Cylons, endangered humans, and space battles have been good to AnEFX, a sound design studio in Burbank. The company applied its audio art to the Syfy series “Battlestar Galactica” and short-lived spinoff, “Caprica.” In January, pre-production starts on a pilot – “Blood & Chrome” – taking place 100 years before the action in “Battlestar” and for which AnEFX will do the sound. The sci-fi franchise has also allowed AnEFX to go in a new direction with a massively multiplayer online game that completed its beta testing in November and will go live for players around the world this month. Taking the sound effects created for the series and bringing it to an online game was not as easy as it appears. There had to be a balance between what gamers wanted and what the core fan base was used to hearing from the show. “Our challenge is to provide a cinematic, Hollywood experience to a 2-way interaction,” said Jack Levy, founder and CEO of AnEFX. The Motion Picture Sound Editors has recognized AnEFX for its work with multiple Golden Reel Award nominations, many of them for “Battlestar.” The sound editing on one episode resulted in an Emmy Award in 2009. There are not many independent sound design studios such as the one Levy runs. He competes against the major studios and the large post-production houses. The equipment found in the editing suites and Automated Dialogue Replacement studio is the same as found at those larger facilities. What AnEFX delivers is a better environment for recording and choosing the sound for a series or film. While there is canned sound available, Levy’s preference is to do the sound design specifically for each project. For “Battlestar” the series, Levy and crew eschewed the typical big explosions and lasers in favor of softer tones, similar to that of submarine gliding underwater or the whoosh of a torpedo. The fun part of creating sound takes place on the Foley stage. The room resembles a combination of a garage, rummage sale and resale shop. There isn’t a sound that cannot be replicated by the objects hanging from the walls or sitting on shelves or spread on the floor. Levy is quite proud of the sunken pit that can fit two adults and be filled with any type of liquid substance. For one “Battlestar” episode in which characters moved about in what Levy called “goop” the sound was created by filling the pit with pancake batter. With a business model that does not employ any sales staff, Levy let’s the sound itself do the selling of AnEFX. With the online game, the firm shows it can do more than just television and film work. “I’d love to do more gaming work,” Levy said. “It’s a great market but I’m not taking a sales campaign in that direction.” Spotlight on ILM Documentary filmmaker Leslie Iwerks turned her camera to the history of special and visual effects house Industrial Light & Magic to create a film now airing on cable station Encore. Iwerks was asked by Starz Media if she was interested in doing the film. She jumped at the chance and was given as much access as needed by ILM. Among those interviewed for the film is George Lucas, its founder. Industrial Light & Magic got its start in a warehouse in Van Nuys creating the effects for the first “Star Wars” film, and Iwerks’s film traces the history from when the effects were made for Lucas’s own work to a transition into a business model of doing work for hire for other directors. While ILM was on the forefront of creating pioneering effects there were larger industry changes from which it couldn’t escape in the switch to digital effects. “That became the fork in the road in terms of the old traditional way of doing things and jobs losses versus everyone having to learn computers and going in a new direction,” Iwerks said. With 35 years worth of material and a limited time to tell ILM’s story, the film is told in broad strokes. Not much time is spent on “Star Wars” itself as that tale has already been told. Instead, there are interviews with filmmakers who tell about how the dominance of ILM changed their way of looking and working in film and coming up with ideas and writing scripts, Iwerks said. “Industrial Light & Magic: Creating the Impossible” airs on Encore and Encore Action through December and is available on demand through Feb. 24. Reality Casting Call Shed Media US is looking for business professionals to take part in a new reality game show, tentatively titled “Battle of the Sexes.” Casting producer Andrea McHugh compares the show to “The Apprentice” with the twist of one team being men and the other team all women. The teams will be given different tasks related to a business and the battle develops over which comes up with the more creative solution. “It is a really fun in that it shows team building and the solving of problems,” McHugh said. Casting is open until Jan. 14 and interested business people must live in Southern California and be available for four days of filming in February. For more information email [email protected] Lots of Action Camelot Entertainment Group will develop, produce and market action hero movies with Anything Media Motion Pictures for the PG and PG-13 crowd. Camelot, based in Universal City, and Anything Media Inc., parent of the motion picture division, have been working together since May on improving a direct-to-consumer distribution model and monetizing digital distribution technology. The agreement with Anything Media gives a strong partner in development and production of movies that will fill a major gap in the market place, said Jamie Thompson, president of Camelot Distribution. Camelot’s distribution and production capability combined with Anything Media’s design-to-market-approach is powerful and promising, said Kieth Merrill, president of Anything Media Motion Pictures. “I’m excited to be part of Camelot’s approach toward a new kind of action film and a new breed and brand of heroes for the teen demographic. I am also energized and optimistic about our design-to-market films that are ‘family-friendly’ and target the broad general audience,” Merrill said. Staff Reporter Mark Madler can be reached at (818) 316-3126 or by e-mail at [email protected]
Sound Design Studio Enters World of Online Gaming
