""The Patriot"" To Premier June 28 With An Intimate SDDSÆ 8-Channel Soundtrack

Supervising Sound Editor Per Hallberg Working With Re-Recording Engineers Kevin O'Connell And Greg Russell On William Holden And Two Other Dub Stages To Prepare Intricate Predubs For This Human Interest Picture

31-May-00

On three stages at Sony Pictures Studios' world-famous Post Production Sound Facility, the creative team behind ""The Patriot"" recently completed a series of eight-channel predubs before final re-recording of the intricate SDDS soundtrack began on May 18. Developed by Sony Cinema Products Corporation, the Sony Dynamic Digital SoundÆ motion picture soundtrack format provides the unique ability to convey up to eight channels of sound around the audience. SDDS features an additional pair of left-center and right-center loudspeakers - located either side of center speaker - to offer additional creative and technical advantages for today's directors and filmmakers.Directed by Roland Emmerich and starring Mel Gibson, ""The Patriot"" is a story of a reluctant hero who is swept into the American Revolution when the war reaches his home. It relates the human story of a hero of the fierce French and Indian conflict who had renounced fighting forever to raise his family in peace. But when the British arrive at his South Carolina home and endanger what he holds most dear, Gibson's character takes up arms alongside his idealistic patriot son, and leads a brave rebel Militia into battle against an overwhelming English army. ""In the process,"" Emmerich says, ""he discovers the only way to protect his family is to fight for a young nation's freedom."" Other stars include Heath Ledger, Joely Richardson and Tcheky Karyo.Supervising sound editor on the project is Per Hallberg from Soundelux Hollywood, who won an Academy AwardÆ for Best Sound Effects Editing for his innovative work on ""Braveheart,"" also starring Mel Gibson. Lead re-recording mixers in the William Holden Theatre at Sony Pictures Studios are 13-time Academy Award-nominated Kevin O'Connell (handling dialog and music) and five-time Academy Award-nominated Greg Russell (overseeing sound effects). A total of three dubbing stages, including the new Burt Lancaster Theater, were used to prepare a series of eight-channel predubs, prior to final re-recording in the renovated Cary Grant Theatre during late May thru early June. The film is scheduled to be released by Columbia Pictures on June 30.""'The Patriot' is not a loud, action movie,"" says Per Hallberg. ""Instead, it is an intimate, sensitive film, with a lot of inner feelings and human interest - it's a 'family story,' with a good emotional rapport. So we don't need the extra channels [offered by the SDDS format] for explosions and other special effects. I believe in telling a story with sound. For ""The Patriot,"" use of the SDDS 8-channel format gives me more space to develop a wide spectrum of sounds in front of the audience, and to provide better detailing in the soundtrack mix.""My basic philosophy is that we need to provide a realistic soundscape around the audience, but one that can expand when we need to develop more presence during the more powerful scenes. With five loudspeaker channels in front of the audience [offered by SDDS 8-channel], the mixers have more horsepower available, and do not need to force the soundtrack through only three loudspeaker channels.""During the predub sessions in early May, Per Hallberg worked with Kevin O'Connell and Greg Russell to prepare a series of more than 20 eight-track mixes of the various dialog and effects elements recorded onto Sony DADR-5000 Digital Dubbers.""We had 14 eight-track effects predubs, including individual mixes of horses, horse hooves, horse 'vocals,' etc, as well as wind/air backgrounds, bird backgrounds and water-effects backgrounds. We also had three, eight-channel Foley predubs, as well as multichannel ADR, group ADR and principal dialog elements."" During the final re-recording process and print mastering, these predubs will be fine tuned and combined with the music tracks to produce the final SDDS 8-channel soundtrack.According to effects re-recording mixer Greg Russell, ""The SDDS 8-channel format allowed us to add depth, texture and detail to the mix by keeping important environmental effects - such as specific crickets, bullfrogs and swamp sounds - separate in channels two [left-center] and four [right-center]. It was also possible to widen the dynamic range of our 'big' effects, such as the canon ball explosions, by placing the low-end on two and four, and the low-mids to high [frequencies] on one, three and five [left, center and right, respectively].""""Five channels across the front allows me, essentially, to have two pre-dubs in one,"" Russell adds. As a result, ""I can be more adventurous with certain effects that I know can be easily taken out in the final mix if they conflict with the music.""Additional 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.)- ""Hollow Man,"" directed by Paul Verhoeven and starring Kevin Bacon; August 4 scheduled release.- ""All The Pretty Horses,"" directed by Billy Bob Thornton and starring Matt Damon; Fall release.- ""Charlie's Angels,"" directed by McG, and starring Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu and Cameron Diaz; November 3 scheduled release.- ""Sixth Day,"" directed by Roger Spottiswoode and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger; November 10 scheduled release.- ""Vertical Limit,"" directed by Martin Campbell and starring Chris O'Donnell; December 8 scheduled release.Other recent SDDS 8 Channel releases include ""U-571,"" directed by Jonathan Mostow, ""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, 20th 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.