Post Magazine

set to be useful." The program offers TV, cinema and radio concen- tration, and has such courses as Story, Sound and Mo- tion; Introduction to Audio and Video; Film Style Pro- duction for Cinema and TV; Producing for Cinema and TV; and Design of Cinema and TV Projects. In ad- dition, a number of other courses, such as 3D anima- tion, multi-camera production and audio production are part of this major. "We also have two new specializations, to be of- fered jointly, such units as the 'Film Studies program in English,' that are currently under final review as the University Curriculum Committee," says Stein- field. "One is on fiction film production, which will involve a senior capstone course [about] the mak- ing of a fiction film; the second is on documentar y studies, which will have its own capstone documen- tar y course." To emphasize its commitment, the depar tment of film has hired Andrea Meditch, executive producer of Man on Wire (winner of Best Documentary Acad- emy Award this year), to direct their film and media ar ts initiatives. Steinfield feels the state's tax incentives directly af- fect the university. "By attracting productions to the state, they are helping to create oppor tunities for both students and faculty. Students are finding oppor- tunities to intern and work in the summer on sets, and it is encouraging graduates to look for work op- portunities here instead of Chicago, New York or Los Angeles. Industr y professionals are coming to the state, and this creates opportunities for visits to class or talks with student groups. Production companies are looking for ways to par tner with the university, and our depar tment, to pursue projects that qualify for the incentives and create oppor tunities for stu- dents and faculty. It's been a tremendous benefit to our program." Steinfield also expects an influx of students into its cinema programs as a result of the growing film indus- try in Michigan. "This area really excites students." For its part, the MEDC has approved training funds for the project through its Economic Development Job Training program. The MEDC will provide an em- ployee training grant of $2,000 per job for up to 106 new jobs expected to be filled in the first two years of the project. This training grant could be wor th up to $200,000; it doesn't only apply to film pro- duction, but it cer tainly helps new businesses like Detroit Center Studios, Stardock and Motown Mo- tion Pictures. So the next time you are considering heading nor th to Canada to shoot your film, maybe consider heading up north to Michigan instead. [ cont. from 18 ] S P E C I A L R E P O R T rience with building a studio." Today Studio X Labs has three production studios, one of which serves as a voiceover room and an inte- gration room with a surround set-up. A four th room is used for tracking. Pro Tools and Apple's Logic are their tools of choice, along with Yamaha 02R consoles for mixing. In the past year, Studio X Labs contributed to a number of games. Ruskay recalls two Nintendo DS ti- tles, one Wii project, the Xbox 360 game Damnation, and logos and surround sound for the three EA sports products. "When you are this small, you have to be nimble. You have to be a jack of all trades," says Ruskay. "When we did Damnation, the parent company [Blue Omega] was out of Mar yland, and they completely outsourced all components of the game. All of the art was done in Portland by Liquid Studios, and cinemat- ics were being done in LA by Velvet Elvis. And we did all the music, sound design, speech and integration. It's what we had been working toward for a number of years, which is being given the entirety of the produc- tion and doing it remotely with three other studios in two different time zones." For games such as Damnation or Turok: Rebirth, which is another title Studio X worked on, Ruskay says the studio really needs "10 months to do it prop- erly. And that includes integration as well." Turok: Rebirth, Ruskay recalls, "had a neat interactive music engine. "We had to figure out how to use the tool in order for the music to react to the player-dri- ven action. As the player moves through the environ- ment, their actions influence the soundtrack. Ruskay recalls having three stems — low, medium, and high — in terms of intensity.The ambient layer played as a background, strings would come on as the action in- creases, and a full on orchestra, with intense percus- sion, marked the most intense action. Surprisingly, file sizes are still something that must be carefully managed, despite the increased capacity of the media, such as Blu-ray, which is used for many releases. "It depends also on what hardware you are work- ing on," says Ruskay. "On a Nintendo DS game — a track of music with the instruments would be, on av- erage, 300k. I've done three DS games now and there is not a lot of space for audio.The way that you make sound and music for a DS title is ver y similar to the original Super Nintendo." As a solution, he will create a small palette instru- ments and compose with just those instruments, which helps keeps file size small. On the other hand, Damnation required a 300- style soundtrack, so Ruskay worked with a live guitar player to get the heavy guitar feel and then com- bined the live track with sequenced orchestral Gi- gaStudio samples. And for Relic Entertainment's Homeworld 2, Ruskay recorded a 15-piece string section at the Armory Stu- dios.The game used the track in more of a traditional film style, where the in-game music is just streamed, rather than connected to specific player cues. At press time, Studio X Labs was working on an "attract" video for Electronic Ar ts. These pieces can run around two minutes in length and are designed as marketing material that triggers when a game console is sitting idle. A U D I O F O R G A M E S & D V D [ cont. from 35 ] tinue or whether at some point the business will shrink so much there is room for expansion. It's too early to tell." Kilgore is a realist, but you can also tell he's an op- timist at hear t. "I hear that times are tough all over, but there is continuing work because in hard times, in par ticular, people do want enter tainment." He also sees the need for companies to keep advertising their products, so "it's not as dire in our business as it might be elsewhere." In addition to the economy, Kilgore sees a huge trend in the democratization of the business — tools that had only been available to the big boys in the past are now available to all. And along with that comes the good and the bad. "Now there is sort of a top, middle and low end, and the low end is far more capable than they ever were," he says."In a way, the folks in the mid- dle are getting squeezed a bit, but this is a trend that has been going on forever. When tape machines came in back in the early '50s, for instance, they enabled the little guy to make recordings that up until then had to be done in a big facility with a disc cutter." Kilgore also saw this happen in the music business 10-15 years ago with the advent of digital recording, and says we are right in the middle of it with post. There is definitely a concern in the industry that work will be done by those with less experience and there- fore the quality might suffer ; this is where Kilgore sees organizations like the AES playing a role. "Business models change, and in hard times the bottom line becomes impor tant, and that's where the AES is impor tant. They can help with education and keeping the standards high. With democratiza- tion you can lose the standards that broadcast and other users of post expect." And he says it's not just about best audio practices, but also about equip- ment manufacturing. "An old joke in technology- based manufacturing is, 'Standards? You want stan- dards? Sure, we got a million of 'em.' " The AES Standards Committee, according to Kil- gore, has been instrumental in sor ting out multiple, conflicting standards. He points to the advent of MP3 files in the audio world as an example of the "good enough" mental- ity that democratization can bring, but he still be- lieves in the need for the high end. "There are cer- tain clients that need the best quality possible and they'll never go away — we really need exper tise and top-notch facilities." And he thinks that because quality is there and available, eventually there will be a backlash of sor ts. "People say, 'I just can't stand another docu- mentar y mixed inside of Final Cut Pro.The dialogue on the last one was okay, but it wasn't great. I really just need extra shine that a really good mixer is going to give me.' " And those working for the high end are still getting work. "The music editors and sound super visors I know are still working — there are not very many of them here in New York, but they are working," he says. And John Kilgore Sound & Recording is still working too, whether it's a score for a film or something budget- challenged for the Web.Work is work! [ cont. from 40 ] N Y P O S T

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