Soundworks Collection

This week we talk with Matt Hines who is a Product Manager for Post Production at iZotope. iZotope makes innovative products that inspire and enable people to be creative. Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, iZotope has spent over a decade developing award-winning products and audio technologies for professionals and hobbyists alike. Used by millions of people in over 50 countries, iZotope products are a core component of GRAMMY-winning music studios, Oscar and Emmy-winning film and TV post production studios, and prominent radio studios, as well as basement and bedroom studios across the globe.

In this exclusive SoundWorks Collection video we talk with Tabitha Jackson, Director of the Sundance Institute's Documentary Film Program, Randy Thom, Director of Sound Design at Skywalker Sound and Composer and Sundance Creative Advisors Todd Boekelheide and Miriam Cutler. This will be the third year the Music and Sound Design Labs take place at the Skywalker Ranch in northern California. The Labs are part of 24 residential labs the Institute hosts annually to discover and foster the talent of emerging independent artists in film, theatre, new media and episodic content. The Music and Sound Design Labs provide a space for composers, directors and sound designers to collaborate on the process of designing a soundtrack for film. Fellows participate in workshops and creative exercises under the guidance of leading film composers and film music professionals acting as Creative Advisors.The Music and Sound Design Lab for narrative feature films is a joint initiative of the Institute’s Film Music Program and Fea

This week we spoke with New York based Music Supervisor Randall Poster. His career started working on the 1995 breakout film "Kids" soon followed by Director Wes Anderson indie film "Bottle Rocket". Randall has since collaborated with many talented Directors including Sam Mendes, Martin Scorsese, Richard Linklater, David Fincher and many more.

In this exclusive SoundWorks Collection sound profile we talk with Director Brett Morgen and his sound team including sound designer and re-recording mixer Cameron Frankly and sound and music editor Jon Michaels about their work on the documentary Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck which is moderated by Michael Coleman from SoundWorks Collection. Kurt Cobain, legendary lead singer, guitarist and songwriter of Nirvana, “the flagship band of Generation X,” remains an object of reverence and fascination for music fans around the world. His story is told for the first time in KURT COBAIN: MONTAGE OF HECK, a fully authorized feature documentary co-produced by HBO Documentary Films and Universal Pictures International Entertainment Content Group. Brett Morgen, the Oscar®-nominated filmmaker behind such acclaimed documentaries as the HBO presentations “Crossfire Hurricane,” which celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Rolling Stones, and “The Kid Stays in the Picture,” is writer, director and producer of KURT COBAIN: MO

This week we met up with Re-recording Mixer Greg Russell who has mixed more than 195 feature films and has been nominated for 16 Academy Awards™, 11 Cinema Audio Society awards, two BAFTA and two Emmys, with one Emmy win. Greg is a long time collaborator with Director Michael Bay and has worked on movies such as Skyfall, Spider-man, Spider-man 2, and The Usual Suspects. He's worked on the entire Transformers series.

This week with spoke with the Playstation Music Group including Senior Music Manager Jonathan Mayer, Music Producer Matt Levin, and Senior Music Editor Scott Hanau about their working supporting various video game titles including God of War, Uncharted, The Order, The Last of Us and InFAMOUS.

This week we spoke with composer Bryan Lee Brown about his recent collaboration on HBO’s show SONIC HIGHWAYS. SONIC HIGHWAYS which is directed by Dave Grohl is a 8-episode, 8-city look at the recording of the Foo Fighter’s 8th album. The series taps into the music heritage and cultural fabric of eight cities: Chicago, Austin, Nashville, Los Angeles, Seattle, New Orleans, Washington D.C and New York. Writing music for this documentary was personal for Brown who is a long time friend of director Dave Grohl and included interviews and real life events from many of his close friends.

This week we spoke with our good friend Jay Messina who is a world-class engineer/producer based in New York city and has worked on such classic albums by Aerosmith, Kiss, Miles Davis, Supertramp, Patti Smith, Slash, Yoko Ono, and Cheap Trick, to name a few. we met up with Jay in his upper west side home to talk about his early beginnings working at A&R Studios and the Record Plant where he served as chief engineer for 15 years. Jay was consistently busy recording albums and stayed with Record Plant until he left in 1987. He’s since embarked on a very successful freelance career and In 2005 Jay opened his own studio, West End Sound, where he mixes and masters national and international projects today.

This week we spoke with show-runner and writer Beau Willimon and Composer Jeff Beal about their collaboration on the hit Netflix show House of Cards. Set in present-day Washington, D.C., House of Cards is the story of Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey), a Democrat from South Carolina's 5th congressional district and House Majority Whip who, after being passed over for appointment as Secretary of State, initiates an elaborate plan to get himself into a position of greater power, aided by his wife, Claire Underwood (Robin Wright). The series deals primarily with themes of ruthless pragmatism, manipulation and power. In our conversation we discuss how Jeff and Beau work together to help support the tone and emotion of the show and break down some of their favorite scenes where music played an important role.

Composer Peter McConnell has composed award-winning scores for a diverse range of video games including Broken Age, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare, the Sly Cooper series, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Psychonauts, Brutal Legend and Grim Fandango. Before working independently, Peter composed in-house at LucasArts contributing to beloved franchises such as Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Monkey Island. We also discussed one of the most acclaimed adventure games of all time, Grim Fandango which was recently Remastered by Double Fine Studios. The 1998 LucasArts classic was remastered to look, sound, and control even better than the award-winning original release.

This week we spoke with Christopher Willitis, who is a bay are based electronic musician, teacher, composer, producer, photographer, filmmaker and guitar pioneer. His most recent album,Opening, was released on Ghostly International in September 2014. Chris and a group of artists, coders, designers, musicians, thinkers, engineers, geeks, philanthropists, and entrepreneurs are opening a new intimate performance space housed within The Midway creative complex in San Francisco called Envelop., ENVELOP is a unique audio visual instrument for electronic artists, and a world-class venue for audiences to experience sound and light.

This week we spoke with sound recordist Michael Raphael from Rabbit Ears Audio and Rudy Trubbit who is the Director of Audio for Lionel Trains. Rudy and Michael worked together on sourcing a new group of steam whistles for Lionel's new products. They traveled to North Carolina and recorded over 15 steam whistles which are incredibly challenging sounds to record because of the high amount of SPL, and lionel’s specific needs. Although steam whistles emerged in the mid-19th century as a warning device, train whistles quickly became the rail industry’s iconic sound. Many railways even cast their own whistles, branding the sound of their particular train line.

This week we talk with Grammy Award® winning guitarist Andy Summers from The Police about his music documentary based on the memoir One Train Later, Can’t Stand Losing You: Surviving the Police tells of the rise of The Police. During the band’s phenomenal rise and its dissolution at the height of their popularity in the mid-80s, Summers captured history with his candid photographs. Utilizing rare archival footage and insights from the guitarist’s side of the stage, Can't Stand Losing You: Surviving the Police brings together past and present as the band members reunite, more than two decades later, for a global reunion tour in 2007.

This week we spoke with Composer Mac Quayle. Mac has written music for over 30 films and television shows and accumulated a long list of credits as a music producer, dance remixer and multi-instrumentalist. As a composer his music was most recently heard in the hit FX series American Horror Story: Freak Show as well as in a diverse list of feature films and documentaries including Autism in Love which premieres at this years Tribeca Film Festival and is featured in this interview. Some of his collaborations as an additional composer with Composer Cliff Martinez appear in such movies as Drive, Contagion, Spring Breakers, The Normal Heart and in the television series Cold Case.

This week we spoke with production sound mixer and re-recording mixer Stephen Tibbo. Stephen is the winner of two Emmy Awards and three CAS awards for "Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing." through his association with the hit television series Modern Family. Stephen is also an accomplished sound re-recording mixer who has worked on dozens of webisodes, short and independent films such as The Quest, Fear Clinic, Contracted and many others. We discussed what it has been like to work on more than 130 episodes of Modern Family and the creative and technical challenges to capturing clean tracks while keeping up with the large ensemble cast.

This week we spoke with Composer Penka Kouneva at this years Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Penka started her career working alongside Composer Steve Jablonsky, where she composed additional score for game titles such including Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Penka's music, which has been called "haunting and passionate," is a blend of her Eastern European heritage, classical training and media scoring. Penka has also worked as an orchestrator and composer on titles grossing $15 billion worldwide: films - Matrix, Transformers, Pirates, Elysium, Ender's Game; and video games such as World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, Gears of War 2 & 3, Sims 3, Diablo III, Need for Speed, and Dragon Age II.

This week we spoke with Finishing Move Inc. who is Brian Trifon and Brian Lee White, two friends and collaborators who recently worked on some incredible video game music projects including Halo: Master Chief Collection for Microsoft, Massive Chalice for Double Fine games, Borderlands 1 and 2, and the Assassin Creed series. We talk about the incredible success they have had since forming their company just over two years ago and how they continue to navigate the task of managing large budget video game scores and forming their own opinions and choices about their musical compositions. I hope you enjoy!

This week we spoke with Composer and multi instrumentalist Will Bates, who also runs Fall On Your Sword (FOYS) Will's commercial music production company based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Alongside the success of Will’s commercial work he has also collaborated with numerous film directors including Alex Gibney on such films as We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks, Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief and Mike Cahill's Another Earth and I-orgins. We had a fantastic talk about his creative and collaborative process and dive into the technical aspects of running a music production, scoring, and audio post company.

This week we spoke with Academy Award-winning (BAFTA) composer Jason Graves who has brought his passion for music to such game titles as THE ORDER: 1886, EVOLVE, TOMB RAIDER and DEAD SPACE. We discuss how his diverse musical background as a classically-trained composer, drummer, keyboardist, guitarist and world percussionist allow him to compose many different genres of music. Jason recently finished work on THE ORDER: 1886 (SONY), EVOLVE (2k GAMES) and we talk about how he manages the long production timelines spanning several years and how both these games incorporate his music into the players experience.

This week we had the pleasure to speak with the executive and creative team behind the recently formed post-production sound company Formosa Group. Joining me in this roundtable discussion include President and COO, Bob Rosenthal, SVP Business Development & Operations Matt Dubin and a fantastic mixture of re-recording mixers, sound designers, and editors including Mark Mangini, Julian Slater, Greg Hedgepath, and Todd Toon.