The post soundscape: these audio pros cite increasing demand for surround business and expert creativity, while warning of fly-by-night service providers

Post, Dec, 2004 by Ken McGorry

ELLIOTT KORETZ

Supervising Sound Editor/Sound Designer

Technicolor/Weddington

North Hollywood, CA

(www.technicolor.com)

STRENGTHS: "My favorite word these days is 'synergy.' By this I mean to create the kind of environment that builds trust and relationships between the director, the picture editor, myself and my crew. As a sound supervisor and a designer I find that when given the opportunity to start early--by that I mean prior to the end of principal shooting--and set up adjacent to the picture editor, the impact is substantive and the rewards many. I get increased ability to participate in creative decisions and am truly part of the team. My crew becomes real people with faces and names, and my assistant builds a relationship with the picture dept. We are all truly part of the process. It's exhilarating and exhausting."

WEAKNESSES: "A major concern is the general lack of appreciation for the significance of post sound by many who hold the purse strings. The post production world has had a formula that has worked for ages know as 'The Golden Triangle.' Imagine the three points of an equilateral triangle. One point is Good, one point is Fast, and the third point is Cheap. Now the rule is, pick two, because you can't have all three. I see more and more people are trying to reinvent this paradigm by demanding all three. It never works, period."

OPPORTINUTIES: "I believe more than ever the opportunity to bring to the mix stage interesting, well thought out, well prepared tracks is upon us. I meet with our mixing team as early as possible and get their thoughts and preferences regarding how we can all be the most efficient with our time at the mix. When we are all on the same page there are no surprises on the dub stage."

THREATS: "The difficulties that lay ahead in sound post are quite concerning to all who intend to make it their profession of choice for the near future. With smaller budgets and with the studios keeping more sound editorial on their lots there are less jobs in general and fewer independent sound houses to work at. The studios are also taking advantage of incentives to produce and post movies abroad. It's just much tougher for many people to make a decent living."

OUTLOOK FOR 2005: "Even with all the concerns I've outlined I still feel quite optimistic and excited about the future. One, because it's my nature, and two, because I firmly believe there is always a place for highly-skilled craftspeople. Talent will rise to the occasion even with all the obstacles and challenges now facing us. We can all empower ourselves with knowledge. As our industry keeps changing we may well need to reinvent ourselves in some fashion, but ultimately, no matter what tool it is, it all comes down to the person pushing the buttons, riding the board, and tapping the keys. Ultimately, 'we' are the valuable asset in the equation."

JESSE P. MELI

President/CEO

LA Studios, Inc.

Santa Monica & Hollywood, CA

(www.lastudios.com)

STRENGTHS: "Our primary strength is the chameleon-like expertise of our engineers. They can modify and adapt their listening abilities to accommodate anything thrown at them. The bigger picture is our ability to cater to diversified markets. The paradigm has changed and the days of the niches are gone. You've got to be able to reconfigure your bag of tricks on a daily basis and accommodate really everybody. When trends and cycles change in one market, you hope that [they] will be offset by different trends and changes in another market."

WEAKNESSES: "Competition is increasing--the barrier to entry in this business has diminished because equipment is cheap. You can't swing a cat in this town without hitting somebody opening up a couple of rooms. If you can access cheap equipment, it does not necessarily make you a mixer. And some people allow 'good enough' to become acceptable. You need to be branded in this business--top-of-mind. Especially in California, geography plays a really big part. If you're not located in the right part of town there are certain markets that you're not going to be able to penetrate because people don't have the time to drive."

OPPORTUNITIES: "We anticipate a fairly dramatic increase in 5.1. For a quality 5.1 mix you need to have an experienced and well-seasoned engineer with preternatural listening skills. And you need to be in a sonic environment. If something sounds like shit--shit amplified to 5.1 is not going to be good! And 'good enough' amplified to 5.1 is not going to be good.

"Video games--the level of sophistication for video games is on the rise as is an increase in ensemble dialogue in games, and they're going 5.1!

"Another huge opportunity is DVD commentary. The titles are increasing exponentially--not only every movie, but television series packages. There's a tremendous amount of recording, editing and mixing going on and they, too, are 5.1. And that goes hand-in-hand with high def."

THREATS: "The perception that the barrier to entry into our world is reduced by the costs of entry going down. And in the past few years, the industry has been weakened by outside events that we have no control over: 9/11, the dot-com bust, a queasy economy, runaway production, labor disputes--any of those things can reoccur and significantly impact our business."