Posted Thu Jul 14, 2011 at 12:30 PM PDT by Michael S. Palmer
The invitation went out last week, but if you missed the chance to watch Dolby's Livestreaming event, "Surrounded: 7.1 Cinema & Beyond", we've got the video for you right here in its entirety.
Running at an hour and fifteen minutes, the panel of filmmakers and sound designers included Erik Aadahl (the supervising sound editor on 'Transformers: Dark of the Moon,' 'Kung Fu Panda 2,' and 'Megamind'), Eric Brevig, Michael Semanick (the re-recording mixer of 'Cars 2 and 'Toy Story 3), Rohan Sippy (the director of 'Dum Maaro Dum'), and Kinson Tsang (the supervising sound designer on 'Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen' and 'The Lost Bladesman').
Topics ranged from first experiences with surround sound (with many, of course, citing 'Apocalypse Now' and 'Star Wars') to what 7.1 cinema brings to both 2D and 3D movies. With two filmmakers working primarily in Asia, Rohan Sippy and Kinson Tsang were not only able to talk about the differences in constructing surround sound tracks for their audiences, but the challenges in quality they face. If you thought American theater owners and projections were crap, we haven't seen anything. Sippy and Tsang talked about, sometimes, having to reign in their sound design to account for the fact that many theaters in their collective regions are in disrepair or improperly set up. Another big challenge they face is not unlike the current 'Lord of the Rings: Extended Edition' Blu-ray controversy (926 comments and growing!). Meaning, what's rumored to be an possible-error on The Fellowship's color timing actually happens all the time with Asian Blu-ray audio – they produce a wonderful, full bodied surround mix, and then someone comes in a mucks it all up.
If you love surround sound, you'll want to check out this panel. Enjoy!
Having trouble watching it embedded, head on over to Dolby's Livestream Channel.
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