Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/100015
OUTLOOK AUDIO Websites, it���s everywhere. It���s on your mobile phone. The most important thing is that you have to maintain the quality, and that���s always going to be the challenge, whether it���s on a 36-inch screen or a mobile phone. The quality is still going to be important.��� THREATS: ���People putting more money toward interactive, and moving away from the :30 TV spot.��� OUTLOOK FOR 2013: ���I���m very optimistic as long as Obama creates jobs. If people can go back to work, then they can spend money. If they can spend money, then advertisers are going to create advertising to market their products. You can see what���s happened over the last three months. The industry took a dive because no one knew what was going to happen with the election. If jobs are created, then I think everything is going to be great.��� KIM WAUGH Senior VP of Post Production Services Warner Bros. http://wbpostproduction.warnerbros.com Burbank Warner Bros. Studio Facilities provides audio post ��� from ADR to a 7.1 surround mix ��� for films, television and games. Recent Warner Bros. films include: The Dark Knight Rises, Argo and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. STRENGTHS: ���Over the last year ��� and continuing into the future ��� we���ve never before seen such a grouping of high-profile talent available to the film community, from the sound editors to rerecording mixers and sound designers. It���s never been at this level of strength of talent and creativity. It���s extraordinary. We���re very blessed with the amount of talent that exists in the industry today. It���s been Ben Affleck���s Argo was mixed at Warner Bros. Post. 44 nurtured over the last decade, and it���s really at a great point. You can just hear the quality of work that���s being delivered to the screen��� from independent films to tentpoles.��� WEAKNESSES: ���There is a weakness in that the marketplace has changed.There is an increase in independent films, and that has put pressure on the resources that aren���t necessarily used to working on different scopes of films. However, it���s not a sign of production softness; it���s really a window into the globalization of production and post production. It���s a change. It���s not a decrease; it���s a change in how the market is perceived. Speaking from a West Coast perspective, it���s a weakness, but in other markets, they may see it very differently.��� Post���������December���2012��� www.postmagazine.com OPPORTUNITIES: ���The opportunity is diversification, across the board. The grand opportunity to work with new filmmakers on independent projects, all the way through to the opportunities of working with the creative individuals that you read about everyday who are creating high-profile content. A greater opportunity is looking at the marketplace from a global perspective. For Warner Bros. Post sound, we have addressed the market in a very progressive fashion by looking at how we produce and where we post. ���For example, we are about to open up a new satellite facility in New York, which will be a dub stage, sound editing suites and picturing editing suites on a moderate scale to respond to that marketplace. Also, we just made an acquisition in London, where we purchased De Lane Lea in Soho, a leading London post production house, which will suppor t the creative community in the UK. That���s really a response to the globalization in the marketplace, and making sure that we can have the highest level of talent available for our filmmakers, and for all filmmakers in the locations that they are completing their projects.��� THREATS: ���It���s an interesting word, ���threat.��� Is it a real threat, or a perceived threat? The feature film market in Los Angeles may feel threatened by a perceived contraction, but it���s really just a change, a market change. A trend to more independent films is fantastic. It���s an opportunity to work with new filmmakers, an opportunity to work with new content and with new workflows and to integrate the technology that has been developed over the last few years. And to work with the greatest group of talent that exists today; those who are really rising to the occasion to support these types of things that people see as threats. ���It���s a global industry, and the reality of it is that opportunities exist, but there are geographical barriers. We responded to those geographical barriers by having our satellite locations, because Warner Bros. produces in every time zone. ���We have production going on in New Zealand with The Hobbit, The Great Gatsby in Australia, Hangover 3 in Los Angeles, in New York A Winter���s Tale, and All You Need is Kill in London. These are significant investments we���ve made from a global standpoint. That may be perceived in Los Angeles as a threat, because the work isn���t necessarily being completed here. It���s really how we perceive it. So we are responding to creatively completing our content in those marketplaces, and supporting our filmmakers.��� OUTLOOK FOR 2013: ���I���m Mr. Positive, always looking forward to new opportunities. The studios are healthy. It���s exciting to see other major studios in town, and their acquisitions. It���s great to see the strong production relationships that Warner Bros. has, and the great writers and directors that are in front of us. ���I���m so pleased to be in a community that raises the bar every year and supports our filmmakers. It���s a great time in history. It starts and ends with our people. Anyone can buy the equipment and build grand facilities, but it���s a people business. It���s built on those people, their creativity, and their relationships. ���In regards to 3D audio systems, it���s exciting. These new tools separate the home theater environment and the theatrical experience. It���s great to enhance the theatrical experience for the filmgoers. The competing companies, and their versions of 3D audio, all offer very exciting opportunities. Those tools for the sound designers and re-recording mixers, to enhance the theatrical experience, are remarkable. Right now it in its infancy, and we at Warner Bros. are embracing the opportunity to work with 3D sound.���