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The Final Mix

So we know a film is rarely (never!) done linearly, so jumping ahead to the preparation of the final mix seems pretty fitting here! I am very excited and proud to announce that Keberos will be tackling the final mix on the high end sound stages of the pretigious Twickenham Studios in London. Though obviously restricted somewhat by the quailty of our original produciton recordings - and they definatly suffered - Kerberos will be enjoying the talents and skills of Co-Managing Sound Director Craig Irving and former re-recording mixer for the BBC Rob James. Twickenham's production credits go back into the 30's and number in the hundreds with directors such Mikael Håfström, Kenneth Branagh, Richard Attenborough, Tim Burton, and John Madden.
I take this as a nearly unbelievable development and honor that such a low budget independent film as Kerberos would get this opportunity. A result of Professional relationships and mutual respect between Rob James and Craig Irving, and the continued belief in both me and the project by our Executive Producer Brad Fallon, Kerberos will jump in quality and potential, and impact.
First Impressions
My first visit to Twickenham... the studio sits within the small town of St. Margarets the outskirts of London. The quick glance I had of the town certainly made it seem charming, and somewhere I would like to explore further; and unlike many places in the world, I think happily on foot. Having a nice lunch at a small cafe around the corner added a few points as well! Seems there is good food to be found in England after all!
The studio seems old, maybe not the oldest, but a lot of history made here within the work on some of the films.
My friend and our sound supervisor Rob James drove the 2 hour trip from his home in Bognor Regis on the southern coast. I confess, between the rain and sitting in the passenger seat, I drifted back and forth into sleep, waking here and there to see rolling fields and farms shrouded in fog, small groups of stone cottages passing themselves off as towns, and the occasional massive estates dotting the countryside.
We were met at underground parking garage by Re-recording mixer and co-managing partner of the sound facilities Craig Irving, Craig is tall, lanky, intelligent, perceptive, and thoroughly engaging.
The previous business relationship and friendship Rob has was already in effect as we were ushered into their largest mixing room. A 57 feet square with18 foot ceilings, a 25 foot or so screen showing off the Christie CP2000ZX HD Projection system, the massive mixing board ,( Harrison MPC3 Digital Console with 272 inputs) , the quick introduction to three other mixers and I got to watch a few minutes of what these guys can do. On the screen, certainly better than most cinemas, was an HD projection of the movie Ink Heart. They were evidently double checking the compression on the Blu Ray release. Tim Cavagin, who I was introduced to, had done the original mix on the film. Though I have never seen the movie (I will now), the playback of an action packed scene - a Wizard of OZ like tornado on steroids - was absolutely spectacular! The sound was stunning! With all the Dolby Certified reference speakers hanging in the room it should be!! And of course Tim, Craig, and Rob were debating the compression scheme and how comparatively bad is sounded... all I could think was wow! These guys might work on my film!
The Original Edit
So much information on the production issues, the fixes, the initial sound mix, working in surround, and posting with Adobe's Creative suite through the final mix and delivery - coming soon!
The Prep for mix and Dialog clean-up by Rob James
So much information on the production issues, the fixes, the initial sound mix, working in surround, and posting with Adobe's Creative suite through the final mix and delivery - coming soon!