No monkey business at Monkeyland: these fun-loving, pro audio vets provide editorial and mixing services for longform projects and more - Audio Today & Tomorrow - Company Profile

Post, Nov, 2002 by Christine Bunish

GLENDALE. CA--No, it's not a primate sanctuary in downtown Glendale. Clients of Monkeyland Audio (www.monkeylandaudio.com) may end up having more fun than a barrel of monkeys but they don't have to wear safari suits when they visit the full-featured sound facility.

"Our name is shrouded in mystery; there's a prize for anyone who can find the reference for it," smiles director of operations/marketing Gene Semel. "Monkeyland reflects our philosophy our personalities. It sounds fun and is fun, but it's also a very professional environment"

As testimony to its professionalism, the company has provided full editorial and mixing sound packages for Rolling Kansas, Thomas Hayden Church's directorial debut for Gold Circle Films; Elvira's new feature, Elvira's Haunted Hills, and Pretty When You Cry for Gebbia Entertainment/HBO; and Jet Li's The Master and City On Fire for Miramax films.

THE OWNERS

Founded by supervising sound editors and re-recording mixers Trip Brock and Michael Fox, Monkeyland has been operating under its simian moniker for about five years.

A native of Northern Virginia, Brock worked as an assistant engineer at a local music recording studio and at The Smithsonian Institution upon graduation from college. He later relocated to Los Angeles and began music editing. There, he received one of the first digital four-channel editing/recording devices from high school friend Fox, who still lived in Virginia.

At the same time he was introduced to digital technology, Brock began working on films, which led to projects like Tim Allen's Jungle 2 Jungle. The desire to become more involved in the technical and creative aspects of audio post led him to do smaller, independent features part-time under the Monkeyland Audio name while he continued to work on big-budget features under other sound supervisors.

Brock made Monkeyland a full-time commitment in 1997, setting up shop in Burbank and winning sound supervision credits for Artisan Entertainment's Ringmaster, Columbia/TriStar's The Suburbans and Lion's Gate's But Im A Cheerleader.

Meanwhile, Fox got a contract with the CIA after college graduation. He provided surveillance-tape clean up, audio for corporate videos and on-location production audio mixing; he also designed and oversaw construction of a new recording studio for the government agency.

Fox quickly embraced newly-emergent digital audio workstations, recognizing "what [the technology] would do for the future of post audio." Knowing his CIA contract would end one day Fox set up a home studio called Noon Tonight Recording (NTR). "It would have been very difficult to find a job without a demo reel," he says." I mean, how do you show off your audio talents when everything you've done for the past eight years is classified?"

THE STUDIO

The day after Fox's CIA contract ended in 1999, he called Brock and headed west with his NTR studio in tow. NTR was consolidated with Monkeyland and the partners soon found themselves building a 5.1 digital mixing stage. In the summer of 2001 they bought a 4,500-squarefoot facility which houses their editorial services and a Foley/ADR stage designed by Vincent Van Haaf.

Mixing Stage A features expanded Digidesign Pro Tools\24 Mix Plus systems extended with plug-ins. They will be upgraded to a Pro Tools HD in the next six months with the rest of the facility to follow. The Pro Tools systems are used in conjunction with a pair of side-by-side Digidesign Control 24 surfaces; all mixing is done internally within Pro Tools. Formats include 5.1 surround, DTS, four-channel LCRS (Dolby Stereo) and two channel stereo. Stage A is networked to the editorial facility to meet last-minute needs.

Mix B, for TV mixing and film pre-dubs, is equipped with Pro Tools Mix Plus with two HUIs and features 5.1 surround monitoring and widescreen HD projection. The ADR/Foley stage has Foley pits and surfaces, and is large enough for full feature film work The control room boasts a large collection of contemporary and vintage mics, plus class A mic preamps. "Recording is direct to Pro Tools with digital picture," says Semel.

Monkeyland has 12 more Pro Tools workstations in six bays for dialogue, effects, background and Foley editorial, All rooms have access to over I TB of continuously updated, custom-recorded and library sound effects.

"With the advent of Avid and [Apple] Final Cut Pro, you have directors who are used to constant experimentation," notes Fox, "From the editorial phase through to the mix we keep everything inside ProTools. Experimentation is effortless this way."

"We've built our studios around digital technology and the people who can make this technology work," says Semel. "We've lived with digital so long that it's a way of life for us, not just a way of doing business."

About 80 percent of Monkeyland's work is longform with the balance commercials, trailers and promos. In addition to the features mentioned earlier, the company has completed several HD projects in Mix B, including the TV pilot Living Straight and the indy feature Dunsmore. It has hosted Matt Damon, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ben Stiller, Jamie Kennedy Amy Brenneman and Jason Lee, among others, for ADR sessions.