Audio Media - September 2008 - (Page 29) PRESENTED BY: The Sound of Entertainment™ www.dolby.com/professional t 75 Dean Street , London, audio excellence abounds. At this address, De Lane Lea – the renowned worldclass, full-service audio post-production facility in Soho – is comprised of more than the latest and greatest gear for blockbuster feature film audio production. Yes, they do have a tendency to run more synchronised Pro Tools|HD rigs than almost anyone in the world; and yes, they welcome back projects of envied film franchises like James Bond – Bond 22, Quantum of Solace will be a highlight of De Lane Lea’s Fall/Winter 2008 workflow. Yet the appeal of De Lane Lea lies in its staff – including Technical Manager Paul Jarvis and Mix Technician Doug Cooper – who recently supported the final mix and premixing for Hellboy II: The Golden Army. De Lane Lea employees are widely recognised for providing the best in professional audio post support through their dedication to the job, as well as their deep knowledge of the technology involved. A teams, different mixers and different requirements, basically. Each session, we have to redesign the studio.” The staff of De Lane Lea configured 14 Pro Tools|HD rigs for the final mix of Hellboy II: The Golden Army, and lived to regale on the subject. STROTHER BULLINS reports. “We have a very strong culture of support,” offers Cooper as he reflects on his work alongside the sound depar tment of Hellboy II at De Lane Lea. “We have dedicated people in the backrooms and assisting in the studio – always. It means that there’s a very high level of skill available if something goes wrong. The engineering department here is very strong, and that’s one of the main reasons I joined the company in the first place. We have a very high level of expertise, rather than using freelancers that don’t really know the facility. I hope the clients realise that because we’re not the cheapest in London. But we are the most reliable.” Jarvis, who personally installed De Lane Lea’s first AMSNeve DFC console, is responsible for all the maintenance and technical operators at the facility. “Our standard procedure is a series of pre-production meetings to establish exactly the picture format the client will be using, the number of Pro Tools they will be using, frequencies, frame rates, etc,” explains Jarvis of the setup for such a major project as Hellboy II. “Further, where they want the workstations placed in the mixing room is discussed. Because we’re basically a dry-high facility, every session is different; it’s all different editing Sk illed Suppor t H E L L B OY I I: T H E G O L D E N A R MY Directed by Guillermo del Toro, Hellboy II: The Golden Army is based on the Dark Horse Comics character, Hellboy. For this sequel, ‘a golden army’ of 4,900 soldiers, or ‘70 times 70 soldiers’, presents Hellboy (Ron Perlman) with a vivid, character-rich nemesis throughout the entire film. Each reel of the film, offers Cooper, ‘was enormous’ as well as interesting. “If you can imagine thousands of bony creatures with razorsharp teeth that like to chew people’s bones, all flying around the place, being shot at, and crushed by statues along with the main characters of the film, you’ll have it. Plus, there’s really detailed cutting. Editorially and mixingwise, this ‘tooth fairy’ scene was one of the biggest scenes. But, every reel has a massive scene in it. Of course, there’s the golden army at the end of the film where there’s 700 to 1,000 giant golden robots that attack Hellboy and his crew. It was an incredibly detailed track. They wanted to get as much intricacy as possible. When you look at the film, it’s amazing; they wanted to have that same effect with the sound. It’s just super detailed.” Ac c o rd i n g t o J a r v i s, the Hellboy II gig could be defined as “a physical workout – yes, they shook the dust off the subwoofers,” he says. “The film is quite loud; they had the whole building rattling.” Near the final stretch, Hellboy II also offered challenges in time. “Towards the end, they were working 12 to 14-hour days. We had rotating shifts in the back room. The release date was set in stone, as the premiere date was something like 10 days or a week after we finished mixing. It was a bit stressful.” This is where being at De Lane Lea was a good move for the Hellboy II audio staff; the track count and demands were high – possibly an industry record high – and nothing less than smooth sailing would suffice. “We were configuring 14 Pro Tools systems,” explains Jarvis. “One machine was for A Physical, M ental Workout > AUDIO MEDIA SEPTEMBER 2008 29 http://www.dolby.com/professional http://www.dolby.com/professional
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