Dolby Atmos - Industry visits

AMP students were invited to the Dolby Film School recently for a demonstration of their Dolby Atmos format, a spectacular experience of the mixing techniques used in films such as The Life of Pi and Gravity. Examples of other work was also presented, including some groundbreaking Atmos mixes of the likes of Ellie Goulding and Imagine dragons live. Further to this, students paid avisit to a leading Dolby atmos mixing facility in Soho, at Warner Bros De Lane Lea. Operations manager Mike King provided a rare glimpse inside the world famous Stage1, where soundtracks on titles such as Wonderwoman and Early Man have been mixed to completion, not to mention many of the recent Bond films such as Spectre and Quantum of Solace.

 AMP graduate Mark Timms (now studio assistant at De Lane Lea) was also on hand to demonstrate 

the phenomenal studio facilities here. 

Working for the Beeb

Recent graduate (and Sennheiser award winner!) Mark Timms sent us some news from his current work on the BBC series 'Doctors'.

Working alongside top Production sound mixers such Tony Wass and Andy Redfern, Mark says...

"I’ve just finished my fourth week on doctors now for the BBC and it’s lots of fun, very hectic as they shoot a lot of material each day but you get used to it! I’m the sound assistant and second boom operator, so I’m in early prepping the kit for a 10-11 hour shoot then de-rigging in the evening. The team there are great though and it’s a good environment for learning and making contacts."

He adds that 'There's still loads to learn but knowing my stuff with the Sound Devices 664 mixer and having location sound experience got me in so couldn’t have done it without the help received on the course at Bucks'

As if that isn't a good enough start in the industry, Mark has also been working as a runner at one of Soho's premier Audio post-production facilities Warner Bros De Lane Lea. Of his experiences there so far he says, 'I was able to sit in on several ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement/Dubbing) sessions, including one with Brian Blessed for the Lego Dimensions game, and one crowd session for a film called How To Talk to Girls at Parties. I learnt a lot about how ADR is done at that level, I also spoke to the mix techs about what they do and they walked me through their set up which was great to see.'

Go Mark!!!