AlphaDogs Post Has Fireside Chat With The President

Effective communication in post-production is more important now than it's ever been. Los Angeles based Whirled Creative teamed up with AlphaDogs Post working collaboratively in creating a specific look for "Fireside Chats."

It takes more than just having the latest up-to-date equipment to deliver a quality project. Effective communication in post-production is more important now than it's ever been. With the wide variety of media and codecs being in a constant state of change, it's crucial to not just stay educated on the latest technology, but to practice good communication skills with clients from the beginning to end of each project.

Los Angeles based Whirled Creative turned to AlphaDogs once again to complete color and audio on the 30 second pre-roll for Fireside Chats With The President. "We already had a great experience with AlphaDogs colorist Sean Stack, and positive results in the delivery of Google's Zeigeist 2012 Year-In-Review, so it was really a no-brainer that AlphaDogs was our facility of choice to complete the finish for Fireside Chats." said Executive Producer, Jenna Cedicci. The first presidential hangout was held in January of 2012 where five people were selected to ask the president a question during a live Google hangout. Brett Fallentine, Commercial Director at Whirled Creative, likened the event to FDR's Fireside chats, thus coining the term "Fireside Hangouts."

Cedicci and AlphaDogs colorist Sean Stack teamed up once again to decide the best approach for completing the finish on the picture. "Sean is a pleasure to work with. His knowledge and experience help us in achieving the best possible results," said Cedicci. Fireside chats required Stack to work with footage from a variety of locations throughout the United States. The clips included an urban street setting, a University campus, workers building a housing subdivision, the view from inside a hotel room, and finally a typical office. "This project was a great example on how important it is to communicate with the client," said Stack. "My first instinct was to have the shots flow together with consistent color tone from scene to scene. But that was the opposite of Director Fallentine's idea, who chose those shots with the intention to have the viewer jump around from place to place all over America." To create the desired look and offer appeal to a variety of audiences, Stack added different tones and contrasts to give each setting its own personality and feel. Stack comments, "I may have gone down the wrong road without the consultation and discussion that took place with the director."


AlphaDogs Audio Mixer Curtis Fritsch was in charge of fixing some tricky audio clips that included various sound bytes from the original FDR Fireside Chats that spanned a little over a decade. Less than stellar quality of the radio recordings, changes in FDR's voice as he aged, and evolving technology of the time period, made fixing the audio particularly challenging. Executive Producer Cedecci was quick to recognize the audio mix could be a potentially time-consuming process. " We alerted Curtis of the issue ahead of time, and when we came in to start on the mix, he had already smoothed it out considerably," said Cedicci. "He was very passionate about working on the project, and we appreciated his attention to detail. The final result was clean, concise audio, and a beautiful picture. We've had two solid experiences with AlphaDogs and look forward to using their services beyond audio and color for future projects.

Fireside Chats With The President is produced by Los Angeles based creative agency, Whirled. To view the chat in its entirety please visit: http://getwhirled.com/work/fireside-hangouts/ More of Whirled Creative's work can be seen at http://getwhirled.com/


About AlphaDogs: Founded in 2002 by acclaimed editor and colorist Terence Curren, AlphaDogs is an independently owned post-production facility located in the center of Burbank's Media District. AlphaDogs' skilled team brings a dynamic combination of creative talent and technical expertise to clients' projects. Paying extra attention to detail, AlphaDogs prides itself on delivering the quality of a large post-production facility with the personal attention of a small boutique. State-of-the-art editing bays, color correction, audio mixing, motion graphics, visual effects, production offices and equipment rentals are available. Since 2003, AlphaDogs has been giving back to the post-production community through its Editors' Lounge series of discussion panels and product demonstrations. To learn more visit http://www.alphadogs.tv and http://www.editorslounge.com.