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December 2015

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www.postmagazine.com 36 POST DECEMBER 2015 n 2015 the post industry has seen an increase in the quality of films, TV series, games and commercials. Supervising sound editor Glenfield Payne of Harbor Sound notes places like Starz, Amazon Prime and Netflix, and even some basic cable channels, are produc- ing quality projects. "There's just so much product coming out where these TV shows seem like long-form movies," he says. "I feel that gives us an opportunity to work on projects that we are happy to work on and where we can take a few chances sound-wise. I don't feel like we've had these opportunities before." Audio post pros from across the industry share their 2015 insights, and give their outlooks for the year ahead. KELLY BAYETT Creative Director/Partner Barking Owl Los Angeles www.barkingowlsound.com Original music and sound design compa- ny Barking Owl, located in Los Angeles (www.barkingowlsound.com), was on the 2015 Cannes Lions shortlist for its sound design on Wieden + Kennedy Portland's Nike/LeBron James Together spot. The new facility, opening in January, will feature three mix stages, a sound design suite, a Foley stage and a music composition room, plus plenty of client hangout areas. "There is a big demand for final mix. People want to package everything together in one place," says creative director/partner Kelly Bayett. Barking Owl started mixing at its current facility but now has fifth holds every day. "Our schedule is constantly challenging people, so our new facility should be able to accommodate everyone." STRENGTHS: "People are doing more creative work. They try to make each commercial feel like a mini film — put- ting more effort into music, sound design and the mix to make it feel exceptional, especially for broadcast commercials. We are doing more cine- ma and 5.1 mixes, which all has to sound beautiful. People now expect the work to sound ready from the first demo. And that's great because we're creating very strong work from the beginning." WEAKNESSES: "A weakness has been the expectations with budget and the Web. You can work on four-minute Web [spots] that have smaller budgets than broadcast commercials, but the expec- tations are the same. We are doing very high-level work, on longer projects, but for smaller budgets. Web content is in a weird place; it's a throwaway finan- cially, but not necessarily a throwaway creatively. There is the potential for a lot more eyes to be on it, even more than broadcast. But it's still not given the proper time and money that it needs. People say, 'Oh, it's only running on the Web.' But it's actually a very important piece of the entire brand content." OPPORTUNITIES: "People are looking for packaging. Many times the produc- ers are overwhelmed and working on multiple campaigns at once. We offer a very high creative level of work, as well as a very high production level, and as a result, producers will just hand us their audio post and ask us to take care of it because they're working on so many other things. Growth opportunities arise in being able to offer all three services — the original music, sound design and final mix. We've become an all-inclusive, high-end audio post house and there's a huge demand for that." THREATS: "There's been a huge shift in terms of how people value music. There is a great threat to music specifically because you have a whole generation of people who are not used to paying for music. There's a sense of entitlement to music sometimes and they don't understand that you have to pay for it. It's something that is crafted and takes a great deal of talent to put together." OUTLOOK FOR 2016: "My outlook for next year is that there will be more pack- aging. In terms of creating original con- tent, you'll have to bring it at such a high level. At Barking Owl, we Foley every single spot. We record live instruments on every demo. Our mixes are super-high quality. For 2016, you'll have to deliver the highest creative work to even be able to succeed in this environment. The competition is much stiffer and the work will need to be even better than before. We love to be pushed creatively, so it's exciting to us." GLENFIELD PAYNE Supervising Sound Editor Harbor Picture Company New York, NY www.harborpicturecom- pany.com Harbor Picture Company, located in New York City (harborpicturecompany.com), has provided audio post services for award-winning films like Blue Jasmine, The Butler and Bessie via their audio post division Harbor Sound. They've recently opened the multi-million dollar Harbor Grand studio in SoHo, featuring a dub stage equipped to mix in Dolby Atmos, IMAX, and 7.1 and 5.1 surround sound MORE PROJECTS, MORE OPPORTUNITIES AUDIO PROS WEIGH-IN ON RECENT TRENDS AND WHAT'S AHEAD FOR 2016 OUTLOOK AUDIO O I BY JENNIFER WALDEN Barking Owl's work includes sound design for this Nike/ LeBron James spot.

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