Nearly a year after departing Santa Monica-based Primal Scream, sound designer Reinhard ("Ron") Denke is about to resurface in a new music and sound design com-pany, Stimmung, also in Santa Monica. Under construction at press time, the Stimmung facility is slated to open in late January.
Denke is partnered in Stimmung with two of the principals in Los Angeles-based production company Morton Jankel Zander (MJZ): director Rocky Morton and MJZ executive producer David Zander. Stimmung is not affiliated with MJZ; Morton and Zander are financially backing the new entity as individuals.
Also comprising Stimmung are two of Denke’s former Primal Scream colleagues—sound designer Gus Koven and composer Jason Johnson—in addition to sound designer Samuel Londé, who comes over from Venice, Calif.-based Machine Head. Stimmung’s producer is Gula Petirsdottur, who has recently worked as a line producer at Los Angeles-based Palomar Pictures.
For Denke, this seems like the best of both worlds: He has the freedom to operate Stimmung as he sees fit, while his partners’ financial wherewithal has allowed him to build the company as he had envisioned it. "I told David and Rocky that I wanted this to be a pretty complex, state-of-the art studio," Denke recounted, noting that it will be equipped with ProTools workstations and his own Fairlight sound creation and edit system. Another key factor for Denke is that the music/sound design house employs other audio technicians. "Stimmung is the best set-up, all-around, that I’ve ever been involved in," he stated
Zander said that both he and Morton are very interested in sound, music, editing and everything that surrounds the filmmaking process. "We’re hoping that it will be a successful venture for us all because Ron [Denke] is so fantastic," Zander commented. "I’ve gotten to know Gus and Sam a little bit, and I haven’t met Jason except when he was at Primal Scream. But this is really Ron’s company; he’s going to be running with the ball. We’ve got a lot to worry about at MJZ and we can’t be distracted."
In fact, Denke and Zander nearly went into partnership in a sound design house five years ago. At that time, Denke was on staff at Machine Head and was considering launching his own company. Denke explained the situation to SHOOT: "I was fired from Machine Head because [president/creative director] Stephen Dewey had heard that David asked me to form a company with him. At that time, it didn’t work out. But because of that short interview, I ended up without a job and had to start Primal Scream."
Denke has been involved professionally with sound design since his graduation from USC Film School in 1990. That year, he joined Hollywood-based editorial house Wystrach Inc. (now Anchor Editorial, Santa Monica), serving as sound designer and audio editor. In ’92, he joined Machine Head where he spent two years.
In April ’95, Denke co-founded Primal Scream with a fellow Machine Head colleague: partner/executive producer Nicole Dionne (SHOOT, 4/14/95, p. 1). After five years as creative director/sound designer, Denke sold his shares in Primal Scream to Dionne—now president of that firm—and left in March ’00 to explore other pursuits, including scriptwriting and directing. During that span, Denke completed several screenplays and helmed four spec spots, which he wasn’t at liberty to publicly discuss at press time.
During his hiatus, Denke said, he discovered that he missed sound design and longed for a more structured work schedule. In what proved to be a case of good timing, Zander approached Denke in September about establishing the firm that would become Stimmung. "Ron was originally thinking of opening up on his own," said Zander. "But then he saw the value of going into partnership with me and Rocky."
Over the years, Denke has provided sound design for a number of MJZ projects, many directed by Rocky Morton. They include spots for Sony PlayStation via Los Angeles-based TBWA Chiat/Day; Starburst Fruit Chews via Grey Advertising, New York; Kraft Bulls-Eye BBQ Sauce via FCB Chicago; and "Promo" for the film The Minus Man, out of New York-based Cliff Freeman and Partners. The latter was one of the entries that led to Morton’s Directors Guild of America nomination as best commercial director of ’99.
Johnson, Koven
And Londé
Johnson has worked alongside Denke since ’92, when both were on staff at Machine Head. Among Johnson’s composing credits at Primal Scream were "Hairspray" for Weather.com via L.A.-based TBWA Chiat/ Day, for which Koven provided sound design. Additionally, Johnson scored a number of spots that Denke sound-designed. These include "Intersection" and "End of the Road" for Lexus via Team One Advertising, El Segundo, Calif.; "El Toro" for Chex Snack Mix via Campbell Mithun, Minneapolis; "Good Karma" for Steel Alliance via GSD&M, Austin; and the earlier alluded to Starburst spots—"Slackers" and "Cheerleaders."
"Ron and I have worked together so long that we have a good routine down," stated Johnson. "It’s very easy working with him, and we have a lot of clients together as well as individually. And I love working with Gus, too. I think it’s going to do very well."
Koven joined Primal Scream in December ’99 (SHOOT, 1/7/00, p. 7). He started out in October ’96 at Nomad Editing Company, Santa Monica, where his sound design jobs included the Pepsi spot "Flying Geese" via BBDO New York, directed by Kinka Usher, House of Usher, Santa Monica. "Geese" debuted during the ’98 Super Bowl telecast. Another of Koven’s notable jobs from Nomad was the Usher-directed Mountain Dew spot "Johnson’s World," also via BBDO, which was honored in the sound design category at the ’99 Association of Independent Commercial Producers Show.
Among Koven’s last jobs at Primal Scream were Nissan Maxima spots "20th Anniversary" and "Zero to Sixty," as well as Nissan Frontier spots "Jetfighter" and "Gluteus Maximus"—all out of TBWA Chiat/ Day.
"Ron is the most inspirational person I’ve worked with by far," said Koven, "not only in terms of learning technique and what’s important in sound design, but he’s also a great guy. I joined Primal Scream because of him. When he mentioned [Stimmung] to me, I was totally excited. The goal here is to push the art form of sound design as far as it goes."
Londé has spent the last three and a half years at Machine Head. Among his notable credits is the Jeep Wrangler spot "Hand," out of Bozell Worldwide (now FCB Worldwide), Southfield, Mich. (SHOOT Top Spot, 10/8/99, p. 10). The track was voted No. 1 in SHOOT’s Music and Sound Design Top 10 Spot Tracks (SHOOT, 11/12/99, p. 26). Editor Michael Elliot of bicoastal Mad River Post temp-tracked the Jeep commercial with sounds from a previous Londé-designed spot. "They weren’t sure what kind of treatment they wanted and [Elliot] thought to do that," said Londé. "Machine Head got the job because of that."
Other Londé credits include "Traffic Baby," a PSA for the March of Dimes via The Lord Group, New York, that underscored the importance of prenatal care. The black-and-white spot, depicting a baby crawling across a busy street, was directed by Bruce Dowad of Hollywood-based Bruce Dowad Associates, and was recognized in SHOOT’s Best Work You May Never See (1/29/99, p. 15). Visual effects for "Traffic Baby" were done by Venice-based Digital Domain.
"We worked under a different structure at Machine Head," related Londé, who has contributed sound design to spots for Mercedes, Lexus, Toyota, Motorola and American Express, among others. "We worked as a team, so we’d all take different sections of a job, with an individual taking the lead. Oftentimes [Stephen Dewey] would finish the job at the end with the client.
"I was kept away from the clients and a lot of the business aspects," continued Londé, "and left to the creative. That was partly the reason for the split. There was a certain dynamic … I began as an assistant and grew under Stephen’s guidance and got the opportunity to work on a lot of great pictures in the meantime. I wanted to get out from underneath that and stand on my own two feet, creatively."
While Stimmung will be his primary focus, Denke affirmed that he intends to pursue directing opportunities. He noted that the company is structured to allow him the freedom to take on other endeavors, adding that most spot directors typically direct only six or seven jobs a year. Asked if he had talked to Zander about directing through MJZ, Denke laughed and said, "We’ve done a very expensive sound company; one thing at a time."
It was Morton, incidentally, who came up with the name Stimmung, which is a German film term from the ’20s, meaning "mood" or "atmosphere." MJZ had previously considered using the Stimmung moniker for a separate division of its own, but that didn’t come to pass.
Londé related that Stimmung already has a project lined up: an independent film about free jazz, with the working title Brass Tacks. Stimmung plans to hire reps on the coasts and in the Midwest, said Denke, adding that whether the company will utilize MJZ’s sales force remains to be seen.
