August 28th, 2011, Hollywood Reporter: “… Seven Days in Utopia must be given full credit for coming up with something new in movies: To learn what happens at the end, you’ve got to go online. After carefully building up to a climactic scene in which the underdog hero must sink a long putt to win a sudden-death playoff, the camera looks away, narration intones to the effect that the protagonist now has a higher calling so it doesn’t matter much in the big picture whether he won or not and, if you actually want to know who came out on top, you must go to www.didhemaketheputt.com. This homemade, whole milk, finger-lickin’-good, G-rated piece of American cheese isn’t the sort of thing most urban viewers are accustomed to consuming but, if Visio Entertainment knows how to reach down-home Christian audiences,Utopia will find open arms across a wide swath of the Bible Belt and through the South…” Read More
Archive for the ‘News’ Category
Seven Days In Utopia – Hollywood Reporter review
Samuel Bleak & Dedd Brothers
Nice testimonial from up-and-coming director Dustin Schuetter:
“Stand Sound has done the post sound on two of my films, SAMUEL BLEAK and DEDD BROTHERS, and I couldn’t be happier with the results. Jon and Brigitte went above and beyond to take care of us and our films. Their knowledge and eagerness to lend a hand in helping to produce a great product is rare and made it an easy decision to come back to them with another film. We weren’t huge studio productions, but the folks at Stand made us feel that way. Chris Sheldon and Yagmur Kaplan were a joy to work with as well, professionally and personally. Stand Sound is manned by a great group of people that I have adopted into my filmmaking family and plan on maturing our working relationship well into the future. I would gladly recommend them to any production looking for a professional sound mix and family atmosphere.”
Dustin Schuetter – Director/Writer/Producer of SAMUEL BLEAK and DEDD BROTHERS
Burning Palms premiers to great reviews!
Stand Sound had the pleasure of overseeing the post-sound work on Burning Palms. Recently premiering at the Arclight, the film was received with glowing praise. Here’s what Kevin Thomas of the LA Times has to say:
“Burning Palms,” Christopher B. Landon’s ambitious and effective debut feature, reveals in five vignettes the fragility and desperation that lurk beneath the surface of the lives of some anonymous L.A. residents. Landon’s sardonic view of human nature and deft filmmaking skills — plus a raft of sharp portrayals — keep the viewer from pondering the preposterousness of certain situations and instead encourages going along with the fun…Read The Review
Stand Sound – our first year in review!
Dec 23rd, 2010 – It’s been a year since we hung our “Stand Sound” shingle creating a new post-audio company with a new vision for changing times. We’ve worked with promising new directors, and we’ve worked with indie film legends, and Oscar winning actors. We’ve gone from an idea, to a new company, to a reality with ten feature films and a television show under our belt. We’ve created some of the best post-audio deals for film producers. And we’ve created a company mantra that has caught on: hear your budget. We’ve succeeded in crafting world-class post audio packages for, we dare say, the best price in town. Thank you to all who supported us this maiden year: the filmmakers! The producers! Out strategic partners! And our crackerjack post-audio team!
We salute you, and we look forward to a supersonic new year.
Hear, hear!
The Polish Brothers’ For Lovers Only premier at the Music Hall in Beverly Hills!
September 29th, 2010 – It’s now nearly 10PM and a stream of artists, industry guests, and the production team are leaving the theater after having witnessed the Polish Brothers’ 7th feature, For Lovers Only, shot in Paris and through out Europe in a fast-paced shooting schedule that blends the Polish’s eye for steady craft with a run-and-gun approach al la cinema New Wave. This feature romancer has a sly edge, and puts together two fine performance by Mark Polish (in his second lead directed by his brother Michael) and the ingenue Stana Katic (of Castle renown). A spell hung in the air as the viewers talked on the sidewalk. Was it love or doom or both perhaps they had just witnessed? Maybe that was the point to leave that feeling without a definition, more of a hanging semicolon than a period. We’ll always have Paris, or will we…
The film looked and sounded fantastic. It was a challenging audio job in post as the production recordings were captured on live locations. Through a thorough dialogue editorial period where the Stand Sound team dug out the toolkit, and built background enhancements to cohere with horns and birds, the audio became one with the backdrop of Paris and the actors’ dialogue. Mixing at Lotus Post in Santa Monica, the film translated beautifully to theater projection sound at the premier, notable with the Stand audio landscape was Kubi Uner’s fine score.
Burning Palms at the Arclight!
Log: January 13, 2010 – it’s finally time. The last leg of the journey. The Burning Palms premiere is hours away and I’m up in the projection booth with the engineer checking the 6 track digital tape. Peering down from the booth at one of Arclight’s Hollywood theaters, the first images of Burning Palms appear on the screen. I’m with the director and we smile with awe and appreciation as there at last is the gleaming finished product. This state of the art theater is a great room for the upcoming screening, the images in brilliant detail and the sound translating beautifully from the mix room. And in another few hours, to a packed house, Chris Landon, expresses his appreciation to his dedicated actors and crew, the lights dim and we get to see how the film plays in a packed room. Burning Palms is quite a ride from light to dark moods and the audience loved its unique offerings. When the lights returned, the SRO only gave the director a rousing ovation and Burning Palms is now ready for the world to enjoy. -Chris Sheldon
Reel Footsteps
It was for one of the Polish Brothers’ magical movies, Northfork. The film takes place in rural Montana. The weathered old homes captured on film during the production seemed to me important sonic characters in the film’s soundtrack. But how to make those sounds feel legit in post-production? Well, I took my field recording gear and drove up to Bodi, California, one of America’s most enduring ghost towns. I was granted access to some of the older houses and recorded all the footsteps that are heard whenever the characters are moving about. It was a unique sonic experience and rarely done in Hollywood. I am very proud of the way those authentic sounds feel within the layering of that moody masterpiece.
– Chris Sheldon
3 Beeps to Asia
As production dialogue and ADR Supervisor for Jackie Chan and Jet Li’s Forbidden Kingdom, I traveled all over the world’s largest continent pursuing actors for their ADR lines so we could complete the film. My asssignment took me to film facilities in exotic locales such as Shanghai, Hong Kong and Kobe and Osaka, Japan. At most of these studios, the American system of 3 rhythmic beeps used to cue the actors had not been introduced. The talent would simply look at the screen and react to the moving picture. When I spent a little time with the engineers and actors, and got all of them comfortable with hearing the sound of 3 rhythmic beeps to cue the actor’s dialogue, the system was embraced and I carried my beeps all over the far corners of the world until The Forbidden Kingdom was complete. I have to say, it was one great journey and I cherished the experience to share movie making with a wholly different culture than Hollywood – Chris Sheldon
Sounds Too Scary for the MPAA
It was when the wave of Friday 13th and Nightmare On Elm Street pictures were all the rage. I was Supervising one of the Jason flicks. I can recall designing the sound material for a strikingly visceral scene. The moments of shock required a full compliment of bone chilling FX, so I went to the laboratory and concocted a sonic feast for the depraved and debauched. We mixed them loud to the delight of the Director. And all seemed well. But then the studio screened the pictures for the MPAA. I remember getting copious notes back from the board demanding that we lower, reduce and on one reel eliminate some of the grisly sounds that made the moments so acutely scary. With a little give and take we got around our sonic X rating, and we finally got the ratings board to sign off on some hallmark audio horror. – Chris Sheldon
The New Standard
As we board 2010, I am excited about my involvement in Stand Sound. They’re trying something that the industry has never properly embraced, and I for one think it’s overdue. As a Sound Supervisor, I have so often confronted the audio problems of production far too late in the process. It is my interest to offer the highest quality audio to the Director. And that means getting onboard as soon as possible, if schedule permits when preproduction begins. It means establishing and often recommending a production recordist who will passionately apply his skills to ensuring the clearest and cleanest possible recordings. The Stand Sound paradigm also allows me to be a part of the production process, to visit the locations and gather sophisticated 6 track and 2 track field recordings for ambiances, effects and design elements. The company philosophy of “hearing your budget on screen” permits me to have a meaningful dialogue with the production recordist and send key sound effects to the picture editor as the scenes are built back in the cutting room. And this involvement affords the Director the proper time to get to know what the Soundtrack of the movie will feel like. Too often in Hollywood, the sound team works far apart from the filmmaker and the vision is compromised by the factory process that customarily applies to this stage of the process. No Director should be a stranger to his soundtrack and by my getting involved early and often, the time spent with the Director guarantees a much more cohesive finished product. I can STAND behind this approach and look forward to evolving a Sound package like the one I’ve described that I believe will become the norm offered to contemporary filmmakers. Stay tuned and keep your ears perked. – Chris Sheldon