Engineer Chris Stangroom Leads Dialogue Edit And Premix Team On Much-Talked About New Film
Netflix’s latest documentary triumph, “Voyeur” – the story of a motel owner with an elaborate means of spying on his unsuspecting visitors — benefits from a striking audio post production effort courtesy of another collaboration between HOBO’s Senior Engineer Chris Stangroom and noted indie film mixer Tom Paul of Gigantic Studios. The two collaborated on the Emmy-nominated doc “Amanda Knox,” (also for Netflix), and acclaimed “Weiner,” among many others.
“Typically in our work with Tom we handle dialogue editing, sound design, sound effects editing and a full 5.1 premix of all the elements,” Stangroom says. “For ‘Voyeur,’ our focus was cleaning up the dialogue, which required a lot of technical massaging. By focusing on the quality of the dialogue, we were able to make sure that the film felt much closer to a Hollywood thriller, than an indie doc.”
Stangroom notes that the creative challenges on “Voyeur” centered on the massive amount of interviews recorded over the span of many years. The film’s co-directors Josh Koury and Myles Kane would frequently pull bits and pieces of audio from different interviews for inclusion in one scene. This meant that the HOBO team (which also included engineers Stephen Davies and Julian Angel) had to mold those disparate sounding interviews and segments into a single thought. The team did that by matching dialogue, EQs and intonations in language – a complex and time consuming task.
Looking back at HOBO’s recent run of acclaimed documentary work, which in addition to “Amanda Knox” and “Weiner, includes audio post duties for Viceland’s acclaimed 6-episode reality series “The Last Shot,” Howard Bowler, HOBO’s Founder/President, notes that audience expectations for sound in documentaries has risen to that of big, Hollywood films.
“HOBO’s been fortunate to be attached to some top documentaries,” Bowler says. “The reason I think filmmakers want to work with us is because first and foremost our goal is make an emotional connection to the audience through sound. Each element in the soundtrack has to have a reason and has to fit. That mindset has helped us grow exponentially, and improve the client experience, as well as the work itself.”
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Click here to see the official “Voyeur” Netflix trailer: https://youtu.be/kTAYqsT05Dc
Sonic Branding For Social Media: Engage, Align, Connect
By Chad Cook -- With more than five billion people accessing social media daily, savvy brands understand the importance of cultivating a strong social identity. They devote massive resources toward brand awareness, audience targeting, content strategy and community engagement. Yet, while they know that social platforms are critical to boosting sales and attracting new customers, many neglect one of the most effective tools for connecting with consumers: sonic branding. Marketers often associate sonic branding with catchy mnemonics used by big brands like McDonald’s, Netflix and Intel in their advertising. But that is a very limited view of what sonic branding is and what it can do. Sonic branding is a way to build awareness and stimulate engagement across all touch points, from advertising to broadcast digital, in-person and social. And it’s not limited to members of the Fortune 500. Brands at all levels can benefit from a sonic identity that is memorable, engaging and reflective of its core values. Sound has been scientifically proven to be deeply tied to memory and emotion. There’s a reason that certain songs stick in your head and bring back memories formed years or even decades earlier. So, it’s surprising that sonic branding is often an afterthought in marketing plans. That is especially true in social media marketing. Faced with tight deadlines and strained budgets, creative teams are often tempted to select music for their content simply because it “fits.” Unfortunately, that may result in content that is in tune with what’s trending but is out of tune with brand identity. Effective sonic branding, by contrast, requires thoughtful strategic planning,... Read More