molinaire the sound of change> Bowie’ and being named Zowie Bowie), whichwas mixed by Scott Jones, Doghouse and PelicanBlood, a love story set among those obsessivebirdwatchers, twitchers.Television continues to be the predominantmedium for Molinare, with the ratio 75-25between TV and film. Milne and Foligno achievedtheir ambition of moving away from lower endreality TV and avoiding commercials altogether.Milne says the company has benefited from there-commissioning of a number of popular dramaseries - Silent Witness and New Tricks amongthem. There are also individual dramas and shortepisode runs, the hotly tipped productions forlater this year being Small Island, adapted by PaulaMilne from the novel by Andrea Levy, and ITV'srevisiting of The Prisoner. The sound, includingFoley, for Small Island was done at Molinare andproduction Ruby Films has confirmed that its nextproject, Chatroom, directed by Hideo ‘The Ring’Nakata will be completely posted at the facility.The new audio floor in Molinare's secondbuilding, across Foubert's Place from CravenHouse (currently promoted as ‘The TV and FilmFacilities Village’) was previously an offline videoediting area and now houses the three Foley fitrooms, the Foley stage and mixing area, three 5.1rooms, and a track-lay suite.Recent audio upgrades have included 14 ProTools HD systems bought from Digidesign resellerScrub. Three of these have ICON D Commandconsoles, while ten LE packages are used variouslyfor track laying and prep. Genelec DSP Series5.1 monitoring systems were chosen for suitesbecause of the integral self-calibrating capability,allowing the same parameters to be reproducedin different sized rooms.The main theatrical re-recording rooms,Dubbing A and Dubbing F, based aroundSoundtracs D4s installed approximately two anda half years ago. The D4 was used to mix sevenfeatures that were screened at the Edinburgh FilmFestival, including DJ Mark Tonderai's low-budgethorror Hush and Gillian Anderson starrer BoogieWoogie, directed by Duncan Ward.Questions, Anyone?At one time the Molinare drama departmentwas based firmly on audio projects but now theproportion of video work is beginning to increase,partly because of the amount of features beingbrought in. Billy Mahoney says the picturesbeing done in the same building, or evenover the road, is positive. "The picture cuttingrooms are based here and we can answer anyquestions the video people or producers haveabout the audio," he says. Mahoney mixedthe sound on Pelican Blood and comments thatthis way of communicating was a great benefitto the production.Molinare's infrastructure will be expanded laterin the year with the instalaltion of a massive SANsystem, with a new Xytech booking system due togo live in September. There is also an audio-onlynetwork for the sound effects library.A New Point In HistoryA new phase in Molinare's history, and theopportunity to continue developing its facilities,came in May last year. Indian media entertainmentgroup CCL, which owns Pixion – operator ofpost-production houses in Mumbai, Noida, andChennai – bought a majority share in Molinare,taking a 76 percent stake, with the remainder heldby Milne and Foligno.Steve Milne calls the arrangement a "goodfit" that will continue Molinare's growth intofeature films. There is a circuit link to India, sowork can be done there as well as in London, butMilne hopes to continue pulling projects intoSoho, including audio from Bollywood."Molinareis now a substantial player again with the scale todeliver fast response and flexibility," he concludes."Molinare is 36 years old and we are very proud tobe custodians of the brand. We are about audioexcellence and we must fight to maintain craftskills in what is a tough environment..."” ∫....................................INFORMATIONMolinarewww.molinare.co.uk48AUDIO MEDIA JULY 2009
27 THAES CONVENTIONMAKE THE RIGHTCONNECTIONSOctober 9-12, 2009Jacob K. Javits Convention CenterNew York, NYwww.AESshow.com
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