As one of the industry’s most respected audiophiles, award-winning re-recording mixer, sound editor and sound designer Ruy Garcia is passionate about using only the best audio equipment for his craft. Among his most recent credits was the surround mix for the Netflix release of 2019’s Midsommar.
In response to the rapidly changing needs of the industry, Nugen Audio has launched a digital initiative to support the audio and production community through the COVID pandemic. Aptly dubbed Staying Home, Staying Creative, the program is aimed at promoting collaboration and creativity in a time of social distancing. Included among Nugen’s efforts are a variety of videos, interviews and articles that will inspire new artistic approaches for post-production workflows. The company is also providing temporary replacement licenses for any users who do not have access to their in-office workstations.
Even as the COVID-19 pandemic has curtailed production activity in much of Hollywood, Vortechs, an independent supplier of post-production technology, is implementing novel solutions to help its clients stay on track with motion picture and television projects. Vortechs-supplied projects, now working remotely, include the upcoming Warner Bros. features Suicide Squad 2 and In the Heights, directed by John Chu and edited by Myron Kerstein.
To help sound editors, mixers and other post-production professionals, who suddenly find themselves working from home, Ambidio is making its immersive sound technology, Ambidio Looking Glass, available for free. Sound pros can use it as a monitoring tool for theatrical and television projects requiring immersive sound.
Ana Monte, lead sound designer and Daniel Deboy, lead sound engineer founded Delta Soundworks in Heidelberg, Germany in 2016. The company is a 3D/immersive audio post-production facility with projects that span across installations, virtual reality, 360-degree films and gaming, as well as feature films, documentaries, TV shows and commercials. Their team consists of a highly skilled and creative group of production sound mixers, recording engineers, sound designers, Foley artists, composers and music producers. Digital Cinema Report recently spoke with Monte and Deboy about their business and some very interesting projects.
Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President, the new feature documentary from Grammy Award-winning director Mary Wharton, producer Chris Farrell and writer Bill Flanagan, will make its world premiere April 15 as it opens the 19th Tribeca Film Festival in New York. The rockumentary-flavored film, which went through post-production finishing at Sim Post New York, centers on the 39th president’s life-long passion for music and rock’s contribution to his unlikely journey from a peanut farm in Georgia to the White House.
Leading independent Foley studio Alchemy Post Sound has elevated Ryan Collison to partner, joining founders Foley artist Leslie Bloome and CEO Andrea Bloome. Part of the Alchemy team for the past six years, Collison is an Emmy Award-winning Foley mixer whose many credits include such recent projects as The Last Days of American Crime, The Invisible Man, Harry Haft and Fosse/Verdon.
Seventeen years after Bad Boys ll, the Bad Boys Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) teamed up again for one last ride in Sony Pictures’ worldwide box office hit, Bad Boys for Life. Car chases, gun battles, explosions and other forms of mayhem—all requiring robust sound treatment—occur throughout the film, but the story is driven by the hilarious bad-boy banter between Mike and Marcus. Capitalizing on every twist and turn of the action sequences while allowing the humor to punch through was a challenge for the sound artists.
Continuing its long association with the world’s best independent films, Alchemy Post Sound provided Foley sound services for nine films screening at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. They include three films participating in the festival’s prestigious U.S. Dramatic Competition and two included in its Premieres track.
The Motion Picture Sound Editors association presented the 67th MPSE Annual Golden Reel Awards at a black-tie ceremony Sunday, January 19 at the Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles. Golden Reel Awards recognizing outstanding achievement in sound editing were presented in 23 categories encompassing feature films, long-form and short-form television, animation, documentaries, games, special venue and other media.
