AlphaDogs shares Stories from the Station, September 2009

Red Black and Blonde

As is typically the case with a Digital Service Station job, the client brought in a hard drive and asked AlphaDogs to lay that material off to a tape format. In a turn of events that is becoming more typical, this client - Chris McNeany, director of the 12-minute short, "Red, Black, and Blonde" - discovered that AlphaDogs does Audio and Video post. AlphaDogs worked with McNeany to deliver a final product (a modern day Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers style film) worthy of a theatrical screening, HBO, or Showtime...

"(AlphaDogs GM) Paul De Cham set the tone for my entire experience at AlphaDogs. Very friendly, professional, and a pleasure to work with," McNeany recalls. "The cut I brought to them was a rough edit. It still needed some fine tuning with the editing, some color correction, but most of all, sound work. The sound really was a mess. Marcus Pardo dug through the different sound channels on the project and found some quality material that we could use, but it still needed some ADR. There were five of us that needed to come in to do the ADR. My work schedule wouldn't allow for me to meet with them during the week, so we had to do the sessions over the course of two different weekends. They were very accomodating of this less than ideal schedule. 

AlphaDogs' (V.P. Audio) Marcus Pardo and (Audio Assistant/Assistant Editor) Isai Espinoza ran the show. They were great. Since I was the director and one of the actors, I told them not to be shy about offering their opinions. They clearly knew what they were doing, and I let them know that I valued their advice. They were very helpful in letting me know if they thought we had a line nailed or if we needed to do it again. We were all really pleased with the results. After Marcus mixed all the sound, some people couldn't tell what was ADR and what was done during production.

Rosanne Tan addressed my editorial requests, and then also helped me swap out a few shots that seemed like they could've been better. She also did the color correction and really smoothed it out. Everything she did came out great.

The last part was for Marcus and Isai to work on some sound sweetening, and they made it sound very professional. Right down to the sound of a guy stirring his rum and coke. It sounded very realistic. As a way to say thank you, I made them some homemade lasagna. I figured it was the least I could do for the extra mile they had all gone.

I truly have nothing but good things to say about them. I'd recommend them in a heartbeat. No attitude - just good, solid work, and very enjoyable people to work with."

The Mondavi Gang

Executive Producer Carole Morwick of Three Stone Pictures, and David Morwick, co-director/writer of the politically charged "The Mondavi Gang," were also drawn to AlphaDogs via its Digital Service Station.

"I Googled them - I was intrigued by the name," says Carole Morwick. "Paul went out of his way to accommodate our needs. Financially, we had limitations, and AlphaDogs was incredibily reasonable and responsive which was something we had struggled with on our last project. Communication is so important, and with AlphaDogs there were no worries, they're really great about keeping touch."

The focal point of "The Mondavi Gang" is a heated conversation about politics in the US. Dialogue-driven, it is designed to inspire and reflect conversations similar to the one the characters have in the movie.

"Now we have a very smart film that's entering the festival circuit," Morwick concludes, "and we're keeping our fingers crossed."

Digital Service Stations are now available in California, Florida, Illinois, and Ohio.