SOUND ONE: CLOSING ITS DOORS!!!

[Nick Morrison]

Not sure if anyone's heard, but SOUND ONE has just closed its doors. Totally f*cked up. A good friend of mine works at Broadway Video (in the same building), and everyone is SHOCKED.

They were bought by an investment firm last week, and now DUMPED. The leading audio post house on the East Coast just got whacked, Gordon Gecko style.

They occupy FOUR FLOORS in the Brill Building! Can you imagine how many people work there?? And are now unemployed?? Because an investment firm (I presume) found it more lucrative to sell the space and all the gear than keep a 40-year old company humming?

If they were struggling, I'd like to think they could have sold a floor off. But instead, with their fate in someone else's hands, they're being shut down and reduced to a fire-sale.

Woody Allen, Jim Jarmusch, Ken Burns, Brian DePalma, Sydney Lumet...everyone went there...this place was an NYC institution...that's just been laid to waste.

What a commentary not only on our times, but of our industry. It's almost like you need to be small and nimble just to survive. Why go to Sound One when your friend's "buddy" can mix your movie for you on his laptop...while he drives to work?

 

[Ryan De Franco]

That is miserable.

So is the loss of A-1 lab. And Du-Art. And all the rest.

But Pac-lab is still churning out the prints, and they're taking delivery of a new HD Super 8mm scanner that should be the most affordable film scan anywhere. Perhaps someone will buy up Sound One?

This is the number to call Empire Investment Holdings in Florida. Don't just yell at the person who picks up, tell them you're interested in the Sound One deal and would like to schedule a call with the associate in charge. Then go from there

303.403.1111

 

[Elsie N]

Another Kodak moment in today's changing world. Things are changing so fast. People who are retired can get off the fast trac and slow down to smell the roses. For the rest of us it seems we'd better keep churning and learning or we will be thrown off the fast trac at the next curve, and be forced into a retirement of sorts.

 

[Jon Jones]

It's true when you say that you have to be small and nimble to survive, I firmly believe that!

 

[BRANDON JAMESON]

Wow!!!

I did my first summer internship with Vern and Arlon Ober when I was 14.

AMAZING.

R.I.P., Arlon, Vern and Sound One.

 

[Ketch Rossi]

Let me give you a far more Dramatic example closer to my home here in Rome...


CINECITTÀ STUDIOS, which have been part of Hollywood filmmaking since the beginning of time, sold off piece by piece to build skyscrapers and commercial Malls, and with it goes not only thousands of People to the unemployment already long list, but an Entire Country Cinematic History!!

Sad times...

 

[Francesco Bonomo]

Let me give you a far more Dramatic example closer to my home here in Rome...


CINECITTÀ STUDIOS, which have been part of Hollywood filmmaking since the beginning of time, sold off piece by piece to build skyscrapers and commercial Malls, and with it goes not only thousands of People to the unemployment already long list, but an Entire Country Cinematic History!!

Sad times...

The problem of Cinecittà has little to do with the changes of the industry, but it's the perfect example of the non-existence of a real industry in our country, at least in the last 30 years or so. Beisdes, the bureacracy and politics of shooting in Rome are what drive people away. Ironically, it was us Italians who contributed in a large way to some studios which are now used by Italian productions running away from our country.
Cinecittà in the last few years was mostly used for crappy tv shows, some tv series, a few comercials, and literally a handful of movies. The last big production I saw there was HBO's Rome in 2006 and then "Nine". Things have been slowing down year after year, month after month, to the point where now basically all the soundstages and the backlot are empty. It's incredibly sad for what the Studios represent, and for someone like me and thousand of others who have spent so much time working there it's truly heartbreaking. But everyone could see it coming, and those who act surprised these days are either full of s*it or they have an agenda.

 

[Zack Birlew]

VFX and videogame companies are going out of business too. I wonder if we're either seeing the beginnings of a large breakup of the film and entertainment industry towards indies and smaller studios or if it's the start of a huge devestating crash. It's hard to tell where things are going these days in normal life let alone what's going on in the film industry.

 

[Matt Ryan]

Everything is about to get more affordable is the bottom line. VFX will be cheaper, sound will be cheaper, post houses will be cheaper. They have to to keep their doors open. Budgets are low right now yet none of the services have reduced their prices to match the economy. Therefore they are going out of business. Tough times for businesses.

 

[Ketch Rossi]

The problem of Cinecittà has little to do with the changes of the industry, but it's the perfect example of the non-existence of a real industry in our country, at least in the last 30 years or so. Beisdes, the bureacracy and politics of shooting in Rome are what drive people away. Ironically, it was us Italians who contributed in a large way to some studios which are now used by Italian productions running away from our country.
Cinecittà in the last few years was mostly used for crappy tv shows, some tv series, a few comercials, and literally a handful of movies. The last big production I saw there was HBO's Rome in 2006 and then "Nine". Things have been slowing down year after year, month after month, to the point where now basically all the soundstages and the backlot are empty. It's incredibly sad for what the Studios represent, and for someone like me and thousand of others who have spent so much time working there it's truly heartbreaking. But everyone could see it coming, and those who act surprised these days are either full of s*it or they have an agenda.

Yes, sad indeed, especially for me, to come back form Hollywood after 20+ years and be faced with such a sad news... But things will change in Italy... At list I'll sure give it all I got to make sure they do...

 

[Nick Morrison]

Everything is about to get more affordable is the bottom line. VFX will be cheaper, sound will be cheaper, post houses will be cheaper. They have to to keep their doors open. Budgets are low right now yet none of the services have reduced their prices to match the economy. Therefore they are going out of business. Tough times for businesses.

Agreed budgets are falling, but there'a also more work. We've gone from 10-20 major TV channels....to suddenly 100's, and now the internet. There are just SO MANY platforms that demand media, that our industry is EXPLODING. There is real demand for lots of high quality entertainment and deliverables. However because our industry is getting so flat and lateral, the prices are leveling out. There is still good work out there, but the really high paying insane jobs I think are becoming less and less the status quo. There is a lot more opportunity for smaller outfits that can deliver agency grade work at more modern prices.

But it's def the Wild West out there.

 

[Brian Pascale]

Exciting and scary times. Below a certain price it is not worth your time. The thing that keeps me optimistic is that good editing takes skill and the time to do it. And there is a difference between good shooting and someone with an iphone no matter how good that technology gets.

 

[Marc Wielage]

Everything is about to get more affordable is the bottom line. VFX will be cheaper, sound will be cheaper, post houses will be cheaper. They have to to keep their doors open. Budgets are low right now yet none of the services have reduced their prices to match the economy.

The problem I often see is there are too many producers with unrealistic expectations. Too many of them can't quite grasp that what they want to do is limited by real-world budgets. There is a price below which no one can go and still make any money. And big investments in equipment -- large servers, full-blown color correction systems like Pablo or Resolve, effects systems like Nuke and Maya, conform equipment like the DVS Clipster -- these things don't grown on trees. And you don't get experienced people with great resumes at rock-bottom prices. Same with sound mixing.

Good work costs real money. The bottom-feeder producers of the business can only push things so far before things begin to collapse.

 

[Rob Gardner]

We are in a time of frighteningly accelerating change in our industry. There are many opportunities as distribution options expand but the money for oroducction or advertising is not expanding. And skills that took 20 years to master will not command fees they once did except for a limited few. Quality of production is no longer the defining element in the marketplace that it once was. Red is part of this or a symptom of this for better or for worse. There will always be a market for high end work but the middle level work that was the bread and butter for a lot of people and companies is going away. To survive people will have to create higher quality for less just as they are in other businesses. Holding on to the cost structures of the pas will not help. Red is also part of the solution in this in that these new cameras do let you deliver more for less if you know what you are doing.

 

[Paul Ellington]

Without having anyone yell at me like they did at NYU when I predicted film would be much less of a viable source of acquisition. Let's look at the facts.

Since I made that statement in actually my first year at NYU so 2 years ago...

Film is beautiful
Film is expensive
Processing multiple times is expensive
Color Correcting is expensive
Kodak almost went bankrupt and had to remove it's sign in Hollywood.
Kodak sold off it's gelatin arm which helps make stock.
Fuji will stop making 35mm production stock.
RED has 24 FPS built in so as the world changes Film Stock makers will need to as well, the transfer to a film stock might still be possible for presentation but I believe the days of shooting it are numbered.

RED is the best thing to happen to film for people who aren't millionaires. Why are people so angry, I sorta understand but being Danish/American time to deal.

- PE

 

[Nick Morrison]

Exciting and scary times. Below a certain price it is not worth your time. The thing that keeps me optimistic is that good editing takes skill and the time to do it. And there is a difference between good shooting and someone with an iphone no matter how good that technology gets.

Exactly. Great shooting isn't easy, at all. But, in my humble opinion, great editing...is rarer still. Its an un-glamorous job that few have the patience to be masters at.

 

[Nick Morrison]

Without having anyone yell at me like they did at NYU when I predicted film would be much less of a viable source of acquisition. Let's look at the facts.

Since I made that statement in actually my first year at NYU so 2 years ago...

Film is beautiful
Film is expensive
Processing multiple times is expensive
Color Correcting is expensive
Kodak almost went bankrupt and had to remove it's sign in Hollywood.
Kodak sold off it's gelatin arm which helps make stock.
Fuji will stop making 35mm production stock.
RED has 24 FPS built in so as the world changes Film Stock makers will need to as well, the transfer to a film stock might still be possible for presentation but I believe the days of shooting it are numbered.

RED is the best thing to happen to film for people who aren't millionaires. Why are people so angry, I sorta understand but being Danish/American time to deal.

- PE

Paul this may all be true, but what we're talking about are rapacious investors who shut down a legendary company...seemingly only for profit. Sound One by all accounts was business as usual when this happened. Woody Allen was in the middle of mixing his new movie and had to get the f*ck out.

These investors saw an opportunity: by closing down Sound One, and the mythic Colony Records, it looks like they'll be able to build a shopping center there instead.

It's America, it's their right, but it still leaves a very sour taste in many people's mouths.

But this does portend what your talking about: smaller footprints, and digital workflows, are the future...for many outfits. It means the future is full of opportunity...and also uncertainty.

Being small and nimble makes you competitive, but it also strips away some of the comfort and security of a larger operation. Were on our own, for better or for worse, which can be both exciting and a little frightening, I'm sure.

 

[Todd T]

I don't see why the investors are to blame here, Discovery Communication obviously made the decision to sell.

 

[Nick Morrison]

I don't see why the investors are to blame here, Discovery Communication obviously made the decision to sell.

Your right, I think it's just sad to see a great company go.

 

[Paul Ellington]

Paul this may all be true, but what we're talking about are rapacious investors who shut down a legendary company...seemingly only for profit. Sound One by all accounts was business as usual when this happened. Woody Allen was in the middle of mixing his new movie and had to get the f*ck out.

These investors saw an opportunity: by closing down Sound One, and the mythic Colony Records, it looks like they'll be able to build a shopping center there instead.

It's America, it's their right, but it still leaves a very sour taste in many people's mouths.

But this does portend what your talking about: smaller footprints, and digital workflows, are the future...for many outfits. It means the future is full of opportunity...and also uncertainty.

Being small and nimble makes you competitive, but it also strips away some of the comfort and security of a larger operation. Were on our own, for better or for worse, which can be both exciting and a little frightening, I'm sure.

I am not celebrating the loss of such a company, not at all. What I am saying is that change should have occurred sooner for them to have stayed in place. We can't predict the future, but we can venture out and try new things now and again... Sometimes we get stuck, selfishly or become too comfortable -- that is when you need to evolve and I am learning from everyone at RED how this begins to happen, and also as I am finishing up my MFA.

I am at a school which flipped orders from 4 Alexas and 2 Epics to 4 Epics and 2 Alexas... I wont take the credit, but I believe they saw value in everything I showed.

Now we have great cameras at school, and people are pissed at me, well, not undergrads, but some others are, all because of what I said about acquisition... and look what happened.

I had a Canon 1D III took great pictures, can't keep a damn thing in focus for motion, and trees gello... I love my gear. I feel like I'm becoming much more artistic. Freedom, isn't that what America is about? Epic is awesome... Of course people laid off sux, and the way it went down, who knows... It's business, not personal. Open up somewhere else. People will come back if it's as stout as you say.

Best, with much respect.

- Paul