• About
  • Archives
  • Advertising

NYCPPNEWS

NYC Production & Post News

  • Home
  • Directory Listings
    • The Standby Program
    • Brooklyn College
    • Brooklyn Workforce Innovations
    • Columbia University Film Program
    • Downtown Community Television Center
    • Electronic Arts Intermix
    • Film Biz Recycling
    • Freelancers Union
    • Independent Filmmaker Project
    • Manhattan Edit Workshop
    • Mediakite Training Center
    • New York Film Academy
    • New York Film/Video Council
    • New York Institute of Technology
    • New York Production Alliance
    • New York Video School
    • New York Women in Film & Television
    • NYU Film & Television
    • Post New York Alliance
    • The Independent Film School
    • International Film Institute of New York
    • The New School – Documentary Studies
    • The New School — MA in Media Studies
    • Union Docs
    • Upstate Independents
    • Syracuse Film Office
Home » Sim Post New York Posts Tribeca Opener “Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President”

Sim Post New York Posts Tribeca Opener “Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President”

President Jimmy Carter and Willy Nelson. Image credit: Jimmy Carter Presidential Library

New York City — Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President, the new feature documentary from Grammy Award-winning director Mary Wharton, producer Chris Farrell and writer Bill Flanagan, will make its world premiere April 15th as it opens the 19th Tribeca Film Festival in New York. The rockumentary-flavored film, which went through post-production finishing at Sim Post New York, centers on the 39th president’s life-long passion for music and rock’s contribution to his unlikely journey from a peanut farm in Georgia to the White House.

Through an uplifting mix of interviews, archival media and live performances, the film explores Carter’s omnivorous interest in music spanning folk, soul, gospel, jazz and rock, as well as his close friendships with Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Gregg Allman and other notables. It also features rarely-seen performance footage, some shot at the White House, of Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Jimmy Buffett, Paul Simon and others.

“Music is connected to many of the major events of the Carter presidency,” says Wharton. “This film looks at the role music has played in the president’s life and extrapolates a larger point about the power of music generally. I think people will walk away surprised and with a new perspective on Jimmy Carter.”

Source material ranged from newly-recorded interviews—captured with 4K cameras—with Carter, his family members, political figures, musicians and others, to decades-old news footage, originating on various forms of videotape and film. One of the principal tasks for Sciarratta in finalizing the look was to blend the disparate source material to avoid jarring transitions. “We had to make TV footage from the 70s look good alongside film footage from the same era as well as contemporary interviews,” he explains. “As with many documentaries, we started with various visual sources and brought it together so that everything is smooth and consistent.”

Sciarratta also used color to heighten mood. “The interview segments were rich and contrast,” he observes. “The DP (James Fideler) used side lighting to make those segments feel three dimensional and give them a warm glow. The rich, final look matched the personalities of the people and the friendly tone of the story.” He adds that one of his favorite parts of the film was an interview with Carter and his son Chip, conducted at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library in Atlanta. “It has a wonderful, moody vibe,” he says.

Jimmy Carter and Bob Dylan. Image credit: Barry Feinstein

A lot of the source material was supplied by the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library in Atlanta. “It was originally shot on 16mm film and we had it transferred to 2K,” notes Wharton. “It looks beautiful. Rob did a great job of taking material from all the different sources and making it flow so that nothing looks out of place.”

Pelino, who has worked on numerous projects for Wharton over the years including on CNN’s The Wonder List with Bill Weir and VH-1: Legends, faced similar challenges in editing and mixing the soundtrack. The film is filled with outstanding musical segments with highlights including Willie Nelson singing Georgia on My Mind, the Allman Brothers performing One Way Out, and Aretha Franklin singing the National Anthem (the latter recorded at Carter’s inauguration).

As many of the source elements were affected by age or wear-and-tear, Pelino used restoration tools (including Isotope’s RX7 audio repair software) to fix damage and remove noise. “I knew the songs really well and how they were supposed to sound,” Pelino says. “So, I was able to EQ them, bring them back to life and make them sound great.”

One of the most memorable musical moments occurs in the film’s opening scene. In it, Carter turns on a phonograph in his living room and plays Bob Dylan’s Mr. Tambourine Man. The music coming from the phonograph was added by Pelino in post, and the song continues to play as the opening credits appear over images of Plains, Georgia. “It’s a fantastic start to the film,” says Pelino. “We filtered the music, adding a needle drop and surface noise, to make it sound as though it is coming from the phonograph. We then open it up full as we transition to the credits.”

Pelino hosted several recording sessions at Sim. Wharton’s father, Bill Wharton, an accomplished blues musician, performed cues for the film’s underscore. “He’s an amazing musician and played both acoustic and lap steel guitar,” Pelino recalls. “It was great fun.”

The audio portions of some interview segments required special attention. Interviews were recorded in diverse locations and under disparate circumstances and, as a result, their quality and background ambience varied. “We shot in different towns, often with local crew and using different mics and other gear. We were always under time constraints,” explains Wharton. “Yet, in the end, Sue made it sound like it was all recorded in the same room.”

Wharton spent two years making Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President. While she faced numerous hurdles and a limited budget, she says she was able to bring it to fruition with the support of individuals and companies who responded to its upbeat message. “Making a film like this is a risky business,” she says. “When you’re out there pounding the pavement, it’s important to have a few people in your corner. Sue, Rob and Sim were among those who were there for me and this film. That was a nice thing.”

About Sim:

Sim is a leading supplier of production equipment, workflow/dailies and post-production solutions, and has expanded to include stages and production offices in Vancouver. Sim’s team and services supported features such as “Noelle,” “Stillwater” and “IT 2,” Oscar-winning documentary, “OJ: Made in America,” and hit series “Game of Thrones,” “Good Doctor,” “Schitt’s Creek” and “Handmaid’s Tale.”

Our Toronto and Vancouver facilities provide camera, grip and lighting as well as studios in Vancouver. All of our geographic locations (Toronto, New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Vancouver) provide an array of services ranging from dailies, to online and offline editing, to final color/DI and visual effects, to sound editorial and mixing. Sim is backed by Toronto-based investment firm Granite Partners. For more information, visit siminternational.com or visit us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn @simcomplete.

Image Credits

Top: Jimmy Carter Presidential Library

Bottom: Barry Feinstein

Contact

Lucy Kayumov

Director, Marketing

Sim

416.979.9958

LucyKayumov@siminternational.com

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.

  • About
  • Archives
  • Advertising
Copyright © 2021 NYCPPNEWS | Site Built with Studio Press Genesis