AudioMedia - December 2008 - (Page 32) Pinewood “In a small room the stereo image is much wider. When you pan something to the left it can seem too wide so you pan it in a bit. You equalise a line of dialogue and think, ‘that’s nice and bright, great, leave it alone’. You play the music in; it sounds beautiful – fine… You then take it to a big theatre and straight away you’ll think you haven’t panned enough and where has all that lovely crisp presence you had gone; the reality is you are now listening to speakers feet away.” One symptom of this is the phenomenon that O’Donoghue terms ‘dipping into these wonderful facilities’. A film might have a long run at a mix in London, but then be relocated to Pinewood to do the print master and final checks. Obviously business is business, but it’s also understandably slightly galling when a theatre chosen as the final and ultimate reference is not chosen as the venue for the bulk of the work. O’Donoghue: “If a good Mixer from London came out here and mixed a whole film, he’d end up with a better sound track.” The counter argument is one that O’Donoghue is well placed to refute – mainly because he does a lot of the deals: price. He says that an expensive, elitist image of Pinewood is something he has worked hard to dissolve. He has a bucket full of anecdotes that mainly revolve around productions that have chosen alternative facilities based on the assumption that they couldn’t afford Pinewood or Shepperton – productions that now come to the Pinewood Group for their regular output. “I’d rather have people mixing here,” states O’Donoghue. “I do a special deal for students and short film makers. I don’t do anything for free, unless it’s for a charity.. “What I’m bringing is flexibility. We listen, we’re flexible, we help young film makers and this flexibility follows through to the medium and larger budget films. Some of the great films we have mixed have spent as long as twelve weeks and as much as , on the soundtrack which enables us to maintain these wonderful facilities. O’Donoghue talks of the environment of Pinewood or Shepperton – the big theatres, the incredible on-site resources and facilities, and the infrastructure. > commercials industry and compounded with larger-than-the-norm mixing theatres pulling work into London. The basic size of a theatre is also something O’Donoghue sees as a major asset to Pinewood, as even the biggest theatres in Soho don’t match the group’s facilities. And while many productions have been willing to sacrifice size, it’s still an area that he argues as crucial. “If you have a lot of experience, knowledge, and understanding of the whole system, and certain references that come from experience, you can probably mix anywhere. But if you don’t, you’re going to misjudge it massively. Robin O’Donoghue’s job now revolves around keeping the audio post production departments and teams in Pinewood and Shepperton running efficiently, creatively, and almost automatically. He talked of differing work-ethics at Shepperton and Pinewood – historically he says that Shepperton was more ‘free-spirted’. That is, staff were more self-sufficient, with lead mixers often dealing with their own customers directly. “You didn’t have to book customers for Ray Merrin when he was working here – it all just happened,” he explained. So one objective is to continue injecting spirit into the work ethic across the group – not necessarily renegade spirit, but ‘self-fulfilling’, and ‘self-managing’ spirit. O’Donoghue is also involved in refurbishments, re-purposing, and (in some cases) resurrection of spaces at the facilities. Some are being rented out to producers, companies, and others, while there’s a plan in the works to rejuvenate an ADR/ Foley suite. While I was there we visited a very new Apple reseller and training facility now on-site and operating inside the Pinewood community. And perhaps most importantly, he is often directly involved in client deals. He can draw on immense experience at the console and in the studios to help create the right package for every client at (almost) the right price. “There’s something odd about the film industry,” he muses. “No other business, no hotel, no other service business is like it. Who goes to a hotel desk and says ‘I’d like to book your penthouse suite please but I’ve got no money’? “I’ve taken great delight in the last few months saying, “I’m afraid we’re fully booked. I’m afraid that’s the rate.” The reality is though that that’s a rare situation these days. It’s a buyer’s market and the Pinewood Group has to compete on both price and quality for continued success. Investment in sound post production facilities at the Pinewood Group has not been meager. Four large-scale Euphonix System -Fs over three years is not a small consideration. And there’s plenty of ongoing refurbishment to keep the place fresh and competitive. Possibly more significant is that that they are changing the way they do business – in the customer’s favour. ∫ I N F O R MAT I O N Day To Day W www.pinewoodgroup.com 32 AUDIO MEDIA DECEMBER 2008 http://www.zaxcom.com http://www.zaxcom.com http://www.pinewoodgroup.com
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