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ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATIONS ®
I N C L U D I N G
BE ST S O U ND M I XI NG PAUL MASSEY
D.M. HEMPHILL
PETER F. KURLAND
“EXPLOSIVE. Walk the Line arrives not merely as a movie, but as a full-blown pop-cultural phenomenon.
IT IS SIMPLY THE FINEST RENDERING OF THE THRILL OF LIVE MUSIC EVER PUT ON FILM.” – Ken Tucker,
f o r
y o u r
c o n s i d e r a t i o n
walk the line www.walkthelinethemovie.com
www.foxscreenings.com
© 2006 Twentieth Century Fox
10 FEATURES
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2005 C.A.S. Awards Nominations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 The C.A.S. announces the nominees for Outstanding Sound Mixing
Michael Minkler Interview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 An interview with the Career Achievement recipient
C.A.S. Filmmaker Award . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Quentin Tarantino to receive the first-ever C.A.S. Filmmaker Award
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C.A.S. Technical Achievement Award. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 The nominees for this award are‌
DEPARTMENTS The President’s Letter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Richard Lightstone introduces the new C.A.S. Quarterly
From the Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
29
Technically Speaking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 G. John Garrett, C.A.S. discusses the history of the flash card
Been There Done That . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 The members check in
In Remembrance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 The C.A.S. acknowledges its members who have passed on
The Lighter Side. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
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C.A.S. Q U A R T E R L Y
WINTER 2006
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THE PRESIDENT’S LETTER
Welcome to the first issue of C.A.S. Quarterly. It has been a longtime dream of the Cinema Audio Society’s Board of Directors to publish a magazine created by and devoted to the art of Sound Mixing. It all began with a simple mimeographed two-page handout and grew to a newsletter called the Journal of the Cinema Audio Society over our 41 years as an organization. With the passionate and devoted hard work of all of its editors—Jim Corbett, Fred Ginsburg, Ed Somers, Mark Rozett, Richard Lightstone and finally to the current co-editors Peter Damski and Aletha Rodgers—our sincere thanks for a job well done. This first issue of C.A.S. Quarterly is a wonderful leap forward for the C.A.S. and for Sound Mixers everywhere.
Sincerely,
Richard Lightstone C.A.S. President
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C.A.S. Q U A R T E R L Y
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.
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FROM THE EDITORS...
Happy New Year and welcome to the new Journal of the Cinema Audio Society: C.A.S. Quarterly. The most notable change in the journal is COLOR!!! We will now be accepting color photos for all articles and The Lighter Side section of C.A.S. Quarterly. This is our Awards Edition. It is the journal C.A.S. members receive prior to the annual banquet, which is held on February 25, 2006, at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel, 506 South Grand Street, Los Angeles 90071. During the banquet, members of the sound community will get together for a night of socializing (cocktails at 5:30 p.m.) and celebration as Michael Minkler, C.A.S. will be presented with the prestigious Career Achievement Award. There is an interesting and engrossing article in this issue about Minkler in which Melissa Hofmann, C.A.S. and Fred Tator, C.A.S. conducted. Also of interest in this issue is an article about the new award, the C.A.S. Filmmaker Award, being presented to Quentin Tarantino. Been There Done That has not changed and is as popular as ever, informative and fun to read. We hope you enjoy the new look of C.A.S. Quarterly, and as always, we welcome all comments, suggestions, ideas, stories and letters. Hope to see you at the banquet! Sincerely,
OFFICERS
Richard Lightstone, President Melissa S. Hofmann, Vice President Marti D. Humphrey, Secretary Christopher Haire, Treasurer BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Richard Branca James Coburn IV John Coffey James A. Corbett Ed Greene Sherry Klein
Edward L. Moskowitz Michael G. Olman Aletha Rodgers Fred Tator Greg Watkins
ALTERNATES
Tim Cooney Ken Kobett Peter Damski Jon Taylor OFFICE MANAGER
Robin Damski EDITORS:
Aletha Rodgers Peter Damski PUBLISHER:
The Editors, Aletha Rodgers Peter Damski casjournal@cinemaaudiosociety.org
The Ingle Group 11661 San Vicente Blvd., Ste. 709 Los Angeles, CA 90049 QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS:
Active Ron Meza Erin M. Rettig Jeffrey A. Johnson Stephen Clark Brian Riordan Mac Ruth Gary Allen Wilkins
Cinema Audio Society 859 Hollywood Way #632 Burbank, CA 91505 Phone: 818.752.8624 Fax: 818.752.8624 Email casjournal@CinemaAudioSociety.org www.cinemaaudiosociety.org ADVERTISING:
Associate Paul A. Graff Joshua M. Anderson Forrest Forbes Ron Hornbuckle
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WINTER 2006
C.A.S. Q U A R T E R L Y
Dan Dodd 818.556.6300 Email: dandodd@pacbell.net
©2006 by the Cinema Audio Society. All rights reserved. CAS®, C.A.S.®, 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.
Lionsgate would like to congratulate our nominees for the 42nd Annual C.A.S. Awards:
MARC DAVID FISHMAN RE-RECORDING MIXER
ADAM JENKINS RE-RECORDING MIXER
RICK ASH
RE-RECORDING MIXER
RICHARD VAN DYKE PRODUCTION MIXER
UNIVERSAL PICTURES
We Thank the Cinema Audio Society And Proudly Congratulate our Nominees
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND MIXING FOR 2005 MOTION PICTURES
MICHAEL SEMANICK,
C.A.S.
RE-RECORDING MIXER
CHRISTOPHER BOYES RE-RECORDING MIXER
MICHAEL HEDGES,
C.A.S.
RE-RECORDING MIXER
HAMMOND PEEK,
C.A.S.
PRODUCTION MIXER
ƒwww.universalstudios.com
The Development
of Flash Media by G. John Garrett, C.A.S.
I
t doesn’t seem like it, but those little Compact Flash media cards we use practically every day have been around since 1994. They were first introduced by SanDisk, but flash memory itself was invented by Dr. Fujio Masuoka at Toshiba in 1984. This type of memory was called “flash” because Shoji Ariizumi, Masuoka’s colleague, thought the process of erasing the memory contents reminded him of a camera’s flash. Dr. Masuoka presented the invention at the IEEE 1984 Integrated Electronics Devices Meeting held in San Jose, California. Intel saw the massive potential of the invention and introduced the first commercial NOR type flash chip in 1988. Flash memory is different from your computer’s memory, it is nonvolatile memory. That means when you shut the power off, it doesn’t forget what it knows. As far as I can tell, one flavor of flash or other is used in all solid-state storage devices, from CF or SD memory, Toshiba’s Smart Media, Intel’s Mini Card, Sony memory sticks, keychain/thumb drives to the iPod Nano, which uses a flash device available in 2 GB and 4 GB capacities. Since the media is completely solid-state, it’s ideally suited to hostile working environments where hard drives could more easily fail. NOR–based flash came first, and is ideal for computer BIOS or firmware applications. It has a 10,000–1,000,000 write/erase cycle life. In 1989 Samsung and Toshiba introduced NAND–based flash, which is the type found in pretty much all CF cards these days. Besides being faster, the data density is higher, it’s cheaper to produce and has 10 times the endurance of NOR flash. CF cards are rated to 2,000 Gs, and the CFA says
DR. FUJIO MASUOKA
a CF card can be used for more than 100 years with no loss or deterioration of data. The durability of CF cards was demonstrated anecdotally by a story I was told where some 12-year-old boys were given CF cards and asked to destroy them. I recall the washing machine had no effect and driving a nail through the card destroyed only the data where the nail went through. The first NAND–based removable media format was SmartMedia, and numerous others have followed: MMC, Secure Digital, Memory Stick and xDPicture Cards. A new generation of these formats is becoming a reality with RS–MMC (Reduced Size MultiMedia Card), the TransFlash and miniSD vari-
ants of Secure Digital and the new USB/Memory card hybrid Intelligent Stick. Compact Flash media give complete PCMCIA–ATA funcionality, and TrueIDE functionality for any device they are connected to. PCMCIA uses 68 pins, and CF uses 50 but still conforms to the PCMCIA spec. [You can’t shove a CF card into a PCMCIA slot though]. What this means in practical terms is that in addition to the memory on the chip itself, there is a builtin ATA/IDE controller which makes it look like another FAT hard drive to your computer. There are adapters available which allow CF or SD cards to plug directly into a PCMCIA carrier and go directly into a PCMCIA slot. As an aside, Microdrives, the CF–sized mini hard drives, all conform to the same spec, and should run in the PCMCIA carriers as well. Today it’s hard to imagine a camera, mp3 player, keychain drive or practically anything that uses nonvolatile memory that doesn’t have flash storage onboard. Some of the types have Digital Rights Management tools inside, and at least one SD card manufacturer has a flip-up USB connector built onto the chip.) In today’s world of changing recorders, media and workflows, it seems the media are changing; getting faster, denser and cheaper. Solid-state Flash media are making their way into our production days, and it seems the technology will only improve. Ten years ago not many of us thought we’d be here today; I wonder where we’ll be in 10 more. •
C.A.S. Q U A R T E R L Y
WINTER 2006
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outstanding achievement in sound mixing for 2005 motion pictures
M
embers of the sound community, friends and family will gather for the 42nd Annual Cinema Audio Society Awards Banquet Saturday, February 25, 2006, at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel’s Crystal Ballroom. Awards for outstanding mixing will be presented in five categories. The new category, DVD Original Programming is for programs released straight to DVD. Winners will also be announced in the categories for Motion Pictures, Television Movies and Mini-Series, Television Series, and Television Non-Fiction, Variety or Music Series or Specials.
Crash Lions Gate Rerecording Mixers Marc Fishman Adam Jenkins Rick Ash
Production Mixer Richard Van Dyke
King Kong Universal Rerecording Mixers Christopher Boyes Michael Semanick, C.A.S. Michael Hedges, C.A.S.
Production Mixer Hammond Peek, C.A.S.
Memoirs of a Geisha Sony/DreamWorks Rerecording Mixers Kevin O’Connell Greg P. Russell, C.A.S. Rick Kline
Production Mixer John Pritchett, C.A.S.
For the second year in a row, C.A.S. will present the Technical Achievement Award honoring technical innovation in the area of sound recording.
Walk the Line 20th Century Fox Rerecording Mixers Paul Massey, C.A.S. Doug Hemphill, C.A.S.
Production Mixer Peter F. Kurland, C.A.S.
C.A.S. Past President and Rerecording Mixer Michael Minkler as this year’s achievement recipient will be one of the highlights of the evening. The festivities will get under way during a cocktail reception in the Tiffany Room at 5:30 p.m., with dinner slated for 6:45 p.m., followed by the Awards presentation at 8 p.m. To order tickets, contact office manager Robin Damski at 818-752-8624, or email: CasOffice@CinemaAudioSociety.org Event address: The Biltmore Hotel, 506 South Grand Street, Los Angeles, CA 90071 10
WINTER 2006
C.A.S. Q U A R T E R L Y
War of the Worlds Paramount/DreamWorks Rerecording Mixers Andy Nelson Anna Behlmer
Production Mixer Ron Judkins, C.A.S.
outstanding achievement in sound mixing for 2005 television movies and mini-series
Category 7: The End of the World (CBS) Rerecording Mixers
outstanding achievement in sound mixing for 2005 television series
Chris David Adam Jenkins
Production Mixer Louis Marion
Empire: Episode 1 (ABC) Rerecording Mixers Christopher L. Haire, C.A.S. Christopher D. Elam, C.A.S.
Production Mixer Brian Simmons, C.A.S.
Lackawanna Blues (HBO) Rerecording Mixers Rick Ash Adam Jenkins
Production Mixer Susumu Tokunow
Sleeper Cell: Part #10 “Youmud Din” (Showtime) Rerecording Mixers Elmo Ponsdomenech Joe Earle, C.A.S.
Production Mixer Roger J. Pietschman, C.A.S.
Three Wise Guys (USA) Rerecording Mixers Robert Appere, C.A.S. Edward C. Carr III, C.A.S.
Production Mixer Robert Seymour, C.A.S.
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation “Grave Danger” – Part 2 (CBS) Rerecording Mixers Yuri Reese, C.A.S. Bill Smith
Production Mixer Mick Fowler, C.A.S.
Deadwood – “A Lie Agreed Upon” – Part 1 (HBO) Rerecording Mixers R. Russel Smith, C.A.S. William Freesh
Production Mixer Geoffrey Patterson, C.A.S.
Rome – “The Spoils” (HBO) Rerecording Mixers R. Russell Smith, C.A.S. William Freesh
Production Mixer Maurizio Argentieri
24 – “Day 4: 6:00 a.m. - 7:00 a.m.” (FOX) Rerecording Mixers Michael Olman, C.A.S. Kenneth Kobett, C.A.S.
Production Mixer William F. Gocke, C.A.S.
The West Wing – “2162 Votes” (NBC) Rerecording Mixers Dan Hiland, C.A.S. Gary D. Rogers, C.A.S.
Production Mixer Patrick Hanson, C.A.S.
C.A.S. Q U A R T E R L Y
WINTER 2006
11
outstanding achievement in sound mixing for 2005 television non-fiction, variety, music series or specials Alien Planet (Discovery) Rerecording Mixers Michael Olman, C.A.S. Kenneth Kobett, C.A.S.
Original Dialogue Recording Doug Rutherford
American Masters: Sweet Honey in the Rock: Raise Your Voice (PBS) Rerecording Mixer Ken Hahn, C.A.S.
Production Mixer JT Takagi
Red Flag: Thunder at Nellis (Military Channel) Rerecording Mixers Michael Olman, C.A.S. Kenneth Kobett, C.A.S.
Production Mixer Robert Polimas
Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson – Part 2 (PBS) Rerecording Mixer Dominick Tavella, C.A.S.
Bruce Springsteen and Sound Recording the E Street Band: Brenda Ray Hammersmith Odeon, Location Sound Recording London 1975 (PBS) John H. Osborne Mastering Engineer Voice-Over-Recording Bob Ludwig Lou Verrico Music Mixer Bob Clearmountain Dave Fromberg
Doug Andorka Eric Freeman
Original Dialogue Recording Edwin Collins
The Crow: Wicked Prayer Dimension Films Rerecording Mixers Mark Rozett, C.A.S. Kelly Vandever
Production Mixer Whit Norris, C.A.S.
Family Guy Presents: Stewie Griffin – The Untold Story 20th Century Fox Television Rerecording Mixers Original Dialogue Mixer
Rerecording Mixer
Dan Cubert
Matt Foglia, C.A.S.
WINTER 2006
The Batman vs. Dracula: The Animated Movie Warner Bros. Rerecording Mixers
Jim Fitzpatrick Sam Black, C.A.S.
Production Mixer
12
outstanding achievement in sound mixing for 2005 DVD original programming
C.A.S. Q U A R T E R L Y
Havoc New Line Home Video Rerecording Mixers Trip Brock Kelly Vandever
Production Mixer Shawn Holden
Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch Buena Vista Home Video/Disney Rerecording Mixers Terry O’Bright, C.A.S. Keith Rogers, C.A.S.
Original Dialogue Recording Carlos Sotolongo
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by Aletha Rodgers, C.A.S.
W
ITH TWO OSCARS, THREE AWARDS FROM THE BRITISH ACADEMY OF FILM AND TELEVISION ARTS (BAFTA), AND A GOLDEN SATELLITE AWARD, RERECORDING MIXER MICHAEL MINKLER, C.A.S. WILL RECEIVE THE CINEMA AUDIO SOCIETY CAREER ACHIEVEMENT AWARD, THE HIGHEST HONOR THE SOCIETY BESTOWS ON A MIXER.
HOW FAR IN ADVANCE BEFORE A MIX DO YOU GET INVOLVED WITH THE PRODUCTION?
Minkler has put his magic touch to hundreds of films with such recognizable titles as Chicago, Black Hawk Down, The China Syndrome, Kill Bill: Vol. 1, Kill Bill: Vol. 2, Collateral, Natural Born Killers, Driving Miss Daisy, Popeye, Star Wars, Kingdom of Heaven, and most recently, Rent.
HOW DO YOU USE SOUND IN STORYTELLING?
Melissa Hofmann, C.A.S. and Fred Tator, C.A.S. spoke with Minkler at Todd-AO West Studios in Santa Monica, California. WHAT MIX ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF?
If I had to pick I would say Chicago because it was a great sound piece to work on. It was almost a perfect film, if there really is a perfect film. Everyone did a great job. It’s a movie you can’t help but enjoy. There are others that I just had so much fun working on. Kill Bill was great fun.
As much as a year, and as late as 9 a.m. the first day of the mix. However, I prefer to see a rough cut and exchange ideas in the cutting room with the director, picture editor, sound editor, composer and music editor, then continue to talk from that day on. Each sound should have a purpose, whether it is a background, a door close, a gear shift, a person’s scream, inflection of a word, the wailing of a chorus or a whisper in an ear—every sound should help tell the story. The final narrative of these elements must have a concise and lyrical quality. If you have succeeded in this, you have done your job. WHEN YOU FIND THAT YOUR VISION ISN’T THE SAME AS THE PEOPLE BEHIND YOU, HOW DO YOU CONVINCE THEM THAT YOUR WAY IS THE WAY TO GO?
I never think that I am right. I always think I can bring it to a level that I think is a really good all-around level, and then wherever the director, or the picture editor or whoever is the creative nucleus wants to go from that point, I just go there. I don’t fight it at all. I go there with all my heart and soul.
HOW WAS CHICAGO PREPARED MUSICALLY?
The music was provided for the mix with groups of two or three tracks of instrumentation, adding up to 40 tracks. Vocals were all original recordings with no compression, no EQ—just raw. These came from pre-recorded sessions, live recordings on the set and post recordings in the studio. These were 18 channels wide. The musical recordings came from multiple sessions using multiple arrangers, artists and composers. It was a massive amount of music.
WHEN DO YOU FEEL SATISFIED WITH YOUR MIX; WHEN DO YOU KNOW THAT YOU’RE DONE?
WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE PART OF THE PROCESS?
Yeah, because it has happened, on occasion two or three times where either I wasn’t paying attention, or the Dolby guy wasn’t paying attention or we had a corrupted drive and something wasn’t there. Something happened, so I always play it back. Sometimes I set it up in two or three separate rooms and I make sure there’s somebody in there that knows the movie— they have to know the content—and I’ll make them listen to M.O.s or the drive or something so we can keep going.
I enjoy working alone: pre-mixing and doing all the little things I like to do to the material. And I enjoy the final mix process for its wonderful collaboration with others. It is a great joy to shape, reshape, form and reform in this creative process. What makes it painful is when people don’t allow the collaboration, or make choices for all the wrong reasons—political or personal. Then the picture is done a disservice.
I know I’m done when I think I’ve got it as good as it can get in the amount of time they’ve given me to do it. But, I don’t think I’m ever really done, because every time you play it you could add a hundred notes. DO YOU ALWAYS PLAY BACK THE M.O. AFTER YOU RECORD IT FOR PRINT MASTERING?
C.A.S. Q U A R T E R L Y
WINTER 2006
15
HOW OFTEN DO YOU INTERACT WITH PRODUCTION MIXERS ON A SHOW?
Not too much, but I like the calls when they say, ‘Hey, I heard the mix and I didn’t think that it could sound so good, so thank you very much!’ Those are good. IS THERE ANYTHING THAT YOU WOULD SAY TO PRODUCTION MIXERS?
I’ve had pictures with such fabulous radio mics I preferred radio mics over the boom 100 percent of the picture. I’ve done the entire picture with the radio mics. So it’s a fallacy that radio mics are awful. They don’t sound awful; they’re great. That’s what I’d tell production mixers. ‘Don’t be afraid.’ I mean if one guy can do it, you can do it. Get the right equipment, because it makes it easier on everybody and it always sounds good. BEING FROM A FAMILY IN THE BUSINESS AND HAVING YOUR FIRST BREAK MIXING WORKING WITH ART [PIANTADOSI] AND LES [FRESHOLTZ], DO YOU THINK THOSE OPPORTUNITIES ARE STILL AVAILABLE FOR THE YOUNG PEOPLE STARTING IN THE BUSINESS NOW? OR DO THE STUDIOS DEMAND A LONG LIST OF CREDITS?
Well, credits are king. I got an extremely lucky break when I got that job at Warner Bros. I was 22 years old when I started mixing, doing some TV shows, some dumb movies, and whatever I could get my hands on and was going downhill. It just so happened I was sitting there that day when a phone call came in to my dad (Don Minkler) that Al Greene over at Warner Bros. was looking for a guy. Al couldn’t find anybody. I’m sitting there going, ‘HEY! ME! ME! ME!’ So my dad says, ‘I’ve got my kid here.’ Al said, ‘Send him over.’ So I met with Al and Art [Piantadosi] and Art said, ‘Are you kidding me?’ Then he said, ‘OK, OK.’ I did it, and it was a 10-day show, and at the end of the 10 days Art said, ‘Stick around.’ I so I stuck around. That was really lucky. Can that happen to someone today? Yes. Will it happen? It’s a long shot. It was a long shot then and it’s a long shot now. Before today’s technology, the only people who had equipment to do what we do were the studios or the sound companies. You couldn’t buy them at Circuit City or from Apple. Now it’s been broken down into software where anyone can train at home or school to do sound for movies. Now they have been doing it for a year at home they think they are ready to do the next Terminator movie or something. That kinda bugs me. SO PAYING YOUR DUES IS JUST AS MUCH A PART OF THE PROCESS OF CREATING A GREAT FILM LATER IN YOUR CAREER.
Absolutely. You need to start off doing the crap because you learn so much from that. You learn how to do the short cuts, how to get around, how to interact with people, how to make something out of nothing. That takes years. What takes so long is the sense of it. Why did you put it in there? How does it interact with the next sound? How does it interact with what you’re looking at? What does it mean to the story? What does it mean to the pacing? Is it emotional? Should it not be emotional right now? Those things you’re only going to get from doing movies for years with great directors who offer you great ideas all the time. Only then do you do raise to the level of your peers. 16
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C.A.S. Q U A R T E R L Y
HAVE YOU EVER MENTORED ANYONE? WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO SOMEONE YOU MENTOR?
I think I’ve mentored everyone I’ve ever worked with to some degree. I’m always open if someone wants to watch or if they have questions. I’ve seen this business go from being really archaic to, well it’s not brain surgery; it almost is now. If you’re not out there talking and sharing and testing and just trying things it would still be archaic, so it’s the give and take of everyone. I think everybody’s mentoring one another to some degree. WHO ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE PEOPLE TO WORK WITH FOR SOUND?
Quentin Tarantino. He is fun because he is so enthusiastic. I like directors who are enthusiastic about using sound and who are not afraid. WOULD YOU RECOMMEND MIXING AS A CAREER TO SOMEONE?
It’s funny you should ask me that today because this evening I’m addressing a senior class at Notre Dame High School about that very subject. I do recommend it. It’s a wonderful way to make a living and a wonderful way to express yourself. It’s tough because the deeper and more involved you get into it, and the bigger and more demanding pictures you get into, you start to lose your time with your family. But in order to make this kind of money, and in order to have that creative release at the same time, there are adjustments that must be made. The wife has to make some kind of adjustments, you have to make some adjustments, and the kids have to make some kind of adjustments. If you can’t, you shouldn’t do this for a living.
Myron Nettinga (Mike’s mixing partner at Todd-AO), Mike Minkler
YOU ARE RECEIVING THE C.A.S.’S CAREER ACHIEVEMENT AWARD AND YOU HAVE WON OSCARS, BAFTA AWARDS, AND HAD MANY NOMINATIONS IN YOUR CAREER. WHAT IS LEFT?
I’m still looking for that perfect mix. Seriously. I have not been able to walk away from a mix yet. Even Chicago still has some problems in it and it bugs me. So, I still want to do one. Like Tiger Woods said, ‘The perfect round is still out there. All birdies!’ •
“
I’m still looking for that perfect mix. Seriously. I have not been able to walk away from a mix yet.
”
Myron Nettinga (Mike’s mixing partner at Todd-AO), Michael Minkler and Wylie Stateman of Soundelux
E
by Aletha Rodgers, C.A.S.
VERY YEAR AT THE CINEMA AUDIO SOCIETY BANQUET MEMBERS OF THE SOUND COMMUNITY ARE HONORED FOR THE OUTSTANDING WORK THEY PERFORM. This year the C.A.S. has added a new category. It is the C.A.S. Filmmaker Award and will be presented to Quentin Tarantino, director, writer and producer, who is the winner of numerous awards for his films, Reservoir Dogs (1992), Jackie Brown (1997), Pulp Fiction (1994), Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003), and Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004). Explaining why this category was added, C.A.S. President Richard Lightstone said, “The C.A.S. wanted to honor filmmakers who have a great understanding and respect for sound. Because of his incredible use of sound and music, Quentin Tarantino was selected. Every film of his has a signature sound.” According to this year’s C.A.S. Career Achievement winner and past C.A.S. President Michael Minkler, Tarantino is very tuned in to sound. Minkler explained saying, “I recall Quentin telling me that when he’s writing his scripts he writes with sound in mind.” Minkler, who mixed Jackie Brown, Kill Bill: Vol. 1, and Kill Bill: Vol. 2 with Tarantino says sometimes Tarantino starts with the music. “He’ll pick music before he writes a scene. He’ll write the scene based on the music. He’ll write dialogue based on the music. As he’s writing, he writes in the sounds, and he writes in pauses between people’s words, and then written in the script will be a sound: Smack! More words, then: Pop! He puts in sound effects and he’ll even put in lyrics from the music that he knows he’s going to have in between words and over the dialogue. “He is so specific in his script and his scripts are usually long and long
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to read and extremely descriptive, but when he’s done, he’s done. Then he goes out and shoots it literally word for word whether it’s a descriptive word or verbal word; he shoots it. He carries that all through the process from shooting to editing, to mixing, and he allows us, (the sound mixing team), to enhance on that. Tarantino says: ‘You got more to bring? Give me some more, give me some more, give me some more!’” Known for his vivid imagination and rich storytelling, Tarantino has many fans, and a few nicknames. ‘QT’ is one, and Minkler said another is, ‘Big Kid.’ Minkler explained, “Quentin is a big kid. He said to me once, ‘I must be the luckiest guy in the world because I actually get to make movies and I get to sit here and hang out with you guys and I get to do all this stuff, and someone gives me a camera and I get to go shoot this thing, and I write all these crazy things down in my head, and someone says, yeah, yeah, go ahead and shoot it!’ That’s his attitude and it’s so infectious! He walks in the room and you just light up because he’s lit up. He’s like a big kid and in fact that was his nickname when he was shooting Kill Bill. The crew had a name for him that meant ‘Big Kid,’ because that’s what he is. He walks around the room going, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah. Can we try that? OK, let’s try that. Or OK, don’t go too far in…’ He can’t even sit down most of the time. It’s a pleasure working with that enthusiasm.” Tarantino as film director, producer, actor, executive producer, editor, and writer is truly a magnificent filmmaker and one in which members and friends of C.A.S. are proud to present with the first-ever C.A.S. Filmmaker Award. The 42nd Annual C.A.S. Banquet will be held at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel, dowtown Los Angeles on Saturday, February 25, 2006.
INNOVATIONS IN
Technical Achievement TO BE HONORED
This is the second year the Cinema Audio Society will honor technical innovation in the area of production and post-production sound recording. One manufacturer or end user with a product that was released within the previous two years will be revealed during a sealed-envelope ceremony at the C.A.S. Awards Gala on February 25, 2006, at the Los Angeles Biltmore Hotel’s Crystal Ballroom. From the entries, seven companies have been selected. They include manufacturers Comparisonics Corporation, Denecke, Inc., K-Tek, Quantum 5X Systems, Inc., Rycote, Sound Devices and Zaxcom, Inc. One of these companies will be recommended by the C.A.S. Technical Achievement Award Committee and voted on by the C.A.S. Board of Directors. With an application for post-production and production sound, manufacturer Comparisonics Corporation submitted the product, Final Sounds Palette, released in 2005, stating, “This software program enables new forms of searching collections of sounds, including search by sonic similarity, and
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searching for sounds that can be derived from other sounds by speed change. It is unique in its ability to make accessible a pallet of many thousands of sounds for use by creative sound professionals. Each sound appears as an audio waveform display that is colored to represent the frequency content of the sound.” The Final Sounds Palette may be found at www.finalsounds.com/palette.html. For applications in production sound, Denecke, Inc., submitted the Dcode TS-C, a full-featured compact smart slate capable of reading, generating and displaying SMPTE/EBU time code. In their description, it was stated, “The TS-C jams to all
standard frame rates, including 23.976 for HD. User bits are set automatically when jammed to an external time code source and the TS-C reads and displays off speed time code used in special situations such as music video playback. The time code reader mode works with both ascending and descending time code.” For more information see www.denecke.com. The entry from K-Tek (M. Klemme Technology Corporation) is the K-GPS and K-SM (K-Tek General purpose suspension and K-Tek Shock Mount) for production sound application. In stating what makes their product stand out in the art, science and appreciation or advancement of sound, M. Klemme Technology Corp., stated, “Manfred Klemme has designed a unique and versatile microphone suspension system. A general purpose suspension, the K-GPS is extremely lightweight, but tough enough for location sound. The K-GPS and the K-SM (shock mount) use K-Teks unique parallel clamping boom pole adapter that anchors them firmly in place. They are both available in different lengths to accommodate most microphones and are easily adaptable for use with windscreens.” For more information visit www.mklemme.com. Sound Devices, LLC submitted the 744T Portable Production Audio Recorder, released in 2005 for Production Sound use. In their application description, Sound Devices reported, “The 744T Portable Production Audio Recorder brings file-based audio recording to a new class of audio engineers. Before the 744T, multi-channel ‘hard disk’ recorders were reserved for only the most complex productions with the largest budgets. The 744T broke new ground with several industry firsts, including: Simultaneous file writing to hard drive and
Compact Flash medium, on board Li-lon charger, ultra-compact dimensions (less than three pounds), a sub-$5,000 price, and ease of operation. The 744T has motivated recordists who have been reluctant to move to hard disk recording to move from tape-based to multi-track file-based recording in an accessible, affordable way.” For more information visit www.sounddevices.com. Submitted for application in production sound, Rycote has the Modular Windshield System described as, “A state-of-theart system based on the award-winning modular suspension. The modular system allows for variable lengths, thus eliminating the unnecessary costs of buying multiple shields for microphones.” Visit www.rycote.com for more information on the Modular Windshield System. From the manufacturer Quantum 5X Systems, Inc. the QT256WP was submitted. Described as, “The world’s smallest wireless broadcast quality professional belt pack transmitter— Waterproof, light, more powerful and so small you can hide it anywhere.” For more information visit www.quantum5x.com. Zaxcom, Inc., submitted the Deva V Hard Disk Audio Recorder released in 2004 for use in production sound. In their description Zaxcom said, “The Deva V is the only portable field mixer with 10 channels that can record at sample rates of up to 192 kHz. Audio from the hard disk can now be mirrored throughout the day to either an internal or external DVD-Ram drive. Other key features include a sunlight-readable full-color touch screen, internal mixer and a pre-record buffer. The 2004 Technical Achievement Award winner was Lectrosonic for their Digital Hybrid Wireless 400 Series. •
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Phillip W. Palmer C.A.S. reporting in... It’s been a busy year for my crew, Jeff Norton and Jeff Zimmerman and me. Last year was spent entirely on two shows, HBO’s Entourage Season 2 (14 episodes) and Threshold for CBS (13 episodes). After the cancellation of Threshold, we jumped on to NBC’s Medium. We will probably stay here until the resident sound mixer, Kim Ornitz, returns from his recent feature projects. Pawel Wdowczak C.A.S. has been mixing Welcome to America with director Marco Kreuzpaintner and producer Roland Emmerich. Shooting in Mexico City and Albuquerque, N.M. Thank you and Happy New Year. Roger Guerin C.A.S. was recently nominated for a Gemini Award (2005) for the 3D animation/live action series of Fungus the Bogeyman, created by renowned children’s British author Raymond Briggs (The Snowman, Father Christmas). Music by Colin Towns (of Gillan fame). On the other side of the spectrum, he just finished the 5.1 mix of the documentary of controversial rapper Tragedy: The Story of Queensbridge by Booker Sim. Carl Rudisill C.A.S. had a busy fall mixing NBC’s Surface, along with Dan Giannattasio (Boom), Matt Fann (2nd Boom/Sound Utility), and Larry Long (2nd Unit Sound Mixer). In addition to handling the production sound for Surface, Carl’s business, North Star Post and Sound, has been busy juggling the ADR needs for Surface and the WB’s One Tree Hill. North Star’s ADR engineer is Alex Markowski. Best of luck to everyone this year! Douglas Tourtelot C.A.S. and his crew just wrapped a wonderful picture for Hallmark Hall of Fame. It will be called The Valley of Light and shot for nine weeks in Oregon and California. Misty Conn on the boom and Damon Harris as sound utility/2nd boom ably assisted him. 22
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It will air on CBS in May.
Steve Nelson C.A.S. accompanied by the fabulous Roger Stevenson and father-to-be Frank Bradley, carries on with CBS/Touchstone’s Ghost Whisperer. As Love Hewitt’s necklines plunge, our ratings soar—go figure! Howard London C.A.S. here. Not wanting to get too syrupy, but I feel incredibly fortunate to have worked with some terrifically talented actors, directors, producers, ADR supervisors and editors this last year: Rob Marshall with Memoirs of a Geisha, Martin Campbell with The Legend of Zorro, simply everyone at Sony Pictures Animation with Open Season and Surf ’s Up; likewise the whole camp at Happy Madison Sandler’s gang with Benchwarmers and Click, Dean Parisot on Fun With Dick and Jane, Gil Kenan with Monster House to mention a few. I’m also excited about the renovation of Sony Studios ADR 1. Working with not only some cool vendors applying varying technologies to this ADR thang, but again very lucky to be in partnership with Brian Van Leer realizing the plan. All in all, it is a cool way to pay for the college fund. Thanks. Ross Levy, sound utility extraordinaire, David A. Smith, boomer and cartoonist, and R.B. Goodman C.A.S. production mixer and quasimusician, are working on the Kevin Costner–Ashton Kutcher Coast Guard rescue film, The Guardian, currently filming in Shreveport, Louisiana; then traveling to Kodiak, Alaska, to wrap up principal photography mid-March. Ever recorded dialogue underwater???
Russell C. Fager C.A.S. is sound mixing the second season of House, with Von Varga booming and Juan Cisneros as the third. Jeff Wexler C.A.S. comments: I finished up work on Mission Impossible 3 at the end of November 2005. There were two weeks of
C.A.S. Q U A R T E R L Y
shooting in China that I was unable to do (prior personal family commitments) so my crew, Don Coufal and Robert Maxfield, went with the addition of Moe Chamberlain in my place. They did a splendid job and said that shooting in China was quite an experience. Other events recently, I helped my father, Haskell Wexler, complete his documentary movie Who Needs Sleep (which is all about long hours in our industry) and his movie has been accepted to Sundance for premiere showing in 2006. Lastly, but certainly most importantly, my daughter Vanessa is getting married: her boyfriend Ben for the last seven years, proposed on Christmas Day—she said yes. On December 16 Angels With Angles opened for a one-week Academy qualification run at the Laemmle Fairfax Theater. The reason this movie was such a challenge for sound is that there was NO original production dailies. The show was originally shot nine years ago, but was shelved prior to finish because of conflicts, both legal and financial. Last year the estate of George Burns purchased the 35mm film negative at auction and the director, Scott Edmund Lane, was brought back to finish the movie, but none of the original sound could be found. As the Supervising Sound Editor and Lead Re-recording Mixer, I was confronted with the fact that all of the sound had to be salvaged from two temp mixes, whose original audio was from 3/4”. The hiss, sync and lack of any original sound were a huge challenge. There were no outtakes, no room tone, nothing. In many cases backgrounds, effects and music were mixed with the dialogue. In the scenes that had temp music, we tried to cut around it, ADR it, or the composer had to mask it with new music. It was mixed in Dolby Digital 5.1 and under the circumstances it turned out fantastic. Thank you, Jim Corbett C.A.S.
Mathew Price C.A.S. here from snowy New York. I’ve been mixing
Season 6 of The Sopranos since May and it looks like we’ll be going through until next December when we finally (as we say) whack this show. We will have a few months off beginning in March, though, considering the interminable hiatuses we take, who really knows when we’ll be back? With me are my invaluable team: Paul Koronkiewicz on Boom and Timothia Sellers as my Utility/Second Boom. Look for the premiere on 3/12.
Frank Morrone C.A.S. and Scott Weber are busy mixing Lost Season 2 at Buena Vista’s Room 6. David Yaffe C.A.S. is on location in Hawaii recording production sound for the show. Jeffree Bloomer C.A.S. writes: Business on the East Coast has been steady and growing. I am currently in the middle of Season 3 of WB’s One Tree Hill with the terrific boom operators, twins brothers Cargioli (Anthony and Timothy). On the last two hiatuses I managed to squeeze in two features, Junebug and Cabin Fever, and several national commercials. I have been fortunate to have this TV series to fall back on during some very slow, tough times, but I am now ready to get back to more feature work as the health of U.S. filmmaking seems to be making a comeback. Happy Mixing! David Hewitt C.A.S. and Karen Brinton of Remote Recording, unveiled the company’s new Remote Audio Truck on NBC’s live broadcast of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting ceremony Nov. 30, 2005. The show featured live performances by Sheryl Crowe and the Goo Goo Dolls, among others. Eric Batut C.A.S. is mixing on Little Man for Revolution Studios. Directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans. Boom Operator is Kelly Zombor and Sound Utility is Chris Higgins. John Garrett C.A.S. adds: I just wrapped The Sensation of Sight with David Strathairn. I’m about to start Season 2 of Postcards From Buster for PBS and CD Highway, a PBS live music series.
Everyone at Von Zerneck/Sertner films would like to congratulate
Chris David, Adam Jenkins and
Louis Marion for their
2006 Cinema Audio Society Award Nomination Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing Television Movie or Mini-Series
Category 7: The End of the World
Congratulations! C.A.S. Q U A R T E R L Y
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John Pritchett C.A.S. just had Memoirs of a Geisha released, he finished The Break-Up with Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston this summer in Chicago and is currently working on Oliver Stone’s 9/11project with the temporary title of World Trade Center. As usual, Dave Roberts is gracing the boom with Kelly Doran as third. Fred Ginsburg C.A.S. has been named as Co-executive Director of the newly formed National Association of Forensic Video. The National Association of Forensic Video is a membership organization serving videographers involved in legal depositions, crime scene and incident documentation, private investigation, insurance fraud, surveillance, courtroom application, video & audio enhancement/forensics, visual anthropology, government, and law enforcement. Their website is www.natasfv.org. Fred has also been asked to instruct a seminar on Production Sound Recording at this year’s National Association of Broadcasters Convention in Las Vegas. Mark Hopkins McNabb C.A.S. along with his associates, Raul Bruce and Tanya Peel, will be working on Related for Marta Kauffman and the WB network’s back six episodes. January 3 start. Kim Ornitz C.A.S. will finish mixing the feature film School for Scoundrels with Billy Bob Thornton and John Heder at the end of January. He is with his usual extreme team of Mychal Smith as boom operator and on-set presence and Devendra “Damon” Cleary as all-around utility and nice guy. Kim says New York City was great but it’s great to be back in Los Angeles to finish the show. After School for Scoundrels is wrapped, Kim Ornitz and his “extreme team” will go on to finish the second season of Medium for Paramount TV starring Patricia Arquette. After hiatus starts in midApril, it looks like Kim will hide out in Cabo San Lucas for at least one month and then hopefully get back to work. There are vicious rumors flying around about Rush Hour 3 that may shoot in New York City and Paris. Hold on to your hats to see what is rumor and what is fact. A great 2006 to all those behind and in front of the mixing panel. 24
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The Universal Studios Sound Department has been busy on both the feature and television mixing fronts. Chris Jenkins and Frank Montano wrapped Underworld 2 for Lakeshore Entertainment in December. The team is currently mixing Curious George for Universal Pictures. Andy Koyama and Chris Carpenter wrapped Big Momma’s House 2 for 20th Century Fox in December and jumped right into She’s the Man for DreamWorks, which wraps midJanuary. Gregg Landaker and Peter Reale will mix American Dreamz for Universal Pictures in mid-January through February. Bill Nicholson and Tom Meloeny just finished mixing two Movies of the Week for the Lifetime Channel—Deceptively Yours and For One Night. In Studio 1, Roberta Doheny and Robert Edmondson continue to mix Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Ghost Whisperer. Bill Nicholson and Tom Meloeny are mixing Law & Order and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in Studio 2. In Studio 5, Gerry Lentz and Richard Weingart are also busy mixing Crossing Jordan and House. Michael Olman C.A.S. and Kenneth Kobett C.A.S. continue to mix Desperate Housewives, 24, and Battlestar Galactica in BluWave’s Studio B. We would also like to congratulate Michael Olman C.A.S. and Kenneth Kobett C.A.S. who won the 2005 Technical Excellence and Creativity Award for Outstanding Creative Achievement for Television Sound Production for 24.
Lori Dovi C.A.S. mixed on the feature Rocket Science for HBO Films in Los Angeles with Tom Pinney in tow booming. Todd Grace C.A.S. is working with effects mixer Rudy Pi at Warner Brothers in the newly redone Dubbing Stage 2 on an AMS/Neve DFC. Current projects include Season 3 of The OC (Warner Brothers T.V. for FOX), Season 7 of Malcolm in the Middle (Regency Television for FOX) and Reunion (Warner Brothers T.V. for FOX). Gary J. Coppola C.A.S. has just completed mixing Come Early Morning at Warner Hollywood Stage D for Bold Films. Come Early Morning was written and directed by Joey Lauren Adams, stars Ashley Judd and is in competition at the
ADR Foley Re-Recording Sound Supervision Sound Design and Editorial Scoring DVD Audio Mastering Archive
Post Production Services wbsfpostproduction@warnerbros.com www.wbpostproduction.com 818.954.2515 Transfer Laydown/Layback Screening Rooms Projection Services Emerging Media
© and ™ 2006 Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. All right reserved.
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2006 Sundance Film Festival. Premiering on opening night of this year’s Sundance Film Festival is Friends With Money, written and directed by Nicole Holofcener and mixed at Widget Post by Gary J. Coppola C.A.S. and Derek Marcil. Also just completed at Warner Hollywood Stage D, Mini’s First Time for Bold Films, written and directed by Nick Guthe, starring Nikki Reed, Luke Wilson, and Carrie Anne Moss.
Walt Hoylman C.A.S. sound mixer, working on the second season of CSI NY. Glenn Young is the boom operator and Tony Grey is the utility person and 2nd unit mixer. Gary D. Rogers C.A.S. and Dan Hiland C.A.S. are finishing up on Season 7 of The West Wing, Season 5 of Smallville, and the opening season of Supernatural at Warner Bros. Post Production Dub Stage 1 in Burbank. Bob Israel C.A.S. and boom operators Mat Dennis and Matt McFadden have rolled on into the new year with promos for Fox’s 24, American Idol and The OC, NBC’s Windfall and Thursday Must See TV, ABC’s Sons & Daughters as well as commercials for numerous national clients. Bob purchased a SOUND DEVICES 744T Hard Disk Recorder and will be auditioning new mixing consoles during the year.
7-Series.
Simply the best audio out there.
[thinking inside the box]
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Ken S. Polk C.A.S. recently completed the final mix of the Lionsgate production of Akeelah and the Bee at Warner Hollywood, with the release date in April. Prior to that, Andy Garcia’s longawaited film, The Lost City, was completed by Ken and Lance Brown, to be released in May. Currently, Ken has just begun work on the Fox Searchlight remake of Wes Craven’s original cult hit, The Hills Have Eyes. Stage A at Disney has had a busy year. David Fluhr C.A.S. went to London to mix music for The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, while Chris Minkler prepped tracks for The Greatest Game Ever Played. The team also mixed The Pacifier, Red Eye for Wes Craven and DreamWorks, The Great Raid, Cursed, the upcoming The Shaggy Dog, and Disney Feature Animation’s Chicken Little. Dave is current-
ly mixing Stick It, a gymnastics film for Spyglass/Disney, and will be prepping Meet the Robinsons for Disney’s Feature Animation Dept. this summer.
HEAR YOUR VISION.
Mack Melson C.A.S. finished mixing the TV series Thief for the FX channel in Shreveport, La., in Dec. 5. Marvin Melson boomed.
• Mixing Stages • Sound Design • Digital Sound Editing Services • Digital Mastering • Restoration • Trailers & Commercials • ADR • ISDN • Foley • Projection • QC • Telecine Services • Audio / Video Transfer • Gigabit Ethernet Network • Wireless Internet Access • Engineering /Technical Support • Business To Business Website
Brian Riordan C.A.S. at his Hollywood facility Levels Audio Post, is currently mixing the multi-track music for Jamie Foxx: Unpredictable. This one-hour music special will air January 21, 2006, on NBC and features performances by Stevie Wonder, Mary J. Blige, Snoop Dogg, The Game, D.J. Irie and The Rickey Minor Band. Riordan is also gearing up for Fox’s fifth installation of the American Idol series. Levels recently purchased and installed a 32-channel Digidesign Icon D-Control console. Gavin Fernandes C.A.S. has been mixing the final season of the politically incorrect series les Bougon and will soon begin premixes on the feature Duo. Part of the winter will be spent teaching at the Banff Center for the Arts as well as giving a talk to the local AES chapter.
UNIVERSAL OPERATIONS GROUP
UNIVERSAL SOUND 818.777.0169 • 800.892.1979 THE FILMMAKERS DESTINATION • WWW.UNIVERSALSTUDIOS.COM/STUDIO
Glenn Berkovitz C.A.S. and boom op Mark Grech have recorded production sound for a wide variety of projects: The feature When a Stranger Calls (a tip: don’t answer!); Oxygen Network’s Campus Ladies; Bring It on Yet Again (part three, for DVD, you see); and commercials for Bud Lite, Miller MGD (and a few non-alcoholic products, as well). Looking forward to 2006—Good luck to all. Jurg von Allmen C.A.S. writes: I did in December the final mix of Vitus with director Fredi Murer. The film tells the story of a highly gifted boy whose parents have demanding and ambitious plans for him—they want him to become a pianist. However, one day the boy, Vitus, is no longer willing to comply with his parents’ plans and ambitions because he wants to follow his own star. Out of this magic triangle between mother, father and child a tragic-comical C.A.S. Q U A R T E R L Y
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BUENA VISTA POST PRODUCTION SERVICES Stage C Terry O’Bright
Keith Rogers
tracks on the metacorder and 24 tracks of playback on protools. We spent the year setting up 50 ear wigs, in ear monitors and massive speaker and thumper systems. We spent the year rigging to record live vocals. On The Producers we recorded five songs with live vocals and 28 with live vocals on Across the Universe. We did this with energy and gusto and for the pleasure of working with two directors who truly care about the sound of their films. “Hi everyone ... it’s all been fun... I just don’t remember where I’ve been.” Ish Garcia C.A.S.
818-560-1576 • www.buenavistapost.com © Disney
discourse about one of the great topics of human life evolves. All my best from and with and cold Switzerland.
Peter V. Meiselmann C.A.S. writes: Here are my recent films: Big Bad Wolf with Jason Brooks on boom, currently Channels with Tom Caton on boom.
Conrad Slater C.A.S. submits: Happy New Year from Thailand as the sound team with 1st boom Katika Tubtim, 2nd Boom Surachai Suasun, cableman/runner Akeaummarin Meekornngam and myself continue on through heat, rain, dirt, humidity, smoke, fire, explosions, angry elephants and stubborn oxen as war rages on between Burma and Thailand circa 1500s AD on the film Naresuan in its second year of filming. We have recorded hundreds of hours of battle scenes in multiple stereo perspectives with Portuguese cannons, black powder guns, bombs and the real Thai army soldiers as background fighting extras. Amazingly we can still hear those tender whispers in those quieter scenes.
Tony Johnson C.A.S. is currently in preproduction on Walden Media’s Bridge to Terrabithia. The film shoots on location in Auckland, New Zealand. It’s summer here and the cicadas are in full cry and the film is set largely in the bush. Don’t you hate that!!
David M Kelson C.A.S. has just completed Poseidon. Wolfgang Petersen directed the film for Warner Bros. He is currently working on The Untitled David ’O Russell Project for Universal Pictures.
After getting chased out of New Orleans by Katrina while working on The Last Time with Michael Keaton and Brendan Fraser, Stacy Brownrigg C.A.S. went to Austin, Tex., to do The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Origin with R. Lee Ermey.
Dave Schaaf C.A.S. has done some shorter projects recently—A national spot for Dunkin’ Donuts (a Winter Olympic sponsor) and some projects for Partizan, Pictures in a Row, NFL Films, HSI & Original Film.
The last of 2005 was good for Jonathan Andrews C.A.S. It started in Tikal, Guatemala, with SEG for five weeks. After that it was off to Northern Uganda with Glen Piegari to work on a documentary on rehabilitating former Child Soldiers through music for AMREF. Then to end the year seven weeks in Panama once again for SEG for the next Survivor series.
Rob Young C.A.S. is doing Night at the Museum with Ben Stiller. Mike Hibberson boom and Karen Schell assisting.
Former C.A.S. President Steve Hawk C.A.S. has wed Sherrie Gal of Location Sound Corporation on November 4, 2005, in Burbank, Calif. Immediate family and friends attended while 170 friends and family attended a luau reception the following day. The couple honeymooned at IKEA!!
Tod A. Maitland C.A.S. adds: For my crew and me this has been The Year of the Musical! We started out the year on a Broadway set with The Producers and ended up Across the Universe with the Beatles! We spent the year recording 24
Peter Damski C.A.S. continues to mix on NBC’s Will & Grace and is also working on Hannah Montana for the Disney Channel. Along with Ed Greene C.A.S. he has just completed a second “Live” episode of Will & Grace. •
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Edward L. Moskowitz C.A.S. started this television season by covering for the sound crew on Numb3rs thru episode seven then returned to The West Wing for more “B” unit and some “A” unit work. Now starting 2006 by covering on the CBS show Criminal Minds.
Robert “Buzz” Knudson Distinguished Rerecording Mixer Robert “Buzz” Knudson passed away on January 21. He joined Todd-AO in 1960 and began mixing features in 1965 and as they say, the rest is history. Mr. Knudson received 10 Oscar nominations winning three Academy Awards for Cabaret (1972), The Exorcist (1973) and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). Directors like Spielberg, Landis, Streisand, Beatty, Weir, Fosse, Friedkin, Cassavetes and Ashby were just a few of the names who sought him out to bring his artistry and creative instincts to their films. His extensive list of diverse credits included significant features like Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Ghost, A Woman Under the Influence, Into the Night, Scarface, Trading Places, The Blues Brothers, Witness, Flashdance, 1941 and A Star Is Born, as well as TV shows like The Beverly Hillbillies, The Addams Family, Green Acres and Petticoat Junction. Knudson served as president of Todd-AO from 1982 to 1990 and then as vice chairman and consultant to the company until he retired in 2003. In April 1998 Knudson returned to supervise the digital remix of Warner Bros. The Exorcist for the film’s 25th anniversary. Buzz Knudson was awarded the Cinema Audio Society’s Career Achievement Award in 1999.
Grant Maxwell
Rerecording Mixer Grant Maxwell died in Hackensack, New Jersey, on January 3, after an eight-month battle with leukemia. He was 47. Grant began his audio career at Regent Sound Studios, more than 25 years ago. In 1984 he joined the newly established audio post-production facility, Sync Sound, Inc. in New York City. Over the next 21 years, Grant contributed his mixing talents to numerous projects, garnering three Emmy Awards, five Cinema Audio Society Award nominations, and the respect of his peers. His impressive list of credits includes feature films, documentaries, TV series/specials, and music concerts, including the Tom Fontana series Oz and Homicide: Life on the Street, the CBS documentary 9/11, Peter Jennings Reporting, Barbara Walters Specials, and Stephen King’s The Stand. Along with Grant’s remarkable career he is celebrated as a man who successfully balanced his work and family life. It is a tribute to him that he managed to have both a fulfilling personal and professional life. Grant will long be remembered by his friends, co-workers and clients for his loyalty, devotion, hard work, and good nature. Grant is survived by his beloved family: wife Dorothea and sons Dan, 19, and Greg, 14. Funeral services were held at St. Patrick’s Church in Chatham, New Jersey, on Saturday, January 7. The family is grateful for donations to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, in memory of Grant Maxwell.
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THOSE FAMOUS DISNEY SQUIRRELS Dave Fluhr’s 5-year old son Nicholas, with one of the “famous” Disney squirrels.
NEW BABY!!! C.A.S. MEMBER DAVE SCHAAF ON PHOTO SHOOT IN COLORADO DAVE SCHAAF, C.A.S. on sight at Original Film/Dunkin’ Donuts shoot at Snowmass, Colorado, in November 2005. The peaks in the background are the somewhat well-known “Maroon Bells” near Aspen.
Brian Riordan, C.A.S. and his wife Marrin were recently blessed with the birth of a new baby girl. Reyanne Elizabeth Riordan was born November 28, 2005.
DCODE® TS-C New! 1/3 smaller & less than 2 lbs! (incl. batteries)
The Denecke TS-C is a compact full featured smart slate, capable of reading, generating and displaying SMPTE/EBU time code. Its compact size makes the TS-C ideal for documentary work, insert shots, EFP style shooting or anywhere a big slate is too cumbersome.
BUDDHIST BLESSINGS Paul Vik Marshall, C.A.S. enjoying a day at Zuma Beach with Kaylee Marshall.
New features: - Extended (12 step) display intensity & electro-luminescent face-plate. - Jams to all standard frame rates, including 23.976 for HD. - Auto-sets to incoming frame rates. Re-jams without powering down. - Plus 1 frame correction to display the real time when in read mode. - Aaton serial communication via 5-pin Lemo plug (ASCII source). - 16 bit Flash microprocessor with greater accuracy, allowing future firmware upgrades.
DENECKE, INC. 25030 West Avenue Stanford Suite 240 Valencia, CA 91355 Choice of standard Voice (661) 607-0206 Black & White or Fax (661) 257-2236 color clapper sticks www.denecke.com email: info@denecke.com
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WINTER 2006
C.A.S. Q U A R T E R L Y
Paul Vik Marshall, C.A.S. and Aletha Rodgers, C.A.S. with their daughter Kaylee Litao Marshall after receiving a blessing from the Buddhist monk at one of the oldest Pagadoa's, The West Iron Pagoda at Guangxiao Temple in Guangzhou, China.
the official quarterly of the cinema audio
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