Monday, December 23, 2013

Monkeyland 2013: 20 years in the making

December 23, 2013

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

It's hard to believe it's almost 2014, and Monkeyland's 20th year is quickly coming to a close. As has become our tradition, we'd like to take a look back at the previous year's monkey business, highlighting the projects, changes and moments that made up our 2013. As good fortune would have it, there was hardly a dull moment and the Monkeyland crew was able to spend another year doing what we love so much on a wide variety of projects with our incredibly talented clients, friends and colleagues.

"Manhunt": The Mad Dash To Sundance '13: One of our first projects of 2013, "Manhunt" had to happen fast, as it was premiering at Sundance in mid January. It's our third film working with Director Greg Barker. The documentary would later air on HBO and in September would take home the primetime Emmy Award for Best Documentary.

Lots more excitement was happening the first part of the year as the Monkeyland crew took home their 2nd MPSE Golden Reel Award. This one for their Sound Effects work on "Seal Team Six: The Raid on Osama Bin Laden." Later in the fall we were honored again with a Primetime Emmy Nomination for the same film.



Expanding our Soundscape: 2013 also brought a major move for Monkeyland... literally. After nearly 6 years at the 4620 Magnolia address and a change in building ownership, Monkeyland relocated to our current three facilities. Our new homes feature a wide variety of stages including 2 larger theatrical mix stages, great amenities as well as a few different options in location. We feel the move is a fantastic opportunity for our company’s long-term growth and can’t wait to share with you all the exciting new things to come!

2013’s slate of projects proved to be a very eclectic assortment that included feature films, television shows, web series, promos, commercials, trailers, and some really cool short films. On the feature film front, our sound team completed full editorial and mixing on the following: Crime Thriller "Ten Cent Pistol", Jerry Lewis starrer "Max Rose", which premiered at this year's Cannes Film Festival, "Wer", the follow-up Horror film from "The Devil Inside" filmmakers, Mystery Thriller "Terroir", Dramas "Las Horas Contigo", "The Wilderness of James" and "Old Fashioned", SXSW Thriller "Snap", Romance Drama "Beyond Paradise", Action Crime Drama "Betrayal", feature doc "State of Control" and the annual Warren Miller high octane sports documentary, "Ticket To Ride." We have also just started editorial on "Victor", a period piece set in 1962 Brooklyn, directed by Brandon Dickerson. Keep an eye out for all these films coming to theaters and/or home video in 2014.

We also had some exciting television projects in house this year. We provided complete sound editorial and mixing for “American Ninja Warrior”, back for it's fifth season on NBC & the G4 Network. Season 2 of Cinemax's "The Girls Guide to Depravity" was also back, along with Bio series "The Ghost Inside My Child", Showtime's Floyd Mayweather documentary "30 Days in May", "Seven Lives Exposed" and an episode of MTV's True Life series. We are also excited for a new TV series we just finished, "Don't Trust Andrew Mayne", premiering in January 2014 on A&E.

Other films which came in for additional editorial and mixing at Monkeyland throughout the year include: "May in the Summer", "Project Blue Book", "The Art of the Steal", "The Black Russian", "Worm", "The Secret Life of Dorks", "Gus", "At the Top of the Pyramid", "American Seagull", and "Hello Herman".

Some of the shows that visited our ADR and Foley stages include: "Way of the Wicked", "The Sacrament", "Site 146", "5 To 7", "Chalk PreSchool", "In Lieu of Flowers", Lifetime's "Santa Switch", "108", and the animated "Timm's Industrial Piping". A few other films recently in for ADR and headed for the 2014 Sundance Film Festival were "The Signal" and "The Guest", both premiering as part of the Park City at Midnight program, and "The Skeleton Twins", which is part of the U.S. Dramatic competition. Congratulations everyone!

Speaking of Sundance, Monkeyland is proud to be doing complete sound editorial, design and mixing on 3 additional feature films premiering in Park City next month. We have just completed the mix on Gregg Araki's new feature "White Bird In a Blizzard", which will be premiering at Sundance on January 20. Prior to "White Bird", Monkeyland has done the post sound on Gregg's 3 most recent features as well. And just as the year started, so shall it end, as the rush to Sundance is on with the other 2 Sundance features we are currently completing: Director Malik Vitthal's "Imperial Dreams" will screen as part of the "Next" Program, and Greg Barker's latest documentary "We Are The Giant" is premiering too. Thanks again for trusting Monkeyland with your post sound and congratulations to all!

Monkeyland is also honored to have participated in the editorial and mixing for quite a few short films this year: "Reaver", "Woman In Fragments", "Mop Bucket Mastermind", "Nini", "Interstate", "The Council", "Veladora" and "The Conversation". We anticipate many great things for the filmmakers involved in these projects. Outstanding work, folks!

This year we also had a very unique opportunity to work with famed artists Paul and Damon McCarthy, for whom we edited, mixed, designed and oversaw the sound system installations for their two New York City art exhibit openings this past summer: "White Snow" and "Rebel Dabble Babble". Other exciting 2013 projects for us included editorial and mixing of seasons 3 and 4 for CW Web Series comedy "Husbands", as well as many commercial and promo mixes and recording for our friends at Dirty Robber, Coyote Post, Omelet LA, MRG Productions, The Uprising Creative, Resnick Interactive and the Smithsonian Channel.

In October of 2013, we saw a new addition to our Monkeyland family with Thayer Jester coming aboard as VP of Sales and Marketing. Thayer brings with her 14 years of post-production success and we can't wait for everyone to meet her. Unfortunately at nearly the same time we lost a wonderful creative talent in Peter Lago, who is exploring new sonic adventures at Warner Bros. For over 10 years Peter brought the highest level of creativity, professionalism and leadership to the Monkeyland team and we look forward to collaborating with him again in the future.

Lastly, but certainly not least, Monkeyland is excited to announce our new strategic partnership with Roush Media, allowing for our collective clients to leverage the best talent and technology of each company’s specialties. Based in downtown Burbank, Roush provides On-Set Dailies workflows, Color Management, Digital Intermediate and Deliverables services, specializing in 4K Color grading for Digital Cinema file-based projects.

For more info you can follow the links in this posting or check out the "What's New" section on our website. We’d also love for you to follow us on Facebook and Twitter where we regularly post interesting Monkey news, pictures and other fun project-related stuff.

The Monkey crew and I would like to wish you all a very safe, prosperous, and creative New Year. Happy Holidays and happy filmmaking!

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Monkeyland & Roush Media enter into strategic partnership; hire Thayer Jester as VP of Sales and Marketing



Monkeyland Audio and Roush Media are pleased to announce they have entered into a strategic partnership to offer complete picture and sound packages to the entertainment industry. Based in Burbank, California, these service-oriented companies are experts in their field and collaborated successfully on several projects over the years. Monkeyland and Roush hired Thayer Jester to serve as VP of Sales and Marketing to solidify the partnership and provide sound and picture services, including all forms of deliverables to studio and independent clients alike.

Thayer Jester brings 14 years of post-production success to these highly respectable companies. Thayer’s vast contact base as well as her in-depth knowledge of the entire post-production process compliments the artist-owned company’s integrity and intentions. “I am thrilled to be representing such talented and well-respected post-production partners as Monkeyland Audio and Roush Media. They’ve been successful independently and now with their combined service offerings and efficient workflows, I predict we’ll be exceeding client expectations for another 20 years.”

Monkeyland Audio is a multi-award winning facility, providing complete audio post-production services including Re-Recording Mixing, ADR and Foley Recording, as well as full in-house Sound Editorial, Design and Supervision. For 20 years, the Monkeyland creative team has taken extreme pride in their collaborative approach with clients, striving to design rich, unique and detailed soundscapes for each and every project. “We are very excited to be partnering with Keith and his team at Roush,” said Monkeyland founder Trip Brock. “ It’s great to be working together with such a like-minded, artist-owned company, who is passionate about their work and will always put the client and the product first.”

Roush Media provides On-Set Dailies workflows, Color Management, Digital Intermediate and Deliverables services. Specializing in 4K Color grading for Digital Cinema file-based projects, Roush Media’s talented staff goes above and beyond their client’s expectations to provide them with efficient quality workflows and creative work. “ Partnering with Monkeyland for our clients sound needs just makes sense,” said Keith Roush. “This partnership allows our collective clients to leverage the best talent and technology of each company’s specialties while streamlining the service and billing.”

Monkeyland Audio and Roush Media are not your average corporate bottom-lined focused post company. They care about creating stunning images and beautiful sound by partnering with their clients to create the most efficient and cost effective workflow possible. They offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee to their clients, insuring that their picture and sound package is delivered with an approved full QC and to perfection.

For more information:
Monkeyland Audio
Roush Media
Thayer Jester

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