year.
Phillip W. Palmer CAS and team, Patrick Martens and Devendra Cleary CAS,
finished last year with a long second unit of Angels & Demons for Sony and a pilot for Fox titled Glee. The pilot got picked up to go into immediate production, so beginning February 2, we go right to work. Looking forward to the challenges of a musical on a TV schedule! Happy New Year from Buck Robinson CAS! He just finished the pilot 10 Things I Hate About You for ABC Family Channel. Tom “Huckleberry” Caton boomed the show, with “Wisconsin” Cole Bluma holding down the fort from the utility spot. Also, Buck thanks Forest Williams for second unit days on Fox’s Prison Break, with Josh Bower and John Coffey CAS booming. Yes, THAT John Coffey! From Universal Studios Sound: The Sound Department has been cranking full speed ahead and is ready to take a breather for the short holiday hiatus. Here’s what a few of our stages have been up to: Andy Koyama and Chris Carpenter just finished finaling a film for DreamWorks called She’s Out of My League, directed by Jim Field
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Smith. They also worked on the documentary When You’re Strange, about the infamous L.A. rock group, The Doors, which was accepted into the Sundance Film Festival. Chris Jenkins CAS and Frank Montano have been keeping very busy over on the Hitchcock Theatre. In November, we had director Gary Ross in with his film for Universal, The Tale of Despereaux, an animated feature just in time for the holidays. Two days later, Chris and Frankie started mixing director Zack Snyder’s much anticipated feature film for Warner Bros., Watchmen, which will open in March of 2009. Jon Taylor CAS and Christian P. Minkler have been mixing away on Dub 6. We had director Dito Montiel in with his film Fighting for Rogue Pictures, followed up by Universal’s Role Models for director David Wain. On the Universal television stages: Roberta Doheny and Robert Edmondson CAS are currently taking it one day at a time on NBC’s Life and are still hanging out with the ghosts on Ghost Whisperer in Studio 1. Bill Nicholson and Tom Meloeny CAS in Studio 2 are busy making the ladies of Lipstick Jungle sound great and are prepping to take the Monkey on the Run: Curious George 2 out for a stroll. Gerry Lentz CAS and Richard Weingart CAS are still playing doctor with House and of course, they’re making sure that villains are behaving on Heroes. Michael Olman CAS and Kenneth Kobett CAS have way too much on their plate as they’re mixing Desperate Housewives, 24 and Battlestar Galactica and are getting set to take on Fox Television’s Lie to Me in BluWave’s Studio B. John W. Cook II CAS and Peter Nusbaum CAS continue to mix various half-hour single, multi-cam, and pilot projects. It seems as if they live on that stage as their still working on Scrubs, The Office and Samantha Who? And if this isn’t enough, they’re also pushing the faders on CBS’s Worst Week, NBC’s Kath & Kim and Showtime’s The United States of Tara.
Glenn Berkovitz CAS and boom oper-
ators Corey Woods, Danny Greenwald and Mark Grech, have stayed afloat through our turbulent times working on Disney’s Zeke and Luther (who doesn’t love teen skateboarders?) and TNT’s Men of a Certain Age (classic rock, anyone?). We’re looking forward to better and brighter ahead. Happy 2009!
Agamemnon Andrianos CAS, Douglas Shamburger, and Alex Names celebrated their 100th episode of Desperate Housewives for ABC Studios. Our 100th episode is titled “The Best Thing That Ever Could Have Happened” and really it has been that way as we continue into 2009! Since September, Don Hale CAS has been on location throughout the Southwest on a number of commercials for clients such as Tosoro, United Healthcare, Jeep, & Intel. Two in particular involved production in very remote locations outside of Moab, Utah, and the mountains of northern Arizona. Don, along with boom operator George Wymenga, also completed an intense training feature for the U.S. Army shot at Blue Cloud Ranch near Santa Clarita. Don also mixed sound for the fifth year on NBC’s Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 off road race in Baja, Mexico. It seems like a tradition now with a great crew and sound challenges galore. Don has completed a new, self-contained portable sound package which can be taken into remote locations with a full compliment of multi-track and communication features. Looking forward to 2009 and the many challenges our industry craft will take on—and loving every minute of it!
Paul James Zahnley CAS just wrapped mixing NOVA’s “Extreme Ice.” Paul is
also a proud new father of baby twins Piper and Elliot who were born in November!
Jay Patterson CAS along with R. Joe Michalski and Steve Sollars (CAS
Associates) are on the home stretch of Season 7, production sound on Without a Trace.
Steve Weiss CAS finished Season 2 of Saving Grace with Chris Tiffany on boom
and Dennis Carlin handling utility chores and then moved on to The Line (a pilot for Bruckheimer’s company for TNT), having Chris Tiffany on boom and Thomas Popp doing utility work.
Carrie Giunta CAS writes: I have just finished working on the sound design for a short film called Teleportation, which is a finalist for the 2009 Berlin Today Award. Steve Morantz CAS is enjoying a little break before going back to finish the second season of Samantha Who? Also, have been fairly busy picking up second units during our hiatus. With me as always, are Aaron Wallace and Mitch Cohn. • CAS QUARTERLY
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Brian Nimens and the Chrysler Air Raid Siren.
Gavin Fernandes ,
CAS being miked up by Martin Pinsonnea ult (left) for h is big jump.
From left: The sound crew in Mexico—
Our very own Blackhawk, DEAR JOHN. Jonathan Gaynor, CAS, James Peterson and Tim Cargioli.
Don Hale, CAS, Robert Porter, and Dave Graziano.
ANNUAL BLACK EY
ED PEA PARTY ON
A new dub stage for Eric
THE FIRST OF THE
YEAR
Lalicata, CAS.
Standing from left: Vince Schelly, Adam Joeseph, Jim Machowski, CAS, Monty Buckles, Steve Morantz, CAS, Gary Gossett, CAS, Aletha Rodgers, CAS, Roger Pietschmann, CAS, Paul Marshall, CAS, Kaylee Marshall, Tony Bollas, James Ridgeley, CAS, David Wienreb. Kneeling from left: Lenny (Jerry) Smith, Marlon George, Steven Corbiere, CAS, Andy Bollas, Carlos DeMenezes
S back
y, CA John Coffelin es. on the front
Don Hale, CAS with daughter
Brooke and grandson Joshua at his first snowfall in the Cuyamaca mountains east of San Diego … it dumped 18 inches of snow!
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