Another chance to hear my work! →

Hi folks! Coming up in September, people in the Ann Arbor area can grab tickets to see Liberty's Secret at the Michigan Theater! I really wish I could be in town to attend this screening.

A candidate you can laugh at without crying for America • photo by Tripp Green courtesy of Liberty's Secret

For those that don't know or haven't been following, Liberty's Secret is a film written, directed, and composed by U of M School of Music, Theatre and Dance professor Andy Kirshner, who I met while I was getting my BFA. Andy and I have collaborated several times, and when he approached me to help him with the post-production sound on his film, I of course agreed! I worked on the sound edit while still in Los Angeles, and shortly after moving to Indianapolis, traveled up to Ann Arbor to mix the film in the Performing Arts Technology department's excellent facilities.  It also gave me a chance to work with fellow UM grad Dave Fienup, all-around nice guy (and Detroit-area sound guy, for all your sound production and post-production needs)! Dave provided foley for Liberty's Secret, and did a bang-up job.

If anyone is able to attend this screening on my behalf, please give my regards to cast and crew, and let me know how it sounded!

Chances to hear my work!

Hello again! I just wanted to let folks know about a project I worked on shortly before leaving Los Angeles, that I kind of lost track of - y'know, with all the packing and moving and everything - but I have noticed is making the rounds of festivals, showing up on screens around the country/world. It's called Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story:

“Although the couple was responsible for some of Hollywood’s most iconic examples of visual storytelling, their contributions remain largely uncredited. Through an engaging mix of love letters, film clips and candid conversations with Harold and Lillian, Danny DeVito, Mel Brooks, Francis Coppola and others, this heartfelt documentary chronicles their remarkable relationship and two extraordinary careers spanning six decades of movie-making history.”

— haroldandlillian.com

Coming up, it's appearing at the River Run International Film Festival in North Carolina, at the Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Film Village Recoleta Room, and back in Hollywood at the end of April, as part of the TCM Classic Film Festival: all the dates are here.

It's a neat little film, full of inside-Hollywood stories about a lot of films that you know. Check it out if you can!

Nightmare Released

Currently between homes while writing this, but I wanted to get this out there: The Nightmare, the film that I sound-edited and mixed with sound designer and composer Jonathan Snipes, is opening in select theaters around the country starting this Friday! 

Current screenings

The film will also be available on that day on VOD, specifically on iTunes.  

Poster for LA screening

Hopefully, I'll be able to update this with more info in the future. If you do happen to attend a screening, please let me know! 

SXSW Double Header! →

Just a quick note that two films that I've worked on, The Nightmare and Excess Flesh (which I'm supposed to be mixing as I type this!) are going to be screening at the 2015 SXSW Film Festival in the "Midnighters" category!  If you happen to be in Austin March 13th - 21st, go check out one of these movies!

Post Post Mortem

Heya folks! I'm out the other side for a brief moment, so I thought I'd toss a few words up on this screen, and catch up with the past few weeks.

As you may have noticed from my last post, The Nightmare was accepted to the Sundance Film Festival, and will be screening in a matter of weeks! We finished up audio post-production for the Sundance print just this past Sunday (January 11th). I've still yet to edit the dialog for the M&E mix (Music and Effects, a no-English mix for international distribution), which should be completed this week.

Next, a bit of a blast from the past: The last indie feature that I completed work on, Excess Flesh, has been through a re-edit, and as a consequence has been accepted to the SXSW Film Festival! What this means for me is I'll be getting an updated version of the film from the editor, and the previous mixed version of the soundtrack will need to be edited to match the newest version, and re-mixed with new and old material to patch it all back together.

I've also been in talks about two more potential projects in the coming weeks and months, so stay tuned!

THE NIGHTMARE at Sundance! →

So, I'm wrapping up the dialog and ADR edit on The Nightmare this weekend, while my cohorts are finishing up music and sound design cues.  Monday morning, we start the mix process, wrapping up (hopefully) on the 10th or 11th of January.  We'll have to be efficient, as The Nightmare is going to be shown at one of the world's most popular film festivals - The Sundance Film Festival!  Check it out on the schedule, and if you're in Park City, UT at the end of January, go see it!

http://www.sundance.org/projects/the-nightmare

Catching up on August...

...And yes, I realize we're already well into September.

So, the past month has seem many interesting items and developments. I've wrapped post-production on the indie film Excess Flesh, for which I was supervising sound editor and re-recording mixer along with Jonathan Snipes (also composer, sound designer). A very dynamic film, in terms of the sound track, and very non-traditional in a lot of ways. I had a great time mixing the film, which we did over 6 days thanks to Scott Jennings at Listen2 Sound. I'm confident the film can find its way into some festivals, so I'll let everyone know when that happens and where you can see the film.

Second, I'm going to be teaching a class this fall at Cal State LA. A fellow TFT grad from UCLA is an assistant professor at CSULA, and asked me if I would like to teach their Intro to Sound class for their TV, Film and Media Studies department, and I obviously agreed! This will be my first foray into teaching a full course, so wish me luck! Lots of information to cover in what amounts to 10 weeks of classes, so I'll certainly have no shortage of material, as long as I've got willing students.  I'm looking forward to the challenge!

Third: I'm currently sitting at the loverly Sweetwater's Cafe in Ann Arbor, MI, waiting to head over to the Music School on U of Michigan's North Campus, where for the next 2 days I'll be helping out friend and professor Andy Kirshner with his film sound class, as they embark on the post production sound for Andy's film Liberty's Secret. I'll be spending my time showing the students how to start the process of editing the sound for a film, going over tips, tricks, and techniques, and setting them loose. It's always nice to be back on campus here, and my stay will be too short.

More news to come, so come back for a visit!

Recording!

Whew! So, lost in the hubbub of 6-day workweeks and bouts of stomach flu has been almost 2 weeks! So, here's a brief recap...

You might remember that I've been working over at Fox as an Assistant Sound Editor on the upcoming Dawn of the Planet of the Apes pre-sequel (sprequel?) on the 20th Century Fox lot.  Last week, we got to nab a Land Rover Defender, good and seasoned, from some on-set reshoots taking place on the studio lot, and do some quick recording.

recording with fellow Apes editors Scott (L) and Jack (R)

We strapped a trusty SM58 into the engine compartment, carefully tied a DPA lavalier mic on the rear bumper right above the exhaust pipe, and strapped a stereo pair of small condenser mics to the interior roof above the backseat, all running into a Sound Devices 788T. I also ran an Scheops M/S handheld pair inside for the onboard takes, while Scott and Jack, pictured above, had their own M/S pairs for capturing exterior passby's, doors, handles, latches, and other miscellaneous sounds.

We did run into a small problem, though. There's an auxiliary fan that kicks on intermittently under the hood to keep engine temperatures in check, but it makes for a lousy sounding recording of a great sounding engine. So, towards the end of a mildly frustrating recording session (it's tough to get good exterior recordings on a busy studio lot in the middle of Los Angeles on a Friday), we convinced the transportation department teamsters to disconnect the aux fan for another quick run-around with the truck.  Well, that went about as well as could be expected...

our intrepid driver and a steamy Land Rover

Yeah, that thing overheated in a matter of minutes.  We did manage to get some decent onboard engine sounds, and some good doors and such. Hopefully enough to cover what the effects editors need.  And yes, the SM58 made it out of the engine compartment just fine. Of course!

Regardless, it's almost always more fun to be out with a few microphones and recorders than be stuck in front of a screen at a desk, so there weren't too many complaints heard (except to swear at the helicopters passing overhead).