Project Description

Overview

Ovasen Studios is located in the heart of Greenwich Village, NYC.  Its owners, Eric Offin and Mark Garcia, earned a reputation through their innovative work as sound designers and soon became recognized by New York’s independent film community.  The initial space they moved into was tight, yet highly productive – mostly suitable for mixing.

As word of mouth spread, Offin and Garcia agreed on the need to expand the facility and negotiated a new lease with their landlord that afforded them a new 800 square foot space in the same building.  Already familiar with Storyk’s previous work, they called WSDG to create a design for the new facility.

After a preliminary meeting, it was discovered that two identical 5.1 control rooms would be required.  Even though space was not abundant, WSDG was able to accomodate this program requirement and then some – a 120 square foot live room/iso booth was added (which doubles as a Foley room) as well as a small kitchen and screening room.  Storyk was also able to take advantage of the rear yard daylight as well as a full cityscape view.

Making the most out of a smallish space was nothing new to WSDG, as the overwhelming trend in the NYC environments has been to maximize economies.  This has been a direct result of the relentless NYC real estate market.  However, compact new technologies played in WSDGs favor: for example, Digidesign’s ProControl console that was installed took up a significantly smaller footprint than a console from, say, the 1980s.

Offin and Garcia balance each others work: one person will be mixing while the other is tracking.  In redesigning Ovasen, they are furthering their original philosophy of staying efficient – and ahead of client requirements. Offin is currently completing Rosario Rent Dawson’s new feature film, and projects for Todd Far From Heaven Haynes and David Goodnight And Good Luck Strathairn.  He is also mixing Loud Quiet Loud, a rock ‘n roll documentary on The Pixie’s recent international reunion tour. Garcia, who composes for TV commercials in addition to his feature film mixing work, has just completed an assignment for Nick Jr.

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