Thursday, June 26, 2008

Filmmaking To Make A Difference

When is the last time you watched an "important" film?


Keith, a friend of mine, worked on this documentary short, "Hakani". It spells out, (with disturbing clarity) what still takes place within many of Brazil's indigenous tribes: infanticide.

Hakani is about one of the few fortunate ones. She is a survivor.

In short, hundreds of children each year are buried alive by their families if they are mentally or physically challenged, or even presumed "soulless" or "cursed" by tribe elders or witch-doctors. Unfortunately, only a few of the families rebel against these death sentences.

Amazingly, the Brazilian government remains split over the necessity to include these people among the nation's constitutional bylaws that protect humans from heinous acts like this.

Getting the word out to the rest of the world is what this film is about, and it is certainly part of what will sway the world to pressure human-rights protection in this matter.

Please watch this doc directed by David Cunningham. It is not easy to sit through, but it is "important" enough to warrant your time.

Visit Hakani.org.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Emmy Awards '08

Well, the Daytime Emmy Awards show (for below-the-line players) was held Friday night in New York City. We (our sound team from WB) were nominated again in the "Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing - Live Action and Animation" category.

Too bad that Warner Bros thought it was not in their best financial interest to send out the team from LA to the show. However, I did have a couple of calls from nice friends who did go, telling me that we won for The Batman again this year!

Honestly, I was pretty surprised about the win; The Batman has been a perennial winner (this is our fourth win in a row on The Batman show for sound editing, and my fifth Emmy overall), so I figured that our luck had probably run out. Naturally, I'm glad the judges disagreed with me.

When I started working at WB, I had no idea I would be in the position to win awards too. Awards? I was looking for a paycheck really. I have found it an honor to work on such great shows while at WB Animation. I can still remember shortly after I joined the crew, I called Chana to telling her, "I just edited my first 'Zoinks!' Casey Kasem said 'Zoinks!' and-and-and I just cut it into the show!" I'm such a nerd, but it's also legendary stuff. What a privilege.

So thank God for the icing on this big slice of cake, and now as I move on to another chapter of my sound career, I will still believe that the greatest award (reward) is getting to do what I love, no matter whether there are tangible accolades or not.



Thursday, June 05, 2008

U2 Vertigo - The Best iPod Commercial Ever

Funny how I always forget that almost anything is available on YouTube. When this came out a few years ago, I couldn't believe the energy. IMHO it's much better than the "official" Vertigo video, even though it's been abridged. Get some headphones, or crank up the speakers, 'cause this is a treat.