IAR held its 2008 Winter Audio for Picture (AFP) Awards Festival on Wednesday, December 10th. In their 4th quarter Post production Audio course, students choose any video segment they wish from a movie trailer, TV show, commercial, or cartoon and then delete all audio content. They then recreate every aspect of the audio portion including dialog, sound FX, sound design, and musical composition. IAR students use the recording techniques they learn in IAR’s Post Production course to create impressive projects. The projects are judged by IAR’s faculty and are shown to peers, faculty, and the Administration at the festival. AFP creator Nell Gwynn stated, “The AFP gives students the opportunity to create a demo reel to use if they choose a career in post production.”
This season, students submitted projects from videos such as “Max Payne,” “The Clone Wars,” “The Punisher,” “XXX,” and “Man on Fire.” Thank you to every one who submitted!
The Winter 2008 AFP Winners are:
1st Place
Sera Chung: “Spirit: Stallion of Cimarron”
2nd Place
Zandile Peniston & Gustavo Medina: “Fast and Furious 4”
3rd Place
Carlos Chang, Carlos Charles & Antun Zepina: “XXX”
Outstanding Achievement Awards
Best MIX
Shalik Marshall “Max Payne”
Sound FX Editing
Grace Plunkett & Justin Parker “The Punisher”
Sound Design
Alex Sierra & Talia Rodgers “The Clone Wars”
Original Score
Ronald Cherisme “Avatar”
Audience Favorite
Charles Addai-Boadi & Chris Soklaski “IAR I & II”
Audio Dialog Replacement
Alfredo Taveras & Leonardo Perez “Man on Fire”
Music Selection
Mona Letterese “Repo! The Genetic Opera”
Overall Post Production
Sera Chung “Spirit: Stallion of Cimarron”
On Tuesday, November 18th, IAR hosted another popular Do It Yourself event. The seminar featured IAR faculty member Mario Salvati who discussed the topic ‘Building a Home Studio.’ Many IAR students were interested in building their own studios for personal and commercial use and took advantage of the opportunity to learn from a professional. IAR asked Mario to cover some of the basics for those who were not able to attend:
IAR: What are some common misconceptions when building your own studio?
Mario: There are three. First is the cost. Many people attempting to build a studio don’t realize that isolating your space alone will take up 60-70% of the budget. Isolation is separating your work space from the rest of the world and involves room construction. 2nd, everything must be perfect so you have to pay attention to details. Finally, foam egg cartons are a myth. They are a waste of money and actually make the room sound worse.
IAR: How do you build an acoustically correct mix environment?
Mario: You want a neutral acoustic room; not too live, not too dead. It should also be comfortable. If the room is not exactly right per isolation and acoustics, but it’s comfortable for the engineer and artist to work in, then it’s a good room.
IAR: How does volume and room size affect the studio?
Mario: Loudness and size will totally affect tuning and treating the space. If you want to get loud but the space is in an apartment building, you are going to spend more money on isolation. If it is really small or really big, you will spend a lot of money to make it work.
IAR: Does it matter what genre of music you’ll work with?
Mario: A good room works for any genre, sound is sound.
IAR: Any important resources?
Mario: Aurelex.com, Rane.com, and Electro-voice.com. Google the word ‘Acoustic Treatment’ and read the Master Handbook of Acoustics.
On Tuesday, October 21st, IAR hosted the event ‘Do It Yourself: Music for TV Commercials’ with special guest Wendell Hanes. Wendell has scored over 600 commercials, themes, and promotional spots for television. He has been involved musically in several independent feature films and is the author of the book, “The 30-30 Career: Making 30 Grand in 30 Seconds!” IAR students, faculty, and staff attended the popular seminar to learn about the field of music for commercials and how to become a part of it. Wendell talked about his position as a composer at Volition Sound, a full service music and media branding company, and told the audience about the importance of music expansion, “It’s not enough to just be a recording artist in today’s world. If you expand into different areas such as commercial music, you will grow as an artist and above all get paid.”
Wendell showed the students a variety of projects that he sold to companies such as Porsche, Corona, Audi, Lipton Iced Tea, and Samuel Adams. He engaged the audience for their opinions of the spots and why they thought the music fit. Wendell also showed three musical versions of the same TV commercial and asked which the audience liked best. He wanted to demonstrate the subjectivity involved in the business and that the client’s decision to purchase the project is not based on the music alone, but on a range of factors. Prior to the seminar, Wendell provided IAR students with two video pieces without audio. Students built their original music and sound design to the video and the projects were viewed at the seminar and critiqued by Wendell. IAR students had the unique opportunity to learn how to get into the commercial music business from a successful professional. For more information on Wendell and his book, the3030career.com.
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