In this week’s podcast, Mike is joined by Garrard Whatley and Howard Bargroff to discuss the changes we see in post production, both those caused by COVID and those caused by technology and other trends in the industry.

Garrard Whatley

Garrard owns Seismic Post Audio in Los Angeles and has worked as a Supervising Sound Editor and Re-recording Mixer for 24 years. Still working on indies and larger film productions, he has added television series work over the last 10 years, bringing a cinematic sensibility to his broadcast work. Garrard suffered a personal tragedy in 2020 with the loss of his wife to breast cancer, in a year of loss for many throughout the world. Seismic Post Audio is also home to software development for post audio applications, with an eye toward making Pro Tools session organization and navigation faster and easier.

Howard Bargroff

Howard is now a re-recording mixer at Sonorous Trident, a joint venture with Mike Prestwood-Smith. Bafta-winning Howard Bargroff has been in the industry for 25 years. Starting in the music sector, he has worked with a myriad of artists including Take That and Kylie. In 1998 Howard moved on to work for Dolby, which gave him his technical base for film sound. Moving on to the Film and TV sector, he started as an assistant re-recording mixer, quickly moving up to being a Main Mixer, working on films such as “Alien vs Predator”, “Sleuth” and “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”. In 2009 Howard expanded his repertoire and started working on TV dramas which include, “Law and Order”, “Devs”, “Broadchurch” and “Sherlock”.

Talking Points

• What have you found to be the downsides of moving to an in-the-box workflow?

• Has moving into the box affected our health, both physical and mental?

• What about non-verbal communication between us, clients and colleagues?

• How much of a change has working from home been for you?

• How does a crisis, whether personal or collective change our attitude to what is important in our work and how we approach it?

• What lasting changes will the last year have on the process of approval?

• Any advice on how to make your day and your use of your space more productive?

Find Of The Week

• Garrard - “Option B” by Sheryl Sandberg and the “Freelance to Founder” Podcast

• Howard - Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve as a replacement for MPEG Streamclip that does so much more.

• Mike - Not Fade Away: How to Thrive in Retirement by Celia Dodd