Kevin K. Shah
Saturday, August 2nd, 2008
by Kevin K. Shah
Our private preview screening of White Knuckles organized by Larry Strauss in conjunction with the Old Pro’s acting troupe went extremely well! There were a lot of people that stayed for the Q & A, asking & interacting with the filmmakers, Larry, Martie & myself. We also got to look at the film on the screen from a technical standpoint, and although the color was great, there are some small adjustments that will need to happen with the mix. Such is the usefulness of a private preview screening: first reactions, and technical massage. It didn’t help much that the projectionist was also running his own real time “mix” - i.e. riding the levels as the movie was playing - which is not recommended for any film, ever. This being said, the story and the film was still intact and not compromised - and I was very happy about the audience reaction. There was a lot of affirmations that the film is heading in the right direction.
The questions at the Q & A ranged from “are the tears in Larry’s eyes real in the emotional scenes” to “what inspired you to write this story” to “what does the ending mean to you?” Larry responded to the tear question with a description of how, “at this age, you’ve seen and felt it all - an it’s not hard to get yourself to that place anymore.” With response to the ending questions, we discussed the possibilities of what an ending of a film like this could mean for the future of the characters. Though there is closure, not everything is completely answered or handed over on a spoon - rather there is something left for the audience to consider, and more importantly “interpret.”
One particularly engaged audience member chimed in, “I love the ending the way it is because it can be showed to 20,000 people and they’ll walk away from it with 20,000 personal interpretations.” There was also a little debate about “what happened” after the last shot of the film, to which people had their own thoughts and feelings. Truth is, I think that the audience is right in whatever they believe happened, as long as they venture to continue thinking about the film days after they complete seeing it.
On a related note, I received a “I’d like to join the White Knuckles mailing list” post-card from someone at the screening that wrote “I loved your film. Below are some pictures from the introduction to the film, as well as the Q & A afterwards. Guests of honor in attendance: my parents. See below for pictures that Larry sent to me today:
Kevin K. Shah fields some questions from the audience
- Larry, Martie and Kevin in Laguna Woods, CA
larry and kevin set-up the experience.
- Laguna Q & A for the private preview screening.
Sunday, July 6th, 2008
by Kevin K. Shah
I think Zach is giving me way too much credit - I did nothing more than pull the effects that N. Itrik would have done if he had more time. Zach is the real genius behind the sound of White Knuckles - and when it was all said and done we agreed this is the best sound experiment we’ve been a part of.
The difference between Zach and virtually everyone else I know - is that Zach is a consummate professional. From the minute you walk into Snap sound, right up until delivery - Zach was gracious, intelligent, thoughtful, tireless and most of all - extremely creative.
We were both astonished last night watching each reel back to back for the first time. And most importantly, the film resonates, the dialogue is clean as a whistle, and the tones, ambiances and silence burn themselves into our psyche.
They say audio is 70% of sound. I would argue that’s just an average. There are some scenes that are 100% sound. White Knuckles has many of these beats, thanks to the artistry of Seivers, to whom I’m forever indebted and forever grateful.
Thank you Zach, from all of us at Sabi on being the Sound Designer for White Knuckles, and for being a friend.
The next step is to play it in a variety of theaters. There’s a private preview screening coming up soon, and then the cast and crew screening. The cast and crew screening will ideally be 5.1.
After this process, we may have another listen with the picture/mix -
but if anything it will be small adjustments, small additions of effects -
really, two perfectionists continuing to polish a wonderful little film
when time allows…
More soon -
Kevin
Saturday, July 5th, 2008
by Kevin K. Shah
Zach Seivers and I are going to finish Final Mixing today - Saturday. I’m up late gathering last sounds from the production track that we need / we’ve needed. It’s nice for us to collaborate in this way - going back and forth seeking out the sounds we decide we want, or sounds that were missing from the production track that can’t/shouldn’t be foleyed.
For example, we needed some footstep sounds from both William and Julie in the kitchen, and I was able to find them in different takes when there weren’t any lines ’stepping’ on the clean effect (no pun intended). Thanks to Jamie’s excellent organizational system, I was able to go right back to the bin and find the needed effects in less than 10 minutes. Of course the editor should have done this in the first place, but he had a lot on his hands.
Some other examples of the sounds that I’ve hunted and gathered is of a knife against a cutting board chopping an onion, and the first musical track of the picture (which for some reason didn’t translate in the original OMF.). At first Seivers and I thought to begin the film in complete silence, but we felt upon viewing it a few weeks later - that there needs to be something in the beginning, before the quiet of the forest - to get people shuffling in their seats to settle in. It felt too empty in the beginning, like maybe something was wrong with the soundtrack. We shouldn’t be thrown out of the film even with a stark silence in the beginning, we should be gradually brought in. Putting a cue in the beginning makes the sounds of the forest in the dream resonate that much more…
Lastly, the reason why I came and I’m still at Sabi tonight (even though we start at 9am sharp - and aren’t stopping till we’re done tomorrow) is for Hospital sound effects.
This is critical. I’ve gathered Hospital sounds both from the production track and from a library of effects that I’ve licensed from various outlets. Hospital ambiances, really. I can’t believe how much a cleanly recorded ambience adds to a scene.
Having small subliminal sounds of people working nearby, chatting, shuffling helps push scenes along that would have otherwise been in stale silence. Ambient sounds give a sense of urgency if used in a subtle manner - as we intend to do tomorrow.
I’m exporting OMF’s and Quick-times now. Tomorrow is a momentous day.
Zach intends to print the sound for the film…
White Knuckles is a step closer.
Sunday, April 6th, 2008
by Kevin K. Shah
Today Zach Seivers and I recorded some foley effects for White Knuckles, as well as played around with our effects recorded in our first session (i.e. the eerie effects recorded in the underground parking garage…)
We recorded some ‘julie flipping through a book at a library’ as well as her walking, petting a cat, etc… Zach Seivers, the master sound guy that he is did it all in one take - and it was amazing to watch him in the Foley stage through the monitor feed (while I was in the Sound Booth hitting ‘record’ and ’stop’). Such a pro, and so much fun to watch him work.
We also did some William reading the newspaper sounds in the Park - we weren’t able to bring the sound crew to the Malibu location we shot at, so the entire scene is created by foley and mixed effects - and Seivers again, at his best - making it seamless in real.
A few times Zach threw in the over-dramatic television horror set of notes over scenes just to make us laugh and keep me on my toes. It’s fun to throw in random effects during mixing just to keep yourself on your toes and crack yourself up.
It could have been the caffeine and sugar - we both had Sunkist with our delicious lunch from HyMart Deli - 2 spicy falafel sandwiches. Highly recommended. Yum.
One strange and fun highlight of our day was closing down the White Knuckles project after a good long day of work and then messing around with sound.
I went into the VO booth and recited a poem (the one listed in produckt) and Zach added our recorded WK effects from session #1, and distorted the voice (thank god) into this amazing, hard-to-describe sensation - a voice that reverberates through your soul - and he wants to include it on our Effects Release disc which we’ve tentatively titled “sonic infirmary - effects from white knuckles”.
Zach plans to mix together a beautiful symphonic song (ultimately in 5.1 DVD) that will be available with the recorded effects on our upcoming release of the CD. He wanted to include the poem he mixed with the effects on the CD as an example of what can be done - and also as “performance art”. His excitement is contagious!
Can’t wait to share it all with you.
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008
by Kevin K. Shah
Zach and I spent the day exploring the sonic landscape of the production offices at Sabi and the surrounding studio, including
WHITE KNUCKLES - SOUND EFFECTS - VOLUME 1
1. Heavy metallic door closing, slamming.
2. Slamming with 5 floors of echo reverb.
3. working elevator shaft sounds
4. deep and shallow air duct vents
5. metallic and concrete stairwells
6. electrical generators
7. electrical hums, buzzes, (great for sounds of lights, flourescents)
8. door slams with echo (sound of a large car door slamming with echo & reverb)
9. empty spaces and shafts
10. whirring fans
11. deadly dark corridors.
12. heavy boiler rooms,
13. morbid silences
14. and haunted corridors
15. a REALLY freaky drippy faucet that everyone will want to use for their next horror film
16. THE HIGHLIGHT;
16. Was the highlight of the day - MOST AMAZINGLY it lasted for 15 minutes of recording : Zach set up for a 15 minute take of the most horrid, horrifying, electrifying, beautiful sounds of beeps, screeches, screams, chains, scraping, mettalic slams, chatter, haunted rhythms and echoes (recorded simultaneous, raw & live — 4 levels beneath the bowels of a los angles building structure in a large tunnel (think Rave). Probably one of the most amazing things I’ve ever heard.
It’s astonishing one man generates such sounds, and his true genius came out. It must have been what it was like to have watched Mozart muse on the piano.
We hope to make available the WHITE KNUCKLES Sound Effects Volume 1 soon…
When came back and listened to the results - we know that we have recorded what will make for excellent sound design options for the abstract sequences in a key moment in White Knuckles, when a character is in great distress…
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008
by Kevin K. Shah
We had an excellent sound design session one day last week with Mr. Zach Seivers - an incredibly talented sound designer that we’ve been lucky to have worked with on a number of projects, most notably White Knuckles and Heart of Now. Zach’s attention to detail and enthusiasm for exploring his art with sound was in full effect during the session, which was grueling and lasted most of the day.
For anyone that’s never went around field recording in a large, old building - (that’s operational but after hours) - please, please try it. It’s a mediation of sorts on the sonic landscape that surrounds you that most of us barely notice. It’s and adventure, and we explore with our ears, and use our other senses to grasp how in fact we can better record what we are hearing.
Zach used a Sanken CSS-5 and swears by it:
Friday, March 21st, 2008
by Kevin K. Shah
We are having our publicity interviews with Larry and Martie in early April. Would love to include any questions that anyone would like us to ask them - about the story, character, process, etc.
We’re also going to be doing some promotional short-shorts, which should be fun. Sam and Kester may be able to make it out for the shoot as well, so it will be a mini-reunion.
Both Martie and Larry have expressed the desire to work with sabi again, and both are available (and highly recommended) for others projects as well. Their talents will be showcased in the upcoming release …
Friday, March 21st, 2008
by Kevin K. Shah
We recently had the great pleasure of watching Arthur Miller’s scorching play “The Death of a Salesman” , directed by Larry Strauss and starring John Perak as Willy Loman and Jeanne Sanner as Linda. The play was produced by Sheila Bialka. The performances and stage direction was terrific, and the actors didn’t pull any punches. Larry’s direction was superb, and the cast that he assembled was a knockout. During the Q&A the effect that the show had on the audience was clear. There was a member of the audience that had never seen a play before and was simply stunned. To see where these senior actors took the roles and the characters was nothing short of courageous. The show took place at Laguna Woods Village, in an 800 seat theater (that will also be private preview-screening White Knuckles in a couple months — Many thanks to Sheila for helping to organize).
Larry also described the film to the audience, and gave White Knuckles a very nice plug in the play bill. For me, it was really special to see Larry exploring his art, and furthering his talents - and putting on (as always) a good show…
Thursday, March 20th, 2008
by Kevin K. Shah
Friends of WK,
I had the great fortune of seeing Sue Gaetzman (who plays Dora) yesterday. Sue is another one of our ‘first choice selects’ for the casting of White Knuckles (we got very lucky).
It was so good to see her, we shared Mediterranean food from the Farmer’s Market. Of course, she’s still the same old fantastic spunky Sue! Though she has been battling cancer since we wrapped White Knuckles and is currently in treatment, I’m happy to report that she is in good spirits, her soul is healthy and strong, and she gives her blessings to our labor of love & says hi to everyone.
I hope to post some words from Sue on this thread shortly — because of the situation right now, we are expediting her ability to watch the film immediately.
She mentioned to me to share with all of us that worked on White Knuckles - that to her - the process of White Knuckles was the most fulfilling creative role she’s every had, and she felt liberated to explore her character within the zone we created together.
I’m looking forward to hearing more of her thoughts on the experience, which we will share with everyone.
Indeed Sue’s performance from her audition to her wrap was nothing short of stunning, she was & is Dora. The character of Dora in White Knuckles is a key supporting role. She is a widower and a friend of Julie, who is living a life of joy & romance and warmth that is in far contrast to Julie’s world.
It was as if the character was always written for Sue, as she is warm & spiritual & loving – and knows more about Dora than we could ever. Sue, with her real and heartfelt performance, has given life to Dora and so the story of White Knuckles forever.
Our thoughts and our deepest prayers are with her in this time, and if you would like to post a message for Sue on this thread, please do so - as she will be checking the forum periodically & we will give her updates on all things said here.
Tuesday, March 18th, 2008
by Kevin K. Shah
Lucas Cheadle is a first-class sabi a.d.
he came aboard white knuckles early in our casting process, and though he’s a natural born musician (bass) he is also an a.d. that creates the perfect vibrations on set - as he certainly did with White Knuckles.
it’s important in dramatic improvisation for the actors to have the support they need while working with the director, and vice-versa. Lucas was the glue that held the relationship together. Lucas ran the set in a manner that was conducive to creative dialogue both on camera between the actors, and off camera between the filmmakers.
He’s always ‘cool’ approach to everything reminds me of many of the qualities of the best A.D. in the business (in my opinion) David Webb. Lucas filled many more roles that simply A.D. and if you look closely, he also makes a brief appearance in the film.
Would love to hear others thoughts and memories about Lucas Cheadle A.D. extraordinaire.
