Sound Postcard 03 // Berlinale Palast

A few weeks back at the Berlin Film Festival, we were invited to the premiere of Gone With The Bullets. When the stars are gone and all is said and done, this is what the red carpet backstage sounds like...

Have a great weekend everyone!

 

Here's a few cool finds...


Berlinale Talents 2015 Round-up

It's been a week since the Berlinale Talents wrap-up party and we've finally recovered! Here's a round-up of what we saw / heard… (If you don't know anything about the Berlinale Talents Campus, here's a quick intro).

There were too many interesting sessions going on to attend them all but the most valuable experience by far was being immersed in a totally film-focused space for a whole week. Meeting a wide range of talented film-makers from all over the world (75 countries represented at this year's edition), is a great opportunity. From what we gathered, there is nothing on this scale in the festival circuit (let us know if there is and we'll go!), so we feel privileged to have experienced it first-hand and would strongly recommend it to anyone thinking of taking part. 

Here's some of our personal highlights from the Berlinale Talents 2015:

The Memory of Violence
Joshua Oppenheimer (The Look of Silence) & Marcel Ophüls (The Memory of Justice) talked about documenting the search for truth in some of history's darkest episodes. How do you get assassins and torturers (many still in power in Oppenheimer's films) to speak in front of a camera about atrocities they've committed in the not so distant past? Oppenheimer's "The Act of Killing" won a BAFTA for Best Documentary and was nominated for an Oscar in 2014. His latest film The Look of Silence is a sequel to TAOK, and deals with a family that survived the genocide in Indonesia. Within the film, the men who killed people in that family are powerfully confronted.

Many of Ophüls films also revolve around atrocities committed in wars. It was humbling to see how Ophüls (87) was in awe Oppenheimer's work; Ophüls also received a Camera Award for his life work at this year's Berlinale. I haven't seen any of the films of these two guys but the clips they showed were powerful pieces of filmmaking- definitely for 'the watch list'. 

You can watch this session here (film extracts removed for copyright reasons) 
 

Sound Studio composers and sound designers (from L to R): Warren Santiago, Xingyu Li, Ng Chor Guan, Zethu Mashika, Adriana Espinal, Howard Shore, Agatha Chodyra, Nick Buckton, Victoria Wijeratne, Carlos Andrés Gutiérrez Quiroga, Ania Przygoda, (bottom row) Angel Pérez Grandi and Blair Mowat, (not in the frame) Olivier Militon, Olivier Alary, Jana Irmert and Linus Nickl. (Pic courtesy of @BlairMowat)

Howard Shore: Scoring Goals + Meet the expert
The 3-time Oscar winning maestro spoke about his trajectory, his approach to composition, his long-standing collaboration with Canadian fellow David Cronenberg and how The Lord of The Rings has taken over the best part of his last 10 years. 

We (the Sound Studio folk) had a private session with Mr. Howard Shore the next day, where we got to bombard him with questions. He seemed very proud of his work on Silence of The Lambs so I asked him, when did the sound design stop and the score start in this scene? His response: "Silence came out in 1991, too long ago to remember"! 

Speaking on how he approaches a new project, Shore explained that he gathers and absorbs as much information related to the subject as he can before writing single note. He then puts all that information aside and writes the music without looking back. He never composes on a piano or any instrument and he's always thinking of harmony and counterpoint. He encourages collaboration with the sound designer (hurrah!) and doesn't attend the dubbing stage because there is never a chair for the composer. And because, as he rightly puts it; it's a war zone! 

All-in-all it was great to meet a composer of his stature and a generous gentleman too.

Watch this session here (film extracts removed for copyright reasons)

 

Berlin's The Post Republic cinema stage

Dolby® Atmos Masterclass 
As part of the Sound Studio we had a day-long session mixing three soundscapes at The Post Republic's Dolby® Atmos dubbing stage with German re-recording top dogs Martin Steyer and Lars Ginzel (whose necks you can appreciate in the picture above). One of these soundscapes was our own which you can listen to below in a pseudo A-B (pre/post Atmos mixing) comparison. This session was a real eye-opener to the possibilities offered by object-based audio editing, mixing and playback. In essence, Dolby® Atmos truly expands the width and clarity of the audio-visual field. The surround experience is so immersive that sound placed in that space blends naturally, as opposed to the "traditional" surround channels that have to be used more subtly. Definitely the way to go for sound technology - the question remains, how long is it going to take before it becomes the standard?

Watch this space for a deeper look at Dolby® Atmos in the coming weeks!


Here's a few other sessions we missed but would've loved to attend:

- Imaginary Worlds: Exploring the Unknown with Alex McDowell, Bruno Setola and Jeff Watson (USC/5D Institute)
Building experiences and worlds in which stories unfold in new mind-blowing ways, redefining the limits of design and narrative, moving into a landscape where art and science, design and engineering are inseparable.

- Road, Movie: Films in Motion with Walter Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries) and Sebastian Schipper (Victoria)
Discussion with two filmmakers whose literally "moving" films can exemplify the best of what cinema can offer.

- Kill Your Darlings  
Editor and director Susan Korda (For All Mankind) believes "Good editing is like good sex" and in this masterclass she proves just how.

- "Bigger Than Life" with Sir Ken Adam (Dr Strangelove) and Alex McDowell (Minority Report)
An exhibition featuring drawings, photographs, films and objects from Adam's work; from idea to paper to set to screen. The tour was led by production designer Alex McDowell and concluded with a get-together with Adam.

And there were many more… To watch some 25 panels and masterclasses that took place at the 2015 Berlinale Talents, head to their Youtube channel.

So, did you get to go to Berlinale too? What were your personal highlights? Did you see any films you'd recommend? Are you planning to go next year? I'd love to hear everyone else's thoughts...

Happy Weekend everyone!

 

Berlinale Talents Preview

We're heading to Berlin this week, for it's annual film festival of premieres, awards and networking events. We've been invited to Berlinale Talents this year, which we're really excited about. The Talents Campus (as it was formerly known) is a gathering of over 300 film industry creatives, and an opportunity to share work, ideas, and learn about new technology in all areas of film.

As part of the programme there are public events and lectures about all things moving pictures. Each year there is a theme, and this year's is "2015: A Space Discovery". Space & sound is such a lush combination, we're looking forward to some interesting talks from people in the know. Here's our top picks of the week's events...

 

Interweaving story and sound development.

Masterclass on score composing.

Creating distinctive soundscapes for films.

Darren Aronofski and Claudia Llossa discuss how they have sculpted space in their own highly acclaimed work.

Multifaceted techniques to merge sound, image and timing with Susan Korda.

We first heard about Berlinale from our friends at The Quiet Hour  and decided to apply to take part in the Dolby Atmos Mixing Masterclass. It was great to hear back from the organisers and learn we'd been placed in the top three applicants, and will get to hear our prepared piece in a state of the art theatre during the festival.

Most of all, we're looking forward to soaking up as much as we can from the week. We'll be sharing our favourite bits from Berlin when we get back home. Is anyone else going to the festival? Or is there anything you know is going on there and would love to take part in? Hopefully we'll get to catch up with some old faces, and meet some new ones!

Wishing everyone a great weekend, whatever you get up to.

Q & A with Re-recording Mixer Dean Humphreys

 

Happy New Year everyone! 

We kick off 2015 with an interview with Re-recording Mixer and Sound Supervisor Dean Humphreys.

Dean is well-known within the film industry. He's Roman Polanski's go-to, and his dad, Gerry Humphreys, was a Sound legend in his own right. Now Head of Editing, Sound and Music at the National Film and Television School, Dean's career has been a long and fruitful one. We took the opportunity to grill someone with an IMDb list as long as their arm, packed with blockbusters as well as the odd sprinkling of cinematic gems we'd all love to have worked on...

 

So, what I and a lot of other people would like to know is what's the secret to a successful career in a hugely competitive industry?

Dean is well-know within the film industry. He's Roman Polanski's go to, and his dad, Gerry Humphreys, was a Sound legend in his own right. Now head of Editing, Sound and Music at the National Film and Television School, Dean's career has been a long and fruitful one. We took the opportunity to grill someone with an IMDb list as long as their arm, packed with blockbusters as well as the odd sprinkling of cinematic gems we'd all love to have worked on... 

Firstly, I see the technical part of our job as a bit of an 'aside'. People politics is an enormous factor, which isn't often considered before going into post production, or the film industry as a whole. It can get bad, get really ugly. You need to be the type of person who can grit their teeth and find a way round it. The industry requires tenacity, a certain guile- even if you're thinking the most terrible things about people. 

When you're dealing with things like huge egos, budget pressures, big expectations for the movie- by the time you get to post production things are often fraught. There can be a painful awakening at that late stage, that what they have created isn't what they were aiming for. I have literally seen a Director punch a Producer in the face; all because of the stress of having been given a 13 million dollar budget and facing the slow realisation that what you've created is a total turkey.

The people in post production can end up copping all the frustrations, and your ability to cope with that is as paramount as your creative input, or technical expertise.

Do you think it's always been that way? Do you think your dad would have been dealing with as many fragile, creative egos, or do you think he had a totally different set of hurdles?

In some ways you could argue the biggest change, in terms of people, their attitudes, and how we work now is the distance factor. I think the technology allows people to be reclusive. Now, something can be done in a dark room in New Zealand and then sent to London- you may not even see or meet the people you're working with, it's very odd. When I first started working in the industry, we were literally having to meet to hand over big chunks of film reel to each other- that doesn't exist now. 

That's so true, many of us work independently now, and the social aspect has all but gone for the people in Post. Do you prefer the set up now, or how it used to be?

There are great things that have been lost, that people don't get now. Simply going for a cigarette break together, or heading down the pub after work is something that few Foley or Dialogue Editors experience these days. It's often only the Supervising Sound Editor that is in the room with the Director, and that can be a shame. But then, in other ways it allows for a lot more people to be part of a growing industry. So I guess, there's pros and cons.

Ok, any career highlights you want to share with us?

Funnily enough, a few times I've enjoyed working on films that have in the end turned out to be a total flop! I was working with Michael Winner once- it was the closest thing you can get to warfare without the use of a gun. He was infamous, legendary I'd even say, for being irascible, rude, and just generally awful. But that experience for me was a bit of a landmark, that was where I really learnt how to deal with a bomb that could go off in any moment- sound wise I can't remember anything about it!

Then there's the Pianist, which I think is a wonderful movie. I've worked with Polanski on eight different movies now, and some have been enormous, others have been less so- but the act of actually working with him is something I will always jump at. He is a fantastically engaging and demanding human being; it doesn't matter what you're working on, just being around him is fulfilling.

Have you ever been surprised by the outcome of a production? Have you ever felt something was amazing and it turned out to be a total flop, or the other way around?

Yes- when I was about 19, I was working as a trainee in the mixing studio on American Werewolf in London, and all the UK people working on it thought it was the biggest pile of rubbish we had ever seen in our entire lives. The director on the other hand was massively proud, and kept telling us how well screenings had gone in the US. But everyone else was convinced it was a load of crap. I eventually went to see it at the Odeon with my then-girlfriend, and came out thinking "this is absolutely brilliant!" it was a huge surprise.

There have been times when it's been the other way round too. Even now, I find it hard to call it. You can get so close to a movie, so tied up in the details that it's a real skill to be able to step back far enough to see it for what it really is.

Ok, finally, how do you approach a mix in general? Can you give us any technical tips or good recipes for success for tackling that final stage of a film?

Absolutely. The first thing I do is watch the whole reel without stopping it once. I don't want to get bogged down with the detail at that stage. I want to see the shape in it's entirety. I run the music, and I never listen to the foley in the first pass. First I go with the dialogue & the ADR, the music, the sound effects and the atmospheres. You need to step back, maybe listen to the production foley initially, and see it in all it's glory- lumps and bumps and all. I then go back and smooth out the details obviously, but that first pass where you get the gut feeling for what's working and what's not would be my biggest piece of advice.

 

Gerry Humphreys (Dean's old man) at the controls.

Thanks for taking time out of your busy weekend to have a chat with us Dean! Always good to get tips from people with so much experience; here's to hoping for a credit list that long one day. Anyone else do things similar to Dean? Or do you have a totally different opinion on the industry? Would love to hear from any other soundies on this...

In the meantime, hope it's a great weekend for everyone, and here're a few cool links to check out-