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Sound Lounge’s Juan Aceves: “Sound became another character” in The Miracle of Spanish Harlem. The sound design for The Miracle of Spanish Harlem acts as a character of its own, says Aceves. “The sound became another character in the film, where you get in the head of the characters — their perspectives. It’s subtle, and not in your face. It’s not an action film, it’s introspective in nature. At some point I will completely drop all of the ambiences and sounds, and let the score play.” Richard Martinez cre- ated the film’s original score. The production sound presented some chal- lenges.“They did a good job in some situations, and some were bad,”Aceves recalls.“When I first got the OMFs, the director [Derek Partridge], who was also the editor, worked with the lavalier mics only.That’s what I got. I was like,‘Oh my God, this is a nightmare! It’s horrible!’ I asked if they had shot with a boom as well, and luckily they did.The boom really saved the dialogue. It’s really clear and it’s one of the best pro- duction sounds that I’ve dealt with.” The edit also presented challenges, as the quick cutting style would call on audio from different cam- eras that had varying levels.“Sometimes the audio would be different,” he notes.“Matching room tone and ambiences, and the color of the dialogue be- tween one cut and the other,” presented particular challenges, says Aceves. Sound Lounge’s main mix stage, which features a two-position Avid Icon console, was used for screen- ing and print mastering. “I think the dialogue sounds really nice overall,” he says of the final results. “It’s a nice sounding film. I am very proud of it.” GIRL TRASH!,FIVE HOURS SOUTH Burbank’s Jet Stream Sound (www.jetstream- sound.com) was founded by Rick Larimore and Steve Cahill in 2008 with the idea of catering specifi- cally to the independent filmmaker. Both bring more than 20 years of experience in audio post, and their studio has been configured to handle the full array of audio services. Jet Stream has two sound editorial stations and two mix stages — one medium size, and the other a small footprint. Both are configured with Avid Pro Tools and Icon consoles. JBL 4300 series speakers are used for monitoring in the larger room and Blue Sky and starring Jenna Fisher and Chris O’Donnell.The film is seeing success on the festival circuit, “A lot of these are first-time directors,” notes Lari- more.“Almost every film we’ve done is with a first- time director, or someone who finally got some kind of significant budget to actually be able to mix a film. The really big-time guys will have the money to go to Todd-AO or Soundelux.” “It’s not just about price,” Cahill adds “We can give them the attention and the passion, because we have less overhead.” “There are a lot of studios at our level that do what we do,” says Larimore,“but we like to think that we bring to the table [a] type of conscientiousness. We are excited about every project that comes through here.” from visual effects, are not technical, and depend upon picture and sound people,” adds Cahill.“The gratifying thing for me is the director has sat and lis- tened to shitty audio for months, and may not even know [what] is possible anymore with their film. As- suming it was recorded well and wasn’t a complete disaster, they are now hearing stuff they never heard: the ends of words, inflections from the best single microphone that was available.” BARNEY’S VERSION,SMALL T OWN MURDER SONGS In Toronto, Deluxe (www.bydeluxe.com) has four mixing stages, two of which are dedicated to film work.The studio had a busy summer, running shifts around the clock to provide services for a www.postmagazine.com January 2011 • Post 39 Deluxe Toronto’s Theater 1 features a Harrison MPC console and four Pro Tools|HD rigs. The studio recently worked on the indie film Small Town MurderSongs. monitors are featured on the smaller stage. Genelec 8050As serve as near-field monitors. At press time, Jet Stream was working on two in- dependent films. Girl Trash! All Night Long is what the duo describes as a lesbian musical, inspired and pro- duced by the same team that created the dark and comedic Showtime Web series by the same name. “It’s the first time we dealt with a non-profit that produces films,” notes Cahill of the production com- pany, Power Up Films.“[They’re] hoping to have luck with the LGTG community, and maybe cross over to the mainstream. It’s very sharp and witty and sassy.” Five Hours South stars Beau Bridges’ son Jordan in the story of a small-town Italian policeman, who pur- sues his passion for break-dancing, and at the same time deals with a secret from his past.The film was written and directed by Mark Bacci. The studio also handled audio services for A Little Help, written and directed by Michael J.Weithorn, A typical film project will require $25-$50,000 worth of audio services, says Cahill.“That’s about what a $1-3 million film wants to spend on their sound.” Cahill tends to handle dialogue editorial, but he also creates custom music. Larimore will handle ef- fects supervision.The team can scale up when neces- sary, and industry contacts as well as their location in Burbank gives them access to effects editors, Foley artists and even high-end feature mixers that might be in-between jobs. The partners take great pride in making their pro- jects sound as good as possible despite the fact that many films are budget challenged. “At the end of these projects, they run a little low,” Larimore ex- plains.“They spend a lot of money on visual effects or other things they didn’t expect.A lot of these guys don’t have post production supervisors because they didn’t need the extra expense.” “By and large, the directors, unless they come