Composer David Findlay has joined forces with Toronto’s Film Sound One to create a one-stop sound shop.

Findlay, who has spent the last 14 years composing music for film, TV and commercials, has taken on a minority partnership stake in Film Sound One, a 12-year-old audio post facility operated by president Dwayne Newman.

Findlay’s composing studio, Overproductions, will now operate inside Film Sound One.

‘Now, with a resident composer, Film Sound One can offer the full package of audio post, sound design, foley and mixing, as well as music composition, which makes us more attractive to clients,’ says Findlay, who worked in Montreal and Vancouver previously and has composed scores for Lifetime movies (Dead Silent, starring Rob Lowe, and Life in the Balance, featuring Bo Derek), documentaries (Stornoway Productions’ Portraits of War) and TV series (Telescene’s Student Bodies).

Film Sound One’s service menu also includes narration, music editing, ADR/voice-over, dialogue recording and editing, sound effects, restoration, and Dolby Digital 5.1 and LtRt TV surround sound mixing.

An in-house composer not only offers producers a value-added service – it can also help them save money, says Newman.

‘Many productions don’t hire a composer up until the last minute, so it is great that we can now offer this service,’ he explains. ‘As well, clients can get a package deal that combines all our services at a better rate. With everything under one roof we can trim the costs. There is downward pressure on budgets. Producers are trying to do a good job with less money, so you have to be competitive in pricing.’

Findlay notes that freelance composers are also feeling the pinch, as their fees are falling due to a combination of tight budgets and new technology that makes it easier to compose and record music without any expertise in the field.

‘I have seen some alarmingly low rates – half of what they used to be when I started in the business – to score TV movies and features,’ he says. ‘Anyone with a synthesizer thinks they can score a film, so, for better or worse, technology is driving the price down, as there is always someone willing to do it for less.’

Film Sound One has worked in a range of genres, from dramatic TV (The Comedy Network’s Puppets Who Kill) and film (Robert Budreau’s That Beautiful Somewhere), to documentaries (CBC’s Return to Kandahar, Discovery Channel’s Counter Force, CBC/National Geographic’s Shipbreakers), commercials and infomercials. It also does audio mixing on trailers for theatrical film distributors including Alliance Films, and sound restoration on prints.

Currently, the shop is performing audio work on the Star! reality series Look-A-Like and the documentary The Sky Is the Limit, featuring Richard Branson, for David Brady Productions.

Two years ago, the company diversified beyond audio by offering video equipment and edit suite rentals through Propellerhead Rentals.

But Newman says Film Sound One doesn’t plan to grow too big. He wants the company to remain a smaller, boutique shop.

‘We put all the resources we can into a project to ensure it realizes its potential on the audio side,’ he says.