Claudia Katayanagi has had a long career in sound mixing and recording that has taken her on location with HBO documentaries, including the acclaimed Food, Inc., Crude and Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, PBS’ Frontline, and the BBC’s arts-focused Imagine series. She has also made dozens of programs for San Francisco’s public media station KQED, and worked on the second and first units of feature films.
“I generally record dialogue for films, documentaries, and corporate shoots,” said Katayanagi, “ But like all sound recordists on these types of projects, ambient sound is a delight to record. Surf sounds in stereo are always one of my favorites, as are bell towers and train stations all over the world.”
A convert to Sound Devices’ portable recording and mixing equipment when the products first appeared on the market, Katayanagi owns a Sound Devices 302 three-channel field mixer, a 744T four-track audio recorder, and a 664 12 input, 16 track field production mixer. Katayanagi bought the 664 mixer just a few months after it was first introduced, a decision made much simpler by her prior exposure to the brand.
“Owning the previous Sound Devices mixers made for an easier transition to the 664,” she added. “ I knew how important all its capabilities were going to be and now I feel as though I have a mini computer in the guise of a mixer/recorder on location. The numerous permutations of input to output selections have been invaluable for so many different types of shoots.”
Her favorite Sound Devices gear is still by her side and proved instrumental in her first turn as a feature documentary director, a project she has worked on for the past five years. Her new film, A Bitter Legacy, was recently awarded “ Best Documentary” at the Women’s Independent Film Festival. The project, recounts the concentration camps created by the United States government to confine Japanese Americans and others of Japanese ancestry during World War II. The film focuses on the lesser-known, essentially secret isolation outposts that served as concentration camps for the more vocal among those incarcerated. These “ more harsh prisons,” said Katayanagi, were “for those who stood up, spoke up and resisted what they saw to be an injustice.”
Given her limited resources as a first-time director, Katayanagi is also the documentary’s producer and its primary location sound mixer. “During interviews, I would set up the boom and a lav mic on talent, and with my headphones on, I would conduct the interviews for hours at a time,” she said. “Knowing how well the 664 performed, I simply had to trust my ears as I directed the interviews, and several times, a re-enactment.”
She particularly enjoyed hearing the final product as a member of the audience during the film’s screenings. “I recently got to see and hear my film played in a theatre with a THX sound system for the first time and I was so blown away by how good my film sounded,” she said. “ I give a large amount of credit to my Sound Devices 664, and to my sound editor and mixer, Philip Perkins.”
A Bitter Legacy screened in April at the Arizona International Film Festival and Vail Film Festival.
After 20 Years of Acting, Megan Park Finds Her Groove In The Director’s Chair On “My Old Ass”
Megan Park feels a little bad that her movie is making so many people cry. It's not just a single tear either — more like full body sobs.
She didn't set out to make a tearjerker with "My Old Ass," now streaming on Prime Video. She just wanted to tell a story about a young woman in conversation with her older self. The film is quite funny (the dialogue between 18-year-old and almost 40-year-old Elliott happens because of a mushroom trip that includes a Justin Bieber cover), but it packs an emotional punch, too.
Writing, Park said, is often her way of working through things. When she put pen to paper on "My Old Ass," she was a new mom and staying in her childhood bedroom during the pandemic. One night, she and her whole nuclear family slept under the same roof. She didn't know it then, but it would be the last time, and she started wondering what it would be like to have known that.
In the film, older Elliott ( Aubrey Plaza ) advises younger Elliott ( Maisy Stella ) to not be so eager to leave her provincial town, her younger brothers and her parents and to slow down and appreciate things as they are. She also tells her to stay away from a guy named Chad who she meets the next day and discovers that, unfortunately, he's quite cute.
At 38, Park is just getting started as a filmmaker. Her first, "The Fallout," in which Jenna Ortega plays a teen in the aftermath of a school shooting, had one of those pandemic releases that didn't even feel real. But it did get the attention of Margot Robbie 's production company LuckyChap Entertainment, who reached out to Park to see what other ideas she had brewing.
"They were very instrumental in encouraging me to go with it," Park said. "They're just really even-keeled, good people, which makes... Read More