H5 and C5 in the same studio; Heikki Kossi’s greetings from NYC!
Foley artist & supervisor Heikki Kossi from H5 Film Sound Company is on an observation tour in New York City. Heikki has been on the road for about a week now and it’s time for us to check out how he is doing.
Hello Heikki and greetings from Oulu! How is New York holding on?
Hello Oulu, after couple of days of raining everything has been hot and cool, at the same time. This city is bigger than Kokkola, believe me. While I’ve been sitting on the street cafe, I’ve noticed that quite many people are talking about films while walking around. It’s common policy in here.
You have been there for about a week now. What has that week included and has it been what you expected?
First week I was spending most of my time at Sound One with re-recording mixer Dominick Tavella. He was mixing film called Black Swan by director Darren Aronofsky. I had also half day sessions with some of the sound editors and foley guys of Sound One. On Wednesday I had a tour in other studios of NYC like C5 Sound Inc. and Syncsound. C5 has been involved with most of the Martin Scorsese films and Syncsound is more involved with TV-Drama and documentaries.
I have noticed that the working methods down here are more supervised and planned. I think it makes stories felt like they are fulfilled, you know. I don’t know about you but I really have admired Darren Aronofsky’s films and Black Swan is a masterpiece again. I felt quite honored while I was listening even the M&E (no dialog) version of that film. Same time I was able to discuss and ask questions with Dominick and sound supervisor Craig Henighan about their editing and mixing process with this film. I was a little bit surprised about the way how they were using production sound and same time there was full foley work going on. Yes, this has been definitely more than what I expected…
Are there any distinguishable new breezes in NY or USA film sound business that you would like to tell us about?
It seems that in LA there is going to be fewer films with bigger budgets now. In NYC they are more focused on artistic and storytelling films. In sound wise the tendency seems to be that the production sound is likely to be used with the full foley. The goal is to be rough and manipulated at the same time.
During this journey I have also noticed that there is quite many directors, who have knowledge of sound and who wants to be part of sound post production (in a good way). That doesn’t happen so often in Scandinavia.
I have also noticed that the equipment and protools, etc. are the same stuff what we have. I have a feeling that sometimes it looks like we are asking too much for facilities and latest updates instead of concentrating on films what we are making.
What about the rest of the tour. What kind of schedule are you going to have? Expectations?
This second week is going to be more foley studio and sound editor time. I think this is good schedule, first I was able to see finished piece of art and during this week I have a possibility to find the answers for the questions I’ve been asking inside my head.
Heikki, I wish you a very good and interesting tour for the rest of your visit! I’ll get back to you when you are back in Finland so we can sum up your experiences in NYC.
Thank you Johanna and people of FilmArc. Thank you for making this possible. I love you and NYC!