The latest installment in the San Jose Sharks 2016-17 marketing campaign, "Sharks For Life". This spot features the talents of NHL stars Joe Thornton and Brent Burns as patrons in a barbershop. Clearly big fans of the facial hair, these two giants really hammed it up during the shoot and gave us a nice set of outtakes. Adding a true touch of realism was the casting of Mark-Jason Solofa as the barber. When not busy running his successful Gentleman's Grooming & Shave Parlor in Berkeley, CA, Mark tends to both Brent and Joe's wild manes. Once again Hands on Sound gets nod for the Location Sound on this work produced by SJSharks Productions and their current ad agency, Division Of Labor.
Exploring Virtual Reality
Hands on Sound has begun to embark on a journey into the emerging field of Virtual Reality, getting acquainted with the SF Bay Area VR community and trying some of the production tools that are becoming available. 3DAudio, Ambisonics and Spatial Audio are some of the buzz phrases out there in the 360video/VR sound space and we are getting familiar with how to capture and process audio for picture in this new world.
Several weeks ago I attended a VR sound design workshop at Pyramind in San Francisco and spent the day working with Dysonics Rondo360 software and their RondoMotion headtracker. By the end of the day we were placing sound to pictures and demoing ambisonic microphones. Rondo360 is still not available on the market, but should be well received.
Follow up sessions at Google and The Upload Collective in SF have been valuable in getting to understand the what creators are working on, what some the challenges and opportunities there are in VR and 360 video. Looking at it from an audio POV, much of the conversation is similar to when we were making the early 5.1 surround title around 2000-2003. Are there standards? Are there rules or best practices? Attendee Ian Hirschfeld has written up a nice summary of the evening that goes into more depth.
Back in the studio I'm currently working with FB360 Spatializer and the Sennheiser Ambeo Format Converter plugin to learn more about use and placement of Binaural recordings, Ambisonic A and B format conversions and use.
"Captives"
Another sound mix in the can this week...this one for the indie narrative film "Captives. The story in Captives deals with sensitive topic of human trafficking and gives the viewer great empathy for those whose lives are touched by it. While avoiding any jarring violent or graphic scenes the viewer enters the world of a group of teenage girls who are held against their will in a suburban house and follows their plan to escape. The project was taken on by Hands on Sound to rescue some poor production audio, spot ADR and complete a finished stereo mix. In the process we got a chance to create some foley tracks, sound design elements and do the music edit. Thank you Theatre Xtraordinaire Entertainment for the opportunity to help you complete your project.
Sign Of The Whale
I am pleased to report that the final sound mix for the indie film Sign Of The Whale has been delivered to North Coast Productions. This is a great narrative piece from the mind of Director Noah Weisel and destined for film festival screenings. Clocking in at under 20 minutes, Sign Of The Whale stands on it's own as completed vision yet also serves as a preview of what could be a full blown feature, given support and funding. A shout out to everyone in the town of Point Arena, CA who welcomed us with open arms and to a superb cast and crew, especially our rock solid DP Brian Bradley. Hands on Sound has been onboard thru the entire production and post efforts, providing location sound in Point Arena, CA and following up with mix and sound design back at the studio. You can watch Sign Of The Whale right here.
"Sharks For Life"
The San Jose Sharks have just rolled out two more commercials in their "Sharks For Life" campaign. Hands on Sound gets the Location Sound credit for these spots that were made For SJSharks Productions and their ad agency, Division Of Labor. Go Sharks!
Stranger Than Fact- Mastering the album "Magnetic"
While I enjoy all aspects of music production, one of the most rewarding parts of the process is album mastering. This final step before a project gets released to the world adds the final layers of detail to help a collection of recordings play as a cohesive program to the listening audience.
One such job that recently came to me was from the artist Xaina and her Stranger Than Fact music project. Their new album, Magnetic, had just wrapped up mixing and was ready for mastering. I was tasked with helping get the album finished in time for their Northwestern US tour.
This record was recorded at Tiny Telephone by Samantha Perez and then mixed at Survivor Sound by Jonah Strauss. My job as mastering engineer was made a lot easier by the fine work they did. Big kudos to all involved.
You can learn more about these fine folks here:
Tiny Telephone: http://www.tinytelephone.com/
SamanthaPerez: https://samanthaperezaudio.com/
Jonah Strauss & Survivor Sound: http://www.survivorsound.com/
Here are a couple tracks off Magnetic that I particularly like:
True Sight- A Series By Valve
I received a location sound call in mid- September to join a production team that was embedded with the professional video game team, Evil Genuises, to capture content for a documentary series being made by Valve. The experience was my first foray into the exciting world of eSports and all that surrounds this emerging industry. Our cameras and microphones followed the Evil Geniuses Dota 2 team as they trained and prepared for an upcoming competition in China. During the time of our production work, another crew was busy in Malaysia...following a rival gamer team that was also in training mode.
The documentary, True Sight, is being rolled out in episodic fashion and here is the trailer:
To learn more about the series, visit Valve's website: http://store.steampowered.com/app/539730/
San Jose Sharks- "Sharks For Life"
It's September and that means NHL hockey is just around the corner, plus it also marks that it's time for some San Jose Sharks work at Hands on Sound. Recently I did the location sound for some TV & Web commercials with the Sharks and their creative agency, Division of Labor. Once they had their picture edits locked I moved onto the sound mix to creative the final deliverables.
Here is the first of the new series...The Spelling Bee. Two variations on this spot are currently airing. Enjoy....and GO SHARKS!!!
Applied Weather Technology
This past week Hands on Sound provided location sound recording at Applied Weather Technology (AWT) in Sunnyvale, CA for a marketing & trade show video shoot produced by Pete Geer and Moto Agency. DP on this job was Roy Kurtluyan from New Circuit Films. Once again our work gave us a glimpse into yet another interesting world....that of worldwide shipping...and in particular... weather routing services and fleet management.
Applied Weather Technology, Inc. (AWT) leads the industry with 50,000 ship voyages routed annually, award winning fleet management tools and more than 5,000 ships using its BVS onboard route optimization system. Its weather routing, marine weather forecasts and other products are designed to help ship owners, charterers, operators, fleet managers and captains identify the safest, most fuel-efficient routes for their fleets. Our goal is to make shipping smarter, safer and more profitable while reducing environmental impact.
The Wok from Albuquerque to San Francisco Chinatown
So often I find that answering the call for a gig, brings more often than not a fascinating adventure and opportunity to experience something unique and memorable. One such job was location sound with filmmaker Maxwell Duryea on his short The Wok from Albuquerque to San Francisco Chinatown.
In this piece, Tane Chan, the owner of the Wok Shop in San Francisco Chinatown, shares how an act of kindness done by her parents in Albuquerque was paid forward to her many years later. This is the true story of how Tane was able to get her store because of an act of kindness performed many years earlier by her parents; the second Chinese family to arrive in Albuquerque.