Move to film jobs hinges on training

Nathan Hurst / The Detroit News

Burbank, Calif. --It's 10:30 a.m. and sound engineer Ian Nyeste has roughly two hours to perfect the bubbly, under-the-sea sounds for an upcoming episode of Nickelodeon's hit cartoon "SpongeBob SquarePants" before network executives come to hear what they've paid for.

Down the hall, sound effects editor Brian Magrum is perfecting the ricochet sounds that'll accompany bullets flying from a gun held by actor Val Kilmer in the upcoming flick "Fake Identity."

And in another soundproof room, Humberto Amor and Todd Brodie make sure the Spanish language dub for the reality show "Jesse James is a Dead Man" syncs as well as it can with the moving mouths of English-speaking actors.

This is a typical workday at Oracle Post, the post-production powerhouse. The studio's suspender-clad owner, Michigan native Jimmy Lifton, plans to create thousands of jobs just like these at Unity Studios, a sprawling production facility slated to open this fall in a defunct Visteon plant in Allen Park.

Thousands more are expected to crop up at other studios scheduled to open in Pontiac and Detroit in upcoming months as well.

These are the jobs that make the entertainment industry tick. While many think of stars surrounded by bright lights and camera lenses when they hear "Hollywood," Lifton said most of the work done in Tinseltown just isn't that glamorous.

Creative, perhaps. But not easy.

"We're talking 12- and 14-hour days, tight deadlines, demanding clients," Lifton said. "Getting work is based on your reputation."

Lifton and others who are lobbying to bring film jobs to Michigan are focusing efforts on retraining thousands of workers in the state from manufacturing to moviemaking.

But it won't happen without training.

At Unity Studios, a key component will be the Lifton Institute for Media Skills, which will offer classes aimed at turning autoworkers into on-set crew members or post-production technical specialists who put the finishing touches on films and television shows. Motown Motion Picture Studios, the state's other big pending project, will have an educational component as well.

And just this month, the Southfield-based Specs Howard School of Broadcast Arts announced it would start seven- and eight-week workshops to retrain workers for the thousands of film jobs slated to come to the Great Lakes State over the next couple of years.

Competition will be stiff. Unity Studios has received more than 15,000 applications, many from out-of-work Michiganians. In total, Unity expects to employ roughly 3,000, but not until the facility is in full swing. That's a few years off, though the first phase is set for completion this fall.

Then, the first round of out-of-work Michiganians will start retraining to become sound editors; lighting, electrical and rigging assistants; key grips; and a host of other job titles.

And though the work will take some getting used to, there is a certain appeal that only the film industry can provide.

"There's a romantic notion about working on a movie," said Jim Presnal, interim director of the Lifton Institute, addressing a crowd of Hollywood hopefuls gathered for a recent job training information session in Allen Park. "You get to take your family to the theater and see your name scrolling by on the credits ... but this is a different way of life than what you're used to."

Post Magazine
July 2008

Post Magazine Article

Living in a pineapple under the sea is something that would be difficult to portray in a live-action show.  Animation, however, makes it easy for SpongeBob SquarePants, Patrick and friends to inhabit Bikini Bottom.

  “That is the beauty of working in animation,” says Jimmy Lifton, president of Santa Monica’s and Burbank’s Oracle Post (www.oraclepost.com). “We can do things in SpongeBob that are absolutely not of this world.  I often can’t believe come of the sounds we created were done here in Foley.  Animation gives us the ability to play with aspects of sound modulation that you don’t get to do in live action.” 

  For SpongeBob SquarePants, the process starts with the voice recording at Nickelodeon.  The final dialogue is delivered to Oracle Post in sync with final picture.  Once in Pro Tools HD the sound design team, headed by Jeff Hutchins, completes the background and effects.  Foley mixer Aran Tanchum and lead Foley artist Vincent Giusetti create the Foley, which is equally as integral to the show as the sound design.  Also important to the process is producer Paul Tibbit, Nickelodeon’s Jason Stiff and Kimberlee Vanek, as well as supervising sound editor Paulette Lifton.

  Most animated shows record the character’s voices prior to the final animation.  As result, the dialogue tracks alone are reminiscent of a radio show during the golden age of that medium.  Jimmy Lifton explains, “We just recorded the voices for an animation show call ‘Back at the Barnyard’.  It was just like a radio performance where we set up for eight different actors all in the same room, all on their own mics.  We set them up just like the old-style radio show with gobos in between each person.  They were working off of a script with the director, and the creative juices of these actors were really flowing.  Ultimately, this recording will be driving the picture.”
     “Most everything works solely from the audio stand point, where the visuals are not relied on at this stage,” he continues.  “It’s really a combination of the writing and the acting. It starts with the writing, and then it is certainly the talent of these actors who give life to the writing.  In animation, you are not able to see the actor’s facial mannerisms.  It really is what you are hearing to get the character’s emotion.  I am sure the way a line is delivered must have some sort of bearing on the way the animation is drawn.”

  SpongeBob SquarePants uses signature sounds to help define the show’s look and feel.  “The sound is used to build an entire landscape, an entire environment, and an entire feel for the show,” explains Lifton.  “It’s to the point where every single character has their own specific sounds.  For example, they all have their own squeaks and identifiable sounds of waling.  Also, using this fun Hawaiian banjo and ukulele type of music has absolutely been a trademark of the show.  It’s a combination of the visual and the sound together that bring the characters to life.”

  Lifton says that water has a continual presence in SpongeBob.  “It’s down to the subconscious level, because otherwise it would be distracting if it were always there.  Even though SpongeBob lives under the sea, you can’t have voices all gurgley – that wouldn’t work at all.  So, we are taking a lot of different sound design elements and treating them with different plug-ins.  A lot of it goes back to the Foley side of it.  We have a fairly large pool on our Foley stage, and we are doing all kinds of water with that.”

  At the heart of their audio production is Pro Tools HD, along with the database management software Soundminer.  “We are real-world recording many things using Audio-Technica mics for sounds and Neumann U-87’s for voices.  We take that into our Pro Tools sessions and use things such as the Komplete plug-in from Native instrument for sampling and to modify or bend things.  We also have the M-Audio Micro Track just for the ease of recording.”  They call on Dynaudio for monitoring and they mix on THX certified JBL systems.  All the stages are 5.1 THX-designed rooms featuring Digidesign’s Pro-Control and Control 24.

Winners
Best Sound Editing in Television: Animation
(tie): Vincent Giusetti, left, Aran Tanchum,
Monique Reymond, Jason Stiff, Paulette Lifton,
James Lifton and Jeff Hutchins
SpongeBob SquarePants: “Spongehenge”

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