News
Alvernia scores The Land of Oblivion
12 September 2011
Polish AMS Neve-equipped facility starts pulling in major post-production commissions
Chosen to premiere at the Venice Film Festival’s prestigious International Film Critic’s Week, The Land of Oblivion stars Olga Kurylenko (who played opposite Daniel Craig in 007 Quantum of Solace) in a story about the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster.
The score for this French-German-Polish-Ukranian joint venture was composed by Leszek Mozdzer, a multiple award-winning jazz pianist. Along with playing with such luminaries as Marcus Miller, David Gilmour and Pat Metheney, Mozdzer regularly works with Jan Kaczmarek, a US-based Polish film composer, whose score for Finding Neverland won an Oscar.
For The Land of Oblivion, however, Mozdzer chose to record the score in his native Poland, at Alvernia, the country’s newest and most prestigious movie production facility. The scoring studio can handle hundred-strong choirs and orchestras, but by opening out the central acoustic ‘pine cone’ it can easily be transformed into an intimate space – perfect for the small group Mozdzer had scored for. There was no scaling down when it came to the console, however – the session was recorded by Tadeusz Mieczkowski on Alvernia’s 72-fader Neve 88R.
Although this movie had a heavy Polish influence, Alvernia is determined not to be seen purely as a local production centre. Along with the 88R – the world’s no1 film scoring solution – it also has top flight AMS Neve DFC and MMC consoles in its post-production rooms and dubbing stage, to allow it to compete with and supplement the work of major Hollywood and London studios.
It has already pulled in the post-production gig (including score recording and mixing, plus the final mix) for Vamps, a vampire comedy starring Sigourney Weaver. Alvernia was also picked to handle full post-production for Arbitrage, a financial thriller starring Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon. Both films are due for release in the US next year.
