Press

Chace Delivers Next Day Air

05.13.09

PRESS RELEASE -

Full service post production sound facility Chace Audio recently posted Summit Entertainment’s uproarious action comedy Next Day Air – the feature directorial debut of legendary music video director Benny Boom. The film stars Donald Faison, Mike Epps, Wood Harris, Mos Def, and Debbie Allen.

In Next Day Air, a whacked-out courier (Faison) accidentally delivers smalltime hoods Brody (Epps) and Guch (Harris) a package of high-quality cocaine meant for their next-door neighbors. The mistaken delivery sets in motion a hilarious and harrowing chain of events that could cost all of them their lives.

Producer Scott Aronson of Melee Entertainment read the script on a Friday and optioned it the following Monday, nabbing Benny Boom (acclaimed music video director for recording artists such as 50 Cent, Nas, Snoop Dogg, and R. Kelly) to helm the project. “One of the things we could see from the videos and commercials that Benny shot was that he is able to get a lot of production value out of a relatively small budget,” Aronson says.

With financing becoming harder to come by and post options more competitive than ever, producer Aronson and post supervisor J.M. Logan found Chace Audio ideally suited for their needs and budget to post the film’s sound. The mix took place in Chace’s recently remodeled THX®-certified dub stage, the Rick Chace Theatre, which features a Harrison Series 12 mixing console.

Chace’s team of experienced editors and mixers utilized the company’s integrated digital infrastructure to provide the soundtrack envisioned by the filmmakers. “I loved working with Chace Audio,” Aronson adds. “The mix sounds like I spent three times as much and, most important to me, the people were all talented, professional, and fun to hang with.”

Director Boom had two very specific directions for the mix; he wanted it to sound realistic, and he wanted the music to be full and dynamic. In order to incorporate as much production dialog as possible, dialog Re-Recording Mixer James Young, who has won several awards for his audio restoration work, turned to advanced repair tools including Cube-Tec’s AC-5 (Audio Cube) workstations. Young was able to salvage most of the original material to minimize the use of ADR in the soundtrack.

Emmy Award winning Foley Artist Monique Reymond, working with Foley Recordist Tom Balazs at Chace’s 600 square foot Foley stage, focused on authenticity over exaggeration. Reymond’s attention to detail can be heard in every footstep she re-created and prop she handled. Her creative work is especially apparent in the gruesome sounds she crafted for a scene where a miscommunication leads to one of the main characters cutting out another man\'s tongue. To make this effect, a number of different sounds were recorded and combined: the ripping of French bread, the metallic “schwing” of a machete and, to top it off, the squeezing of a wet chamois to add a grisly “squish.”

The focus on realism continued through sound editing. Many different types of guns are used in the film, and Editor Michael Ferdie meticulously researched and recorded effects that accurately represent each weapon. On the dub stage, Re-recording Mixer and Sound Supervisor Chris Reynolds made sure that all of the Foley and effects blended together to dynamically fill out the spatial environments onscreen. “The guns are big, but realistic. We wanted to avoid making it sound like cannons or bombs were exploding when they were fired, so a lot of attention was directed to making sure they sounded right,” said Reynolds.

Emmy award winning Dialog Editor Tom Harris and ADR Mixer Nick Beljic rounded out the team.

Post Supervisor Logan was thrilled with the result, “Chace Audio is one of the most solid sound houses I’ve ever worked with,” he says, “Their professionalism, flexibility with our budget, and dedication to our project was second only to their superior work. I’m looking forward to working with them again.”