This year’s Super Bowl telecast provided a snapshot of Mike Franklin, audio post mixer and sound designer at music/sound house Beacon Street Studios. Two of the spots he worked on for the Big Game show both the expansive range and nature of his work. For Microsoft’s “Empowerment” he added subtle nuanced touches as a mixer, supporting an uplifting piece depicting how people use technology to break down barriers, including former NFL player Steve Gleason, who has ALS, yet can communicate to his son via computer, giving “a voice to the voiceless.”
For Beats Audio’s Super Bowl ad “The Right Music” featuring Ellen DeGeneres in a tongue-in-cheek spoof of the Little Red Riding Hood tale, Franklin’s contributions were far more multi-dimensional and complex as both sound designer and mixer. Unlike the Microsoft spot–which came directly to him from outside Beacon Street–”The Right Music” had Franklin collaborating with his Beacon Street composing and arrangement compatriots who did the underlying score for the Beats Audio assignment.
Franklin guesstimates that his workload is about a 50-50 mix–spots and branded content entailing music and sound from Beacon Street, and ad projects for which scores were done at other music/sound houses. A stand-alone mixing suite at the Beacon Street quarters in Venice, Calif., facilitates his work from both within and outside Beacon Street. There are also instances where clients gravitate to Franklin as a sound designer–with mixing done elsewhere, a case in point being Activision’s “Just Like SWAP Force.” The computer animation piece from agency 72andSunny was graced by music composed by Beacon Street’s Andrew Feltenstein and John Nau, Franklin’s sound design, and mixing from Nick Bozzone and Zak Fisher at POP Sound.
Franklin’s career in sound began in 2002 as an assistant at Sony Pictures, working on such films as Steven Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can and Mia Goldman’s The In-Laws. In ‘03, Franklin diversified into short-form fare, working on commercials at various studios around L.A. before settling at Eleven Sound where he served as an assistant mixer for six years, transitioning into select projects as a mixer.
In ‘09, he then broke out on his own to freelance as a full-fledged mixer on assorted projects from spots to features and TV, the latter including such credits as America’s Got Talent, Shark Tank and The Bachelorette. Finally in 2012, Franklin found a home with Beacon Street as lead mixer and sound designer, working on high profile projects for clients including Nike, Pepsi, HTC and Burger King. He succeeded mixer Paul Hurtubise (now with Margarita Mix) at Beacon Street which has come to enjoy the advantages of being able to dovetail with a mixer/sound designer on the premises for instant give and take and back and forth to arrive at the proper music and sound blend for varied jobs.
Mixing Therapy
Back during his tenure at Eleven, Franklin served as an assistant mixer to noted mixer Jeff Fuller. Now Fuller himself is at a new roost, joining the audio division of Los Angeles-based Therapy Studios as lead mixer. Fuller becomes a member of a Therapy ensemble which includes sound designer Eddie Kim, mixer Lihi Orbach and assistant Eric Shin.
With an extensive background spanning television, film, and commercial sound mixing, Fuller has hit the ground running at Therapy with commercial mixes for Pepsi Max, TBS, The Honest Company, and Applebee’s. He will also begin mixing the first of eight episodes for a new television series produced by Therapy Content, the entertainment division of Therapy Studios.
A staple of the Los Angeles sound mixing industry, Fuller has collaborated with assorted ad agencies including 72andSunny, Deutsch, Wieden+Kennedy, TBWAChiatDay, 180LA, Team Detroit, Leo Burnett, and CP+B. Some of his recent work includes ads for Gatorade, Toyota, Samsung, Foster Farms, and Wild Turkey Bourbon, as well as a Lincoln-sponsored interactive music video featuring Aloe Blacc, released for the 2014 Grammys.
After attending Musicians Institute in Los Angeles, Fuller began his career at Rex Recording, the oldest multi-track recording studio in Portland. He moved back to L.A. in 1998, securing a position at Brian Boyd Recording, which led to several years mixing with Matt Groening and David X Cohen on the series Futurama. After FOX aired the final episode of Futurama in 2003, Fuller moved on to audio house Eleven and, more recently, PLAY Sound.
Brown Joins BANG
Evelyn Brown has joined BANG Music as a senior producer in New York. She will work with BANG partner/composer Brian Jones and partner/EP Brad Stratton coordinating work on the company’s episodic TV productions as well as music supervision on spot work.
A musician and songwriter since childhood, Brown is a graduate of Berklee College of Music in Boston. Her father, the late Eugene Brown, was a producer of country and rock music in Austin, Texas.
Prior to joining BANG she freelanced as a production coordinator and music supervisor in New York City’s music production community. In her words, “New York is where I found my passion for creativity as a collaborative process—seeing the pieces come together from both the audio and the visual side.” At BANG, she’ll be putting that vision into practice and assisting with the company’s expanding live recording schedule for Spotify and their artist “sessions” series.
