NEWS

We were lucky enough to be invited down to London for the Bafta awards 2020. The awards ceremony took place in the iconic Royal Albert Hall, and recognised the outstanding achievements of filmmakers and creatives from the UK and worldwide.

It was a very special evening and we feel extremely honoured to be present at such a prestigious event. The Baftas are the biggest night in the UK film industry, so to be a part of it was a very joyous occasion for us indeed!

The big winner of the evening was of course 1917, which took home 7 awards, including the award for best sound. Hildur  Guðnadóttir also made bafta history by becoming the first solo female to ever win in the best score category. It was also a great evening for Top Boy star Michael Ward, as he picked up the rising star award.

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With the academy awards now just 2 weeks away, it will be interesting to see if 1917 will continue its domination in the big categories, or if it will face challenges from rival films such as The Irishman, or the dark-horse nominee Parasite.

The evening had a very cheerful atmosphere to it and felt like a fantastic celebration of the creative talent we have here in the UK and oversees. Hopefully, we will be the ones receiving an award in the not too distant future.

We are excited to announce that we have completed work on the upcoming period film Farewell Waltz. The film, helmed by writer/director Kaine Levy tells the turbulent love story of an impoverished Jamaican boy and a wealthy English girl on the eve of World War II. For this project, we oversaw all of the audio components within the film, including dialogue, foley, sound design, and mixing. We also mixed the score which was recorded with a live orchestra.

The main challenge of this project was creating a consistent sonic world that took the audience to the 1930s. This meant the careful selection of sound effects that felt at home within that time period, as well as precise editing to remove any sonic traces of the 21st century. This project required a lot of subtle details to really bring each scene to life and to achieve the tone that the director was after.

The film utilises the iconic speech from British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, in which he announces that war has been declared against Germany. We were tasked with taking the original broadcast audio and cleaning it up to the standard you would expect of a modern film. This was achieved through the careful use of noise removal tools and dynamics processing. The end result sounds crisp & clear like a professional voice-over and sits perfectly within the film. We are extremely pleased with the way this turned out.

The film contains a truly superb musical score, written by Colombian composer Felipe Téllez. The score was recorded using a live orchestra in eastern Europe and mixed by 344 Audio in our Stephenson Suite. To keep things in line with the overall sonic vision for the film, we used harmonic processing such as tape saturation to add colour and give the score a more vintage feel. We were taking a pristine modern recording and "dirtying it up" to make it fit the time period of the film. This took some fine-tuning, but eventually, we were able to find the right balance that fits the story, whilst still showing off the music in its best light.

In conclusion, Farewell Waltz was an absolute joy to be involved with and we are extremely proud of what the team has achieved. You can find out more information on the film via the link here: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11110828/

‍If you enjoyed this article please check out our ultimate guide to audio post- production: https://www.344audio.com/post/the-ultimate-guide-to-audio-post-production-sound-design

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We are excited to share with you our new 2020 commercial reel. This reel is a highlight of many of the commercial projects we have recently completed, including campaign videos for the Duke of Lancaster regiment, MyProtein, and Motorpoint.

There’s a lot that goes into assembling a reel, and it’s always a fresh challenge to make one that showcases our work in the most engaging way. There is a lot of contrast between different projects, so fitting them all together in a cohesive way is like solving a big jigsaw puzzle. From a sound design perspective, this reel shows our versatility whilst keeping the consistent level of quality that we deliver on our projects.

We hope you enjoy our work. You can watch it here below.

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We are proud to announce that we have won another award for our work on the American horror film, The Haunting of Pottersfield. This award came from the independent horror movie awards in the “best sound design” category.

This is our 3rd best sound design award for this film, and it has been fantastic to have our work gain praise from multiple awarding bodies in the industry.

The Haunting of Potterfield, directed by Andre Dixon tells the story of two paranormal researchers that stay overnight in one of the most haunted places in the United States. The tone of the film relied heavily on sound design to create an atmosphere and build tension.

Here is what Andre’ had to say about our work together: "Extraordinary post-production services. Excellent communication! Alex is a master craftsman who pays attention to every detail and worked continuously with me to get me the sound I was looking for in my film."

We thoroughly enjoyed working on this film and bringing the story to life through sound design. You can find a full list of winners, as well as more info about the Independent horror movie awards on their website here -  https://filmfreeway.com/IndependentHorrorMovieAwards

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344 Audio Founder Alex Gregson has started a new non-profit organisation called UKan. UKan is a guiding light that helps inspire and accelerate the path to success for young people that have an interest in pursuing a career in the creative industries.

UKan was devised after an article surfaced in the Guardian newspaper citing that ‘A third of film and TV producers are reporting a skills shortage’ in the UK. We started to research and understand why this is happening - there is a lack of knowledge on clear (and alternative) points of entry into these fields for young people. With the UK creative industries growing year after year, it's crucial that we inspire and champion the next wave of talent that are making their first steps into the industry. Not only to keep up with the demand for skilled people, but to keep the UK as the world leader for Film, TV, and media.

UKan is seeking input from creative professionals who want to get involved with the cause.  This can either be through donations, or a small contribution of your time to get involved as a UKan Ambassador. Get in touch via Facebook Messenger @WeAreUKan to tell us how you’d like to help!

https://www.facebook.com/WeAreUKan/

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