2018 IN REVIEW: PART 1 OF 3

A look back at noble deeds in music and sound design perpetrated in the past year. Thanks to all the collaborators we’ve had the good fortune to work with, and here’s to 2019!

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PAX EAST eMLS CUP 2018: SOUND EDIT + MIX FOR SHORT DOC

We recently spent a busy 3 days covering the eMLS Cup with Official Sponsor AT&T and former MLS star Jimmy Conrad. Held at gaming extravaganza PAX East in Boston, the eMLS Cup brings the world of professional soccer to an electronic gaming audience through playoff rounds culminating in a $10,000 prize and the North American Championship trophy. With Jimmy as our on-camera talent we introduced the series, interviewed e-athletes and gamers, and covered the final match on the main stage in the PAX Arena. Our on-location edit team turned pieces around within 24 hours or less (some of them same day), handing results off to AT&T and Jimmy for distribution. Most of the action occurred on Twitter, where two of the pieces amassed over 500,000 views within 36 hours, though +200k views on Facebook isn't bad either. The sizzle reel above wraps up the series.

Above: Junior Birdman Audio provided audio post for this recent short doc of the first-ever eMLS Cup at PAX East 2018 in Boston, featuring MLS notable Jimmy Conrad and sponsored by AT&T. Editorial and mix had to be lightning quick, including polishing a lot of announcer and interview dialog captured in a difficult situation. I created a sound design replete with assorted accents and crowd audio from my personal field recording library, then whipped up a mix and delivered on a tight turnaround.

More work for corporate video

More sound edit + mix for documentary

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“BEEBOX”: SOUND EDIT, ORIGINAL MUSIC, + MIX FOR SHORT ANIMATION

“Beebox” is an experimental short animation by Cable Hardin. Screenings have included BEFF (The Barents Ecology Film Festival) in Petrozavodsk, capital of the Russian Republic of Karelia. The film also screened at the River Film Festival in Padua, Italy, where the audience sits on stone steps by the riverbank and the films screen on a raft in the middle of the river.

Since the film is still on the festival circuit, I’m not sharing it online yet. But here are a couple of BTS vids. First, a layer-by-layer playback of SFX and mix from a single shot:

Layer-by-layer playback of SFX for Cable Hardin's experimental animation "Beebox". More work by Mike Hallenbeck for animation: https://www.juniorbirdman.com/animation-narrative

For such a brief running time, the piece is dense and required a close working relationship to make sure the soundscape helped articulate the narrative. Here’s a brief excerpt of our process cutting FX for the film:

Working on an FX cue with director Cable Hardin for his experimental short animation "Beebox".

More music + sound design for animation

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I WET MY PLANTS: GAME AUDIO REEL

Some of my sound design work on the game "I Wet My Plants" by Sailor Snouts, a team out in Portland, OR. The player's mission is inspired by the kodama-- a spirit in Japanese folklore that inhabits trees, similar to the dryads of Greek mythology.

Above: Sound design work on the game “I Wet My Plants” by Sailor Snouts, a team out in Portland, OR. The player's mission is inspired by the kodama-- a spirit in Japanese folklore that inhabits trees, similar to the dryads of Greek mythology. Engaging in “Breakout”-style gameplay, the player paddles a ball that collects water and brings trees and flowers to life (and sustains the player’s own life as well). The ball needed to sound spongy enough to take on water, yet solid enough to sell as an object colliding with other bodies. When the trees transform, the little reward blips are cues from an analog synth, in tune with the music (music is not included here).

More work for games (sound design + music)