JUNE 2015
Place was deserted so we made some hot sounding wind and rock slide records at Joshua Tree National Park. with Amy Thefoleyroom and Haruka Sometani.
JUNE 2015
Spent a couple of hours at The Velaslavasay Panorama in Los Angeles yesterday recording creaky chairs, ambience and various Footsteps across the old wooden floors and stage with Amy Thefoleyroom and Haruka Sometani. Natural reverbsssss
APRIL 2015
BIO & ACHIEVEMENTS
Jonathan Bruce graduated with a Diploma in Audio Engineering from SAE Auckland in 2008. Nowadays, Jonathan is a successful audio post production professional specialising in recording, performing, editing and mixing foley. He has eight years of full time experience working on hundreds of episodes of US, UK & NZ television, scores of feature films, shorts and documentaries. Jonathan is also a founding member of the audio collective The Masters of Foley, an international community of audio post professionals dedicated to recording unique and distinctive sound libraries.
SAE EXPERIENCE
What inspired you to enter into the career you’ve chosen?
The ability to earn money and have a fulfilling career in making noise. I had been a noise musician and jungle producer for the better part of a decade before fully realising that there was a genuine and internationally recognized film industry blossoming in New Zealand. My skill set involved making noise and chopping up 180bpm+ breakbeats; both turned out to be highly transferable skills in a foley department. The ability to generate unique sound effects from real life objects while editing breaks easily transitioned to quickly editing the millions of footsteps on Power Rangers.
What are your fondest memories of your time at SAE?
It's kinda nerdy, but probably having educational breakthroughs that inspired creative work. For instance, our lecturer Mal teaching us about the differences in DVD-Audio vs CD-DA (Red Book) inspired me to create music for a format which allowed for 5.1 surround and greater theoretical dynamic range etc. Either that or the Digital Studio overnight shift with an industrial metal band (N.U.T.E) - that was pretty brutal!
How did studying at SAE help lead to where you are now?
One of the first things I noticed when I started contacting audio post studios after graduating SAE was that employers were actually pretty interested in my test score transcripts. It showed at a glance where my strengths were, and it showed them I had a solid fundamental understanding of the properties of sound, microphone placement, signal flow and basic acoustics. This is all mandatory knowledge in any career in sound.
What are some of the highlights of your career so far?
I'd like to say we make our own luck, however I feel like I got really lucky with timing at least. Straight out of SAE I landed in the foley depart of The Inside Track working on seasons of both Power Rangers and Legend of the Seeker. I went freelance in 2010 and was immediately picked up to be in the foley department on Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, Vengeance & then War of the Damned. Moving to Los Angeles in 2013 was a massive opportunity for my career and I was able to branch out into SFX editing and ADR mixing, which meant I got to work one-on-one with acting talent like Daniel Radcliffe, John Hamm and Danielle Panabaker etc (if you're into that type of thing).
My most recent career highlight however, was getting the chance to work in the foley department with Oscar winners John Sanacore (Birdman / The Hurt Locker) and Jeff Wilhoit (Kill Bill / Game of Thrones). These guys are industry legends and even after being in foley for eight years I felt like a beginner learning the ropes again. Working on the NZ films Deathgasm and Turbo Kid, and Ash vs Evil Dead television series with the guys at The Foley Room in Auckland was genuinely great fun too.
What advice would you give to students aspiring to become successful in their field?
To get anywhere in the industry you need to be incredibly self-motivated, determined and able to face waves of rejection! Once you get your foot in the door though, I recommend sitting in on as many edit and mix sessions as possible, continually (and quietly) learning from everyone above and around you. Then don't stop doing that. And, of course, Be excellent to each other.
Click here to view Jonathan's profile on IMDb for a full work discography.
APRIL 2015
Woah.. We just got served the Born To Dance trailer !
The Foley Room takes Centre stage, gets Footloose and Steps up with some Dirty dancing in this Dance flick. Cant wait to Make it happen. Bring it on !!!
APRIL 2015
Good news every one.
"Field Punishment No. 1" took the Gold World Medal for Drama Special at the New York Festivals Television and Film Awards recently.
The Foley Room crews extensive undertaking of real to life Footsteps on this project seen below. Also massive respect to the Sound designer on this picture, our good friend and sound collaborator James Hayday. Looks like everybody's kicked a goal.
Give him a click here:
http://jameshayday.com
Check out the Field Punishment No.1 trailer here:
https://vimeo.com/70921355
MARCH 2015
In this classic "before picture", little do they know these unsuspecting, happy film-goers at the SXSW Deathgasm premiere are about to have their skulls shattered by our SFX when the film peaks. "cthu bespoke 'post r'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn !!"
If you can set aside the fact it’s currently a city full to exploding with self obsessed, narcissistic hipster scum (just like us !!!), it’s a great time to to be in Austin, Texas. Here’s some Features & Documentaries The Foley Roomcrew worked on that appear in the 2015 SXSW Film Festival. Yusss !!
TURBO KID
Deathgasm
Excess Flesh
Hot Sugar’s Cold World
@The Nightmare (too common a name to tag damnit!!)
https://www.facebook.com/nightmaresleepparalysis
FEBRUARY 2015
aw shit ! get ready to have your facé melted off.
Deathgasm is about to premiere at SXSW festival this Saturday.
TwitchFilm names DEATHGASM a "SXSW Must-See" ... but this is definitely also a "SXSW Must-hear" film. Featuring full audio post from The Foley Room, mixed by Chris Sinclair (Valhalla Rising) and a ferocious soundtrack of NZ and International Metal.
It's big, it's metal and it's "brutal as f*ck".
Shit just keeps on getting better! Deathgasm props record! Not for the faint-hearted!
Not quite as cool as the chainsaw pic but mango pulp sounds pretty amazing for blood gurgles and vomit! Deathgasm foley record, very messy work!! Hell Yes. YOU NEED TO SEE THIS FILM!
DECEMBER 2014: SUMMARIZING ALL THE TURBO KID NEWS
The Best Bits of Foley! Gore and Bones for TURBO KID. Recording some amazing sounds!
Metal and Chains! Important props for a post - apocalyptic world!
Saturday Foley record!!! HELL YEAH!
We needed to get some sweet foley bike sounds for the feature film Turbo Kid, where better to go then a deserted quarry!
DECEMBER 2014
Got through some more feature foley at the end of 2014! Looking forward to the new year and more films to come!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3830312/
SEPTEMBER 2014
If you're interested in watching a fantastic Documentary Series Mixed right here at Bespoke Post then look no further. (it's pretty brutal - some content may offend)
Watch all 6 parts here http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/the-slum/