January 25, 2008

SUNDANCE: POSTWORKS & ORBIT TOUCH NUMEROUS DOCS, NARRATIVES

Facility staffers provided lab, picture and/or sound post contributions to the narrative features Adventures of Power (director Ari Gold), Assassination of a High School President (director Brett Simon), August (director Austin Chick), Birds of America (director Craig Lucas), Blind Date (director Stanley Tucci), Choke (director Clark Gregg), Diminished Capacity (director Terry Kinney), Funny Games (director Michael Haneke), The Guitar (director Amy Redford), Henry Poole is Here (director Mark Pellington), and The Yellow Handkerchief (director Udayan Prasad).

On the documentary side, the studio contributed to the features Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson (director Alex Gibney), Slingshot Hip Hop (director Jackie Salloum), and Where in the World is Osama bin Laden? (director Morgan Spurlock). 

Both companies were instrumental in producing the digital intermediates for August, Birds of America, Diminished Capacity, The Guitar, Gonzo and Where in the World is Osama bin Laden?, orchestrating unique workflows for each. 

Birds of America, Blind Date, Funny Games, Henry Poole is Here and The Yellow Handkerchief also relied upon Orbit for editorial systems and support. The audio for Birds of America and the feature documentary Nerakhoon (The Betrayal), from directors Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath, was mixed at PostWorks.

PostWorks EVP of technology, Joe Beirne, says every year the facility sees a range of formats for Sundance projects, and this year was no different with everything from solid state to 35mm formats being used for acquisition.

Beirne and other PostWorks executives were on hand throughout the festival to lend support to client screenings. The company also joined the New York State Governor's Office for Motion Picture & Television in co-sponsoring Park City's New York Lounge. In addition, PostWorks execs hosted two informal, hour-long fireside chats at the New York Lounge under the theme of "It Costs What!!?  An Independent Producer's Real-World Guide to Controlling Post-Production Costs."

PHOTO: Plum Pictures' Diminished Capacity stars Matthew Broderick and Alan Alda.