Eric Springer has joined BBDO West as senior VP, creative director, based in Los Angeles. He will be responsible for the creative development of Mitsubishi as well as other brands. Springer, who will report to Jim Lesser, BBDO West’s executive creative director, comes over from Deutsch/LA where he was senior VP/associate creative director….Director Xandy Smith has joined Nola Pictures, New York….Production/motion design house Digital Kitchen, with operations in Seattle, Chicago, Santa Monica, New York and London, has entered into a strategic partnership with Seattle-based ScreenPlay, a provider of customized audiovisual environments, to deliver highly customized branded content for exposure to prospective consumers at varied venues….Corbis has named Ross Sutherland to the newly created position of chief creative officer, overseeing the Seattle-headquartered company’s sourcing of creative imagery on a global basis. He formerly served as executive creative director/managing partner at Young & Rubicam, New York….
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