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Monkeyland's 25th Anniversary: 2018 Year In Review

Dec 31, 2018

31 December 2018


Hello once again Clients, Colleagues and Friends!


2018 marked a milestone for Monkeyland as we've just wrapped up our silver anniversary celebrating our first 25 years! It’s been our pleasure and privilege to work with such creative talent which allows us to continue to do what we love so much. 2018 has been a fun, busy and rewarding year and as is our custom, we’d like to share some of the highlights from our corner of the audio world.



January means the Sundance Film Festival. We are proud to have two features we recently completed in competition next month: CLEMENCY by screenwriter and director Chinonye Chukwu and THEM THAT FOLLOW by screenwriters and directors, Britt Poulton and Dan Madison Savage. Also making its world premiere as an Official Selection this year is Gregg Araki’s new STARZ Original series NOW APOCALYPSE. We’re thrilled to continue our long standing creative partnership with Gregg and are grateful to be part of this groundbreaking series. In addition, Stuart Swezey’s music documentary DESOLATION CENTER has been nominated for the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary Feature at the 2019 Slamdance Film Festival. We wish all of our talented filmmakers the best of luck!


Another highlight at the beginning of each year is the annual MPSE Golden Reel Awards. This year, we were honored with a 2018 win for the HULU documentary BECOMING BOND (by Josh Greenbaum) as well as being nominated for the Netflix Original Feature IMPERIAL DREAMS (by Malik Vitthal) and the Netflix Original documentary series FIVE CAME BACK (by Laurent Bouzereau, produced by Amblin Television). Receiving the accolades from our fellow post sound colleagues is especially meaningful, and we are grateful to be in such wonderful company.


This year we’ve been lucky enough to have completed post sound editorial and mixing for the following features: Jodi Scurfield’s SPEED KILLS starring John Travolta (we will be working on a second Travolta feature in the new year); Cuba Gooding Jr.’s directorial debut, BAYOU CAVIAR; Perry King’s multi-award winning THE DIVIDE; Director George Gallo’s BIGGER; Riley Stearns’ THE ART OF SELF DEFENSE; Matt Aselton’s LYING AND STEALING (starring Theo James and Emily Ratajkowski); Giorgio Serafini’s comedy SENIOR MOMENT (starring William Shatner); Raymond De Felitta’s STANO (starring Sofia Vergara); Danny J. Boyle’s KILLER IN LAW; Lane and Ruckus Skye’s RECKONING; Jon Knautz’s Horror/Thriller THE CLEANING LADY, David Jay Willis’ Holiday Comedy I’LL BE NEXT DOOR FOR CHRISTMAS (Amazon); Adam Randall’s thriller I SEE YOU (starring Helen Hunt); Colin and James Krisel’s “LAST MOMENT OF CLARITY; Micah Gallo’s ITSY BITSY; Malik Bader’s KILLERMAN (starring Liam Hemsworth) and continuing our collaborations with Keoni Waxman on THE HARD WAY: Felix Limardo on his latest thriller JUST BREATHE, Michael J. Gallagher’s latest THE THINNING: NEW WORLD ORDER (YouTube Original feature); and Youssef Delara’s drama FOSTER BOY.


Our lineup for TV and scripted episodic increased this year to include: LORE season 2 (Amazon); the aforementioned NOW APOCALYPSE 10 episode series (Premiering March 10 on STARZ); the critics recommended new comedy PEN15 season 1 (Premiering on HULU February 8); OVERTHINKING WITH KAT & JUNE season 1 (YouTube Original); PLAY BY PLAY seasons 2 and 3; DARK/WEB season 1; T@GGED season 3 (HULU); SIDE SWIPED season 1 (YouTube Original); IN THE VAULT season 2 (Complex Networks); Kevin Hart’s COLD AS BALLS (Laugh Out Loud); THE UNSETTLING season 1; as well as over 10 television movies for Hallmark and Lifetime with our friends at MarVista and Cartel.


We have always been a supporter of documentaries and this year is no different with Cristina Costantini and Darren Foster’s SCIENCE FAIR (winner of the 2018 Audience Awards for both Sundance and SXSW); Stephen Kijak’s Lynyrd Skynyrd doc IF I LEAVE HERE TOMORROW (SXSW 2018 Premiere, now playing on Showtime); The Netflix feature documentary STRUGGLE: THE LIFE AND LOST ART OF SZUKALSKI (produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, premiere screening at LACMA); Tiller Russell’s OPERATION ODESSA (Showtime); Yanfeng Zhang’s WE ARE TRIATHLETES; the aforementioned Stuart Swezey music doc DESOLATION CENTER; Isaac Artenstein’s TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH; and Michelle Paymar’s FROM CAIRO TO THE CLOUD: THE WORLD OF THE CAIRO GENIZA. We are also proud to have hosted the annual Warren Miller ski feature documentary mix again this year, making it 13 years in a row, with this year’s installment, FACE OF WINTER, mixed on Stage REPOSADO by Mark A. Rozett.


In a similar vein to documentaries, we love to support up and coming filmmakers with their short format film projects including Kendell Courtney Klein’s GINGERBREAD; director Micky Levy’s UNION; 88 by Thembi Banks who was featured in The Hollywood Reporter’s article featuring a discussion by Black Women Who Brunch and Christopher Daniel Collins’ VALCORIAN. Congratulations and we hope to have the opportunity to work with you all on your next projects!


We always welcome our fellow sound colleagues onto our mixing stages and some highlights this year included mixing seasons 2 and 3 of the Duplass brothers’ ROOM 104 (HBO) with our friends at Ear Candy; Universal 1440 ’s latest SCORPION KING installment with post supervisor Jan Kikumoto; NORM OF THE NORTH: KING SIZED ADVENTURE for Lionsgate; the new series DEADWAX with Graham Reznick and complete Foley packages for the series DIETLAND (AMC) for Zach Sievers and Snap Sound, and THE QUAD (BET) for Ken Johnson at Artistry in Sound.


Finally, we are proud to announce additional expansion at our Flower Street facility with a complete upgrade of our stage PLATA to Dolby Atmos™, as well as expanding our editorial and Foley staff into a new building next door. Not only will we now have two Dolby Atmos™ stages, we’re sure our clients will welcome the additional parking as well! In addition, we are pleased to announce that Monkeyland Audio is now a member of the Netflix Post Partner Program, with a few very exciting new series and film projects currently underway.


Now onward to 2019! For more info you can check out our soon-to-be revealed new website where you can see details on our new Atmos™ Stage and editorial building as well as other changes happening. We’d also love for you to follow us on Facebook and Twitter where we regularly post interesting Monkey news, pictures and other fun project-related stuff.


The entire Monkeyland crew would like to wish you all a very safe, prosperous, and creative New Year. Happy Holidays and happy filmmaking! Until next time…

Monkeylands 2019 Year In Review

01 Jan, 2020
01 January 2020 Hello and Happy New Year Clients, Colleagues and Friends! Now that 2020 has arrived, we’d like to share some highlights of the past year. As always, we feel blessed and honored to be working with such wonderful and creative talents. We are fortunate to be able to be a part of your projects and to continue to do what we love for a living! 2019 began on a high note with Chinonye Chukwu’s CLEMENCY (starring Alfre Woodard) winning the Grand Jury Prize (Dramatic) at the Sundance Film Festival. Now in limited theatrical release, it has been nominated for three 2020 Film Independent Spirt Awards and currently has a 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes . Another film that was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance was Britt Poulton and Dan Madison Savage’s THEM THAT FOLLOW which later received a theatrical run. We are proud and humbled to be a part of bringing their visions to life!  The start of 2019 also saw the debut of our second Dolby Atmos Stage, Plata, which we christened mixing season 1 of the new series TRINKETS and the original feature SECRET OBSESSION, both for Netflix. We look forward to working on season 2 of TRINKETS in the new year!

Monkeyland 2017 Year In Review

01 Jan, 2018
Monkeyland Audio 2017 Year in Review 31 December 2017 Hello once again Clients, Colleagues and Friends, It’s hard to believe our 24th year has come to a close! As is our tradition, here’s a look back at some of the past year’s highlights shared with you all. In our line of work, the beginning of each year means awards season and gearing up for Sundance! We were proud to see the CNN feature documentary “Legion of Brothers” get it’s premiere at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. This was our 6th feature documentary we have posted with Primetime Emmy Award Winning Director Greg Barker and his team. The Monkeyland team was proud to be nominated this year for three Motion Picture Sound Editors' Golden Reel Awards for Best Sound Editing for their work on the feature films “Rattle The Cage” and “The Thinning”, as well as the feature documentary “Passage To Mars”. We were also thrilled to have been nominated for a Best Sound Ariel Award (Mexico’s equivalent to the Academy Award) for our work on the feature film “Me Estás Matando Susana” starring Gael Garcia Bernal. 2017 marked the completion of Monkeyland’s newest mixing stages including our purpose built dual operator, Avid S6 equipped Dolby Atmos™ Stage Anejo and the newly updated Stage Reposado. In July, our friends at Pro Sound News featured us in the article: “ Monkeyland Audio Grows In Stages .”

Monkeyland Audio 2016: The Year In Review

01 Jan, 2017
31 December 2016  Hello once again Clients, Colleagues and Friends, As our 23rd year comes to a close, we would like to look back at our whirlwind 2016 filled with great projects and wonderfully creative clients. We are extremely grateful that we can continue doing what we love to do with equally passionate filmmakers. As we look forward to another successful year, we would like to reflect back on some of the highlights from this year. Sundance 2016: The year got off to a great start with a few of our films headed to Park City. “First Girl I Loved,” our 2nd film for director Kerem Sanga premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won the Audience Award for the “Best of Next" category. Also making it’s premiere at Sundance was Stephen Kijack’s rock doc "We Are X," which follows the legendary Japanese rock band 'X Japan’. In February, the Monkeyland team was honored with two MPSE awards for Best Sound Editing, both in the Direct to Video- Live Action category when Michael Johnson’s “All the Wilderness” and Jay Martin’s “7 Minutes” tied for the win! In March, Director Anne Hamilton’s 1980’s Fairytale Thriller “American Fable” premiered at the SXSW Film Festival and was subsequently picked up for distribution by IFC Films with plans for a February 2017 theatrical release.

Monkeyland Brings Home MPSE Award, Festival Season Recap

29 Feb, 2016
Congratulations to the entire Monkeyland Audio staff and creative sound team for the BEST SOUND EDITING: Direct To Video Live Action Feature Golden Reel Award they received this past weekend at the 63rd Annual Motion Picture Sound Editor's Awards.

Monkeyland 2015 Year In Review

30 Dec, 2015
As has been our end of year tradition, we look back on another busy year filled with great projects and clients. Once again we find ourselves extremely blessed and grateful to continue to work and grow in this field we love so much. As we prepare to embark on our 23rd year in business, here's a quick look back at 2015.  2015 started out fast and furious as we were mixing two films headed off to Sundance: the Romanian film "Pioneer's Palace", and Director Bobcat Goldthwait's feature documentary "Call Me Lucky". In January, the Monkeyland team was also nominated for an MPSE award for their sound work on the 2014 release of the film "Wer". This year's nod marked Monkeyand's 13th MPSE nomination in the past 6 years, including 2 wins. March 1, 2015: Mix Stage #Reposado comes online at Flower Street:

Monkeyland Editors Nominated For MPSE Award For 6th Consecutive Year!

14 Jan, 2015
Monkeyland is proud and honored to once again be recognized by the Motion Picture Sound Editors with a nomination this year in the Direct To Video Live Action category for the film "WER". Today the MPSE released the nominations for the 62nd MPSE Golden Reel Awards, which honors the best feature film, television, animation and computer entertainment sound work of the year. After working with the filmmakers on Paramount's 2012 box office hit "The Devil Inside", Monkeyland once again teamed up with Writer/Director William Brent Bell and Producers Matthew Peterman and Morris Paulson on "Wer". Released in 2014 by FilmDistrict/Universal, the film stars A.J. Cook, a defense attorney who begins to suspect that her client, who is charged with the murders of a vacationing family in France, might me more than meets the eye. This year's nod marks Monkeyand's 13 nomination by the MPSE in the past 6 years. We couldn't be more grateful to our loyal clientele and colleagues who have enabled us to continuously work in this field that we love so much while also being recognized for our hard work and dedication to our craft by our peers. Previously, the Monkeyland Audio team won a Golden Reel in 2013 for their work on the TV Movie "Seal Team Six: The Raid on Osama Bin Laden", and in 2012 for the Computer Episodic series "Aim High". Monkeyland was also nominated in 2013 for a Primetime Emmy award for outstanding sound editing for a miniseries, movie or special, also for "Seal Team Six".  Congratulations also to our extremely talented intern ShaSha Dong, who was nominated by the MPSE this year for the Verna Fields Award for Student Filmmakers, for the short film "Sin Frontera". A big congrats as well to all of the other extremely talented nominees in all categories. We are looking forward to celebrating with everyone at the MPSE awards ceremony on February 15. You can catch the entire list of nominees here.

Monkeyland Audio 2014: Year In Review

23 Dec, 2014
Hello Friends & Colleagues, Monkeyland's 21st year is quickly coming to a close which means it's time for our annual look back at some of the highlights and moments that made up our 2014. All of us at Monkeyland are extremely grateful we've been able to spend yet another year pursing our love of sound and expanding our craft while continuing to work with both our loyal longtime clientele and new clients alike. T  he year started off fast and furious. Three of our films were headed to the Sundance Film Festival with lot's of mixing still to be done! While Gregg Araki's "White Bird In A Blizzard" had finished mixing in December, we were still mixing "We Are The Giant", our fourth feature doc working with Director Greg Barker, and "Imperial Dreams", all headed to mid January premieres in Park City. Meanwhile, we had just started sound editorial and mixing for 6 episodes of a new ABC mini series "The Assets"

ABC Primetime Shows Mixing At Monkeyland, Premiere Sunday Night

27 Sep, 2014
Be sure to catch the season premieres of the hit series "Once Upon A Time", followed by "Resurrection" as they make their 2014 fall season debuts on ABC tomorrow night.

Another Busy Month At Monkeyland: August Recap

26 Aug, 2014
It's been another busy and exciting month at Monkeyland with a slew of new film and television projects wrapping up and headed for release... This week alone saw the completion of 2 indie features: "A Sort of Homecoming" mixed by Mark Rozett on Stage A, and "All She Wishes" mixed by Trip Brock on Stage F. Meanwhile, mixer Kelly Vandever was putting the finishing touches on the TV movie "The Brittany Murphy Story" which premieres on Lifetime Saturday, September 6. All sound design, supervision, foley and ADR were also handled by the talented Monkeyland staff...

Busy Month In Progress At Monkeyland!

18 Jul, 2014
It's been an incredibly busy month here at Monkeyland with no end in sight! Barely half way through the month and theres lots of exciting things happening... Re-Recording Mixer Kelly Vandever has been busy mixing Chris Evan's directorial debut "1:30 Train" on Stage 3 and also just finished mixing director Sam Irvin's holiday TV movie "Naughty & Nice"... P  ictured (L to R) below are Kelly Vandever, Producer Carrie LeGrand and Director Sam Irvin. Christmas in July!
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