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August 2014

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www.postmagazine.com 29 POST AUGUST 2014 five companies regularly work with the advertising industry to create compelling audio that carries a message. DIGITAL ONE Chip Sloan, sound designer/mixer at Digital One (www.digone.com) in Portland, OR, recently collaborated with Nemo Design and Bump Films on the three-minute Web promo for the 2014 MasterCraft ProStar titled, Mission 04: History Is History. The project was recently recognized by the Association of Independent Commercial Producers at the AICP Show: The Art & Technique of the American Commercial, for its sound design as one of "the best commercials of the year." It was presented at the AICP Show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and is now a permanent part of MoMA's Department of Film archive. It will also tour museums and cultural institutions around the world as part of The AICP Show Reel. Audio post facility Digital One offers award-winning sound design, mixing, recording, ADR, editing, casting, and music supervision for the advertising, film, and broadcast industries. From digital content to feature films, Digital One handles it all. Recent projects include ads for Ole Smoky Tennessee Moonshine, Jordan Brand shoes, and Levi's Skateboarding jeans. Unlike a typical ad, Mission 04: History Is History is all sound design. No music. No voiceover. The goal, from pre-produc- tion through the final mix, was to create a compelling water-ski video using only sound design. During the pre-production stage, sound designer Sloan advised pro- duction company Bump Films on what sounds to record on the shoot. "They captured numerous boat sounds on-set. It was a very efficient way to get those sounds. By using the actual sounds of the boats, we were able to be very hon- est with the sound design," notes Sloan. Sloan received an OMF from the editor with many boat sounds already mapped out. For example, when a boat passed, it had the correct pass-by sound for that particular boat. Sloan received addition- al sound files with alternate choices for all the boats. "I was able to switch out sounds with different versions based on the boat sounds that were mapped out before it got to me," he explains. The three-minute video covers the evolution of the MasterCraft ProStar, from the original to the modern boat, and shows a ski jumper, a wake boarder, and a slalom skier. Slow-motion sections are interspersed throughout the video. For the slow-mo shots, Sloan composed layers of watery musical drones, start- ing with stock patches in Apple's Logic Express 8. He exported stems from Logic for manipulation in Pro Tools 10. "I tend to use Logic to create the sounds and that's where it ends," he says. "Being that I spend most of my time doing pure sound design, Logic for me stays pretty stock and I make do with what's in there." In Pro Tools, Sloan used a variety of plug- ins, such as flangers, delays, reverbs, and EQ to give the synth drones an underwa- ter sound. "This process really lends itself to projects like MasterCraft, where I don't want to make a string section, but rather a weird watery drone," notes Sloan. He often relies on Waves plug-ins, particu- larly for EQ. He used the Waves TrueVerb plug-in for all the reverbs in this project. For the mix, Sloan's challenge was to carry the audience's attention through- out the entire length of the video, without music or voiceover. Sloan added variety by mixing the watery drones so a different layer was featured during each slow-mo section. He also made sure the mix overall was engaging and dynamic. "I had to find a good place for the mix to sit where it can be loud enough to not get lost but at the same time have peaks and valleys," he explains. "It's not full tilt in-your-face for three minutes because that would make anyone go crazy." Whether mixing for the Web or for broadcast, Sloan always makes his mixes CALM Act compliant. Since the rooms at Digital One are calibrated for mixing to the broadcast spec, it's natural for Sloan to work that way. Also, he likes to have his work ready for broadcast because it can save time down the road. ANOTHER COUNTRY David Gerbosi, mixer/sound designer at Another Country (www.anothercountry. net) in Chicago, recently worked with ad agency Y&R Midwest in Chicago on the Sears Die Hard The Getaway 1:18 Web spot. The ad is zombie-themed and shows the importance of having a long-lasting battery, like the Sears Die Hard, in your vehicle. Gerbosi won a 2014 AMP Award for 'Outstanding Mix' on The Getaway. He's also mixed over 75 Super Bowl spots, six of which were number one on the USA Today Ad Meter. Another Country is an award-winning sound design studio that caters to the advertising community. The company is part of Cutter Studios, a group of five different companies covering every as- pect of production and post production, with locations in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit and Tokyo. Recent ads for Another Country include brands such as Coors Light, Allstate and Sprint. Gerbosi spent several months perfect- ing the sound on The Getaway. Commer- cials are often dominated by a dialogue or voiceover track, but since there wasn't either of those here, Gerbosi had a huge opportunity for sound design. "There are sync sounds from the actors on-set, and obviously there are zombie noises, but there is no real dialogue that has to cut through," he says. "It was nice to be able to push the sound design and music to the front." According to Gerbosi, sync location sound is present throughout the entire spot up until the entry of the end song. For the female lead in the spot, all her screams are from the set. Many of the zombie voices from the set made it into the final mix as well. "I was surprised so much of the sync sound was usable," he notes. "There are even footsteps from the location sound in the final mix; a rarity." He augmented the sync tracks with breath- ing sound effects and footsteps created in the Foley pit at Another Country, which has countless sound libraries loaded into Digital One's Chip Sloan (left) and the award-win- ning Mission 04: History Is History Web promo (above).

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