Studio Blog

Hey all, so here’s my final entry in what I can only describe as one hell of a ride!
Last Friday I spent the day at Sony Pictures and Saturday was spent picking up the last few bits for the studio, with a spot of theatre and wine tasting in between for good measure.

Sony is a city. I didn’t actually realize just how expansive their film operation is but it’s basically the composite parts of Columbia Pictures, the old MGM and a whole bunch of other subsidiaries clustered under the Sony banner. Unfortunately they are very security conscious so wasn’t able to get many photo’s, but in true Hollywood fashion I crossed paths with 1 (one) celebrity (I ain’t saying!) and then had the pleasure of watching him getting mobbed by 3 tour groups, haha! He was very good natured about it.
But I digress. An interesting thing about the lot is that much of it can be accessed by the public but it’s a running studio…in fact probably my favourite part was seeing the production end in action. As you know I’m mostly a post-production kinda guy, but I got a real kick and learned a great deal from checking out their soundstages, TV production stages (including the old Married with Children spot, haha!) and even though not my field, their set design. Ok, Carel would probably have got a lot more out of it than I did, but still….

Of special interest to me was the Foley stage, which is very different to the one I visited at Todd-AO (post 1). Of course everyone has a different way of doing things but looking at the commonalities was very important. Coming from a smaller industry it’s nice to know what “industry standard” means!

To round off my trip there was that trip to Vampire Vineyards I promised myself when I first got there for some tasting under the guidance of their Russian barkeep (thanks Igor!), a cool evening at the Odyssey Theatre and a lucky visit to a music shop to pick up double bass strings for the coming Lark tour, hussar!

I’ve met so many lovely and fascinating people over the last fortnight, and am thrilled that most of them gave me their details so I can continue the relationship and have welcomed any questions I may have…that alone is worth the trip! So, thank you to Gary Hecker, Nerses Gezalyan, Peter Brown and his crew on the Hollywood stage, Gary Summers, Maysie Hoy, Mark Stoeckinger and most importantly, Kim Jimenez for looking after me and Michael Broomberg for making it possible! And now back home to my Lady ☺

Greetings once again for my penultimate blog post! Yesterday was probably one of those highlight days in my adventure in sound that I will look back on in years to come and smile about. I travelled to Todd-AO Burbank and spent a day in the studio with mix legend Gary Summers.

Now I don’t like to use the word “hang” as it speaks of a certain familiarity (like someone brushing past Samuel Jackson at a hotdog stand inflating the story to “hang” status, you know?) So while I was tremendously excited and thankful that Kim had organized for me to pop in to Burbank and see Mr Summers in action, I expected to sit in quiet euphoria in the corner—which was not the case.

Turns out Gary Summers is a friendly, approachable and all round fun guy! In between mixing we chatted at length and he told me some wonderful stories and anecdotes from some of the movies he’s mixed, including Avatar, Transformers and one of his recent favourites, Warrior.
We talked a bit about EQ and workflow, dialogue mixing and directors, all with an air of affability. In short, once again I was blown away by how someone on this level was happy to chat about experiences, was free with information and generally super helpful! In fact, perhaps the unaffected and easy manner of the people I have met here, all of who are leaders in their field, is the greatest lesson I’ve learned.

I was also lucky enough to sit alongside picture editor Maysie Hoy for the mix. Maysie has edited many dramas and comedies including Smoke, What Dreams May Come, Freeway and For Colored Girls. Another person very happy to talk about her craft, it was quite an insight talking to her from the perspective of project management, ADR and scheduling, and the pitfalls that go with it. I still have so many questions, thanks Maysie for giving me your email!

On the way out of the complex, Phil form operations (pictured) was nice enough to give me a facility tour (drool!)
And on the way home I decided it was time for some pop-Americana and indulged in a chili dog and a root beet float. Nice.
Till part 5,
Simon Fuzzy
 

Partnering this September with Creative week in a symbiotic display of Art, Images and Audio talent, Sound and Motion hosted a canvas gallery of works from Hendrick Gericke “The Flying Dutchman” and an international short film festival “SHNIT” in our HD cinema. We also had A’Capella group D7 performing on the Friday night and Jeremey Loops on the Saturday. A fabulous weekend of creativity for all who attended, we look forward to the next collaboration.

Greetings audio fans, just a quick post about today’s adventure. I spent most of the day meeting with and discussing equipment at supply stores, technical sales and so on.

The chaps at Guitar Centre were very helpful, thanks gang! As many local musicians, engineers and Mickey B himself mentioned before I got here, West LA Music has been around since the advent of the cotton gin…or something. I spent quite a bit of time chatting to their consultants, discussing trends and, more importantly, acquiring equipment and tools specific to film and Foley, based on the impressions and observations during my time in LA.

Of course there was a spot of time to go North (and East) where some of the studio consultancies were, and I promised myself I would pop into Little Armenia while I was there due to my love of World music and in particular the Doudouk. I don’t know what I was expecting—I actually berated myself for thinking that the moment I crossed past Western Avenue there would be the strains of Zurna and whatnot. Of course there was an “Office Mart” and “Jack In The Box” so this was not the case, no deli’s selling Khorovats or Karshm that I could spy in the time available.

I did get wind of an Armenian Music Centre, and upon arriving there found a block of flats ☹ I was about to leave when someone who looked like a cross between Ernest Borgnine and Djivan Gasparyan came to the balcony and eyed me suspiciously. I greeted and him with some trepidation and was greeted back with particular warmth. Thinking I was in luck, I asked if he knew were the music centre, kind of expecting him to whip a Doudouk or at least a Shvi out, but the most I could get was “No,” said in a way suggesting a rather flirtatious Y was inserting itself lasciviously between the N and O…kind of like “gnocci.”

Ah well, you can’t win them all! And with a fantastic selection of Foley and Post gear and some wonderful insights, I look forward to the next entry in this blog.

Simon Fuzzy

Greetings fellow sound lovers! Today I spent the day at ToddAo in Hollywood and, well, lordhavemercy! Here’s what went down.

Ok, lets just get this out of the way. I shook hands with Mike Minkler, and I think all I could manage was “fleingngndmn!” in way of greeting. I think I may have peed just a little too.

Ok, enough of that. Thanks to the awesome Kimberly, today I somehow landed up in some of the most distinguished company in film sound. I owe her big time! Of special interest was probably the biggest geek out I’ve ever experienced under the kind and insanely knowledgeable custodianship of Chief Engineer, Pat Stoltz. The good Mr Stoltz gave me an amazing tour of the facilities (pictured here next to a very rare, and still functioning, 35mm dubbing projector). It was awesome to talk to somebody with his insight into the enormous technical quagmire that is so hard to navigate. There is so much disinformation out there and having someone so open to sharing was actually a lovely experience. Suffice it to say, the tour of Stage 1 and the trip behind the screen to the tower of speakers was a blast! And to talk to these guys about calibration and conceptions and misconceptions about cinema setups…man! Of historical interest, stage 1 is not only where mixers like Mr Minkler mixed awesome modern sound movies like Black Hawk Down and Transformers—golden age credits include The Alimo and Sound Of Music, haha!

Between the geek outs sessions I got to see a lot of the studios in action, including the performance of a “donut” on an ADR stage (too funny) and various predub layers. *happy sigh*

And to round off my day, the acquisition of a Neumann KMR82i rifle mic and a fabulous artisanal pizza…

Stay tuned for part 3, BURBANK.
Simon Fuzzy

Hi all, so I thought I’d pop out a little blog post regarding my visit to LA to learn more about sound for film, courtesy my man Michael Broomberg!

I spent the first few days exploring LA and finding my way around…oh, what a chore! It’s not my first time in California (see Shy Guevaras post) so I knew about looking right first when crossing the road, and the joys of a good Zinfandel (actually that’s quite recent), but coming back to this side of the world for post and film is a big change compared to music.
In between questing for the perfect Reese’s Peanut Cups for my girlfriend and resisting the temptations of a winebar called Vampire Vineyards ( I may yield yet) I’ve picked up some really tasty bits for the studio…oh it’s always nice to get new toys, especially when they just make sh*t sound better!

So after all the terribly hard work (not!) I spent the day at ToddAo’s Santa Monica facility today with Foley genius Gary Hecker and Foley Mixing Uberlord Nerses Gezalyan. (Seriously, go to imdb.com, check them out and pass out…)

I got to see them in action, sus out the Foley stage and construction, check out the mics and placements, generally nerd out with Nerses and his outboard and, of course, shoot the breeze over lunch. In short, not a bad day! Tomorrow in the Hollywood facility and then off to Burbank, will keep ya’all posted!

Simon Fuzzy