Post Sound Update

Action Audio and Visual is not only a leading rental service for audio and video equipment, but also a one-stop shop for your project with a full service production studio. We recently set up our new Avid C24 and its 24-channel control surface guarantees maximized control of Pro Tools and Pro Tools HD mixing, recording, and editing.

James Barth , our post specialist, has recently begun working on his second season of a PBS series titled “Inspiration with Lance Heft”. This 30-minute series features in-depth interviews with leading business moguls, artists, and entertainers with a focus on the inspirations of these successful men and women.  One interesting aspect of this collaboration is that James has never met the producer; everything has been done remotely thanks to today’s technology.

James is diligent to ensure that “Inspiration” follows the legislation of the CALM, or the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation, Act. In addition to his work on “Inspiration”, James has recently wrapped up a horror film project titled “Nightmare”, a genre that is far removed from the uplifting subject matter of “Inspiration”. James enjoys working on such diverse projects simultaneously.

- Action Audio and Visual

LA Film Festival Underway!

There were several highlights over the first weekend of the LA Film Festival.  Friday night we enjoyed laughing with the crew of Juan of the Dead, a hilarious zombie satire, in the Filmmaker’s Lounge.  They were just as silly offset as on.  The Filmmaker’s Lounge is a perk we get to enjoy as a sponsor of LAFF, where there’s free drinks and snacks on a rooftop with the Filmmakers.  So we wandered around all weekend between films there and spoke to the different directors and actors and writers of the films at LAFF.  A lot of fun mingling with the beautiful people dressed to the nines

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Sunday there were allstar “coffee talk” panels, where panels of directors, actors and composers discussed their craft.  In the final talk we were so impressed and interested to hear about the screenwriting process from the forefront of the business: John August, (famous for Big Fish, Corpse Bride, Charlie’s Angels) mediated Jonathan Nolan (famous for The Dark Knight, Memento, The Prestige); Zak Penn (famous for The Avengers, X-Men, The Incredible Hulk); and Lorene Scafaria (famous for Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist and her new Seeking A Friend At The End of The World – premiering at LAFF 4/19 starring Steve Carell and Keira Knightley.)  It was pretty funny to hear  August ask about “writing what you know” only to hear Nolan respond, “Well I, for one, know nothing about living in a batcave and being a masked avenger.”

Sunday evening there was a “secret screening” we attended which turned out to be Ruby Sparks – the new film from the Producers of Little Miss Sunshine.  We loved the film, and were very impressed with Zoe Kazan who not only starred in the film alongside her lover Paul Dano, but also wrote the film.  The producers and actors all answered Q&A after the film and it was interesting to hear about their process.

So much more to come too – Looking forward to Neil Young’s Journeys, Crazy & Thief, A Band Called Death and Searching for Sugarman, the latter is about Rodriguez, possibly the best singer-songwriter you’ve never heard of.  (Look him up!)

- Action Audio and Visual

Dark Shadows

For the past few years, we’ve been working on a Dark Shadows film.  Not the Tim Burton one, but the original film that was released in 1971 with David Selby, Kate Jackson and the original Barnabus, Jonathan Frid.  The original film was poorly spliced, and left out an important thirty minutes of a lost reel that was found a few years ago, and so they are remaking the film.  However the audio from the lost reel wasn’t found, so we’ve been having the actors come in and do overdubs.

It’s been a process of using Skype to get the director in London and the actress Kate Jackson (Tracy Collins) in North Carolina working with David Selby (Quentin Collins) and Lara Parker (Angelique Collins) here in Los Angeles all in real time.  Watching the old film and seeing the actors find that passionate, over-the-top style again is positively enchanting.  They are still full of magic.

We still have foley and sound effects to do to complete the silent, never-been-seen thirty minutes, so this is still in production, but the end result should be a real treat for fans.

- Action Audio and Visual

LA Film Festival

Action Audio and Visual is proud to once again provide audio solutions for the annual LA Film Festival as an Official Festival Affiliate.  We’re excited to partake in the premieres of the new Woody Allen and Steven Soderberg films, as well as hundreds of other brilliant 2012 films.

Just like last year, we will be covering all the sound for the Q & A’s so when you hear Jonathan Demme talk about how different it was shooting the new Neil Young film, “Journeys” from his earlier films like “Silence of the Lambs” you’ll know we’re the ones bringing his voice to your ears.  We’ll also be helping everyone party by covering all the audio in the Filmmaker’s Lounge and all the DJ parties hosted at the Film Fest.  And of course we’ll be supporting coverage of the main events themselves: the films.

The LA Film Festival is part of the allegiance Film Independent, who also run the Independent Spirit Awards, and Project Involve.  Project Involve is another facet we remain heavily involved with, providing all the audio rentals to help cultivate the careers of under-represented filmmakers.  Working with Film Independent is so rewarding as we get to be present in the heart of the industry, which beats right here out of LA.

We look forward to seeing you at the LA Film Festival, June 14-24, 2012.  If you spot our team, say hi and let us know what you’re working on.

- Action Audio and Visual

Super Bowl Weekend

Not only was this weekend a smashing success for the Giants, it was for Action as well.  We rented out all of our plasma and LCD tv screens, as well as some projectors for the Super Bowl Game. Once we ran out of our biggest screens, 65″ plasmas, our customers started working their way down until we had no tv screens left. It was amazing. We definitely scored points all over Hollywood this weekend.

What was your favorite Super Bowl commercial?  Here’s ours:

- Action Audio and Visual

Recent Projects

On November 22, 2011, the Boys and Girls Club in Burbank had a special guest speaker, Oscar De La Hoya. We set up the audio for the legendary boxer  and he delivered an inspirational speech to the children.  The appearance was sponsored by AT&T, which involved them donating $5,000 to the Boys and Girls club. It was an honor to meet and speak with Oscar afterward.

On December 19th, 2011 we were commissioned to check that a building was sound proofed enough to sustain the impact of the new subway the city built.   We blasted the building with 100 decibels of loud sounds and music. We brought 6 of our Dynacord Cobra-2 speakers comprising 6000 watts of power and had them lifted onto a crane to blast sound to 100db. Turns out, the building was indeed sound proof.

http://www.actionaudioandvisual.com/products/audio-rentals/03-speakers-amps/speakers/dynacord-cobra-2-systems/

Toward the end of 2011 we ran the sound for a Hungarian performance using our mikes, mixers, speakers and effects.  The show was fun to watch, running for two hours each night in Hollywood.

- Action Audio and Visual

Post Sound Production

Our 5.1 Pro-Tools post sound rooms are industry ready to finish your film.  Our post sound production’s head engineer is led by James Barth, who has worked with heavies such as Tom Petty and Leon Russell, as well as having completed dozens of film projects, including Soul Fire Rising, Consinsual, Live Evil, and much more. For a more comprehensive list of his works, please check out his IMDB.

Our sound supervisor is led by Richard Mercado, who has completed almost 100 different jobs. His most popular works include Cane, Lizzie McGuire, S Club 7, Summerland, and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. For a more comprehensive list of his works, please check out his IMDB.

They have done numerous projects together and separately. Our most recent project that has been released was “The Man in the Maze”, which is about four college students doing research about an Indian burial mound, which causes them to mysteriously get trapped in a maze followed by an evil killing spirit. So, obviously playing in a fun field of wild dynamic range between eerie music, frantic, hushed conspiring to blood-curdling screams.  Another project that will be coming out with soon is called the “Telling of the Shoes,” which is about a Manhattan dinner party that takes a dramatic turn. We are so pleased to have worked on these projects and look forward to our future endeavors.

- Action Audio and Visual