Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/613047
www.postmagazine.com 37 POST DECEMBER 2015 with 2K, 4K and 3D projection capabil- ity. Supervising sound editor Glenfield Payne recently completed the Netflix film Beasts of No Nation, and Woody Allen's film Irrational Man earlier this year. STRENGTHS: "Technology is pretty solid. The boards integrate seamlessly with our editing systems. What I do in my edit room translates well to the stage. I am able to do a lot more as I'm editing so that when I go to the stage I am fine-tun- ing as opposed to trying to sculpt some- thing together at the last minute. The stage has become more of a finishing touch as opposed to a place where we figure things out under pressure." WEAKNESSES: "The time pressure, while always pretty bad, just seems to get worse every year. The expectations set by having computers, and the idea of be- ing able to do more, faster and cheaper, puts a lot of pressure on us. There is a finite amount of time you can cut off and still get a quality product. Another thing, while doing TV, is that the quality control process has moved beyond technical into questioning the creative process. We make decisions with directors that are later questioned during the quality con- trol process. That is my biggest peeve of the year. The QC process seems to have gotten out of control." OPPORTUNITIES: "I just finished working on a great film for Netflix called Beasts of No Nation. That's kind of a merging of film and TV. I'm curious to see where this whole 'streaming and theatrical release happening on the same day' approach is going to go. Beasts of No Nation was available on Netflix and was released in theaters (a limited release) on the same day. It hit a lot more people than it nor- mally would. I don't know how big of an audience would go to see a film about a bunch of child-soldiers in Africa. Having it released on Netflix definitely brings it to a much larger audience." THREATS: "It seems like films are out in theaters and then they're gone a few weeks later. They don't seem to ever have time to gain traction. So unless they have a fantastic opening weekend, they're gone a couple weeks later. Or, if they're not gone right away then they are downsized to just a few screens. There's really no time to build a following before the film is out of the theater and the next one comes along." OUTLOOK FOR 2016: "I am curious to see where we are going to go with the whole 7.1 and Dolby Atmos playback set- ups becoming more prominent in home systems. I know a lot of people have 5.1 at home, and even 7.1. There is also a Dolby home Atmos system and some of the networks are starting to require that as a delivery. So it'll be interesting to see if we are going to be editing in Atmos in our rooms, and then mixing everything in Atmos for our home systems. We've moved so far away from stereo and I'm curious to see where we are going to be at the end of next year." BECKY ALLEN Audio Director/ Composer PopCap Games Seattle www.popcap.com PopCap Games, located in Seattle, WA (www.popcap.com), is a division of Electronic Arts. They make popular game series like Plants vs. Zombies, Peggle, and Bejeweled, for both mobile and console platforms. Audio director/composer Becky Allen at PopCap was recently a featured speaker at GameSoundCon in Los Angeles. STRENGTHS: "Middleware solutions, like Audiokinetic's Wwise, or FMOD Studio, have been out for a while, but it's more common to find game audio creators using them. They give us an opportuni- ty to really craft the sounds and music to gameplay. When an event happens we can trigger a specific sound or cue to it. It's very experiential. With these tools, the audio interactivity is becoming consistently deeper. But I didn't hear as much interactive music as I thought I would. Interactive music with .wav and/ or MIDI is very possible using these tools and I hope to hear more in the next couple of years. Another strength in 2015 is that there is a game out there for everyone, from small puzzle games to mobile games, up to huge AAA console games. There is something for anyone looking for anything. There's so much diversity, and breadth of content, and that's exciting." WEAKNESSES: "I went to GameSound- Con and participated on the Audio Direc- tor panel. One of the audience mem- bers said, 'Congratulations on having two women on a panel.' That is rare. A GameSoundCon poll found that in 2015, 93 percent of the game audio industry is male. That is a weakness, in my opinion. In the small community of women in the industry, we are beginning to support each other. We are getting out there in the public eye — on more panels, show- ing up and being more visible. We need to attract more women to the industry. After the panel discussion at Game- SoundCon, there were about 10 women who came up to me afterwards to ask my advice on specific difficulties they OUTLOOK AUDIO O Harbor Sound provided audio services for the Netflix/theatrical release, Beasts of No Nation.