Anchor Bay Chooses Chace To Transform The ""Repo Man"" Mono Soundtrack

29-Mar-00

Set to a blistering punk rock soundtrack by memorable artists including Iggy Pop, Black Flag and the Plugz, ""Repo Man"" is ultimately a brilliant modern satire about televangelism, consumerism, UFOís and government conspiracies. The film, which was produced by ex-Monkee Michael Nesmith, became an instant cult classic following its initial release. Fifteen years later, ""Repo Man"" is set to be released on DVD by Anchor Bay, and Burbank-based Chace Productions was commissioned to transform ""Repo Man""ís existing mono soundtrack into 5.1-channel surround stereo. From the inception of the project, it was Chaceís intention to remain true to the original audio integrity of the film. Extensive audio restoration was not needed because of the relative newness of the mono DME (dialogue/music/effects) stems. After a brief stop in Chaceís NoNoise suite, where engineers filtered and repaired minor audio anomalies, Chace Digital Stereoô Product Specialist John Blum re-mastered the soundtrack into 5.1 using the proprietary Chace Digital Stereo (CDS) processor. During the course of the project, the focus changed somewhat when ""Repo Man""ís Executive Producer, Michael Nesmith, came down to the Rick Chace Theater to supervise the mixing of the music tracks. First, the original stereo versions of the hard-driving, punk rock songs were carefully edited to match the film version. Unfortunately, even after this process, much of the filmís score still remained in a mono format. The solution, as Blum explains, was to use the music re-mastering capabilities of the CDS processor to create a seamless 5.1 presentation. This method enabled Chace to expand on the original mono music to satisfy Michaelís vision of a truly contemporary 5.1 surround sound music mix. The CDS processor was also able to provide numerous exciting directional audio effect sequences. The scene where the Chevy Malibu flies at the end of the film, and other scenes, are now enveloped with heightened, directionally ambient sounds, derived from the original mono effects stem. ""Repo Man"" now rings with an essence as bright as the glowing alien cargo in the trunk. Anchor Bay DVD Producer Bill Lustig says of the new version of the film, ""íRepo Maní is a fitting example of what I like to call ërock-and-roll cinema.í The involvement of Chace Productions and Michael Nesmith were crucial to making this new 5.1 version of the film a success. Iím looking forward to the film finding an even bigger audience once itís finally released on DVD later this year.""