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Vancouver studio plays key role in summer blockbuster movie
Marke Andrews, Vancouver Sun
Published: Monday, July 07, 2008For the past seven years, the two men who run dbc sound inc. have worked on a lot of feature films, television shows and, more recently, video games.
But their latest project is the one that will elevate Bill Sheppard, Dean Giammarco and dbc sound to the big leagues. The east Vancouver facility did all the audio post-production for Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D, one of this summer's big movies and the title that launches the new digital 3D movement.
The 10,000-square-foot facility has eight sound editing suites, two picture editing suites and two dub suites. It is equipped to do foley (sound effects inserted in post-production), ADR (dialogue added later), walla (ambient sound, like crowd noise) and post-production mixing.
Dean Giammarco (left) and Bill Sheppard, of dbc sound inc., stand by the mixing board at the company's east Vancouver facility, which did all the audio post-production for the upcoming summer blockbuster movie Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D.
The only thing they don't do at dbc sound is record music.
Sheppard and Giammarco worked at various sound facilities in Vancouver before starting their own company, Cinesonic, at the old Park Royal twin cinemas in West Vancouver. The late William Vince, a childhood friend of Sheppard, also had his office at the West Van location, and Cinesonic would do the sound for most of Vince's projects.
While they had lots of space and lots of work in West Vancouver, what they didn't have was security. The property was slated for development, which meant they leased the building on a month-to-month basis, and any improvements to the building that they made were, in Sheppard's terms, "throwaway money."
After two years, the eviction notice came, right in the middle of their work on the Canadian feature The Snow Walker - one of eight projects they've done for Vince's company Infinity Media - forcing them to finish the movie in the basement of Sheppard's home.
The other frustration about leasing the West Van location was they had to take projects to San Francisco (and pay in American dollars) to do the final sound mix.
"We'd spend most of our money going to San Francisco," says Sheppard, who can smile about it now.
When they looked for a new space, they decided they would need to own the property, have full sound facilities, and have the capacity to expand if need be. In 2003 they moved into their current building, located near Great Northern Way and Clark Drive in the same building that houses Vancouver animation company Nerd Corps Entertainment, for whom dbc sound is currently at work on two projects.
Having space to expand was a key in landing Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D.
In 2005, a friend of Sheppard's in the Vancouver industry, John Pantages, was doing walla sound for The Chronicles of Narnia movies for Walden Media, the Los Angeles company that co-produced Journey with New Line Cinema. Walden planned to shoot Journey's green screen action and visual effects in Montreal, and hoped to also do the sound in Canada if they could find the right fit. Pantages put in a good word for dbc sound, even when Sheppard and Giammarco weren't quite ready for something that size.
"John recommended us, and at that time we only had a small space," says Sheppard. "But we had this big empty space upstairs."
Through contracts, advances and the faith of the bank, Giammarco and Sheppard were able to raise a million dollars to build their second-floor space, which has a large dub stage/suite, stadium seating (the room will hold 60 people for screenings) and high definition 3D projection equipment. Even while building, they worked on Journey, and they credit Jonas Thaler, the executive in charge of post-production at Walden Media, for sticking by them.
"Jonas Thaler really believed in us," says Sheppard, whose studio spent a year on Journey, looking after foley, walla, sound mixing, sound editing and sound design. The film's ADR sound was done in New York, Los Angeles and China.
At present, dbc sound has nine full-time employees, and contracts another dozen employees depending on the work load. It has just finished the feature film Stone of Destiny, and is working on a feature-length animation of Ed Edd n Eddy, the Vancouver-made cartoon series that was a hit on The Cartoon Network.
Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D opens Friday and can be seen in digital 3D at SilverCity Metropolis, SilverCity Coquitlam and Colossus Langley.
mandrews@png.canwest.com