LA

Well I arrived at LAX and made it through Customs in record time.  Went straight to the B&B that I am staying at and got settled in.  It is a lovely place in Hancock Park, which is a really nice area and quite central.  David organised for us to attend an MPSE event yesterday evening, which was about Inglorious Basterds.  I thought it would be great to hear the sound guys discussing the film.

To my surprise Vfx legend John Dykstra, the films editor Sally Menke, DOP Bob Richardson, Supervising Sound Editor Wylie Stateman and Re-recording Mixers Tony Lamberty and Michael Minkler were in attendance.  The big surprise was Quentin Tarantino showed up halfway through the forum.  Wow!  what a way to start an LA visit!

We're now working hard on the dialogue edit, discovering little gems in the material that Adrian sent to us. Geoff is working hard on the musical score, but communication over the past few days (while I was in transit) was difficult, which meant he worked on a cue for a day longer than he actually needed to.  The clock is ticking, but it's all coming together.

I will be going to see Ep.3 of The Pacific this evening with Dustin, the series hasn't been release in the US yet and probably won't get to Australia until later this year, so I'm excited to see it.

I guess this is the difference about living in the sleepy town of Perth and the American film capital of Los Angeles, there is so much going on over here that you would probably be able to find some sort of film function to go to every night.

2nd cue

Geoff and I spent much of today and this evening working on, discussing and coming up with ideas for the 2nd cue of the film.  Communicating electronically from across the country can be fraught with misunderstanding when files don't upload correctly and you can't get comms working as they should.

That said, the second cue is sound very nice and there is a lovely touch, which I won't reveal here.  I wonder how many people will pick it up, when they watch the film?

Bag is semi-packed, communications tested (partially working)... ready.

ADR

Three hours doing recording ADR for the film.  We didn't have enough actors so Ben played a number of roles, as did Michael and I.  It would be great if we had the resources to do this all properly, but I'm sure we've go enough to do the job.

Ben did the best Chinese laundry owner!

Very tired now, need sleep.

Congratulations Clarkie!

Clarke Richards, who plays the role of Trooper Clarke in Kanowna, has just been awarded Best Actor at the 2010 Tropfest Film Festival, for his role in the film Happenstance.  It's a fantastic achievement and we are all very thrilled for him.

The happy award winner, pictured here with Katie May Johnson who won the Woman in Film Award

Onya mate!

First music cue

Geoff sent through the first music cue which goes for all of 27 seconds, but in that time he has managed to do something incredibly emotional and haunting at the same time.

You choose

Red or Gunmetal?  Which one do you like for the opening title?

iChat rocks

I had a three hour sound spotting session with David today who, as you know is in LA.  We used iChat and were able to play the film in one portion of the chat screen and discuss scenes as we played them.  I've done lots of discussions over Skype, but iChat was clear, with no lag time and didn't drop out once! 

The film was discussed from start to finish with effects, foley, ADR and the relation to story of all.  At the conclusion we decided that we need ADR from Dustin and Ben, and also group sounds for the town scenes. 

It was great to be working with him as he isn't a one man band.  He has this team who do various parts of the project, overseen by him and I, which are all pulled together at the mix. 

I am heading to LA next week, for the final sound lock-off and dubb.  Exciting time, we're getting very close.