Although there’s been very little activity here on the Sound Spot Blog, the same cannot be said of out in the real world.

Since the new year I (Chris Box) have been tirelessly working and trying to settle myself for the rest of the year.

So far this year I have been involved in quite a few projects with a wide scope. In January I was second boom operator on one of Touchpaper’s shorts for ‘Coming UP’.  Although we shot through the London snow and in tiny locations, it was a pleasure to work with mixer, Billy Quinn, and got to finally get to have a look at the illusive Aaton Cantar hard disk recorder.  There’s something to be said about having all that gear and your disposal, it definitely makes life easier, no work arounds needed.

Also on the production end I landed a nice little week long gig at the National Theatre Studios recording sound for Mighty Dog Tv’s ‘Muse Of Fire’.  This was very different to most documentary stuff I’d done before.  I was covering an actors workshop of around 14 people with different guests for every session including Sir Ian McKellen.  So strategically placing radio mics on those in the center of the sessions (ie guests, performing actors), my boom operator Aykut Evin was constantly running around the floor over two cameras covering the remaining 10 people, not a challenge I’d like to do every day.

In post Production: I am currently mixing a series of charity promos for Global Stories which should be available shortly.

I am also deep into providing sound design for a WW1 film titled ‘Deserted’, this film takes place on the homefront in a small village which slowly looses all of it’s men.  What is great about this film like so many I have worked on, is that there is very little dialogue.  I get to create meaning and texture in the film by other means, through the surroundings, the characters themselves and namely the letters which play a central part in the story.  More on that soon…

Since the end of March, I have taken a short term contract at Inflight Productions, as a audio transfers engineer.  I know this is a little out of my comfort zone, but I do get to listen to Universals back catalogue as I digitise their tape masters which is quite cool (except for the scores of Chuck Berry records that never seem to end).

Also news just in, I have been offered a contract to head my own audio department at a facilities house, with a look to joining their crew pool within 18months.  Things are still a little early yet so no names, but if all goes ahead I will get my own department and spend all day and night playing with sound gear and really get to grips with all things hardware.

Finally, Aykut and myself are tinkering away at building a purely Sound Spot project which will involve countless hours of location recording and will be available solely through sound-spot.  More details when we are underway, but this should be exciting.

I’ve finally sat down with the web software wix to try out there flash site service to create a showreel site, and after a short time of tinkering this is what I’ve come up with.

Free website – Wix.com

Here are some more great youtube videos of sound related stuff be it commercials, skits and whetever

There’s also an absolutely amazing commercial made in Sweden (I think) that used to be on youtube, it involved creating the sound for crackers of some sort.  If anyone can find it please post it here, i’d love to see it again

A great little commercial for DAB radio which I stumbled upon across youtube.

Here in all of its glorious 11 minutes and 46 seconds is Luke White’s short ‘Tide’

A beautiful short made at LCC last year. Here’s a short description taken from Luke’s website blackpaint.co.uk

“A boy and his father live a harsh existence against a desolate backdrop. Whilst the father is stranded, the boy’s physique allows him to pass through a small tunnel leading to a place very different from their own. He brings back footage to satisfy his fathers desire to re-live memories of when he too could make this journey. Tide is the story of a father’s obsession that will ultimately lose him the respect of his son, and in turn his companionship.”

TIDE from luke white on Vimeo.

I (Chris Box) was lucky enough to be involved, creating the sound design for this, recording foley, ADR and mixing it at Borough Studios here in London.  Since completion it has gone on to be screened at both the BFI and London Shorts Festival (and many more).

Hope I’ve included everyone in this list.

Father – Liam Thomas, Son – Luke Williams

Writer & Director – Luke White, Producer – Emilia Dobrogowska, Cinematographer – David Stafford-Clark, Production Designer – Jessica Bernard, Assistant Director – James Fisher, Associate Producer – Zuzana Markova, Costume Designers – Jessica Bernard & Ruth Wade, Make-Up Artists – Claire Belling & Jessica Bernard, Production Assistants – James Winterflood, Nicolas Crew & Anna Jurkoweicka, Focus Puller – James Stafford-Clark, Johanna Lietha, Jessica Greene, Alba Moronuiz & Jack Newman, Clapper Loader – Johanna Lietha, Holly Cleary & Alexandra Michaels, Sound Recordist – Chris Box & Chris Mcquillan , Gaffer & Grip – Paul Kemp, Sparks – Holley Cleary, Chris Brown & Ritvan Mislikovjan, Continuity – Analisa Tremolada & Anna Meller, Set Construction – Fred Mercer, Mirela O’Prey, Matt Hansell, Joe D’Ovidio, Yoku Ishida, Chaperone – Mark Bromley, Editor – Armen Antranikian, Sound Designer – Chris Box, Foley Recordist – Palani Bala