Completing The Dark Place

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Wed, 04/02/2014 - 11:58 -- Nick Dager

Jody Wheeler's The Dark Place posted at AlphaDogs in Los Angeles.The Dark Place tells the story of Keegan Dark, who has the uncanny ability to remember his life in videographic detail. Both a blessing and a curse, Dark uncovers a conspiracy that frames him for murder, threatens his inheritance, and endangers his family’s lives and livelihood. When director Jody Wheeler began shopping for a post-house to complete his feature film The Dark Place, he chose AlphaDogs because he had been told of their excellent reputation in working with independent filmmakers.  

Wheeler said, "The staff was incredibly knowledgeable about their subject areas.  They were willing to answer questions about our needs, allowing us to figure out the best way to mesh our workflows and achieve the best possible final results."

Editor and colorist, Sean Stack completed color correction for the film in DaVinci Resolve.  A round-trip workflow was required to conform files from Final Cut Pro X into Resolve. Stack took extra care in scrutinizing the clips for any potential problem areas before meeting with the client to set the tone and style for the film. "This was the first time we’ve delivered a project at this level with this many requirements, across both visual and sound,” said Wheeler.  “AlphaDogs experience served as a wonderful touchstone. They identified some areas we hadn't seen and, even better, already had fixes in place that were easy to implement, keeping us on track and within our budget."

Audio for the film included balancing the sound effects and dialog, along with sound design on key scenes.  AlphaDogs audio mixer, Curtis Fritsch made certain that the deliverables not only met the client’s expectations, but also made sure they would be easy to change if the need should arise. Fritsch said, “With a 5.1 surround mix alone that’s six different audio files just for the full mix.  This doesn’t include other deliverables, such as separate music, special effects, and dialog, which gives you quite a few tracks by the end, especially if you are delivering in stereo as well.”

Wheeler said, "We were incredibly happy with the final delivery of the film, and most importantly our distributor was happy. We were one of the fasted projects to meet their quality control standards. They were impressed and so were we. Alpha Dogs will be a great resource for finishing our next film project.”

The Dark Place was written, directed and produced by Jody Wheeler at Blue Seraph Productions with producers, J.T. Tepnapa and Carlos Pedraza and distributed by Shoreline Entertainment. For more information visit http://www.thedarkplacemovie.com

AlphaDogs http://www.alphadogs.tv