Last week we did the final sound mix for ‘Be Heard’ at a top facility in central London, inside a state of the art dubbing theatre. I have been present at the mix of many films now, features and shorts, and there are certain patterns and things you can do to get the most from […]
A few weeks back I posted about getting the most from the final grade of your film after we did one for a production that Judy produced. And so I thought I would counterbalance that with the other final mastering stage every film undergoes, ‘getting the most from your final sound mix’ (or sound dub […]
Or…How I came to The Guerilla Masterclass, met a composer and ended up in Macedonia recording my soundtrack with an orchestra! By Josephine Halbert I thought I would share the extraordinary story of Guerilla Film Masterclass delegate Josephine Halbert, and how she recorded the score for her short with an orchestra in Macedonia. Below are […]
Last night I saw ‘Sinister’, a horror movie directed by Scott Derrickson. It freaked me out. Plain and simple. And it has stayed with me too. And believe me, I have seen my fair share of horror movies. So what was so terrifying? The soundtrack. The score by Christopher Young was heart bangingly original. Add […]
Having reviewed many of the films for 50 Kisses, one common thread is emerging. A lack of solid audio post production, and in particular, a lack of foley. The video above gives you a really good overview of a professional foley artists job – and you can do the same too. Foley tracks are created […]
Today I took the 35mm print of Gone Fishing to Videosonics for the guys who did the sound mix to check out. We had previously screened at Cinesite (for picture) where we thought the sound may have been out of sync. After checking today, I can now confirm that there are in fact no problems […]
I have just returned from the very first 35mm screening of Gone Fishing – EVER! Even though we shot 35mm, we scanned and post produced digitally, and even premiered digitally. But to get the film out to the ‘world film festival circuit’, we needed a 35mm print. Mitch Mitchell at Cinesite stepped in and did […]
One of the problems with presenting Gone Fishing out in the world is that the soundtrack is very dynamic. The loud bits are very loud, the quite bits are very quite. Great if you are in a cinema, not so great if you are in a noisy café in Cannes! To combat this, I have […]
I just had a strange experience. I set up a meeting with BluRay guru Richard Osborne at Abbey Road Studios and tubed over – I hadn’t realised just what a Mecca that zebra crossing outside the building is to Beatles fans and tourists. I had to fight my way past giggling groups of Japanese women […]
Last Friday I collected the MO disk of the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix for the 35mm prints of Gone Fishing. I had a brief glimpse into the Dolby transfer bay, which was a surprisingly compact room, looking more like a machine room at a small post production company than an audio lab. But then I […]
Translating Gone Fishing has turned into both a bigger job than expected, but at the same time, easier job than I feared, mainly due to the incredible help I have received. Subtitle Workshop has proved to be a great little free tool, a little clunky in places, but nonetheless, it does what it says on […]
Yesterday I completed the PAL DVD for ‘Gone Fishing’. This DVD is for showing to festival co-ordinators and people who may be interested in the new features I am writing. For now, it won’t be available to anyone else, not even my family! (as I explained on the blog before, we need to keep tight […]
Last night I went back to work on the final mix for Gone Fishing at Videosonics. There were two aspects to what we were doing. First off, there were three small creative changes to the sound mix, things I picked up while viewing the film outside of the studio environment. We changed two and left […]
We have just secured our Dolby Digital licence for the 35mm version of Gone Fishing. When we screened the film at BAFTA, it was presented on HDCamSR with full 24bit uncompressed six track sound. For 35mm prints, we need a Dolby encoded version, and for that, every short film needs a Dolby licence. So tonight […]
Since the premiere I have wanted to do a few very minor tweaks to the sound track. And I mean minor. When you see your film out in ‘the wild’ as it were, you always see something new that could be changed. This is the value of having the time to go back and make […]
I am now working out how to make an HD DVD or BluRay disk for Gone Fishing, so I can show it on courses and at home in HD – and also, send it off to festivals (if they start to move in the ‘domestic HD delivery format’ direction). While the difference between DVD and […]
Now the final mix is complete, I wanted very much to listen to it in Dolby Digital at home, on my own 5.1 system, as well as start the process for making a DVD of the completed film once everything else is done. The only problem is that I left the final mix on Friday […]
In nearly peed in my pants with excitement as I heard the final mix for ‘Gone Fishing’ It is simply AWESOME! I have just spent the whole day with a team of audio wizards from Videosonics as all the final audio tracks are mixed into the single surround sound mix. Editor Eddie Hamilton popped in […]
Today was the first day of the final mix for the soundtrack to ‘Gone Fishing’. It took place at Videosonics, where on and off for the last six weeks, sound designer Bernard O’Reilly has been crafting a wonderful soundscape for the story. Today was the start of mixing all of those elements, along with the […]
The last couple of days have been spent organising the premiere. The tickets have arrived from the printers, and they look great! Steph Wrate, who also worked in the production team on ‘Gone Fishing’, has been calling everyone to make sure they are coming. I have been working primarily on the Masterclass that will be […]
I just spent a very enjoyable morning with sound designer Bernard O’Reilly at Videosonics. We booked the final mix (where everything is mixed into a single soundtrack) in on Jan 3rd and 4th, so it’s all guns blazing between now and then to track lay all the sound effects. It’s such a pleasure to work […]
Today we spent a cold session back at Bury Hills Fisheries recording sound effects for the enormous killer pike in Gone Fishing. Senior sound designer Bernard O’Reilly and two of his team, Barnaby Smyth and the extremely brave Stuart Bagshow (seen here in the water) generally thrashed around in the water, stomped on wooden jetties […]
Now that the picture edit has been locked, we have entered a waiting game for the final picture mastering, sound edit & mix, and the visual effects. We have got top people and companies working on all three aspects, but as they are all at the top of their game, and as we are not […]
I had a splendid meeting today with Bernard O’Reilly who will be our senior sound designer on Gone Fishing. Bernard works for a renowned company called Videosonics that have done the final mix for many a Hollywood Blockbuster. So to have him and Videosonics onboard is a great coup. So today, Bernard and I worked […]
Last nights test screening went very well. Lot’s more stuff discovered. First off, everyone really enjoyed the film and felt impressed by how ‘BIG’ it felt. This is mainly down to the story, photography and music, and also the simple ‘non tricksy’ direction I think. I am very pleased. But… we still have some stuff […]
