Prime Focus, the leading Global Visual Entertainment Services Company, is well known in the industry for delivering leading 3D, VFX and DI services for projects like ‘Ra One’, ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2’, ‘Guzaarish’, ‘Avatar’ and ‘Transformers: Dark of the Moon’, to name just a few. But what is perhaps a little less well known is that Prime Focus creates similar magic in the sound suites of its Global HQ in Mumbai. With the highest international standards and its two identical film mix theatres both running the latest ICON Digital Console integrated with Pro Tools, Prime Focus has recently delivered four prestigious projects – ‘Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu’, ‘Tere Naal Love Ho Gaya’, ‘Jodi Breakers’ and ‘London Paris New York’.
“Completing the audio mixing for these four movies was a challenging task as we had to finish all four films in a span of 40-45 days”, says Ajay Kumar, Chief Sound Mixing Engineer, Prime Focus India. “Each of these movies needed a different kind of treatment and approach, which would excite the audiences and keep the excitement constant. This was possible because of Prime Focus’s world class sound facilities and an excellent team of dedicated, talented sound engineers. Working on these movies was an all together new experience as they were my first projects with these Film Directors. Understanding their brief and delivering the best in the allotted time was our main aim.”
The audio industry has grown massively in the past few years. Ajay Kumar continued, “When I started in this industry, the sound format available was 35mm magnetic tapes (which can play 6 tracks 20 min of program) which then progressed to digital recorders like Akai and Hi8 tapes and then to digital workstations (Pro Tools). With the progression from 35 mm mono sound track to Dolby SR, Dolby Digital 5.1, 6.1, and now 7.1, with digital formats and digital workstations one can see that the industry has evolved and grown to a great extent”.
Nowadays, film makers are increasingly aware of the importance and possibilities of sound design and mixing. For instance, both films ‘London Paris New York’ and ‘Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu’ used a location sound track and Prime Focus sound mixing engineers enhanced the sound tracks with a realistic sound treatment.
Prime Focus has long experience of providing sound design and mixing services to some of the most prestigious projects, such as ‘The Dirty Picture’, ‘Shor in the City’, ‘Patiala House’, ‘Tanu weds Manu’, ‘Tees Maar Khan’ and many more. “There used to be only 30-40 tracks to work on; today the tracks have increased 10 times. With trends changing rapidly in this field, Prime Focus is all set to continue contributing world class sound mixing for feature films for many years to come”, concluded Ajay.
The film mix theaters at Prime Focus are equipped with 3 Pro Tool HD3 with Accel system and the latest plugins, and Satellite Link, a powerful software tool that allows synchronization and control of the 3 Pro Tools/HD systems as one. The suites are also equipped with Neve 8051 audio compressors, T C electronic M6000, Apogee digital to Analog Converters, JBL speakers, Crown Amplifiers, RTW meter, DOLBY Cp650 with digital card and high quality video projectors for HD playback.