Cinematic Media, a Mexico City-based postproduction facility focused on television and cinema content, is teaming with two-time Academy Award-nominated supervising sound editor Martín Hernández to bring Hollywood-caliber sound services to Mexico. Hernández, sound supervisor for such films as The Revenant, Birdman and Pan’s Labyrinth, is overseeing construction of a new sound division at Cinematic Media. When complete, it will feature six sound editorial and mixing stages, each with state-of-the-art Avid Pro Tools systems, and each certified for Dolby Atmos sound production. Construction will be finished in July.
The new sound resources are targeted toward the ongoing explosion in motion picture and television production in Mexico. Several U.S.-based studios and streaming services are now producing content in Mexico for Latin American and international markets, or have announced plans to do so. Hernández, who will serve as Cinematic Media’s creative sound director, is already at work in the new space editing sound for multiple television series slated for release later this year.
New movies and television series are being produced in Mexico according to the highest international standards for quality, and, as a result, they require sophisticated postproduction services. Cinematic Media is already providing world-class picture finishing services to productions based in Mexico. Its new division will do the same for motion picture and television sound.
Cinematic Media’s new mix stages will be identical in size and identically equipped, allowing projects to move between them seamlessly for scheduling purposes. Each will be set up for sound design, sound editorial, pre-dubbing and mixing. The stages will feature Focusrite RedNet interfaces to facilitate the quantity of channels and objects needed for Dolby Atmos, Avid S6 and Avid S3 control surfaces and JBL monitoring systems.
Hernández said that native support for Dolby Atmos was essential as motion picture and television productions are increasingly requiring immersive soundtracks. “The choice to embrace Atmos was obvious,” he observed. “And it is natural to incorporate Atmos into the process from the beginning, so when you are cutting you are already thinking about that translation. We start from scratch, cutting for Atmos, pre-dubbing in Atmos and finishing in the Atmos format.”
Hernández plans to staff the sound division primarily with local talent, but will bring in senior editors and mixers as needed. “The world is getting smaller every day,” he explained. “Technology affords many ways to collaborate. I have colleagues around the world who are eager to work with us on an episode, a series or a film.”
Hernández has been working in motion picture sound for more than two decades. Among his early credits was City of God for director Fernando Meirelles. Hernández is best known for his frequent collaborations with director Alejandro Iñárritu, two of which, The Revenant and Birdman, resulted in Academy Award nominations for Sound Editing. He is also the recipient of a BAFTA Award and five MPSE Golden Reel Awards (City of God, Pan’s Labyrinth, Birdman, The Revenant, Carne y Arena).
Cinematic Media is located within Estudios GGM, the largest independent production studio in Mexico, with sound stages; production offices; cameras, lighting and grip rentals; wardrobe and make-up; and other resources to support film and television production. Estudios GGM is also home to Argos Comunicación, the production company founded by producer Epigmenio Ybarra, which has produced hundreds of hours of television and film content for Netflix, Viacom, HBO, Telemundo and many others. Collectively, the three companies provide all the resources for creating film and television content from the script through delivery.
Carrie Coon Relishes Being Part Of An Ensemble–From “The Gilded Age” To “His Three Daughters”
It can be hard to catch Carrie Coon on her own.
She is far more likely to be found in the thick of an ensemble. That could be on TV, in "The Gilded Age," for which she was just Emmy nominated, or in the upcoming season of "The White Lotus," which she recently shot in Thailand. Or it could be in films, most relevantly, Azazel Jacobs' new drama, "His Three Daughters," in which Coon stars alongside Natasha Lyonne and Elizabeth Olsen as sisters caring for their dying father.
But on a recent, bright late-summer morning, Coon is sitting on a bench in the bucolic northeast Westchester town of Pound Ridge. A few years back, she and her husband, the playwright Tracy Letts, moved near here with their two young children, drawn by the long rows of stone walls and a particularly good BLT from a nearby cafe that Letts, after biting into, declared must be within 15 miles of where they lived.
In a few days, they would both fly to Los Angeles for the Emmys (Letts was nominated for his performance in "Winning Time" ). But Coon, 43, was then largely enmeshed in the day-to-day life of raising a family, along with their nightly movie viewings, which Letts pulls from his extensive DVD collection. The previous night's choice: "Once Around," with Holly Hunter and Richard Dreyfus.
Coon met Letts during her breakthrough performance in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?" on Broadway in 2012. She played the heavy-drinking housewife Honey. It was the first role that Coon read and knew, viscerally, she had to play. Immediately after saying this, Coon sighs.
"It sounds like something some diva would say in a movie from the '50s," Coon says. "I just walked around in my apartment in my slip and I had pearls and a little brandy. I made a grocery list and I just did... Read More