Boutique audio postproduction company Heard City, based in NYC, will open a second office in Brooklyn’s DUMBO neighborhood. Heard City Brooklyn, which will service the advertising, motion picture and television industries, will include a lineup of mixers and producers. Heard City founders, Philip Loeb, Keith Reynaud and Gloria Pitagorsky, all recognized the need to open another office.
Managing director Pitagorsky explained, “DUMBO is a digital creative hub, and our clients are playing in this space more than ever. We’re thrilled to be a neighbor to all of the hottest digital agencies, start-ups and tech companies and want to add another layer of creativity to the mix.”
The new 4,000-square-foot space at 20 Jay St., which will be designed by Murdock Solon Architects, has unobstructed views of the Brooklyn Bridge. It will be similar in design to the Flatiron studio’s palette, featuring natural light-filled rooms, wood, metal and clean lines, all streamlined to create a very comfortable place to work. The space will consist of two mix rooms, a live room and music control room.
Employees from the Manhattan and DUMBO offices will be free to work from both locations, furthering Heard City’s collaborative way of working. The office will officially open around Thanksgiving.
“Within our industry, the creative landscape is quickly expanding on both sides of the East River,” said partner/mixer Loeb. “At Heard City, we are respecting this truth by being one of the first audio postproduction companies to have a full fledged set of studios in both Brooklyn and Manhattan.
Innovative and important work is being produced in DUMBO, and we are very excited to become a partner and resource for the neighborhood.”
Heard City was founded in 2012 and works with clients including AT&T, ESPN, IBM and Bud Light.
Sonixphere Hits Gotham
Sonixphere’s sound designer David Van Slyke created a unique handcrafted hybrid sound for the Gotham pilot and subsequent episodes; the series premiered last month on Fox.
Emmy-nominated director/executive producer Danny Cannon (Nikita, Dr. Dred, CSI) whom Van Slyke has worked with on numerous projects since 2000 (The Cure, CSI), tapped the Los Angeles-based sound design artisan for the project based on their successful past collaborations.
“Danny wanted a supersized, over–the-top New York City-on-steroids sonic feel for Gotham,” said Van Slyke, who, due to his busy schedule, only signed on to design the sound palette for the pilot and episode 3, setting the sound design tone that would be carried out throughout the entire series. “His creative brief was to paint a raw, gritty and authentic sonic design palette evoking New York City in its darkest days of the late 1980s, when crime was rampant, and to avoid a slick sound. Danny really wanted authentic period soundscapes to keep the show sounding like films really sounded in those days.”
Throughout Gotham, Van Slyke traverses a wide spectrum of sonic dynamics balancing period soundscapes with modern sounds peppered in for dynamics. Textural effects—tangled foreign tongues swirl around the audio track to impart an organic feel to bustling outdoor ethnic market scenes. And alternatively, there are the “New York-on-steroids” scenes where Van Slyke ramps up the tension, altering reality with big over-the-top sounds: shotguns and 38s are blown up to sound like cannons.
Tono Wraps Prius Spots For Conill
Audio post facility Tono Studios in Santa Monica, Calif., recently completed two new national spots for Conill Advertising showcasing the latest Toyota Prius models. Tono provided sound design and mixing for the ads (Hispanic and general market), dubbed “Rain,” which required sound designer Felipe Valencia to put the emphasis on subtlety during the process, and drawing out memories of storms and childhoods past.
“I liked the ‘clarity’ concept Conill’s creatives went for sonically with the spot. I tend to put too much effort on backgrounds even though the audience may never notice—but I guess if it doesn’t stand out then we did something right,” said Valencia.
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More