CAS "Meet the Winners" Event

UPDATE:

The Cinema Audio Society Quarterly magazine has posted their most recent issue here, which includes a nice article on the event, as well as some photos.


Although the turnout was small, the Cinema Audio Society's "Meet the Winners" event was of exceptionally high caliber. Indian winner Resul Pookutty, CAS attended via Skype and answered questions about his work on SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE. He told a great story about after winning the Oscar, arriving at Mumbai airport at 3AM and being carried around the airport by the people there, much like the end of the movie!

Ian Tapp, CAS then attended via iChat and discussed the re-recording mix for the same film. He showed a great clip from the beginning of the movie that combined subjective and realistic sound design.

Board member Bob Brownow, CAS talked about his excellent work on the documentary series DEADLIEST CATCH, and how difficult it is to be a one-man sound crew with no production sound mixers!

Kerry Brown, CAS and Kevin Dippold discussed their work on SMASHING PUMPKINS IF ALL GOES WRONG, a combination documentary and concert DVD. I was quite surprised to find out that it was mixed on a Neve Portico with no automation. It must have been quite a challenge!

There were a lot of important people present in the audience, including Stacy Sher (producer of PULP FICTION), Billy Corgan (of the band SMASHING PUMPKINS), several former presidents of the CAS (including Gary Bourgeois, who asked many questions, and Richard Lightstone), and many board members of the organization. We also attracted a few students even though it was spring break, and a number of members of other organizations including the Audio Engineering.

The final guests were Mike Minkler, CAS (also a former president of the organiztion) and Bob Beemer, CAS, (a newly-elected board memeber) who discussed their excellent work on JOHN ADAMS. It was a surpise to find out the show had nearly 900 tracks for the first episode.

It was very gratifying to see that after the event was over, almost everyone in the audience stayed to talk to the the winners and USC engineer Chris Cain led a tour of some of USC's new facilities. I think this shows that all the hard work was worthwhile.