CONSULTING: SOUND FOR FILM

Lately I’ve been doing some consulting work with filmmakers interested in growing their audio skills. It’s been a lot of fun.

Here I’m working with Amy Scatliff, a film artist who’s been putting together some experimental documentary work related to meditation and her difficulties pursuing it. She’s serious enough about what she’s doing that she’s not afraid to approach it with self-deprecating humor, and she has good instincts with audio that make it enjoyable to push things to the next level.

We’ve gone over some basic ideas about location audio, gain staging, dialog edit, relative levels of voiceover/ nat sound/ music, and some approaches for how to adapt her closet as a VO booth. Pro tip: don’t be afraid to sit under a blanket while you’re performing voiceover! No joke.

Check out some of Amy Scatliff’s work at everydayfuturistic.com/fieldnotes.

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BEN AND DOPEY: SOUND + MUSIC CONSULTING

Lately I’ve been serving as a sound and music consultant on the feature film “Ben and Dopey” by animator John Akre. It’s a lot of fun listening to the original songs John’s been writing and making arrangement recommendations, plus suggesting areas where his homespun sound effects work might come in handy. I’m enjoying helping an artist realize an aesthetic through sound and music, using his own visual sensibility as a style guide.

The film tells the 1987 story of a Minneapolis street musician and his relationship with an animated duck created by his mother, an underground animator who seems to have disappeared. The movie takes place in the neighborhood that used to be where the Minneapolis Convention Center is now, as well as the original Nicollet Mall.

More work by Mike Hallenbeck for animation

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