Pinewood Sound founder Geoff Turner used his vast knowledge of audio production and post to help craft Oscar- and Emmy-winning projects as well as gold- and platinum-selling records. Turner, also credited with helping establish Vancouver as a production hub, died of leukemia on Oct. 8 in North Vancouver. He was 67.

Turner was at the helm of audio post house Pinewood for 30 years, bringing the company to the top ranks of B.C. post shops.

‘There are a lot of people who are very grateful to him for what he did for the industry,’ says Jean Turner, his wife and business partner. ‘A lot of people said he [helped] put Vancouver on the map, and made it world class. It would have been a different outcome without him because he built the first professional facilities here.’

Born in England, Geoff Turner’s career began at the age of 15, working as a Saturday afternoon projectionist. From projectionist to chief engineer of master control for ABC in England, his career took him across the pond to work in the recording industry in New York City during the ’60’s. Among the names of the day, he worked with The Beatles, Ike and Tina Turner, and Buffy St. Marie.

He later moved to Vancouver, and in 1972 built Little Mountain Sound, a music recording studio. In addition to Pinewood, he designed and built audio studios around the world.

Jean Turner says she looks forward to continued busy days for the shop, which she says is unique for its tight-knit family of employees, some of whom have been with the company since the beginning.

Keeping it in the staff family, Turner has left his share of the company to chief engineer Randy Kiss.

Of her new partner, Jean Turner says that with his ‘outstanding technical knowledge and expertise, he’ll continue on with the very, very high standards that Geoff had.’

Pinewood, which offers sound design, editing and mixing, works on both indie and studio films, along with TV shows, spots, web projects and games.

Based in North Vancouver, Pinewood expanded to a larger space on the lot at North Shore Studios (formerly Lions Gate Studios) in 1999, closing its Yaletown location three years ago. Plans are in the works for another studio, likely at North Shore.

The shop’s recent credits include ADR work on the Vancouver-shot series Smallville and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. It has also done ADR on the features I Heart Huckabees, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World – which won a best sound BAFTA award – and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

Pinewood can also lay claim to having collaborated on six Academy Award-winning films, five of which, including 2000’s U-571, won for sound or sound editing. Both Geoff Turner and Kiss were among those cited in a 2003 Emmy nomination for sound mixing on the TNT Original film Door to Door.

Jean Turner says that, as with the B.C. production industry itself, most of Pinewood’s current projects are U.S.-based, but the number of Canadian productions it is seeing is on the rise. She attributes this to the aggressive approach of a few companies such as Vancouver-based Insight Film Studios, which has had a remarkably large slate of features and MOWs of late.

Mourners paid their respects to the Pinewood founder on Dec. 9 at a memorial at Vancouver’s Chan Center.

www.pinewoodsound.com