Dawn this morning, looking towards Miramar
How to Finish 2/3 : Development
‘The best part of one’s life is the working part, the creative part. Believe me, I love to succeed… however the real spiritual and emotional excitement is in the doing’ This quote is from writer and director Garson Kanin, and…
Zizzled!
This is the toy I wish I got for Christmas, 1972!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOA1odAOIaI Its funny, when you play with it you soon realise the relationship between the shape of the little pieces and the sound they make as its based on…
Seal meets Sound Recordist
I was out recording the ocean on the South Coast of Wellington the other day & had an unexpected chance to record some seal vocalisations… The best parts of that coast are only really accessible by a long, long walk…
the birds & subharmonics
I just watched, or should I say re-re-re-rewatched Alfred Hitchcocks film The Birds and while it will never quite disturb my senses the way it did the first time it still is a sharp reminder of the power of memory…
crashing cars for a living
What to do with an old car that still goes, but the idea of it actually passing a warrant of fitness is less likely than discovering a perpetual motion engine in a junk store in Westport? I believe one of…
BLACK SHEEP FX Recording 4
Aside from vegetables we also did a wood FX recording and some cloth ripping FX. We managed to find an old chest of drawers at the junkstore for $10, plus a selection of various blankets, towells, sheets etc for tearing…
BLACK SHEEP FX Recording 3
Ever since doing Worlds Fastest Indian I really enjoy recording vehicle sound effects and Black Sheep had two main vehicles we needed to augment – a good old Landrover and a classic Morris 1300… Luckily we got access to them…
BLACK SHEEP TRAILER ONLINE
The trailer for black comedy/horror film BLACK SHEEP, which we did the sound design for June/July/August 2006 is on their website now, or heres a direct link to the quicktime movie.
my remote studio
While on holiday in Takaka I set up a temporary music studio, much thanks to Gaylene Preston who loaned me her cottage & woolshed… its such a peaceful spot The woolshed was the perfect size to set up in &…
happy new year!
I finished 2006 by going on a road trip around the South Island of New Zealand. The main destination in the far south was Fiordland, quite probably the most remote spot in the whole country! I went on a boat…
Mixing a film (part 3)
Oh my god, i still dont quite believe it, but we have finished mixing! After what feels like an eternity spent in a dark occasionally LOUD room (& was probably actually 4 weeks) we have final mixed all the reels!…
Bridge To Terabithia Trailer
The trailer for the film we are currently mixing has just been released on the internet, download quicktime (31MB) here
Sound so fast you can feel it!
I did a lot of research on land speed racers when working on The World’s Fastest Indian, but nothing quite this fast – check out the sonic boom from this ‘car’ doing 1126km/h! Of course planes can pass the sound…
mixing a film – part 2
Ok we’ve finished premixing all the FX – between the three of us cutting FX we premixed our elements down to 5.1 stems (from A -> L) which took us 6 days. Next was the foley premix, which will take…
where i am
My studio is in Wellington, New Zealand – in a quiet little suburb called Miramar And a Google Earth location marker for my studio just for the record 41°18’45.59″S, 174°48’49.29″E Also in the neighbourhood is Peter Jackson’s awesome film post…
mixing a film – part 1
We have just started mixing this film at Park Road Post – Peter Jackson’s fantastic film post production facility. So I thought I might document the process a little…. For the first week or so we are mixing in two…
radio? i.choose
When I was a boy I grew up in rural Canterbury, in the South Island of New Zealand & as I became aware of music I began to crave more than what was dished up on mainstream radio… FWIW I…
studio tools you never knew you needed
THIS is genius! “Any experienced studio engineer or producer knows that the presence of visitors in the studio can dramatically alter the performance of singers and musicians. Sometimes the effect can be beneficial, other times it can be disastrous. Using…
subwoofer madness!
Mixing films usually involves playing with subwoofers at some point, but thats in a big room with plenty of air…..check this video clip of insane car subwooferage: