COVID Dystopia: Religious Infection

Posted on by Thor


Right now, only the pastors hand moves. I am considering having all the skeletal hands move as well. Their movement would have to be subtle so as not to distract from the pastors hand.

I thought we were done with the surround sound mix on the soundtrack, but I got a long email today from the techs who are preparing the Digital Cinema Package. They seem to think some of the volume levels might damage the theater speakers.

I was hoping that the audio from COVID Dystopia would cause the theater speakers to burst into flames, but these tech guys seem to think that is a bad idea.

My sound technician, Alan Kirkland, is addressing all the notes from his studio in Georgia. Like most things in my life right now, I was blindsided by the tech issues. Everything seemed fine when I listened to the surround sound on Jerry Johnson‘s home system. Andy Matchett, who wrote the music listened to the surround sound mix and he liked it as did Jerry who is an audiophile. If they didn’t notice a problem, then the issues can’t be that severe.

By the end of today, I should know if the revisions to the audio track will work. It is out of my hands and I just have to hope and wait. That is the hardest thing to do since it leaves me feeling helpless and unable to assist.

COVID Dystopia: Surround Sound

Posted on by Thor


There was a steep learning curve in getting surround sound for this film. I hired Alan Kirkland, a sound engineer in Georgia, to do the mix. He managed to complete it in two days. The trouble is that I am unable to hear the surround sound mix on my end. When I play the six audio tracks on my computer they only go through the two stereo speakers.

I only gave Alan one note from that listen through, which was to cut the volume of Mike Pence‘s clapping by half. No one ever noticed Pence, so I didn’t need him clapping loudly for attention. I still need to edit that change into the final Premiere Pro project.

At noon today I am going over The Rev‘s to listen to the surround sound mix on his 6 speaker system. Andy Matchett said he is going as well. I think I just need to hook my computer up to the home system to get it to play. I just have to hope it will work. Honestly there is no time to make changes since I need to send out the files today to have a Digital Cinema Package made TODAY. It takes three days for the DCP to be made and the technicians test the file in a cinema to make sure it works.

Now that the surround sound mix is done I talked to Alan about possible sweetening it further after the next Film Festival. He said there are at least 30 instances of things he would like to try. I am thinking various ambient sounds could be mixed throughout. The sound of flames would probably help along with other folly work. Though the DCP creation may signal a completion to the film, it continues to evolve.