All ears

There are two angles to the Anchovy Pictures ethos. ‘Small fish’ - to make interesting films on small budgets. ‘Big pond’ - using the web to get them out to the widest audience. The first half we have nearly completed on; but trying to make an inexpensive film is a constant eye- (and ear-) opening lesson in film finance. Yesterday we were at Storm HD in Covent Garden, listening to the film and watching the masterly Tim Wheeler create a soundscape for the film, covering our errors, improving the dialogue and making it all sound great. There’s only so much Tim can do - especially with scenes in the Gare du Nord and the Eurostar. They sound like what - and where - they are. So what does a TV show or mainstream movie do? Weeks sometimes of ADR (additional dialogue recording) with the actors in a studio recreating their performance into a microphone. I know, I know - everything you see is fake… and yet the cost and the effort of marrying the two up…

Vegas

Here’s Tim sound desk on its ‘Las Vegas’ setting. Never mind the endless subtleties of the ‘sound sculpt’, just enjoy the twinkly lights.