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Home » Catalyst Content TV Festival Awards HOBO Film’s The System Top Honors

Catalyst Content TV Festival Awards HOBO Film’s The System Top Honors

Wins In Acting And Editing For First Self-Produced Long-Form TV Series; Pilot Showcases HOBO’s Music/Audio Post Skills

The first self-produced long-form TV series The System produced by HOBO Films, a division of audio post/sound design/music studio HOBO Audio took home top honors at the Catalyst Content TV Festival.  The pilot won for best actor and best editing.  Created, developed and financed independently, the pilot features the audio post/sound design work of HOBO’s Diego Jimenez and composer Oscar Convers.

The System series pilot will air next month at the Studio City Film Festival in Los Angeles.

Integrated Approach To The Sound:

The HOBO Audio team created the sound for the pilot using an integrated, multi level approach. First step was to edit and level the dialogue into a crisp, seamless track. From there, Jimenez built the environments for each scene by pulling and mixing sound design, creating a mood that is paradoxically tranquil and ominous.   

That effect is captured in the show’s opening scene: As one of the characters exits her boyfriend’s home, you hear doors opening and crickets chirping.  Following her down the steps, you hear her open the car door and click on her seatbelt.  The mood is broken when the car across the street start its ignition.  Music then enters to set a disturbing tone. Moments later, when she is stopped by the police, you hear dogs barking faintly in the background. The rattle of car keys, the steps of the police add tension. As the second police car pulls up you can hear the unnerving crunch of tires against the gravel. The music begins to pulse adding to the tension. 

You can watch the opening scene here.

Music Adds Emotion:

Working with the show’s producer and director, Convers served as musical director and lead composer. The key to music is establishing the tone and after a few initial efforts, Oscar locked down the mood. From there, he developed the musical tapestry that balances tension and release to reinforce the action on screen. From light, airing strings to pulsating beats, the music keeps reminding us of things to come. This is particularly effective during the police stops.  

One of the advantages of keeping music and sound design in-house is that it allowed the team to work more closely together. The result is a seamless audio tapestry that becomes an integrated sound experience. 

Emotion adds value to any viewer experience and with this project the team at HOBO Audio was able to excel with few boundaries.  

“The interplay between visuals and audio is like a dance,” HOBO President Howard Bowler notes. “It is constantly in motion but the sound has to breathe.  By opening space within the mix, the team was able to bring an emotional power to the project that would otherwise remain hidden and this becomes a most satisfying experience for the viewer.”

About HOBO Audio:

HOBO Audio is an audio post production company dedicated to creating an exceptional listening experience. With a growing staff and client list, HOBO has earned the trust of some of the most iconic brands and companies in the world. Make yourself at HOBO.

About HOBO Films:

HOBO Films is the latest venture from award-winning creative audio studio HOBO and Green Point Creative, the marijuana advocacy agency whose 2017 PSA “This Is Your Brain On Drug Policy,” starring actor Rachael Leigh Cooke, went viral with over 7 million views on social media. The first project from HOBO Pictures is “The System,” a dramatic series about the real world effects of the drug war on one New Jersey middle class family. For more information about “The System,” go to IMDB.com.  

Creative Credits:

Project: The System (pilot episode)

Production Company: HOBO Films, New York

Writer: Howard Bowler

Director: Michael Cruz

Editor: Oliver Parker

Music/Audio: HOBO Audio, New York

Supervision Sound Editor: Diego Jimenez

Dialogue/SFX Editor: Julian Angel 

SFX Editor: Spencer Shafter

Foley Artist: Juan Carlos 

Foley Editor: Gracia Angel

Foley Recordist: Itzel Gonzales 

Music Director/Composer: Oscar Convers

Additional Music: Loud Pack Zack (Robert George, Stacy Money and Jared Grimble)

About Dan Ochiva

New York City-based journalist and NYCPPNEWS founder Dan Ochiva writes and consults on film, video, and digital media technology.

Community & Partner Links

How Sony’s New Virtual Sound Technology Can Change How We Hear Films

Kami Asgar and Jessica Parks are post-production heavyweights who work with major studios, namely Sony. As a sound designer (Asgar) and as a post executive (Parks), their collective resume touches on everything from Apocalypto to Grandma’s Boy to Venom.

Parks has recently shifted her focus from supervisor to hands-on sound design, and we talk about how it’s never too late to pivot on your career path and find the thing you love doing wherever you are in life.

Click on this link to read the rest of the article on No Film School’s site.

NJ – Governor Murphy signs $14B Incentive Program Bill – the NJ Economic Recovery Act of 2020

 Film tax credits — amending existing programs to include provisions for so-called New Jersey film partners and New Jersey film-lease partners and allowing an additional $200 million of tax credits annually over 13 years.

Click this link if you want to read the full article on the Lexology site. http://bit.ly/35NtDx6

Film Commish announces date for production restart

In her December 18, 2020 news update, MOME Commissioner Anne del Castillo announced that the Film Office is now accepting permit applications for production activity that begins on July 27th.

She also announced awards now (Awkwafina) and more. To read all of the Film Commish’s bloggy sort of news column, click here.

Stimulus Offers $15 Billion in Relief for Struggling Arts Venues

The coronavirus relief package that Congressional leaders agreed to this week includes grant money that many small proprietors described as a last hope for survival.

For the music venue owners, theater producers and cultural institutions that have suffered through the pandemic with no business, the coronavirus relief package that Congress passed on Monday night offers the prospect of aid at last.

To read the full article on The New York Times’ site, click here.

If you want to start production, here’s the latest news from the Mayor’s Office

Phase 4 production guidance is available on the Film Permit website. All production activity, whether it requires a Film Permit or not, must comply with New York Forward Industry Guidance.

For more information see, please refer to the State Department of Health’s Interim Guidance for Media Production During the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency. Please review the guidelines and FAQ before submitting permit applications. The Film Office is operating remotely, so please allow additional time for Film Permit processing.

The above paragraphs contain links to the various FAQ – just mouse over the relevant words.

Nikon to Stop Making Cameras in Japan

Nikon has fallen on hard times as of late as its camera sales have cratered, and now there’s a new indicator of how dire its financial situation is: the company is reportedly pulling the plug on making cameras in Japan after over 70 years of doing so.

To read the full article on Petapixel’s site, click here.

NVIDIA Uses AI to Slash Bandwidth on Video Calls

NVIDIA Research has invented a way to use AI to dramatically reduce video call bandwidth while simultaneously improving quality

What the researchers have achieved has remarkable results: by replacing the traditional h.264 video codec with a neural network, they have managed to reduce the required bandwidth for a video call by an order of magnitude. In one example, the required data rate fell from 97.28 KB/frame to a measly 0.1165 KB/frame – a reduction to 0.1% of required bandwidth.

To read the rest of this article on Petapixel, click this link.

 

 

 

Union Health Plan Dodges Film Workers’ Suit Over Virus Relief

Law360 (October 9, 2020, 5:22 PM EDT) — The Motion Picture Industry Health Plan’s board can’t be sued under ERISA for allegedly flouting its duties when it relaxed plan rules in response to COVID-19, a California federal judge has ruled, nixing a proposed class action filed by two cinematographers who still couldn’t qualify for benefits.

In an order entered Thursday, U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner granted the board of directors’ motion to dismiss Greg Endries and Dee Nichols’ Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit accusing board members of breaching their duty to treat all plan participants fairly.

Endries and Nichols, members of Local 600 of the International Cinematographers Guild, said in July that the board left them and others “out in the cold” in its attempts to address the problems COVID-19 caused for plan participants.

But Judge Klausner agreed with the board’s contention that the case, which alleged a fiduciary breach, should be tossed because plan administrators don’t act as fiduciaries when they amend health care plans.

Read the full article on the Law360 site by clicking here.

Russo Brothers Received Close to $50 Million From Saudi Bank

Anthony Russo and Joseph Russo photographed at the PMC Studio in Los Angeles for the Variety Playback Podcast.

The Russo brothers, directors of the all-time top grossing film “Avengers: Endgame,” quietly secured a roughly $50 million cash infusion for their production company AGBO from Saudi Arabia earlier this year, multiple sources tell Variety.

In a deal brokered and closed at the beginning of the pandemic, the Russos received the investment from an undisclosed Saudi bank in exchange for a minority stake in the brothers’ Los Angeles-based shop.

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