It seems that the local Production Industry has not benifited from the recent FIFA Worldcup, except for some documentary work. Thankfully ‘things’ are in full swing again after the usual June slump. Tony thoroughly enjoyed doing final mix, in his garage ’studio’ for the short film ‘South of the Umbilo’, directed by John Barker from Terraplane. This short film premiered at Nu-Metro cinemas at Hydepark Johannesburg and Durban, towards the end of June. The soccer talent that emerged from this area in Durban in the early 1990’s is unbelievable, with most of the 1996 Bafana Bafana players from that era.
Tony also offered his sound services for ‘Flying the flag’ initiatives for Fresh Eye Films and Ola Films during the course of July. Now it is up to the rest of us to keep positive amidst the current public service strike.
Here are some of the commercials which Tony has worked on from end of April to mid August: Finish ‘Pap Pot’, CTM Tivoli taps ‘Multilingual’, Cell C ‘Stores’, ‘Brand’, ‘Network’, ‘Product’, Vodacom ‘Daddy Cool’, Mnet ‘CSI’, Ford Figo, Debonairs ‘NcaChos’, Tastic ‘Discerning Taste’, Cadbury Ostrich Campaign ‘Teaser Movie Trail’, Ace Maize Meal ‘Umgusha’, Steers ‘GoGo’, Tonigth with Trevor Noah, Rainbow Chicken ‘Spice Flavas’, DSTV ‘Celebrity endorsement promo’, Ford ‘Blue Sky’, etc.
During this period we have been fortunate to arrange location sound recording work for freelance Audio Recordists, along with the noize dept’s audio equipment. Tony recently buildt a video trolley for the freelance Audio Recordists, which can be customised per shoot.
For bookings of Audio Engineer Tony Honeybun or Freelance Audio Recordists, please contact Annetae Honeybun.
2010 has really started with a blast ,as sound recording for freelancers (dramas, documentaries and corporates) has picked up hugely since the 2009 slump. It is with pleasure that the noize dept has been able to assist in finding shoots or the handing over thereof to our great freelancer Audio Recordist contacts.
Audio Engineer Tony Honeybun has also been extremely booked up with sync sound film commercials. And we are thanking all our loyal and new customers for your ongoing support.
Some of the commercials (upto April) that Tony has worked on in 2010: Mc Donalds ‘Four shadows’, Cell C ‘Call Centre’, Kellog’s Dance, Wimpy ‘Cheesanator’, KFC ‘Crazy Entertainer’, ‘Donkey’, ‘Modiri’, Albany ‘Struu’, Sunlight ‘Project ‘Hula’, DSTV ‘Can’t do without’, ‘Golf’, ‘Bum’, ‘Wedding’, Samsung ‘Interview’, CTM ‘Motherland’, ‘Multilingual’, Redd’s ‘Interim’, FNB Cellphone banking ‘Getting to know you better’, ‘Wallet’, ‘Father of the bride’, Knorr ‘Tasty 2 in 1′, Lauging Cow ‘Perfect Boy’, Nando’s ‘Bags’ & ‘Breasts’, Danone Ultramel Delight ‘Goodbye’, MTN ‘Jenga’, Halls ‘Smooth’, Finish ‘Pap Pot’, etc.
Here’s is to a great 2010 for all parties involved in production. With SA hosting the soccer world cup in June and indications that the beginning of the end of the recession is on the way, we could be looking forward to a prosperous new year indeed. We do pray however that the SABC would be straightened out and include new local productions again and in doing so provide jobs for fellow South African freelancers and producers alike.
Continuing on this note, the noize dept will continue to strive to give our best service in sound, to you our customers in production. We believe that sound is half of the importance of your production, without sound the ‘message’ is lost in translation, literally.
So, give us a shout for our sound advice and vast experience in location sound for film & video, live recording, music videos, final mix, etc. We will arrange Audio Engineer Tony Honeybun or our trusted Audio Recordist freelancers, along with our quality sound equipment, according to your shoot requirements, whether you want to record sound for commercials, feature films, documentaries, dramas or interviews.
For bookings contact Annetae Honeybun and feel free to contact Tony Honeybun for any sound technical advice. Have a look at our extensive sound equipment list via our website. And remember we have Z1E camera kits which along with our sound gear is ideal for your behind the scenes footage.
The noize dept recently celebrated our 3rd anniversary on the 1st of November 2009! We have evolved so much over this period, adapting our services according to our customers’ needs. What started out as a business catering for high quality sound equipment rentals, soon included arranging feelance Audio Recordists along with our gear.
Due to the technical expertise of Audio Engineer Tony Honeybun, our gear is maintained and tested on an ongoing basis. Our gear selection has ’grown’ over the 3 years to include some very valuable ‘tricks of the trade’.
After about 10 years (think it is more) of final mix and live mixing at ZSe TV, Tony has decided to join the noize dept permanently on the 1st of September 2009, as his location sound passion was calling. The most recent commercials of location sound are: (CTM Big big sale “Bee” & “Parrot”, Mango “What did you do that for”, Miway “Fables”, Heineken “Wedding”, Love Life “Crew”, “I am someone”, “ Bling”,”Gogetters”, Vodafone “Talk n talk”, Vodacom “Summer promo”, Zain “The girl & fireflies”)
Included some pictures of the recent Adidas FIFA “Unite Mzansi Unite” shoot - launch of bafana’s socker jersey, Orange, and budding future audio engineer.
“The path to success is to take massive, determined action. It is in the moment of our decisions that your destiny is shaped.” ~ Anthony Robins
Thanks to all our loyal customers and freelancers for all your fantastic support.
Audio Engineer Tony Honeybun has joined the noize dept full time from the 1st of September 2009, due to increased demand for his commercials sync sound location recording skills. We are in the process of updating his showreel with the latest commercials (April 2009 - present) to show case his location sound recording as well as final mix talents. We will be out and about dropping off updated showreels parcels.
Then, please note that we have a database of freelance Audio Recordists whom are perfect for location recording of dramas, documentaries, ENGs, etc.
An explanation why DAT is extinct as per our previous newsletter, but somehow never made the blog!
DAT (Digital Audio Tape) is dead. We get a lot of requests for DAT machines for location recording. Usually it means any type of location recording device. The name seems to stick like “Hoover” instead of vacuum cleaner.
Let me explain a brief history of recording devices for audio over the last 3 decades:When I started in sound, the preferred device was a Nagra. This recorder used Quarter inch tape which gave you about 12 minutes of recording time and you had to be careful to label and seal your used tapes in case you reused them and wiped previous recordings! The unit had 2 windows with “butterflies” that opened a second or 2 after you had started recording to show you that the tape had reached its constant speed, hence the term “ Sound Speed”.
When the whole world was shouting “DIGITAL” the warm listenable sound of tape was lost forever and we all embraced the gritty bright sound of zeros and ones. DAT arrived with a near noiseless solution and complicated mechanism that just wasn’t rugged enough for the field. I had numerous DAT recorders failing on me. Minidisc also made an appearance but the media was compressed to death (and you could hear it!) so it never really took off in the Pro industry.
The current recorders on the market are hard drive, direct to disc and flash memory recorders. Some models being able to record up to 8 tracks simultaneously. My personal favorites are the memory recorders as they have no moving parts, and so far ours have been 100 % reliable. The advantage of the new era recorders is that you can download the media to a PC in a couple of seconds and have all your files labeled or time stamped for edit. We just need these recorders to have valve preamps so that we can get some of that Nagra sound back! So, now you know why DAT is dead…
To compliment our sound cart, we recently built a more portable version. This allows us to get our equipment into places that would have been difficult with the larger one. When this cart was built, we made sure that most of the functions were identical, so that you could go from one to the other in a matter of seconds and be up and running.
A prime example was Vodacom “Single Ladies” where we had the big cart in Gandi Square for playback of a dance sequence of 100+ extras and actors, to using the small cart on the rooftop of a penthouse in the CBD. (Yes, the small cart also has full playback capabilities, running entirely on battery power.)
The sound quality and monitoring on both carts are identical, with the smaller one having less mic inputs and less powerful playback.
Buzz tracks
As I do a lot of final mix I have been noticing that a number of location recordists are not doing buzz tracks on location. It is very time consuming to try and steal buzz between dialogue and loop it over to provide a bed. Also when recording buzz, use the dialogue mic or one of similar properties to make it easier for the mixer to match in post. Time is money in final mix and time spent on being creative is far more productive than trying to panelbeat bad location sound! So anyway, that was my little rant and if you need recording and playback on the top of Kilimanjaro with no power, You know who to call!!
Well, this took way longer than expected but we are extremely happy with the end result. The showreel was filmed, recorded and edited, using the noize dept’s full compliment of equipment. (Yes, apart from final mix and loction sound recording, Tony is also a great cameraman and editor.) The showreel has tongue in the cheek moments but aptly illustrate the history of Tony’s sound career, final mix and location sound clips. Only a few of the commercials and final mix productions have been selected to show case his sound experience - all of which was recorded or final mixed over the last 6 months.
Annetae will be dropping off showreel parcels at selected production houses, commencing the week of the 11th of April.
Kindly contact Annetae to arrange additional copies.
Audio is relatively unaffected by HD as the recording equipment soud quality way exceed what is currently needed for final sound. There is a lot of ’spec’ talkers out there who we challenge to actually hear the difference between certain products. There are recorders, amps, etc. that claim to have these super wide frequency responses, way beyond the human hearing and we need to remember that microphones plugged into them cannot recreate something that it cannot pick up. Some of the best microphones have been around for over 20 years and are still used and manufactured today.
Richard started his career in sound in 2001 as a boomswinger for the TV series Backstage.
Since then he has accumulated a very impressive resume as sound mixer and boomswinger: TV series (Sound Mixer for Karate Kallie-New Trend films, The Lab-Curious Pictures, Nedbank game show-Red Cherry Productions, Wild at Heart-Wild at Heart Productions, Innocent times-Mnet (boomswinger), Forgive and Forget, Snitch 2(boomswinger), Backstage(boomswinger), Scandal.
He has done quite a lot of boomswinging and mixing for Penguin Films (Madam & Eve, Stokvel & Going up, Felas TV, Fishy Feshuns & Stokvel, etc.) Richard has done boomswinging for international commercials(Mini Cooper, Galaxy, Special K, B&Q inserts) and local commercials(FNB, Vodacom rugby, Tiles & Paint Africa, Knorr, Hula Hoops. His references include some well known names.
