I Can't Bear...

...not to post this photo!

Kevin Aichele, one of our lovely composers, used to exercise his chops by performing at Disney as THE BEAR in Snow White (Yes, Yes, we know that the Prince was your MAIN ROLE there, but, damn this bear costume rocks).

Anyhow, Olaf went to see him there and got this great shot with Kevin in costume.

Other interesting facts about Kevin include, he hates the words 'open face' (as in sandwich you sickos!), 'moist' (as in sandwich you sickos!), 'slacks' and 'pant'.

I win an award

I have been officially presented with this award from Mick at FK. I am currently preparing an acceptance speech.

Monkey see...

Nolan goes ape.... enough said!

String Ball Causes Chaos!

We have been working on the Sound Effects for the Supa Strika television series for the past few weeks now. It has posed some interesting challenges as many of the effects we end up needing are a bit, um... original.

There is this one scene in the first episode where some monks are playing soccer with some kind of home-made ball...
and we wanted to be certain that it sounded different from an actual soccer ball, as it clearly had some unique characterists!

I found a huge roll of string in my basement, and gave it to Jesse who used it to create..
THE STRING BALL

This was all well and good, until we decided to kick it around like the monks in the television show (HELPFUL HINT #346: just becase animated characters do something doesn't mean you can too!)
Believe it or not, this ball is HEAVY... (think 10 pounds of string!). Things ended abruptly as Paul's parent's cooler took one for the team. Don't worry Paul, we won't tell them you kicked a 10 lb string ball into their cooler... and they NEVER read this blog, right?

Strikas Come To Winnipeg!

Over the last 9 days, we have had the pleasure of Bruce Legg's company (director of Supa Strikas) all the way from Cape Town! It has been a fun, productive, and always entertaining time!



As Supa Strikas is about a soccer team, we had Jerseys made to inspire us! To wrap up Bruce's time here with us, we took a DACAPO - Supa Strika team shot (Bruce is number 10 on the right)!



That's not all of course... in his time here, Bruce got introduced to some important Canadian things... like this

... and this





We also took Bruce to the Winnipeg Folk Festival

Had a few more drinks...

And introduced Bruce to the production team...Jesse on Sound Effects and Sound Design Kevin on Music Nolan on Voice Direction Olaf also helping with music, ...and myself of course!

We also got lots of voice work done, with voice talents like Sambath San as Twisting Tiger

Its been fun Bruce.... we'll be sorry to see you go back home, but we're excited to know that we'll be working together on this project for the next year! Thanks for everything Strika!

The 80's Rise From The Ashes...

Phoenix Group, a great agency located in Regina, Saskatchewan celebrated it's 25th annaversery this past Thursday with a 1982 theme party (they opened 25 years ago in 1982... NOW DO YOU GET IT??!).

We have had the pleasure of working with David Bellerive and Dustin Panko on a couple of project recently, including Truck Town and Access Communications.

To show our love, Kevin, Olaf and myself drove down to Regina for their fête, and dressed the part...

mmmmm.... gotta love the 80's!

Growing PAINS!

Well, although recent blog entries have not reflected it, things have been hoppin' here at the studio. We have recently signed a really exciting contract with 'Strika Entertainment' based in Cape Town, South Africa to provide all the audio production for the new animated series Supa Strikas.

I had the chance to pop down to Cape Town at the end of April to visit with Oliver and Bruce and to finalize the production schedule (photos to follow.. they were taken on a (gasp) FILM CAMERA!).

To accomodate the Supa Strika (13 X 22 Episodes, with some animation being done by our good friends at FatKat Animation), we are building three new sound rooms...

This used to be our Foosball room...

... but it is now 'en-route' to becoming an audio editing suite.

I have also, unfortunately, lost my office as our building is suddenly too small for our requirements. Here is where I USED to work...

...Annalee spent an afternoon in it while the floor in her office was being redone last week... ...and it now looks like this (and soon will become Olaf's composition room and a new edite suite, and a VO booth).

In any case, in addition to Supa Strikas, business has been so busy that we have hired a new Commercial Production Engineer, Paul Bell, who started with us on May 31st! It is going to be awesome to have another engineer here. For now, whe have put him to work in MY OLD OFFICE...

Sound Productions

About three years ago, things were slow around the office, and to pass the time we decided to create a short film based on - what else - our studio exploits.

We've had this video kicking around the office for a while, but only recently exposed our shameful performance on YouTube...

Sound Productions, Part 1

Sound Productions, Part 2

daCapo Voice Talent of the Year Awards, 2006

A big part of any success we have as a company is the talent that we regularly work with and hire. If we didn't have access to a wide variety of skilled and unique voices, we could not do the work that we do! In order to recognize the contributions that our voice talents make to us, our clients, and the audio production industry (and to have a really good excuse to eat cake at 2:00 in the afternoon), we initiated the FIRST ANNUAL DACAPO PRODUCTIONS VOICE TALENT AWARDS!!!!

(Clint addresses the black-tie crowd at the awards ceremony)

The winners (talent of the year, and runner-up) were chosen based upon a complicated formula involving total number of projects voiced, total revenue earned, and some linear programming. Our runner up was... Monique LaCoste who has the added caché of being able to do excellent voice work in French and English (note the beautiful trophies these folks were presented with. You don't find things like this at just any pawnshop, let me tell you!).

Our overall winner was... Gordon Tanner

Congratulations everyone! It has been great having the opportunity to work with you over the years!

Alter Egos?

We found this website that tells you what 'superhero' you would be based on your personality, and made everyone complete the questionnaire (with the exception of Olaf who was out, and we collectively did his form for him). Anyhow, with the exception of my apparently cross-gender alter ego, I think everyone was pleased with the results!


The Flash

The Flash 85% Superman 80% Supergirl 68% Green Lantern 65% Spider-Man 65% Catwoman 60% Wonder Woman 58% Hulk 55% Iron Man 45% Batman 45% Robin 45%

Fast, athletic and flirtatious.

Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman 75% Supergirl 65% Robin 55% Spider-Man 55% Green Lantern 55% Superman 50% The Flash 50% Iron Man 45% Hulk 45% Catwoman 40% Batman 0%

You are a beautiful princess with great strength of character.

Supergirl

Supergirl 72% Catwoman 70% Robin 67% Wonder Woman 62% Superman 60% Batman 60% Hulk 60% Green Lantern 55% Spider-Man 55% Iron Man 55% The Flash 50%

Lean, muscular and feminine. Honest and a defender of the innocent.

Muscular and feminine, mmmmmmmmm!

Hulk

Hulk 70% Robin 62% Green Lantern 60% The Flash 55% Iron Man 50% Spider-Man 50% Batman 40% Catwoman 40% Superman 40% Supergirl 38% Wonder Woman 33%

You are a wanderer with amazing strength.

Spider-Man

Spider-Man 90% Wonder Woman 80% Catwoman 75% Iron Man 75% Hulk 70% The Flash 70% Green Lantern 65% Supergirl 65% Batman 60% Robin 50% Superman 40%

You are intelligent, witty, a bit geeky and have great power and responsibility.

A Retired Employee!

daCapo has had its first retirement! Amadeus Pyttlik-Derkson, long time greeter, sound editor and financial auditor officially retired from full-time work at daCapo (although he will continued to provide services on a project-by-project basis when his skills are required). We had a party for him on Thursday, and presented him with a number of gifts, including an engraved gold watch (see that doggie bling on his paw!). We presented him with a cake.... Which he ate... ... aside from his work collegues, Amadeus had a few guests, including his friend Astrid who was linked VIA netcam from Germany (note the I-heart-Amadeus sign she sports)... ... and his good friend Mila, who came with a balloon for her buddy! As the even wore on, Amadeus admitted that he was a little sad to leave daCapo... ...but admitted he was looking forward to hitting the links this spring!

Amadeus listened to a song I wrote about him: This Dog.

He also asked that we post some footage from the ceremony.... (see below) Happy retirement buddy!