Heidi Gottlieb and Doug Wedeck have amicably parted ways as partners in New York-based Single Bid. Wedeck will continue to head Single Bid, while Gottlieb is currently weighing her options. In the meantime, she will be working through her New York company, Realist….Computer Café, Santa Monica and Santa Maria, Calif., has signed Laura Zinn of New York-based Zinndependent for representation on the East Coast and Detroit, and Kelly Class of Class Represents, Marina del Rey, Calif., for Midwest sales…. Dallas-based rep firm Jack Reed Reps has been signed to represent Atlanta-based Comotion Films in Texas and the Southwest…. Sherman Oaks, Calif.-based Ambitious Entertainment has added director/cameraman Robert Crombie for worldwide representation….DPs Mike Maley and Bernard Auroux, and production designer Johannes Spalt, have signed with The Martins Agency, Santa Monica….Dana Locatell has joined creative digital studio R!OT, Santa Monica as national executive producer for new business. He was formerly at Creative Management Partners, bicoastal and Chicago, where he served as an account manager….
Craig Henighan Sounds Off On “Deadpool & Wolverine”
Hollywood lore has it that character actor Edmund Gwenn--while on his deathbed--quipped, “Dying is easy, comedy is hard.”
The second part of that darkly witty utterance remains all too true today as Craig Henighan--a Best Achievement in Sound Mixing Oscar nominee in 2019 for Roma--can attest in that he had to grapple with the sonic of being comic for this year’s box office hit, Deadpool & Wolverine (20th Century Studios/Marvel Studios).
The degree of inherent difficulty was ramped up even further because Deadpool & Wolverine had to seamlessly bring together high action-adventure exploits with moments and dialogue that tickled the funny bone. There’s a mesh of humorous banter--a staple of the franchise--along with major spectacle replete with explosions, fights, an impactful score and off-the-wall musical numbers.
Henighan explained that among the prime challenges for him from a sound perspective was having to make sure every joke landed within the construct of a superhero film. The tendency for a tentpole movie of this variety, he noted, is to gravitate towards big, loud audio spanning music, dialogue and sound effects. But the unique comedic element of Deadpool & Wolverine necessitated that re-recording mixer and supervising sound editor Henighan strike a delicate balance. “You need to get out of the way for the comedy,” he related. The jokes in a superhero film become “a real dance” as Henighan had to establish a rhythm that did justice to both the comedy and the action as the narrative moves back and forth between them--and sometimes the funny and the high energy, high decibel superhero dynamic unfold simultaneously in a scene or sequence. The “sonic fabric” has to... Read More