Audio Post Production Scholarship

The Banff Centre’s audio program in the Film & Media department is once again proud to present a scholarship in conjunction with the Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival. The Audio Post Production scholarship will be given to a filmmaker who is a finalist in the 2013 Banff Mountain Film Competition.

The purpose of the scholarship is to help filmmakers produce a state-of-the-art quality surround-sound mix for their projects, while helping The Banff Centre further its goals in audio education. The scholarship is given in the form of time allotted for studio services and staff expertise in The Banff Centre’s facilities and is valued at approximately $10,000 CDN.

No official application is required. Film finalists in the 2013 Banff Mountain Film Competition will be adjudicated to find a filmmaker who has a project that includes, but is not limited to, the following criteria:

  • film must be a documentary, dramatic, or animated short (less than 30 minutes in final length, including commercial breaks)
  • scholarship will be for a current or future work
  • all existing audio tracks must conform to the delivered picture
  • access must be provided to the original music tracks and must conform to the delivered picture (ideally the multi-track files or surround mix, not just stereo)
  • access must be provided to individual tracks of all source material including dialog, ambience, and effects
  • a relatively clean recording of audio material must be supplied (subjective)
  • filmmaker must supply The Banff Centre with picture as a Quicktime file (of a resolution specified by The Banff Centre) and any audio material as either a ProTools session or as OMF/AAF.
  • a spotting session will need to be scheduled well in advance of the final mix.
  • filmmaker must supply ALL material to The Banff Centre within one year from the date of the application
  • delivery of ALL materials to The Banff Centre a minimum two weeks in advance of mix session. This means that picture edit will need to be locked such that all the required material will be generated by the filmmaker and received by The Banff Centre at least two weeks prior to the mix session. These dates will be specified once the session has been booked and confirmed.
  • filmmaker would have the willingness and ability to re-record some elements if necessary
  • Film & Media, Audio will provide audio: 5.1 surround, stereo down-mixes, and stem mixes as required.
  • Film & Media can master to DVD for SDTV projects or BluRay for HDTV content but it is unable to master surround sound mixes to broadcast video tape. The Banff Centre can provide digital master files for this process but that particular mastering service would have to be contracted out of house and will be on a cost recovery basis to a professional affiliated service provider.
  • In order for screening of completed work at the 2014 Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival, the Audio Post Production Scholarship must take place between February and September 2014. Exact schedule to be finalized between the Audio Program and the recipient no later than January 20, 2014.
  • Deliver a copy of final product to The Banff Centre no later than October 15, 2014 so that it can be screened at the Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival.

Film & Media reserves the right to not award a scholarship.

The Audio program at Banff

The Audio program at The Banff Centre has extensive experience in audio postproduction for film and documentary including the feature length Waydowntown by Gary Burns, winner of the 2000 Toronto Film Festival and AMPIA award for best sound, and Kayak Islanda, winner of Best Film on Mountain Sport at the 1998 Banff Mountain Film Festival.

Internationally renowned for its unique educational work study opportunities, The Banff Centre’s Audio program brings together talented individuals with diverse technical and artistic backgrounds from all over the world. The engineers in the program record an average of 20 high quality CD productions, audio post production for film and television, and approximately 250 concerts a year. Participants receive continuous guidance and mentoring from leading faculty in all branches of the audio industry. Past faculty have included Academy Award winner Shawn Murphy, Grammy Award winners Elliot Scheiner and George Massenburg, Skywalker Sound’s Leslie Ann Jones, and ORF’s Florian Camerer who pioneered surround production for documentary broadcasting. Alumni of the audio program have joined companies such as New Line Cinema, CBC, and 20th Century Fox Studios, among others.

For further information, please contact:

Chris Segnitz, Studio Manager
Film & Media, The Banff Centre
chris_segnitz@banffcentre.ca