Universalís ""U-571"" Motion Picture Features A Full-Action SDDSÆ 8 Channel Soundtrack

Veteran Re-Recording Engineers Gregg Landaker, Steve Maslow And Rick Kline Use Creative Advantages Of Multichannel Format For Jonathan Mostowís New High-Action Movie

24-Apr-00

The creative team behind ""U-571,"" a World War II submarine suspense film directed by Jonathan Mostow, re-recorded an intricate soundtrack with unique 8 Channel Sony Dynamic Digital SoundÆ. Developed by Sony Cinema Products Corporation, the innovative SDDSÆ motion picture soundtrack format provides the unique ability to convey up to eight channels of sound around the audience. With SDDS, an additional pair of left-center and right-center loudspeakers - located either side of center speaker - provides many creative and technical advantages for todayís directors and filmmakers. Starring Matthew McConaughey, Bill Paxton, Harvey Keitel and Jon Bon Jovi, ""U-571"" is a World War II suspense drama that details an American submarine crewís battle against time - and their own fears - while carrying out a daring mission to capture a top-secret encrypting device from a Nazi U-boat. In essence, ""U-571"" combines elements of ""Das Boot,"" ""The Hunt For Red October"" and ""Crimson Tide."" It opened nationwide in North America on April 21. Steve Maslow is Dialog Re-Recording Mixer on ""U-571,"" with Gregg Landaker responsible for effects re-recording. The team has been together since 1978, and received AMPAS OscarsÆ for Best Achievement in Sound for their work on ""Speed,"" ""Raiders Of The Lost Ark,"" and ""The Empire Strikes Back."" Music Re-Recording Mixer on ""U-571"" is Rick Kline, who was nominated this year for an OscarÆ Best Achievement in Sound for ""The Mummy."" As Gregg Landaker recalls, ""In the analog days - before these new digital formats came along - a 70 mm print with six discrete audio tracks was the only way we could deliver maximum impact to the audience, with more loudspeaker channels up front. Using SDDS 8 Channel, with five horns across the front and split surrounds, we can allow filmmakers to deliver a high-impact soundtrack that sounds just like it does here on the re-recording stage."" ""Normally we only have the center channel for important dialog and special effects,"" Steve Maslow offers. If you spread the effects too wide, you end up with the 'Exit Sign' phenomenon - the audience keeps turning their heads from left to right, as the sound comes from these hard-left and hard-right locations. SDDS 8 Channel has two additional pair of inner-left and inner-right loudspeaker channels. We can now use the center for dialog, and the extra channels for sound effects and music tracks, without muddying up the center channel."" ""Yes,"" Gregg Landaker concurs ""by keeping my effect tracks out of the center dialog channel, I can let Steve concentrate on the essentials of the plot and character development, while the effects draw the audience into the heart of the movie."" According to George Borghi, Director of Sound and Video Operations at Universal Post Production Group, ""We made a conscious decision to equip all of our feature dub stages, and many of our screening rooms, with discreet eight-channel monitoring. With five speakers up front, Tascam dubbers, dedicated workstation bays, and all our Academy-acknowledged mix teams, we can give directors soundtracks with as much impact and nuance as they can imagine."" In December 1999, the re-recording team prepared a six-channel temp dub for ""U-571"" director Jonathan Mostow. ""It became obvious,"" Steve Maslow remembers, ""that Jonathan wanted a 'bigger sound' - the submarine interiors, explosions and the battle scenes needed more dynamic range. We knew that we were running out of headroom."" ""We made an SDDS 8 Channel temp of the loud scenes,"" Gregg Landaker continues, ""just to let Jonathan hear what the format could deliver. We chose a scene with loud explosions and depth charge sounds. ""Compared to the six-channel temp dub, he was impressed that we could hold back on the [soundtrack], and still deliver the type of impact he was after in key scenes. 'U-571' is a real roller-coaster ride for the audience; the soundtrack ranges from quiet interior scenes to depth charge attacks which we wanted to heighten so that the audience would really understand what it was like during a loud sea battle. ""Then, having established that sense of reality, we wanted to make sure that the next time an attack happened on screen, the audience knew a terrifying event was about to occur. We needed that dynamic range from dead quiet to very loud sound effects. We soon realized that SDDS 8 Channel was the way of delivering that wide a dynamic range for the director."" ""The SPL in a submarine engine room can reach 130dB,"" Steve Maslow says. ""We wanted to bring that sense of brutal sound to the audience, but be able to let them hear the water outside the sub, and the crew working during an attack. SDDS was the format that lets us provide five discrete channels across the front, and the format that can deliver that type of effortless dynamic range.""""We pre-dubbed the effects tracks for our SDDS 8 Channel soundtrack with Tascam MMR-8 Digital Dubbers,"" Gregg Landaker continues, with full backwards compatibility with Digidesign ProTools workstations for editorial changes. ""And we are using high-precision Apogee 24- bit analog-to-digital converters to preserve every nuance of sound. We have something like 100-plus tracks for backgrounds, plus 250 stereo elements of sound effects, with close to 75 tracks of torpedo sounds, for example, to cover the gamut from quiet details to complex explosions."" Supervising Sound Editor on the project is Jon Johnson from Fury & Grace. The music was recorded by Dennis Sands at The Sony Scoring Stage, Culver City, Calfornia. Upcoming films scheduled to be released in SDDS 8 Channel: ""The Perfect Storm,"" directed by Wolfgang Petersen and starring George Clooney; June 30 scheduled release (This will be Warner Bros.' first eight-channel SDDS release.) ""The Patriot,"" directed by Roland Emmerich and starring Mel Gibson; June 30 scheduled release. ""Hollow Man,"" directed by Paul Verhoven and starring Kevin Bacon; July 28 scheduled release. ""All The Pretty Horses,"" directed by Billy Bob Thornton and starring Matt Damon; Fall release. ""Sixth Day,"" directed by Roger Spottiswoode and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger; Fall release. ""Charlieís Angels,"" directed by McG, and starring Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu and Cameron Diaz; November 7 scheduled release. ""Vertical Limit,"" directed by Martin Campbell and starring Chris OíDonnell; December 8 scheduled release. Other recent SDDS 8 Channel releases include ""Erin Brockovich,"" directed by Steven Soderbergh, ""Stuart Little,"" directed by Rob Minkoff, ""Girl, Interrupted,"" directed by James Mangold and ""The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc,"" directed by Luc Besson. SDDS has been adopted by virtually all major film distributors, including Buena Vista Pictures, Columbia Pictures, Destination Films, Dimension Films, DreamWorks SKG, Miramax Films, MGM, New Line Cinema, Paramount, Polygram, 20 th Century Fox, Universal Pictures and Warner Bros. Sony Cinema Products Corporation supplies the cinema exhibition industry with advanced technologies and products. The company's launch product, SDDS, was introduced in August 1994. Due to its high-quality performance, SDDS has become widely popular with approximately 8,000 systems installed in movie theatres throughout the world. Designed exclusively for the cinema, SDDS is regarded as the premium digital sound format by leading film directors and sound professionals.