Wizdom provides indie soundtrack

Post, August, 2004 by Marc Loftus

CHATHAM, NJ -- Wizdom Productions (www.wizdomproductions.net) sound designer/composer/owner Jordan Weiss recently graduated from NYU with a masters in music technology and has teamed up with fellow NYU music technology grad Pontus Gunve to develop the soundtrack for Light and the Sufferer, an independent, urban/sci-fi film based on the story by renowned New York City author Jonathan Lethem.

Weiss found out about the project through mandy.com, a post production resource Web site, and was taken on by director Christopher Pedito, who was looking for the sound design team to put their eclectic stamp on it. Weiss's background is in hip-hop and electronic music, while Gunve's is more progressive rock and electronic. Together, they were faced with creating the film's surreal, dreamy/moody soundscape.

Weiss and Gunve relied heavily on Propellerhead Software's Reason 2.5 sampling software to process the sound elements, both organic and library. While Reason, says Weiss, was designed more for loops than sound design, he's excited about the way they've adapted the low-cost tool for sound-for-picture applications. So much so that Weiss and Gunve are approaching Propellerhead with the idea of creating an instructional disc detailing the application's power as a sound design tool.

In addition to Reason 2.5, Weiss says he uses a Sennheiser SV56 mic to record elements to a TASCAM DAT. He also uses Digidesign's Pro Tools LE and Wavelab editing software, along with Csound for processing voices. Hardware includes a Mac G4 running the OS X Panther operating system.

Post production on Light and the Sufferer will wrap up in October, with the film scheduled to debut at the Sundance Film Festival early next year.

At press time, Weiss was gearing up for music and sound design work on the short film Twisted.