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FEATURE
Creating a Premier Project SA Film Corporation’s new Adelaide Studios Text:/ Derek Powell Images:/ Courtesy of the SAFC Photography by Peter Barnes
Recently, the Adelaide Studios, new home of the South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC), opened for business. The entire project won plaudits and awards, but for the team involved in the creation of the mixing studios, there was one particularly satisfying moment. The film mixing studio was designed to meet the demanding Dolby Premier Studio Certification standards and the team won the coveted accreditation in a slamdunk at their first attempt. FIRST TIME FIRST TRY
The Dolby representative was stunned, conceding that this was the first time any facility had passed the ultrastringent test and measurement regime at the first visit. As a rule, there’ll be a list (and sometimes a very long list) of acoustic and electronic improvements to be made (and a return visit by the accreditor) before the rare and highly prized certificate can be hung on the wall. Not this time. While it surprised the man from Dolby, for two members of the engineering team, this was simply the culmination of a thirty-year journey to bring a world-class feature film mixing facility to the SAFC. Both acoustical consultant Dr. Peter Swift (from international technical consultancy AECOM) and studio consultant Mike Rowan have been involved with the SAFC since much humbler times. The first SAFC mixing studio, featuring a 12 channel Quad-8 console and Magna-Tech sprocketed-tape dubbers was created by walling-off the dress circle of a disused suburban cinema. Rowan noted that while it was put to good use on documentary and television projects, it wasn’t in the class of the next iteration, when in 1980, the corporation moved to a former munitions factory in the outer Adelaide suburb of Hendon. QUIET BEGINNINGS
There, Rowan created the first true film mixing console, accommodating three operators at once, who took care of dialogue, music and effects. As the years passed and projects became more ambitious, Peter Swift was called in from time to time to improve the acoustics. Meanwhile Rowan supervised the upgrade of the console to a Harrison Series 12 with the faithful Magna-Techs
The Dolby Premier mixing theatre with the Harrison console at 'centre stage'.