This special venue gives new size and scope to NASCAR if such a thing is possible. “Showdown,” another chapter in the animated “Sprint NASCAR Monsters” campaign, presents eight separate screens that play simultaneously across eight separate HD monitors surrounding the audience with intense visuals and sound. The viewers actually stand in a Sprint NASCAR hauler in the middle of the screens and watch as eight different NASCAR monster cars “wake up”–each in its own individual garage and then shooting out onto the track where the monster attacks unfold lap by lap. Then after an intense battle, we find the restless monsters back in their respective garages as all of the doors slam shut, giving way to an eerie howling wind.
The visceral visuals are advanced by a soundtrack that has to be intense, unique and must make sense from the POV of the viewer on all eight monitors, with audio playing from one 5.1 mix. There was no facility that could simulate this environment to mix, so Chris Bell of Chris Bell Music & Sound Design (CBMSD), L.A. and San Francisco, mixed from a drawing of monitor and speaker layout supplied by the designer and basically imagined the TV monitors around him and his colleagues in the mix session. It was awesome as it all came to life in the surround mix after designing it one screen at a time.
Unlike sound design for broadcast, Bell explained he had an end user system with tons of power as well as large speakers capable ( and willing ) to pump out massive bass and rumble. So there were totally different limits as to how big and fat the final mix could be. Having spent years co-sponsoring a stock car and traveling to NASCAR events and always recording, Bell was able to use some of the super loud and fat sounds that really don’t translate well on conventional TV broadcast. Also he could add the same bottom end rumble that you would find at the actual race track and knew it would play back as he had recorded it. The sound design is artistry in intentional sensory overload.
Complementing it is some sound design from Bill Chesley of Henryboy, New York, in part of the racing sequence.
Audio post mixer was Andy Greenberg of One Union Recording, San Francisco.
The creative team from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, included group creative directors Paul Stechschulte and Franklin Tipton, art directors John O’Hea and Khara Cundiff, copywriters Ty Hutchinson and Adam Cook, producers Josh Reynolds and assistant producers Meagen Moore and Jessica Mehl.
Live action (for the “Racing” sequence was directed by Jeffery Plansker of bicoastal Supply & Demand, with Neil Shapiro serving as DP and Tina Nakane as line producer. CG came out of Gunshop, San Francisco, with an ensemble that included creative director Stacy Nimmo, exec producer Therese Vreeland, 3D artist/compositor/matte painter Dean Foster, 3D artist/compositor Anthony Enos, animators Conrad McLeod, David Leonard, Jesse Davidge, Alan Cook and Nate Pacheo, producer Brandon Sugiyama and editors Paul Trillo and Ian McCarney.
Mass Market, N.Y., provided CG shots that included the zoom in/out of the racetrack, the image of the CG phone with the stadium atop it, and the cars in attack mode.
Editor on the “Racing” sequence was Noah Herzog of General Editorial, Santa Monica.
Disney Pledges $15 million In L.A. Fire Aid As More Celebs Learn They’ve Lost Their Homes
The Pacific Palisades wildfires torched the home of "This Is Us" star Milo Ventimiglia, perhaps most poignantly destroying the father-to-be's newly installed crib.
CBS cameras caught the actor walking through his charred house for the first time, standing in what was once his kitchen and looking at a neighborhood in ruin. "Your heart just breaks."
He and his pregnant wife, Jarah Mariano, evacuated Tuesday with their dog and they watched on security cameras as the flames ripped through the house, destroying everything, including a new crib.
"There's a kind of shock moment where you're going, 'Oh, this is real. This is happening.' What good is it to continue watching?' And then at a certain point we just turned it off, like 'What good is it to continue watching?'"
Firefighters sought to make gains Friday during a respite in the heavy winds that fanned the flames as numerous groups pledged aid to help victims and rebuild, including a $15 million donation pledge from the Walt Disney Co.
More stars learn their homes are gone
While seeing the remains of his home, Ventimiglia was struck by a connection to his "This Is Us" character, Jack Pearson, who died after inhaling smoke in a house fire. "It's not lost on me life imitating art."
Mandy Moore, who played Ventimiglia's wife on "This Is Us," nearly lost her home in the Eaton fire, which scorched large areas of the Altadena neighborhood. She said Thursday that part of her house is standing but is unlivable, and her husband lost his music studio and all his instruments.
Mel Gibson's home is "completely gone," his publicist Alan Nierob confirmed Friday. The Oscar winner revealed the loss of his home earlier Friday while appearing on Joe Rogan's... Read More