Meeting Report: August 2023 – Ben Osmo on Film Location Sound Mixing

2023/08/222023/08/22Paolo Menolotto

On Monday 14^th August, the Melbourne Section of the AES held our Annual General Meeting followed by our regular bi-monthly meeting.

Further details on the AGM proceedings can be found at https://aesmelbourne.org.au/2023-agm

Following the AGM, Academy Award winner Ben Osmo (Best Achievement in Sound Mixing 2015 – Mad Max: Fury Road) presented on the topic of:

Film Production Sound Through the Years
changes and added responsibilities.

Newly re-elected Chairman Graeme Huon introduced Ben with a brief outline of Ben’s career.

Ben Osmo in front of his "sound cart" — Ben Osmo in front of his “sound cart”

Ben then took us through his career in location sound production from his start in 1975 at the ABC. He told us that the typical setup of the time was a Nagra portable battery-operated tape recorder and a shotgun microphone on a long boom pole. He explained that the shoots were often one-camera affairs with shots framed as wide-shot, mid-shot, and close-up with the microphone positioned accordingly to achieve the appropriate sound balance.

Photo showing the crush of news crews covering a live event. — The one-man sound crew.

Photo of early film set with sound recorder and boom operator — The one-man sound crew.

August 2023 Meeting Notice: Film Production Sound Through the Years

2023/07/232023/07/23Paolo Menolotto

We are back on Zoom for our August meeting

The next online meeting of the AES Melbourne Section will be held on
Monday 14^th August 2023 at 7:30pm – via Zoom.

It will start with a brief Section Annual General Meeting – non-members and other visitors are welcome to sit in on this part of the meeting.

Then Academy Award winner Ben Osmo (Best Achievement in Sound Mixing 2015 – Mad Max: Fury Road) will present on the topic of:

Film Production Sound Through the Years

changes and added responsibilities.

When Ben started his long and illustrious career in film location sound in the 1970s, capturing location dialogue and effects required little more than a Nagra tape recorder and a shotgun mic on a boom-pole. With advances in technology, the kit a location sound mixer now has to deploy on set can fill a medium-sized van and cover not only multi-channel wireless dialogue/fx capture and recording, but also communications, playback, and monitoring for the entire crew.

Meeting Report: June 2023 – Alex Stinson on Modern Classical Music Production

2023/06/242023/06/27Paolo Menolotto

On Monday 19^th June, the Melbourne Section of the AES held our regular bi-monthly meeting.

It was another in-person event held at ABC Melbourne’s Southbank Studios.

Alex Stinson, a senior ABC Classical Music Producer, Recording Engineer and Editor welcomed a capacity group of twenty members and guests for a short tour of the venue’s music facilities, starting at the main orchestral recording space, the Iwaki Auditorium (Studio 355), moving through the other production facilities and recording spaces, and ending up at Studio 356, where he presented to us on the topic of:

Modern Classical Music Production

Techniques, challenges, and workflow

Photo of Alex Stinson in the Iwaki Auditorium — Alex describes the process of recording in the Iwaki Auditorium – Photo Rod Staples

Alex described their approach to classical music recording, starting with a description of the process of orchestral recording, and then moving on to recording smaller ensembles, duets and solo pieces.

Preliminary Meeting Notice – August

2023/06/202023/06/20Secretary

Our next meeting is being planned for Monday 14th August.

It will be via Zoom

There will be a short AGM at the beginning of the meeting (Reports, Election of Officers and Committee) – then Oscar-winning Film Location Mixer Ben Osmo (Mad Max:Fury Road, Strictly Ballroom, Dead Calm, The Sapphires, etc) will present on his work, experiences, and the current technology of film-sound.

Further details and bookings will be available closer to the date.