Emmy win Critical

The stock of Toronto shop Critical Post has risen with its recent sound editing Emmy win for the mini Hitler: The Rise of Evil, awarded to Critical partners Tom Bjelic, John Douglas Smith and Allan Fung and their collaborators.

The company reports that it has tripled in size to accommodate its current slate, which includes the CBC mini Shattered City: The Halifax Explosion, Barna-Alper/North Bend’s Blue Murder and S&S Productions’ An American in Canada. The audio post facility is also prepping for the Dreamsmith/Barna-Alper/Platt Productions MOW Open Heart, Ken Finkleman’s new season of The Newsroom and the MOW Prom Queen for Tapestry Pictures.

-www.criticalpost.com

Tattersall’s new shop buzzing

Jane Tattersall, who left Tattersall Casablanca earlier this year, is busy with her new venture, Tattersall Post Production. Tattersall was sound supervisor on Alliance Atlantis’ Foolproof and on The Gospel of John, the Garth Drabinsky-backed ‘visual bible’ that preemed at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Tattersall and Garret Kerr, who was also cited on the Hitler sound Emmy, recently collaborated on the sound edit for Sienna Films’ That Touch of Pink, starring Jimi Mistry and Kyle MacLachlan. Other recent projects include Rhombus’ Slings and Arrows for The Movie Network, Ginger Snaps 2 and 3 for 49th Parallel Films and Combustion, and Drive, the latest BMW film.

Tattersall’s fall plate will consist of the CTV MOW Zeyda and the Hitman, the new CBC drama Wonderland, the Daniel MacIvor feature Wilby Wonderful and the CBC MOW Asylum. Tattersall is presently doing the sound edit on the TNT TV movie Word of Honor.

Modulations benefits from blockbusters

Modulations has benefited from the blockbusters that shot in Montreal this past summer. The sound and audio post shop had Penelope Cruz in for ADR looping on the locally shot Head in the Clouds, while Martin Scorsese, in town shooting The Aviator, directed the ADR for his PBS series The Blues at the facility. While post work on the former is ongoing, the shop says it has four more features and four TV series locked up for the winter.

Modulations recently expanded by acquiring recording facility Tempo Studios. The firm has also updated its ADR recording studio and foley stage. It has redesigned its smaller mixing stage, equipping it with the new Fairlight digital Dream console.

-www.modulations.net

Post Modern wraps Isaak gig

Audio shop Post Modern Sound completed a sweet gig after Showtime’s The Chris Isaak Show wrapped after 47 episodes.

Projects currently in house include the family sitcom Romeo for Nickelodeon, the lesbian-themed Showtime series The L Word, Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda (Fireworks/BLT Productions) and The Collector, 13 one-hours for CHUM’s Space: The Imagination Station. It also worked on the 22-minute Titan Pictures comedy-drama Unrecoverable. The firm says it performed ADR, editorial, foley, dialogue, backgrounds and final mix on these projects.

The shop was pleased as punch that several films it worked on screened at its hometown Vancouver International Film Festival, including Moving Malcolm, The Corporation, Los Zafiros: Music from the Edge of Time and The Exchange.

-www.postmodernsound.com

Toybox 1-800-Busy

The audio division at Toybox Toronto is humming this fall with Degrassi: The Next Generation for Epitome Pictures and CTV, Lions Gate’s supernatural series 1-800-Missing, the crime drama Street Time for Showtime, the ABC Family MOW Beautiful Girl and the Tapestry Pictures MOW Prom Queen. All are currently in production for mix, SFX and editorial.

To get underway shortly are: the feature Seven Times Lucky from Buffalo Gal Productions; Murdoch Mysteries parts one and two from Shaftesbury Films and Original Pictures; and two IMAX features scheduled for mixing in October/November.

Toybox has recently acquired its second Studer D950 Digital Console for its newly redesigned Theater 8, currently in use on Beautiful Girl.

-www.compt.com

Passion puts focus on Lenz

Lenz Entertainment’s Jack Lenz has gotten press lately for his ongoing work on the score for Mel Gibson’s controversial yet-to-be-released Christ film The Passion. Sound engineer Kevin Doyle has also been brought on board.

Toronto-based Lenz has branched out to the production side with the preschool show Nanalan, which recently launched on CBC, and for which Lenz does full audio production. Jack and son Asher also produced the opening theme for Global’s Train 48 series.

The shop’s other recent credits include music and post on HGTV’s Holmes on Homes, Trash to Treasure and Love by Design as well as Strip Search on Bravo!. Lenz is doing post for Country Couples on CMT, as well as music for Sue Thomas F.B.Eye on CTV, Doc on Global TV, Swap TV on TVOntario and Nelvana’s Beyblade VForce.

-www.lenzent.com

Footsteps on busy path

Foley studio Footsteps Post Production Sound, headed by Andy Malcolm, is currently making noise for The Statement, the Norman Jewison/Robert Lantos thriller. The Uxbridge, ON-based shop also continues to draw high-profile Hollywood clientele, and is readying for Along Came Polly, starring Ben Stiller and Jennifer Aniston, and the remake of Around the World in 80 Days with Jackie Chan and Arnold Schwarzenegger. It will also be working on an IMAX NASCAR film.

This year, Footsteps added a second studio, equipped with a water tank, assorted stone surfaces and an exposed dirt floor for recording exterior sounds.

TIFF 2003 screened several films Footsteps worked on, including Robert Altman’s The Company, The Gospel of John and Rhinoceros Eyes.

Freelance a gas for Pellerin

Daniel Pellerin, former head of mixing services at Toronto’s Deluxe Sound and Picture, reports he is thriving as a freelancer under the banner Daniel Pellerin Digital Sound Productions.

Pellerin’s slate has spanned supervising the mixes on The Gospel of John and the Miramax comedy My Baby’s Mama at his old digs at Deluxe, to mixing the White Pine Pictures docs Anatomy of Burlesque and Arctic Dreamer in time for the Montreal festival. He mixed the Barna-Alper doc Freud and Hitler: Neighbors in Vienna over at Kitchen Sync Digital Audio.

Pellerin is currently supervising and sound/music designing on Build Me Up, Break Me Down, skedded to open The Passionate Eye on CBC this fall. He is then off to Calgary to supervise and mix the CBS MOW Hollywood Wives: The New Generation at The Beach Advanced Audio Production.

Gems at Film Sound One

Film Sound One, a best sound Gemini winner last year for Canadian Geographic Presents: Immortals of the Arctic, is also nominated this year for its work on the doc Return to Kandahar, which aired on CBC Newsworld.

The aforementioned Daniel Pellerin, winner of a couple of Geminis himself, has taken up an office at the facility. The Toronto post shop has worked with Pellerin on several projects, including The Comedy Network’s Puppets Who Kill, which has earned Pellerin and his collaborators another Gemini nomination.

The shop plans to expand in the near future with another mix theater, three more edit suites and offices for producers.

-www.filmsoundone.com

Talking Dog barks up Verite’s tree

Verite Films is providing Regina’s Talking Dog Studios with music and audio post gigs on two new TV series: the CTV comedy Corner Gas (also produced by 335 Productions) and the APTN/TVOntario youth-oriented series Renegade Press.

As a facility promoting the integration of sound and music, says Kerry Fraser, manager of publicity at shop owner Minds Eye Entertainment, Talking Dog is particularly pleased to be up for Gemini noms for both best music, for 2030CE (YTV/Space), and best sound, for Betrayed. Both projects are coproduced by Minds Eye.

-www.talkingdogstudios.com

Kozak attends to CFL Traditions

Vancouver’s Wayne Kozak Audio Productions recently completed 10 half-hours of CFL Traditions for Network Pictures, broadcast on TSN. The series features music by Wayne Kozak and John Sereda and sound design, audio post and mix by Chris McIntosh, senior engineer.

The shop also recently launched a new website that features a voice talent library with more than 200 voices. The site also includes Wayne’s Time Wasters #1 (www.waynekozak.com/dragonbones/dragon_bones.html), the first in a bizarre series of Flash movies incorporating shop staffers.

-www.waynekozak.com

Kozmic’s kids and adult fare

Kozmic Sound, an all-digital audio studio opened in Vancouver last year by Wayne Kozak and engineer Chris McLaren, has been busy with ADR on the series Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (Hartbreak Films in association with Viacom Productions) and Zoids, airing on Cartoon Network. Kozmic is also working on pre-lay and editing on The Cramp Twins, seen on Fox.

Kozmic recently had Jamie Mahaffey and J. Martin Taylor in doing editorial and mixing for Insight Productions’ Easter Island: Mystery and Magic for CBC’s The Nature of Things and The Faerie Queen, a ballet adaptation for CBC’s Opening Night.

Alex Hall recently joined Kozmic as sound recording/editing/mixing/SFX design engineer.

-www.kozmicsound.com

New prods, faces under the Umbrella

Toronto recording/audio post shop Umbrella Sound is currently wrapping a 5.1 surround mix for a DVD set by popular Atlantic band Great Big Sea, set for a Christmas release.

Also in the shop are the Summerhill series CG Kids (TVO and APTN) and The Antique Hunter (Prime/Global), along with a new Barna-Alper pilot.

Umbrella reports that founder Jamie Stanley is back at the helm after a run as an executive at music and technology firm MapleMusic. The shop has also hired on business development manager Joanna Lund and studio operations manager Robert Poteraj.

-www.umbrellasound.com

Goldfish swimming in kids work

Toronto boutique recording studio Goldfish-Music has done some children’s programming work of late in addition to a busy slate of album production as well as radio and TV spots.

The shop’s Dan LeBlanc and Creighton Doane have composed two songs to be included in the upcoming animated straight-to-DVD movie The Care Bears in Journey to Joke-A-Lot, produced by Nelvana. Goldfish’s Mark Hukezalie also recently completed writing original music for three short films for New York’s Sesame Network. Titles include The Emperor & the Kite, to air worldwide, The Great Ball and Molly Lou Melon.

-www.goldfish-music.com