The SoundWorks Collection talks with Supervising Sound Editor, Sound Designer, and Re-recording Mixer Christopher Boyes about his work on The Avengers.

Marvel Studios delivers the ultimate comic-book film, which ties together such characters as Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) for a big-screen franchise team-up like no other. Taking center stage this time is Nick Fury (played once again by the note-perfect Samuel L. Jackson), leader of the peacekeeping agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D. Fury, along with former Russian spy Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), recruits a super team to combat Thor’s ever-deceptive brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) after he brainwashes ace archer Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) while stealing a cosmic cube from an underground base. Thus the heroes must learn to work together alongside outlaw scientist Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), who can track down the artifact’s gamma signals when he’s not hulking out into a giant green monster. Show runner Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly) adapted and helmed the script by Zak Penn.

Locate a theater to experience The Avengers in Dolby Surround 7.1 at www.dolby.com

The SoundWorks Collection is pleased to present a studio profile on Fantasy Studios, a world-renowned recording facility located in the San Francisco Bay Area.

As an integral part of the Zaentz Media Center, they provide exceptional services for the music, film, video, and game communities. In September, 2000, Fantasy was voted the #1 Recording Studio by Billboard Magazine and continues to be one of the most requested recording studios on the West Coast with an extensive selection of microphones, outboard gear, instruments, and natural echo chambers.

The facility is comprised of three legendary recording and mixing rooms, acoustically-tuned for quality sound. All three are fully-equipped with ProTools HD3 systems and two have concert-quality Yamaha Grand Pianos.

Fore more information visit: Fantasy Studios

Video Produced by Corduroy Media

Dolby Laboratories, Inc. announced on Monday, April 23rd at CinemaCon 2012, Dolby® Atmos, a new audio platform that will change the experience of sound in entertainment. Launching in the cinema, Dolby Atmos delivers a more natural and realistic sound-field, which transports people into the story with a lifelike, sensory experience.

For the first time, Dolby Atmos introduces a hybrid approach to mixing and directs sound as dynamic objects that envelop the listener, in combination with channels for playback. Dolby Atmos enables adaptive rendering to ensure that the playback experience is as close as possible to the creator’s original vision in any given environment, irrespective of the specific speaker configuration in the playback environment.

Dolby Atmos is an end-to-end solution that takes into account the entire content pipeline and brings together mixers, studios, and distributors to create dramatic improvements in the audio experience. The Dolby Atmos platform provides content creators with a new creative freedom to tell their stories. It simplifies movie distribution with a single universal package to deliver to audiences the full impact of the artist’s intent, regardless of theatre configuration.

For Content Creators
Dolby Atmos delivers a new level of creative control to sound designers and mixers by marrying today’s familiar channel-based mixing methods with the versatility of dynamic audio object–based mixing. The flexibility of object-based mixing provides total control over placement and movement of individual sounds or “objects” anywhere within a theatre environment.

“Dolby Atmos brings a completely new dimension to the motion picture soundtrack. To be able to move sounds anywhere in the theatre, and to also create environments that surround and excite an audience, is extremely powerful,” said Mike Hedges, the Academy Award®–winning re-recording mixer at Park Road Post Production.

Dolby Atmos works with the same tools that sound designers and mixers currently favor, allowing them to efficiently create highly compelling content. Using descriptive metadata about how the audio should be played back, Dolby Atmos faithfully generates legacy 5.1-and 7.1-channel mixes automatically, thus saving valuable time during postproduction. Mixers can monitor and tweak these versions in real time and quickly switch between them to verify that everything plays as intended in all cases.

Preparing for Dolby Atmos
With the ability to transmit up to 128 simultaneous and lossless audio inputs (channels or objects), and the ability to render from 5.1 all the way up to 64 discrete speaker feeds, Dolby Atmos introduces a completely new audio capability for exhibitors. The inherent scalability and adaptability of Dolby Atmos allows exhibitors to manage their budgets and upgrade cinemas over time, yet improve the experience for audiences at each step.

To effectively support precise positioning and movement of sound around the theatre, speakers must be individually amplified and support a wide frequency response and dispersion. To help exhibitors with their upgrades, Harman® Professional, a leading manufacturer of high-quality audio equipment, has been working with Dolby to design innovative and optimized solutions to simplify deployment of Dolby Atmos.
“After first previewing Dolby Atmos last year, we immediately recognized the tremendous potential,” said Michael MacDonald, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Harman Professional. “Dolby Atmos is clearly the next-generation audio platform and will provide considerable performance advantages to our customers in the global cinema market.”

Harman’s JBL® Professional loudspeakers and Crown Audio® amplifiers and network technologies are the system of choice at many of the world’s largest and most prestigious cinemas and theatre chains. Harman is deploying this experience and its category-leading engineering capabilities to design a host of specialized powered loudspeakers to capitalize on the innovations of Dolby Atmos. In doing so, Harman Professional will enable filmmakers and exhibitors to provide their customers with a more immersive cinematic experience.

Author Suzanne Collins’ best-selling novel “The Hunger Games”, is the first in a trilogy that has over 16 million copies in print in the United States alone, has developed a massive global following.

Movie Director Gary Ross and his sound team including Supervising Sound Editor Lon Bender, Re-recording Mixer Michael Keller, and Re-recording Mixer Mike Prestwood Smith discuss their approach to creating the lush soundscapes for this highly anticipated film adaptation.

Locate a theater to experience The Hunger Games in Dolby Surround 7.1 at www.dolby.com

From Academy Award-winning filmmaker Andrew Stanton comes “John Carter”–a sweeping action-adventure set on the mysterious and exotic planet of Barsoom (Mars). “John Carter” is based on a classic novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, whose highly imaginative adventures served as inspiration for many filmmakers, both past and present. The film tells the story of war-weary, former military captain John Carter (Taylor Kitsch), who is inexplicably transported to Mars where he becomes reluctantly embroiled in a conflict of epic proportions amongst the inhabitants of the planet, including Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe) and the captivating Princess Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins). In a world on the brink of collapse, Carter rediscovers his humanity when he realizes that the survival of Barsoom and its people rests in his hands.

Supervising Sound Editor Jonathan Null and Composer Michael Giacchino share with the SoundWorks Collection their extensive work bringing to life the planet of Barsoom.

Each year the MPSE presents the Golden Reel Awards as acknowledgements of the year’s best work in the various areas of sound editing for Dialogue & ADR, Effects & Foley and Music,” Ms. Banks continues. “We are also extremely proud to present Gale Anne Hurd with the Filmmaker Award, and to honor George Watters II as the Career Achievement Recipient.

The MPSE board currently comprises president Bobbi Banks, vice-president Frank Morrone, secretary Mark Lanza, treasurer Paul Rodriguez, Sgt. at Arms Glenn Morgan, Film Seats Mike Draghi, Scott Haller, Hal Levinsohn, Bernard Weiser, Damian Candusso, Joe DeBeasi and Mike Orlowski, plus TV Seats Maciek Malish, Chris Reeves, Jason Arnold, Jeremy J. Gordon,Albert Lord III, Ruth Adelman and Skye Lewin. “We have an awesome board that is dedicated to serving the sound community in new and creative ways,” Ms. Banks says.

About MPSE:
Established in 1953, MPSE is a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide a wealth of knowledge from award winning professionals to a diverse group of individuals, youth and career professionals alike; mentoring and educating the community about the artistic merit and technical advancements in sound and music editing; providing scholarships for the continuing advancement of motion picture sound in education; and helping to enhance the personal and professional lives of the men and women who practice this unique craft.

It was a fairytale evening for Hugo and the Sound Mixing team of Production Mixer John Midgley, Re-Recording Mixer Tom Fleischman, CAS and Scoring Mixer Simon Rhodes at the 48th Annual Cinema Audio Society Awards. The family adventure won Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for a Motion Picture, the evening’s top honor. This is Midgley’s first CAS Award. He was previously nominated forStar Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace. It is the second CAS Award for Fleischman in this category having previously won for The Aviator. He also won a second consecutive CAS Award for Boardwalk Empire, earlier in the evening. This is Rhodes first CAS Award as this is the first year Scoring Mixers have been included in the Awards.

Held in the Millennium Biltmore Hotel’s famed Crystal Ballroom, the program also celebrated the professional contributions of Scott Millan, CAS, with the CAS Career Achievement Award. A four-time Academy Award winner®, Millan has won three CAS Awards, and been nominated eight times. Millan said, “This is a great honor, and I am very proud to be recognized in the company of so many distinguished and talented past recipients.” On hand to present his award was previous CAS Career Achievement Award recipient (and two-time Academy Award® winner)Walter Murch, CAS and by ten-time Academy Award® nominated, Grammy® and Emmy® Award-winning composer Thomas Newman. Millan and Newman most recently collaborated on the 23rd James Bond feature Skyfall.

Among other highlights, Academy Award® nominated director Rob Marshall (Chicago), was presented with the CAS Filmmaker Award, the highest honor bestowed upon a non-CAS member. “I am thrilled and honored to be receiving the Filmmaker Award from the CAS,” Marshall said when he learned of the honor. “I have been incredibly lucky in my career to have worked with some of the finest artists in the field of sound. They have taught me so much about the creative process and the integral nature of collaboration – which I value so highly.” Presenting his award were some of Marshall’s most notable colleagues: Academy Award-winner® Penelope Cruz, who starred in Marshall’s musical sensation Nine and worldwide box office smash Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides; CAS Award and three-time Academy Award® winner Michael Minkler, CAS; Academy Award® winner Lee Orloff, CAS; and CAS Award and six-time Academy Award® nominee Paul Massey, CAS. In the presentation, Cruz praised Marshall . . . “As a director, he’s a dream to work with. Loves his actors and gives attention to every detail… is always kind to everyone but doesn’t stop until things are perfect. He’s honest, tough when he needs to be, and has enormous respect for everyone’s work.”

In his remarks to the over 400 attendees CAS President David E. Fluhr spoke of the legacy of sound. “The future is built on the actions of today, and the achievements of yesterday. Throughout the last year, sound mixers everywhere have elevated our craft”.

In this exclusive SoundWorks Collection video profile, producer Michael Coleman sits down with the oscar nominated sound team of HUGO including co-supervising sound editor Philip Stockton, co-supervising sound editor Eugene Gearty, and re-recording mixer Tom Fleischman.

Video shot on location at Technicolor Sound at Paramount, Hollywood, CA.

Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of Brian Selznick’s award-winning novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret stars Asa Butterfield, as an orphan boy who lives in a Parisian train station. Sent to live with his drunken uncle after his father’s death in a fire, Hugo learned how to wind the massive clocks that run throughout the station. When the uncle disappears one day, Hugo decides to maintain the clocks on his own, hoping nobody will catch on to him squatting in the station.
His natural aptitude for engineering leads him to steal gears, tools, and other items from a toy-shop owner who maintains a storefront in the station. Hugo needs these purloined pieces in order to rebuild a mechanical man that was left in the father’s care at the museum — the restoration was a project father and son did together.

When Georges (Ben Kingsley), the old man who runs the toy stand, catches on to the thievery, he threatens to turn Hugo over to the station’s lone police officer (Sacha Baron Cohen, who makes every effort to send any parentless child in the station to the orphanage. But Hugo’s run-in with Georges leads to a friendship with the elderly gentleman’s goddaughter, Isabelle (Chloe Grace Moretz), who unknowingly possesses the last item Hugo needs to make the mechanical man work again. – Perry Seibert, Rovi

In this SoundWorks Collection exclusive we talk with Composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Sound Re-recording Mixer Michael Semanick, and Re-recording Mixer, Sound Designer, and Supervising Sound Editor Ren Klyce.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a 2011 English-language drama/thriller film. It is the second film to be adapted from the Swedish novel of the same name by Stieg Larsson. The first was a 2009 Swedish-language/English dubbed film. The 2011 film was written by Steven Zaillian and directed by David Fincher. Daniel Craig stars as Mikael Blomkvist, and Rooney Mara stars as Lisbeth Salander. In essence, the film follows a man’s mission to find out what has happened to a girl who has been missing for 36 years, and may have been murdered.

From director Steven Spielberg comes “War Horse,” an epic adventure for audiences of all ages. Set against a sweeping canvas of rural England and Europe during the First World War, “War Horse” begins with the remarkable friendship between a horse named Joey and a young man called Albert, who tames and trains him.

When they are forcefully parted, the film follows the extraordinary journey of the horse as he moves through the war, changing and inspiring the lives of all those he meets—British cavalry, German soldiers, and a French farmer and his granddaughter—before the story reaches its emotional climax in the heart of No Man’s Land.

In the exclusive SoundWorks Collection video we talk with Sound Designer and Re-recording Mixer Gary Rydstrom and Composer John Williams.

Locate a theater to experience War Horse in Dolby Surround 7.1 at www.dolby.com

In this exclusive SoundWorks Collection video we talk with Director Brad Bird, Composer Michael Giacchino, Supervising ADR Editor Gwen Whittle Yates and Supervising Sound Editor Richard Hymns.

Tom Cruise returns in the starring role as Ethan Hunt and is joined by an international cast that includes Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Paula Patton, Michael Nyqvist, Vladimir Mashkov, Josh Holloway, Anil Kapoor and Léa Seydoux.

Blamed for the terrorist bombing of the Kremlin, IMF operative Ethan Hunt is disavowed along with the rest of the agency when the President initiates “Ghost Protocol.” Left without any resources or backup, Ethan must find a way to clear his agency’s name and prevent another attack. To complicate matters further, Ethan is forced to embark on this mission with a team of fellow IMF fugitives whose personal motives he does not fully know.

Locate a theater to experience Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol in Dolby Surround 7.1 at www.dolby.com

On vacation in Los Angeles, Walter, the world’s biggest Muppet fan, and his friends Gary (Segel) and Mary (Amy Adams) from Smalltown, USA, discover the nefarious plan of oilman Tex Richman (Chris Cooper) to raze the Muppet Theater and drill for the oil recently discovered beneath the Muppets’ former stomping grounds.

To stage The Greatest Muppet Telethon Ever and raise the $10 million needed to save the theater, Walter, Mary and Gary help Kermit reunite the Muppets, who have all gone their separate ways: Fozzie now performs with a Reno casino house band called the Moopets, Miss Piggy is a plus-size fashion editor at Vogue Paris, Animal is in a Santa Barbara clinic for anger management, and Gonzo is a high-powered plumbing magnate.

In this SoundWorks Collection exclusive we talk with Director James Bobin, Film Editor James Thomas, Supervising Sound Editors Kami Asgar and Sean McCormack, and Sound Re-recording Mixer Kevin O’Connell.

Locate a theater to experience Muppets in Dolby Surround 7.1 at www.dolby.com

Brian Tyler is a composer of over 50 films and was recently nominated for “Film Composer of the Year” by the International Film Music Critics Association. He composed and conducted the scores for “Eagle Eye“ for producer Steven Spielberg, the box office hit “Fast and Furious,” “The Expendables” and “Rambo” directed by Sylvester Stallone, “Law Abiding Citizen” starring Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler, the Keanu Reeves thriller “Constantine,” the epic science fiction film “Battle Los Angeles” and “Fast Five.”

He began scoring features shortly after he received his bachelor’s degree from UCLA and his master’s degree from Harvard University. Tyler’s score for Bill Paxton’s “Frailty” won him a World Soundtrack Award in 2002 as well as The World Soundtrack Award as Best New Film Composer of the Year. The following year he received an Emmy nomination for his score for “The Last Call” and has since won 5 ASCAP Film Music Awards for “Eagle Eye,” “Fast and Furious,” “Law Abiding Citizen,” “The Final Destination,” and “Constantine.” His score for “The Killing Room” was nominated for best thriller score of 2009 by the International Film Music Critics Association. iTunes also chose “Eagle Eye” as one of the ten best scores of 2008.

Tyler is a multi-instrumentalist playing drums, piano, guitar, orchestral and world percussion, bass, cello, guitarviol, charango, bouzouki, amongst others. After composing the score for ”The Hunted” for Academy Award-winning director William Friedkin, Tyler found himself on the cover of Film Score Monthly Magazine dubbed as “The Future of Film Scoring.” He then composed the score for Disney’s “The Greatest Game Ever Played” starring Shia LaBeouf. His score for “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift” hit #1 on the iTunes soundtrack sales charts while his soundtrack for “Children of Dune” was the #4 best selling album on Amazon.com during March of 2003.

Other credits include 20th Century Fox’s science-fiction film “Timeline” directed by Richard Donner, “Alien vs Predator: Requiem,” “Star Trek: Enterprise,” “Transformers Prime,” and Steven Spielberg’s upcoming series “Terra Nova.” His music has been used in a multitude of film trailers including “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” “The Departed,” and “The Chronicles of Narnia.” He is also the executive producer and composer for the upcoming thriller “Columbus Circle.” Tyler was recently inducted into the music branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Pearl Jam Twenty chronicles the years leading up to the band’s formation, the chaos that ensued soon-after their rise to megastardom, their step back from center stage, and the creation of a trusted circle that would surround them—giving way to a work culture that would sustain them. Told in big themes and bold colors with blistering sound, the film is carved from over 1,200 hours of rarely-seen and never-before seen footage spanning the band’s career. Pearl Jam Twenty is the definitive portrait of Pearl Jam: part concert film, part intimate insider-hang, part testimonial to the power of music and uncompromising artists.

In this SoundWorks Collection exclusive video we talk with Eric Fischer of Autumn Audio, who had the task of handling sixteen 5.1 mixes and additional post production work required to clean up and prepare various archived audio recordings. You can purchase the DVD and blu-ray release at www.pj20.com!

Supervising Sound Editor Lon Bender shares his thoughts on the creative process behind the acclaimed sound design for DRIVE.

The project was also mixed at Sound One by Re-recording Mixers Roberto Fernandez and Dave Paterson.

Video Courtesy of CSS Studios

Who says robot boxing won’t happen in 2020?! “Real Steel” plays out this fantasy as robots have replaced humans in boxing in this Shawn Levy film (“Night at the Museum” franchise and “Date Night”).

Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman) loses a chance to become a boxing champion when robots take over, and he becomes a small-time promoter. When he has difficulty making a living, he reluctantly teams up with his son Max (Dakota Goyo) to build a robot that can contend for the championship.

The stunning visual effects behind the robots can only be brought to life by believable sound. The team responsible for this difficult task include Craig Henighan (sound designer, sound re-recording mixer, supervising sound editor), Skip Longfellow (first assistant sound editor), Warren Hendriks (sound designer), Rob Nokes (sound effects field recordist), and Dan O’Connell (foley artist).

Grab your boxing gloves and step into the ring!

Finland based composer and sound designer Ari Pulkkinen seems to be one of the most listened to composers in the world right now with over 250 million people who have heard his original Angry Birds theme. Pulkkine’s catchy theme was also recently performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra which was part of a music festival in the city.

Angry Birds has been praised for its successful combination of addictive gameplay, comical style, and low price. Its popularity led to versions of Angry Birds being created for personal computers and gaming consoles, a market for merchandise featuring its characters and even long-term plans for a feature film or television series. With a combined 350 million downloads across all platforms and including both regular and special editions, the game has been called “one of the most mainstream games out right now”, “one of the great runaway hits of 2010″, and “the largest mobile app success the world has seen so far”.

Ari has also worked on other very popular games such as Trine (PS3/PC), Dead Nation (PS3), and Outland (PS3/360). The games have received rave reviews and praise for their soundtracks and sound design.

Ari Pulkkinen
www.aripulkkinen.com

ANGRY BIRDS
www.rovio.com

Acting as a foundation with an origin story for a new film series, Director Rupert Wyatt takes the audience on the science fiction summer hit, Rise of the Planet of the Apes. The stunning visual effects produced by Weta Digital for the apes are complimented by the wide range of sounds recorded and edited for the film.

Leading the sound team is supervising sound editor and sound designer Chuck Michael and co-supervisor John Larsen with the talents of first assistant sound editor Smokey Cloud and sound re-recording mixers Doug Hemphill and Ron Bartlett.

Chimp Haven serves as The National Chimpanzee Sanctuary. They are an independent, nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide lifetime care for chimpanzees who have been retired from medical research, the entertainment industry or no longer wanted as pets. For more information visit:
www.chimphaven.org

Dolby gathered a group of cinema industry leaders and innovators from around the world for an exclusive Filmmakers’ Forum held on Monday, July 11, 2011 in San Francisco, CA.

Our focus will be on how 7.1 surround sound delivers a richer, more immersing moviegoing experience to audiences—and YOU can join the live discussion.

Discussion Topic: The Impact of 7.1 Surround Sound on 2D and 3D Movies
The content creation community is embracing this new audio format, and more than 25 feature films have been announced or already mixed in 7.1—and a majority of them are in 3D. Discover how 7.1 brings a more exciting sensory experience to 2D and gives content creators even more control over audio placement for 3D movies. Also learn from experts in the cinema industry how they envision the future of surround sound.

Get in the cinema frame of mind by checking out a movie in Dolby Surround 7.1 and/or Dolby 3D at a theater near you.

Panel Moderator:
Stuart Bowling, Dolby Laboratories, Worldwide Technical Marketing Manager, Cinema

Panelists:
Kinson Tsang, supervising sound designer, Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen and The Lost Bladesman
Rohan Sippy, Director, Dum Maaro Dum
Erik Aadahl, supervising sound editor, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Kung Fu Panda 2, and Megamind
Michael Semanick, Re-recording mixer, Cars 2 and Toy Story 3
Eric Brevig, Director, Yogi Bear and Journey to the Center of the Earth

After eight films over a 10-year span, the epic adventure of Harry Potter and his circle of wizard friends will close the last chapter of this celebrated series with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2.

Director David Yates returns to direct his fourth Harry Potter film and returns with his talented sound team including Re-recording mixers Stuart Hilliker and Mike Dowson, Supervising Music Editor Gerard McCann, Supervising Sound Editor James Mather, and Sound Designer Dom Gibbs. Expecto Patronum!