Boutique audio post production company, Heard City, is expanding its capabilities with the addition of virtual reality audio services.
“More now than ever, virtual reality and 3D are becoming important tools for brands looking to connect with consumers, and audio is such a critical part of the experience,” said Gloria Pitagorsky, partner, Heard City, NYC and Brooklyn. “We’re currently creating soundtracks for different VR projects for clients.”
Heard City’s latest project was for Gatorade, in partnership with The Mill.
“Early exploration in VR only used stereo audio mixes. However, by adding 3D mixing to VR projects, we are heightening the user’s experience and bringing storytelling to new levels,” said Cory Melious, mixer and sound designer at Heard City. “We’re dedicated to creating the best possible sonic landscape for our clients, and by adding 3D mixing to our repertoire, we can help brands breathe more excitement into their projects.”
Heard City also partnered with director David Mullett for his first abstract psychedelic virtual reality work, A Flash of Color, for the color-themed art program ‘Spectrum’ at the Chart Art Fair in Copenhagen. Based around an iconic hypnosis script, the immersive journey is abstract and minimal and allows viewers to see color in the world in a heightened, vivid manner.
The team is also experimenting in VR with Barton F. Graf 9000, led by mixer and sound designer, Evan Mangiamele.
Josh Morse, head of integrated production for Barton F. Graf 9000, said, “Heard City is behind almost everything we do at Barton from an audio perspective, so when it came time to experiment in VR, they were a crucial partner in the early stages of creative development with testing and R&D. VR is a new kind of storytelling, so that testing and trust was invaluable to the process, and they’ve been working closely with our team as we explore the best way to tell stories for this medium. As a storyteller in VR, you lose control of the camera as a means of communication in the way you might use it in a traditional linear narrative. So, we found that great sound design and mix are key tools to provide the audience with cues to follow the narrative and understand the whole story.”
EP Fiorello Joins JSM
New York-based music/sound design company JSM Music, under the aegis of president/CEO Joel Simon, has brought aboard music production vet Jeff Fiorello as executive producer. Fiorello arrives at JSM from Yessian Music, where he’s spent the last three years as senior music producer. During his decade-long career in commercial music production, Fiorello has also served as a producer at music companies such as Elias Arts and has collectively produced work for brands like Budweiser, BMW, Coca-Cola, Gillette, Jim Beam, Pepsi, Land Rover, and Red Bull. He is additionally active in two musical acts—his band Flo, a fixture on NYC’s Lower East Side, and his own synth rock project, Liontide.
Now at JSM, Fiorello will deploy his invaluable production skills while helping oversee a music/sound roster of talent that has worked with a host of notable brands including Verizon, Microsoft, GoDaddy, Time Warner Cable, Vonage, Google, Johnson & Johnson, T-Mobile, MasterCard, Kraft, Domino’s, adidas, Foot Locker, Infiniti, and XFINITY.
Along with Fiorello joining the team, JSM is now planning to expand beyond its New York hub to the West Coast, and in the process, the company has enlisted the services of talent representative Melissa Ross to handle its expanding roster in the region.
STIR Expands Talent Roster
Chicago-based STIR Post Audio has added engineer/mixer Nick Bozzone and sound designer/mixer Michael Mason. Bozzone, a native Californian, who honed his sonic skills during his decade-long gig at the revered POP Sound in its halcyon days, was most recently on staff with Formosa Group, which took over the former POP complex when it shuttered in 2014. He will be on staff as a senior mixer/engineer available for projects at both of STIR’s state-of-the-art facilities. His body of work spans campaigns that have aired on the Super Bowl, the Olympics and Monday Night Football, and such brands as BMW, 7Up, Walmart, Burger King, Toyota and Taco Bell.
Bozzone has also been behind the board recording Owen Wilson, Jim Carrey, Martin Sheen and Arnold Schwarzenegger, to name a few. Recently Bozzone recorded Harrison Ford’s narration for the documentary The Age of the Airplane. Bozzone also added his audio fingerprint to the award-winning indie films Harold’s Bad Day (Slamdance Short Film Festival), David Hammerfist: Hammerfists of Fury (Beverly Hills Shorts Festival) and Iris (Ridley Scott and Philips Cinema’s Parallel Lines Competition). Recently he was nominated for a Golden Reel Award by the Motion Picture Sound Editors for his ADR work on the feature film Evidence.
Meanwhile Mason’s credits include such brands as KFC, Busch, McDonald’s, Budweiser and United airlines. He comes over to STIR from CRC.
Launched in June 2014, STIR Post Audio has already garnered 10 Addy Awards and 3 Effies. The full service audio post and sound design resource offers clients a choice of working at two locations—Theatre District and Streeterville—with a total of three state-of-the-art studios.
Ring The Alarm Gets “More Human” For Lincoln
Music production house and record label Ring The Alarm—which maintains studios in L.A. and Brooklyn, NY—has created the original composition and sound design for the all-new Lincoln “More Human” campaign helmed by Furlined director Saam Farahmand for Hudson Rouge. The four spots—“Paint,” “Perspective,” “Blink,” and “Manifesto”—extol the human side of Lincoln engineering, highlighting a number of innovations born out of a new blueprint: rather than thinking of what a car can do, what can it do for its driver?
Ring The Alarm composed a range of music to encompass the distinct themes of each video and create a sonic atmosphere that would deepen the impact of the Lincoln’s simple yet revelatory new capabilities. This is a softer, more thoughtful side of technology. With a cinematic score that is affecting on an emotional level, every moment is filled with varying notes of wonder and content.
Ring The Alarm’s coterie of talent on the Lincoln campaign included creative directors Brent Nichols and Daron Hollowell, EP Jenny Hollowell and producer Jack Catlin.
