Making The Prius Challenge

Working on projects in The Bay Area's Silicon Valley brings me into an increasing number of projects involving robotics, autonomous vehicles, AI and other advanced tech.  

One such booking was at the Toyota Research Institute, where their mission is "To use artificial intelligence to improve the quality of human life. We are dedicated to making automobiles safer, more affordable, and more accessible to everyone, regardless of age or ability, and to expanding the benefit of mobility technology beyond automobiles."

Hands on Sound provided location sound recording for a piece that MKTG was doing on the Prius Challenge, a team-based, tech-centric driving competition that was hosted at Sonoma Raceway. The competition made use of proprietary data, strategy development, and simulation tools to assist participants in achieving the highest MPG over 9 laps in 42 minutes.

Mayday! Mayday! A US Coast Guard Rescue Story

Recently Hands on Sound got the call to provide location sound for an interview segment on a piece for Al Roker Entertainment and The Coast Guard Foundation, as part of the 2017 Pacific Northwest Awards. Teamed with John McConaghy from Advance Creative , I went to a local Bay Area marina and spent the afternoon with a seasoned mariner who recounted his harrowing adventure in a fierce storm off the Northwest coast and the bravery of the USCG, who came to his rescue.  

SPHERES & NASA

Hands On Sound is currently working with the Nat Geo on a project that is involved with the SPHERES program, put on by NASA and MIT.  Since we are still in production, there isn't much to share, but please read below to learn more:

SPHERES-Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites-Zero-Robotics

The Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites-Zero-Robotics (SPHERES-Zero-Robotics) investigation establishes an opportunity for high school students to design research for the International Space Station (ISS). As part of a competition, students write algorithms for the SPHERES satellites to accomplish tasks relevant to future space missions. The algorithms are tested by the SPHERES team and the best designs are selected for the competition to operate the SPHERES satellites on board the ISS.

Jingle Jingle...4th Of July

Hands on Sound and Big League Ideas collaborated again recently to put together some jingles for the Bay Area auto dealer group DGDG.  In the ever effective, humorous and catchy "Big League Bob Kilburg" style, the result were some 30 second spots to air on Pandora radio over the Summer.  The commanding and easily recognizable voice of Dick Ervasti delivers the tags.

Here's the DGDG 4th Of July Sale jingle....surf's up!

It's Gonna Get Loud!-NASCAR

Hands on Sound received an assignment to go to Sonoma Raceway on June 23rd, for a shoot with Forza Motorsports.  Little did we know that it was a NASCAR weekend at the track, with the Toyota/ SaveMart 350 in full swing.

Arriving at Sonoma, our crew was treated to a golf cart ride thru the parking lots and crowd...taking us and our pile of gear right down into the thick of it, next to the Main Grandstand and into Victory Lane.  As the cameras got set up to do our bit with drivers Erik Jones and Chase Elliot, I turned on my rig and immediately got blasted with slammin' levels on my mics.  It was LOUD...like really loud....like my mic pres were turned down and still I was getting overs.  Next to us, the cars were exiting their garages and entering the track, where their competitors were already speeding by on practice laps.  Did I mention it was really loud?

I fretted for a moment, but then with a bit of creative mic placement on my part, coupled with past experience of recording around cars we ended up capturing some great results on the dialog and supporting tracks.  Later...back at the studio, I cleaned up the recordings to once again deliver Production Ready files to our client.  Cue the Checked Flag....

Emmy Award

Congratulations to the San Jose Sharks, SJ Sharks Productions and Division Of Labor for taking home an Emmy Award for their 2016-17 commercial campaign.  We have worked with the Sharks for a number of years now on these TV spots, contributing both production and post-production audio.  If you scroll thru the blog here, you'll find several posts highlighting the fun we've had with, both the new team and previously with Shark's long time Creative Director Bob Kilburg of Big League Ideas.  

Hands on Sound has now been part of projects who have gotten the nod for Grammy and Emmy wins.  We don't work for hardware, but a bit of recognition and appreciation always feels good and keeps us striving for excellence.

CyberWar Games at Symantec

Hands on Sound recently got the call to provide location sound recording services  for the Symantec 2017 CyberWar Games event at their Mountain View campus.  There, for 3 days, ten teams of Symantec employees from around the world competed in the world's largest civilian cyberwar game.  These elite teams earned the right to compete in the finals by besting more than 1,500 other Symantec employees from 33 countries.

This year's games focused on the global supply chain and in particular agricultural technology security,  The teams had to perform a series of cybercrime and hacking challenges to earn points and move up the Leader Board. More details on the games can be found here

Working under the direction of Fade To Black Pictures, we documented the 3 day event, capturing content for internal and social/ web video pieces.  Below is one of these, produced and edited by FTB's Tommy Jordan.

Watersaw- Mastering "The Sunset Sessions"

I had the pleasure of mastering the latest release from the Bay Area group Watersaw this past week.  This album, The Sunset Sessions, was composed to accompany LIzz Roman & Dancers at some upcoming innovative and unique performances in San Francisco.   For this particular song cycle, I chose to work in the pre-dawn hours when all was quiet and I could focus on the music with no distractions from the waking world and all that it brings.  The results were pleasing to my client's vision and also bought me to some new spaces.

From the web:

For three weekends this June LR&D will premiere their latest architectural romp, "SUNSET DANCES". LR&D's newest work will take the performers and audience on a site-specific journey through an Ocean Beach home located on the western edge of the city in the outer Sunset neighborhood of SF. Roman and her dancers will be joined by a team of award winning collaborators, featuring the band " WATERSAW " performing an original live score, while welcoming back Clyde Sheets, lighting designer and long time LR&D collaborator and introducing our newest collaborator filmmaker Pete Litwinowicz.

To learn more and purchase tickets for the performances- https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sunset-dances-tickets-3239528316

From Darkness Into Light

About a month ago I spent the day with a really nice loving family who were sharing their story with the Today Show crew I was working with. To meet the Lukach's one would never know the battles they have conquered and continue to face each day....yet their commitment to each other and what seems like a bottomless reserve of love keeps them together...moving forward.

Every person you meet, every house you pass has a story going on inside...some more difficult than others...many untold, hidden or misunderstood. In the world we live in, a bit of compassion and empathy can go a long way in our daily interactions...something we all can be reminded of.  

"Sharks For Life": Barbershop

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.