Sr. engineer Eduardo Mendoza has joined One Union Recording Studios in San Francisco. Mendoza arrives from a similar post with Facebook and brings more than 15 years of experience in audio recording, editing and mixing for broadcast, digital, corporate and other media. The company has also hired assistant engineer Michael Swarce. Mendoza and Swarce join an audio team that includes sr. engineers Joaby Deal, Andy Greenberg and Matt Wood, and engineer Isaac Olsen.
The new staff will help One Union keep pace with a growing workload as advertising and corporate production in the Bay Area and around the country rebounds. Mendoza described his move as a chance to work with top clients from all sectors of the industry. “It’s an amazing opportunity to reconnect with the advertising community and work at a studio that was recently rebuilt from the ground up,” he says. “One Union has been on my radar since I began my career in 2003. When an opening appeared, I jumped.”
At Facebook, Mendoza led an audio voice team and oversaw studio upgrades. During the pandemic crisis, he supervised a switch to remote operations and the remote production of video content. He previously spent four years at Pandora/SiriusXM where he designed three recording studios and engineered client advertising for diverse digital platforms. His background also includes 11 years at Polarity Post, San Francisco, as sr. audio engineer, project manager, sound editor and recordist. He mixed national and regional television advertising, as well as radio and digital campaigns. He recorded Foley and designed sound for independent films, episodic television, video games and animation.
A graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Swarce moves into an assistant engineer role having previously worked for One Union as an intern. He will be responsible for preparing sound sessions and assisting senior mixers. He will also be charged with maintaining COVID-19 health and safety protocols. John McGleenan is One Union Recording Studios president.
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More