As we head into a new year and more uncharted territory in the media landscape, Playback is asking leaders from sectors across the industry to weigh in on what they think 2015 may hold for their companies and the world of Canadian film and television.  In the second story in our series, we speak with Tattersall Sound and Pictures’ president Jane Tattersall and general manager and partner Peter Gibson. 

What do you anticipate to be the biggest changes to your business in 2015?

We have steadily expanded our facilities and staff in the past five years, and last year was no exception. We added an ADR stage which has added to our business, and just this past month went live with another mix stage – our 5th mix stage. So the changes to our business in 2015 will be managing the different types of shows we now accommodate. We built our business on features back when no one in the least bit interested in Canadian films. We moved into television as our clients did. And those clients who may have made short films 10 years ago are now doing a wide variety of television. We love our kids shows just as much as we love our high-end television and feature films but they require different workflow and the diversity in the shows will continue to be a change for us.

Can you outline some of the specific challenges the sound industry faces? Anything technologically or specific to the business model?

When I think about challenges to the sound industry as a business model it’s really a manufacturing question – how to deliver improved quality within a certain time frame. Software designers are creating plugins to make improvements to sound – new reverbs from real world environments, new plugins that target crackle or specific noise on production sound tracks, or can reduce reverb or distortion. These did not exist a decade ago. Now we have the technology and the know-how – we just need the time to make use of it. Along with embracing new technology, we look for the efficiencies in the work flow – use the plugins, try to work smarter and faster – and always keep the global perspective.

Audiences are enjoying their shows in many different formats…yet delivering on different platforms can be a challenge. We aim for the best listening systems and then test for the laptop, earbud, etc. to be sure the dialogue is clear and compromised. Another challenge to the sound world is creative – sound is hugely capable of telling a story, building a character, creating a mood. But it is a visceral experience – if you never feel it you’ll never know what you’ve missed.

What business, economic or regulatory trends will drive these changes?

The low Canadian dollar has certainly helped our business growth (it’s helped all of us in the industry). Film Ontario’s promotion of Ontario has helped to increase the number of international coproductions. And the government’s repeated endorsement of the tax credits is a big component. All of this drives our business and that of all the other companies in our business sector. 

Although the bulk of your business is on Canadian productions, you have done work in the past year on Showtime’s Penny Dreadful – will you be targeting more work on foreign productions?

Yes, this past year and starting again this month we are doing the post sound on Penny Dreadful. It is done out of the U.S. from Showtime but in fact there is a Canadian component – Toronto’s Take 5 Productions [service producing all the post elements on the series]. When Showtime approached them to do Penny Dreadful, Canadian producer Sheila Hockin recommended that Showtime and the British producers Neal Street Productions use her sound team from Vikings. They trusted Sheila’s judgement and we worked hard to justify her confidence in us. We would always look for [new] opportunities, but we would look to see if we could contribute something unique to a production, or a show with a connection with us, not just try to get it because it is there.

What do you anticipate to be your biggest challenge in the year ahead?

To continuously find a way to successfully support the independent film industry in Canada whose producers find themselves under increasing strain to raise resources sufficient to make films for an international market. High-quality craft takes time, and we must find the time to ensure that the films we do have clear, rich dialogue, detailed sound effects, imaginative sound design and beautifully mixed tracks.

Any ideas on how to achieve that? 

Yes, we do. Sometimes we might try to be really creative in a few moments of the film so that the other parts which are already carried well by performance and directing can afford to be less filled out by ambiances or other sounds. Or we suggest that filmmakers consider sound when they are writing the script – imagine what it will sound like and put that into the script so that they can shoot scenes with the right coverage that can make good use of sound moments. In one recent case, we decided to ADR the whole film since the production sound was so bad it would have been very time-consuming to try to salvage. It was a Fellini-rescue approach and worked wonderfully. I think it freed up the filmmakers and us, the sound team, to make something really special.

What do you see as the most significant opportunities in the year head?

The talent in our industry today is exploding. The quality of the writing and the filmmaking is improving all the time. Whatever projects we get to work on we can unleash our technical and creative expertise. It is a wonderful opportunity to raise the bar. Also, lifestyle shows are here to stay. We have done some in the past couple of years and it has been a satisfying challenge to see how to manage the large number of audio tracks. We will look for the opportunity to do more.