CyberWar Games at Symantec

Hands on Sound recently got the call to provide location sound recording services  for the Symantec 2017 CyberWar Games event at their Mountain View campus.  There, for 3 days, ten teams of Symantec employees from around the world competed in the world's largest civilian cyberwar game.  These elite teams earned the right to compete in the finals by besting more than 1,500 other Symantec employees from 33 countries.

This year's games focused on the global supply chain and in particular agricultural technology security,  The teams had to perform a series of cybercrime and hacking challenges to earn points and move up the Leader Board. More details on the games can be found here

Working under the direction of Fade To Black Pictures, we documented the 3 day event, capturing content for internal and social/ web video pieces.  Below is one of these, produced and edited by FTB's Tommy Jordan.

Watersaw- Mastering "The Sunset Sessions"

I had the pleasure of mastering the latest release from the Bay Area group Watersaw this past week.  This album, The Sunset Sessions, was composed to accompany LIzz Roman & Dancers at some upcoming innovative and unique performances in San Francisco.   For this particular song cycle, I chose to work in the pre-dawn hours when all was quiet and I could focus on the music with no distractions from the waking world and all that it brings.  The results were pleasing to my client's vision and also bought me to some new spaces.

From the web:

For three weekends this June LR&D will premiere their latest architectural romp, "SUNSET DANCES". LR&D's newest work will take the performers and audience on a site-specific journey through an Ocean Beach home located on the western edge of the city in the outer Sunset neighborhood of SF. Roman and her dancers will be joined by a team of award winning collaborators, featuring the band " WATERSAW " performing an original live score, while welcoming back Clyde Sheets, lighting designer and long time LR&D collaborator and introducing our newest collaborator filmmaker Pete Litwinowicz.

To learn more and purchase tickets for the performances- https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sunset-dances-tickets-3239528316

From Darkness Into Light

About a month ago I spent the day with a really nice loving family who were sharing their story with the Today Show crew I was working with. To meet the Lukach's one would never know the battles they have conquered and continue to face each day....yet their commitment to each other and what seems like a bottomless reserve of love keeps them together...moving forward.

Every person you meet, every house you pass has a story going on inside...some more difficult than others...many untold, hidden or misunderstood. In the world we live in, a bit of compassion and empathy can go a long way in our daily interactions...something we all can be reminded of.  

"Sharks For Life": Barbershop

The latest installment in the San Jose Sharks 2016-17 marketing campaign, "Sharks For Life".  This spot features the talents of NHL stars Joe Thornton and Brent Burns as patrons in a barbershop.  Clearly big fans of the facial hair, these two giants really hammed it up during the shoot and gave us a nice set of outtakes.  Adding a true touch of realism was the casting of Mark-Jason Solofa as the barber.  When not busy running his successful Gentleman's Grooming & Shave Parlor in Berkeley, CA, Mark tends to both Brent and Joe's wild manes.  Once again Hands on Sound gets nod for the Location Sound on this work produced by SJSharks Productions and their current ad agency, Division Of Labor.

Exploring Virtual Reality

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Hands on Sound has begun to embark on a journey into the emerging field of Virtual Reality, getting acquainted with the SF Bay Area VR community and trying some of the production tools that are becoming available.  3DAudio, Ambisonics and Spatial Audio are some of the buzz phrases out there in the 360video/VR sound space and we are getting familiar with how to capture and process audio for picture in this new world.

Several weeks ago I attended a VR sound design workshop at Pyramind in San Francisco and spent the day working with Dysonics Rondo360 software and their RondoMotion headtracker.  By the end of the day we were placing sound to pictures and demoing ambisonic microphones.  Rondo360 is still not available on the market, but should be well received.

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Follow up sessions at Google and The Upload Collective in SF have been valuable in getting to understand the what creators are working on, what some the challenges and opportunities there are in VR and 360 video. Looking at it from an audio POV, much of the conversation is similar to when we were making the early 5.1 surround title around 2000-2003.  Are there standards?  Are there rules or best practices?  Attendee Ian Hirschfeld has written up a nice summary of the evening that goes into more depth.

Back in the studio I'm currently working with FB360 Spatializer and the Sennheiser Ambeo Format Converter plugin to learn more about use and placement of Binaural recordings, Ambisonic A and B format conversions and use.

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"Captives"

Another sound mix in the can this week...this one for the indie narrative film "Captives.  The story in Captives deals with sensitive topic of human trafficking and gives the viewer great empathy for those whose lives are touched by it.  While avoiding any jarring violent or graphic scenes the viewer enters the world of a group of teenage girls who are held against their will in a suburban house and follows their plan to escape.  The project was taken on by Hands on Sound to rescue some poor production audio, spot ADR and complete a finished stereo mix.  In the process we got a chance to create some foley tracks, sound design elements and do the music edit.  Thank you  Theatre Xtraordinaire Entertainment for the opportunity to help you complete your project.

Sign Of The Whale

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I am pleased to report that the final sound mix for the indie film Sign Of The Whale has been delivered to North Coast Productions.  This is a great narrative piece from the mind of Director Noah Weisel and destined for film festival screenings.  Clocking in at under 20 minutes, Sign Of The Whale stands on it's own as completed vision yet also serves as a preview of what could be a full blown feature, given support and funding.  A shout out to everyone in the town of Point Arena, CA who welcomed us with open arms and to a superb cast and crew, especially our rock solid DP Brian Bradley.  Hands on Sound has been onboard thru the entire production and post efforts, providing location sound in Point Arena, CA and following up with mix and sound design back at the studio.  You can watch Sign Of The Whale right here.

"Sharks For Life"

The San Jose Sharks have just rolled out two more commercials in their "Sharks For Life" campaign.  Hands on Sound gets the Location Sound credit for these spots that were made For SJSharks Productions and their ad agency, Division Of Labor.   Go Sharks!

Stranger Than Fact- Mastering the album "Magnetic"

While I enjoy all aspects of music production, one of the most rewarding parts of the process is album mastering.  This final step before a project gets released to the world adds the final layers of detail to help a collection of recordings play as a cohesive program to the listening audience.

One such job that recently came to me was from the artist Xaina and her Stranger Than Fact music project.  Their new album, Magnetic, had just wrapped up mixing and was ready for mastering. I was tasked with helping get the album finished in time for their Northwestern US tour.

This record was recorded at Tiny Telephone by Samantha Perez and then mixed at Survivor Sound by Jonah Strauss.  My job as mastering engineer was made a lot easier by the fine work they did.  Big kudos to all involved.

You can learn more about these fine folks here:    

Tiny Telephone: http://www.tinytelephone.com/    

SamanthaPerez:  https://samanthaperezaudio.com/

Jonah Strauss & Survivor Sound: http://www.survivorsound.com/

Here are a couple tracks off Magnetic that I particularly like:

True Sight- A Series By Valve

I received a location sound call in mid- September to join a production team that was embedded with the professional video game team, Evil Genuises, to capture content for a documentary series being made by Valve.  The experience was my first foray into the exciting world of eSports and all that surrounds this emerging industry.  Our cameras and microphones followed the Evil Geniuses Dota 2 team as they trained and prepared for an upcoming competition in China.  During the time of our production work, another crew was busy in Malaysia...following a rival gamer team that was also in training mode.

The documentary, True Sight, is being rolled out in episodic fashion and here is the trailer:

To learn more about the series, visit Valve's website: http://store.steampowered.com/app/539730/