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As part of our recent series of Film Production BA workshops on the business of the cinema industry, director and producer Waheed AlQawasmi  joined tutor Jon-Carlos Evans and his students for a live Q&A. Read our round-up. 

'Jacir' Director Waheed AlQawasmi Shares His Advice to Aspiring Producers

Is filmmaking a chance to live many lifetimes? Or is life a chance to make many films? Emmy award-winning director and producer Waheed AlQawasmi would probably agree with the latter, having invested the past four years of his life working tirelessly on his labour of love, his first indie feature film Jacir, alongside running his production company.

“Everyone expects Mike Tyson to train when he wants to win the world championship, but for some reason they don’t want to apply that to art.”

“Everyone expects Mike Tyson to train when he wants to win the world championship, but for some reason they don’t want to apply that to art,” the former Fox Television creative director told our Film Production Bachelor students in a recent online Q&A session. “It’s like, no, I want to win… You have to put two, three years of working 18-hour days on something you love, to build [something] that’s your own, that no one can take away from you.”

Hosted by tutor Jon-Carlos Evans, the session was part of ‘The Biz’, a series of 12 workshops which introduced our students to the wider business of the cinema industry, emerging and ancillary technologies, and the peripheral worlds of new media and video art – all the while initiating invaluable professional connections.

Jacir explores the unlikely friendship developed between its eponymous protagonist, an orphaned Syrian refugee who settles in Memphis, Tennessee – the city to which Waheed himself emigrated as a teenager – and Meryl, a reclusive opioid addict who is fearful of the local immigrants. Meryl is played by Lorraine Bracco, the Oscar-nominated supporting actress of Goodfellas – one of the movies Waheed grew up watching in his native Jordan in the formative years of his filmmaking interest. 

How did he go from watching Bracco to directing her 20 years later? It would be tempting to talk of fate. Yet, what we learnt in our two hours with the creative powerhouse is that his shining career is built of solid graft, painted with passion and glazed with luck. The Jacir project began with a promising script. What Waheed didn’t anticipate were the many obstacles that lay ahead on his journey to realising it.

“If I’d have known it would take four years to make that film, I’m not sure I would have gone down that road,” he revealed. Taking on the production and securing the funding was only the beginning of an uphill struggle. Waheed scheduled the shooting to begin in May 2020. When the pandemic hit, he decided to employ his logistics mastery to keep on pushing. That included staggering the schedule of the cast and crew and rethinking entire scenes to eliminate mask-wearing crowds and to comply with hygiene regulations – a huge addition to the workload and to the budget. Jacir is currently in post-production, which Waheed and his team are aiming to complete in under six months. “There are five original songs in the movie that two of the characters sing,” he shared. “That’s a lot of work. That’s like producing an album in addition to a movie, that you have to merge into that world of the movie.”

Above: Jacir starring actress Lorraine Bracco with director Waheed AlQawasmi. Photo from the Jacir Instagram.

“Don’t forget, even if it is your first time as a director, that person still chose to do the project with you… they are already coming to you with respect for who you are, so now you have to earn that respect. And sometimes you earn it by collaborating, and I like to collaborate.”

Just like Jon-Carlos, Waheed has worked in nearly every role on set, allowing him to lead in his various roles with a great deal of empathy and humility. Valuing the experience of his collaborators, he is not afraid to work with their feedback. “Lorraine gives the gift of having worked with directors who shaped the whole industry, so she helps you change that hat,” he said. “It’s really about the people that are around you. If you can function in different capacities and it’s hard to do it all at once on the same day, it’s about the people around you and how they know to get your attention, because they come in with things to solve, not problems, with solutions...I wasn’t intimidated directing Lorraine because, at the end of the day, what I know is this: we’re all human. It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve seen someone on TV or how big of an idol they are...Don’t forget, even if it is your first time as a director, that person still chose to do the project with you… they are already coming to you with respect for who you are, so now you have to earn that respect. And sometimes you earn it by collaborating, and I like to collaborate.”

What was Waheed’s biggest advice to aspiring producers? “You have to put it in your head that you’re there for the movie, and you’re there for everyone else there,” he explained. “You’re the person that builds the table that everyone else is going to stand on... The most crucial part in producing – especially if you’re a creative producer, meaning you really have good creative ideas – is learning how to manage creatives. It’s called herding cats. Herding creative cats? Super hard… And go learn budgeting. Budgeting is very important. You have to be honest with yourself about the numbers. You have to be honest about the capabilities. If you hear a crazy idea, you’ve got to steer and shepherd that whole thing away…”

“That’s my best advice for producing: learn math and learn how to handle different people’s personalities.” He also stressed that having fun with whatever you are doing should be a priority. “When I’m not having fun, I’m not as effective,” he said, revealing that it is by applying his director’s creativity to even the most unexciting production tasks that he gets the most enjoyment out of his work.

When Jon-Carlos opened up the Q&A to the students, Jonah asked what everyone was thinking: how does Waheed juggle so many projects within his marathon workdays without getting overly stressed? Honest communication is key. “As long as you’re calm, everyone else around you will be calm,” he said. It’s something he’s learnt from being on sets – the learning by doing we value above all at Catalyst. “It’s just doing it over and over. It becomes a part of you; it’s like breathing. And you don’t think about breathing.”

Read our round up from Jacir director and producer Waheed AlQawasmi's Q&A on the cinema industry with Catalyst Film Production students.

‘Jacir’ Director Waheed AlQawasmi Shares His Filmmaking Advice in Q&A

The Biz /// ‘Jacir’ Director Waheed AlQawasmi Shares His Filmmaking Wisdom in Q&A

Our second-year Visual Effects & Technological Arts students present their end-of-year projects: an exciting array of interactive installations which explored one of the most exciting emergent applications of VFX technology.

VFX19 - Second Year Final Projects

Want to become a visual artist tomorrow? Then it’s essential to master the digital tools of today. Fluency in cutting-edge software and cross-media technology not only exponentially expands the palette of creative expression, but it places creators in the optimal position to contribute to the design of future realities. That’s why our Visual Effects & Technological Arts courses give powerful insight into diverse subject areas – including filmmaking, post-production, motion design, matte painting, 3D animation, digital compositing, visual effects supervising, creative coding, installation and interactive art – all the while fostering the independence, open-mindedness and awareness to become an exceptional artist. 

Our second-year students’ recent exhibition of their interactive installation projects demonstrated one of the most exciting creative applications of VFX technology. Blurring the boundaries between the artwork and the experiencer, such installations focus on active play and experimentation rather than passive spectation – the perfect way to make an impact on today’s engagement-hungry world. 

Though all of the students began their project from the same foundation – taught by programme lead Matthieu Schmit and tutor Paulina Greta – it was thrilling to see where their unique interpretations led them. Diego SanJuan Villanueva combined a laser grid with motion capture technology and sound to explore how the movement of the different participants affected the visuals and frequencies. Leander Blaschke adeptly employed an assortment of cutting-edge software to create a striking VR space game. Freddy Gutierrez beautifully combined laser light sensors with cymatics. And Margarita Govedarska encouraged her participants to guide their projected external bodies with the feelings induced by the dynamic frequencies in their ears. In short, the exhibition was emergent storytelling at its finest.

Second-year Catalyst Berlin Visual Effects & Technological Arts students present their interactive visual art installations in this video.

Creating Visual Art Installations with VFX Technology

Step Inside Our Second-Year VFX Students’ Interactive Visual Installations

Visual Effects & Technological Arts student Tommaso Capruzzi shares what he loves about learning his craft at Catalyst. Photography by our recent intern: designer, photographer and filmmaker Aurélie Nydegger.

What I love about Visual Effects is the absolute freedom. You can create things that exist only in your imagination. You can create stories that you can't tell, you can't see. You have the greatest freedom of imagination and you can create whatever you want. There really are infinite possibilities. 

The first year at Catalyst was an introduction to the craft and art of VFX. In the first semester, we started with the basics of everything, like filmmaking in general, production, directing, post production, flash colours, how the camera works, compositing a set. We are a bit like cinematographers. We don't spend all day in front of a computer building our world in 3D. There are several stages before that.

When a project starts, we meet before we set up and it's always different, unless it's all CGI, like in advertising for example. On a film shoot, I have to be part of the crew to supervise and make sure that everything – camera, shot, lights and all the little electrical things – are in place. It's important for my VFX production that everything is perfectly placed, so that I don't have any problems with realism or perspective when I start editing and special effects on my computer.

 "It's a group effort, you'll never work alone in a VFX production."

In VFX we learn to use 2D and 3D Photoshop, After Effects, and also the various editing software. We also have to learn how to analyse film footage in order to optimise our work, because in essence we are creating a virtual film, like a video game. Throughout the year we make small projects, both personal and in collaboration with other sections of Catalyst, such as the film and music students, not to mention the actors. It's a group effort, you'll never work alone in a VFX production.

Photographer Aurelie Nydegger presents her portrait of Catalyst Berlin Visual Effects & Technological Arts student Tommaso Capruzzi.

Aurélie Nydegger Photographs VFX student Tommaso Capruzzi

A Snapshot of Visual Effects Student Tommaso Capruzzi by Aurélie Nydegger 

Our recent intern, designer, photographer and filmmaker Aurélie Nydegger photographs Creative Film Production MA student Leonardo Greco and asks him to chat about his work.

Leonardo Greco was born and raised in Catania, Italy. While studying in “Liceo Scientifico” (scientific high school) he got closer to the arts, with special regard to cinema. After graduating, he decided to follow his passion by enrolling in Catalyst’s Film Production Bachelor. He’s now continuing his journey with us as a Master’s student in Creative Production.  Besides his commitment to school, he has had the chance to work as a freelancer on side projects such as commercials, music videos for local artists and short films. His latest film, You Don’t Know Them, which he wrote and directed, was awarded Best Short Film at the Mexico International Film Festival. Leonardo is currently working on two short films and the script of his first feature film. I asked him to tell us more about his work.

I decided to make films because it makes me happy. It's the thing in the world that makes me smile. We live in a world where you exist through your work. Imagine not being happy when you go to work. I tried a few activities when I was a kid, and film was always the feeling that brought me the most passion, the most joy. So I thought, why not write stories, do something about it, create? I tried it and then I loved it. Every day I'm more excited to go to work. There are a lot of challenges, but it makes me feel alive. It's a way to express myself and make my dreams come true.

For me, film is about telling a story. When we tell it, we decide to mix images and sounds, and we choose the format, the shots, and the actors to tell our story. The story can be anything, because cinema has a lot of freedom, no limitations. You can express your dreams with a film. It's like writing a book but bringing to life what you saw in your head. It's really free as an expression, without limits. It's a new art, without many rules. Before I was a filmmaker, I was a cinephile. I watched a film to lose myself in the story, to feel something. If it was an action film, I was excited, a horror film I was scared, if it was a drama I felt the emotion of the character. When I make a film, I want others to feel what cinema made me feel as a child. Maybe my subconscious wants to send a message through my film.

An example is the story I'm working on. At one moment, two characters meet who were not supposed to. This creates interest and suspense. I like that moment of anticipation when I'm telling and seeing a story, because you didn't expect it and what happens next. I like people's reaction as well as my own. Stories that surprise you and bring you new things, things you didn't expect. That's why I particularly like the writing stage. I write while waiting for a response from the audience. It's always a surprise for me to see the reaction of others to one of my films. I never get tired of it.

"How can we aim for a better future if nobody is leading the way?"

This short film is something I am personally attached to because four years ago I left my home town, Catania, Italy, to come to Berlin to study. After a long time abroad I, for the first time, felt I didn’t belong anywhere. I felt out of place in Berlin, just like I did when I was in Catania. If you don’t have a home, you have nothing, and if you have nothing, what’s left? You. And here we have the big question: who am I? Or worse, who am I expected to be? In my case, the answer seems to be ‘a man’, but what does it mean to be a man? Do I have to be strong? Do I have to be powerful? Do I need to have a lot of women? Am I allowed to have feelings? I’m a bit confused, who could I look up to? Some successful men, like Berlusconi? Weinstein? James Bond? Dirty Harry? It is becoming clear that we are living in a moment where masculinity is having its worst crisis and society is not offering any solutions. Toxic men are hunted down, the idols that have fallen are not replaced, leaving all the boys, myself included, without a hero anymore. How can we aim for a better future if nobody is leading the way? 

Dante, the main character of the short, finds himself in a similar place: he doesn’t have a home, he doesn’t have anybody, he is left alone with his quest, to find where he belongs. What he doesn’t know yet is that first he needs to find himself. I truly believe that who we are is defined by our actions and with whom we decide to do them. I think this is something worth telling, something worth sharing. 

Photographer Aurelie Nydegger presents her portrait of Creative Film Production MA student and freelance filmmaker Leonardo Greco.

Aurélie Nydegger Photographs Film MA Student Leonardo Greco

A Snapshot of Film MA Student Leonardo Greco by Aurélie Nydegger 

Designer, photographer and filmmaker Aurélie Nydegger recently joined us for an internship to shine a light on our students with her stunning photographic content. Read all about her experience and what fuels her creativity.

If human consciousness were a pen, it would never run out of ink. The stories we tell mould us, teach us, inspire us and drive us until the notebook of life is complete. Visual storytelling, a fast-track to the visceral, is arguably the most impactful, and it is in this realm in which Aurélie Nydegger crystallises her dreams. The Swiss designer, photographer and filmmaker’s Instagram handle, philosophique portatif (portable philosophical), encapsulates her deeply narrative approach to her creative media – an approach that stays with the viewer like a negative afterimage on the retina. 

We recently had the pleasure of hosting Aurélie’s outstanding creativity when she joined us for an internship. Creating a striking portfolio of photographic content, she shone a light on our music, film, acting and VFX students. We will be sharing it all over the coming weeks on our social media – so be sure to follow our music and film/VFX/acting Instagram accounts!

Now that Aurélie has returned home to complete her photography degree, we asked her to reflect on her experience and to tell us more about her vision. 

I'm 22 years old and I'm originally from the French side of Switzerland. I started my career with a five-year apprenticeship as a designer, specializing in communication, videography, photography and marketing. I quickly found that I was missing an artistic aspect in my job; working with companies doesn't always leave us the freedom to realize our own personal projects. I wanted to develop my skills via my own visual creations and projects, so I decided to study photography as an artist photographer in the CEPV of Vevey where I experimented for two years on documentary, experimental and social photography as an artist. The training courses were quite complementary and finally a logical continuation in my professional evolution. 

What have you been up to at Catalyst recently?

I had the pleasure of collaborating with Catalyst to produce photographic projects for each section of the school – Acting, Film, VFX and Music – to expand visual communication and offer new opportunities for Catalyst’s networks with documentary projects about individual students, mixing photography and interviews. 

“I really liked the school, I liked the atmosphere and the learning methods, not to mention the artistic universe and open-minded approach.”

Why did you reach out to Catalyst in the first place?

I had the ambition to come and do a bachelor's degree in Film Production at your school this coming year, because I really liked the school, I liked the atmosphere and the learning methods, not to mention the artistic universe and open-minded approach. So I thought why not offer my services, develop as a freelancer and artist inside a school and also see how Catalyst works from the inside. There is nothing more immersive than working for a structure to understand it.

You are a multi-talented creative, with a stunning portfolio of photography, graphic design and film. What would you say is the style or approach which unites all of your work?

For me photography and film are two very similar mediums. The difference is that in one medium we have moving images and in the other we have still images. When I create a photographic project I make it from A to Z like a film. The images make up a story accompanied by narrative or descriptive text in the same way as a storyboard and a script. The design and artistic production is very similar, except that I work alone with my models without a film crew behind me. Photography is an incredible medium for storytelling in the same way as film. These two mediums meet later in the conception into the design graphic part where I compose a photographic book. I put the script and the visuals in order to compose the storytelling.

“It's like a piece of music; it's always composed from the same notes, it's simply their placement that will change the nature of the project.”

How were you able to put your knowledge and skills into practice throughout the different shoots you organised with our students? 

I like to relate people's stories through photography, to show their personalities and mine in a simple portrait or landscape. My approach as an artist photographer is very documentary. I organised meetings with each student and we created a world together by simply sharing thoughts or small anecdotes. Then the machine started and we followed our instinct to make the project. Everyone invested personally to create a common magic. For me, my knowledge and skills are a medium, a working process in itself, which I repeat for each of my projects. It's like a piece of music; it's always composed from the same notes, it's simply their placement that will change the nature of the project. It was quite natural for me to mix scriptwriting, photography, communication and art together. 

How were you able to overcome the challenges set by Covid?

To be honest, Covid was not an obstacle for me. On the contrary, I have never done as many projects and travelled than during the Covid period. You just have to know how to adapt to the technical or political problem. I'm also used to it because with my school I have to carry out projects at a distance, which gives me more time to organise them and think them through properly. The covid period has given me more time and strangely more opportunity.

The constant diversity in my photoshoots, the variety and different inspiration from the students which allowed a multitude of ideas and compositions. The school environment was also very inspiring and full of places to capture! I also particularly liked the trust they gave me. During this month I was really independent. The kindness of the Catalyst team and their advice and caring was really important to me. I think especially of Christina who was adorable and with whom I shared a matcha before my departure!  

L'Apogée is a biopic film project about the German Chancellor Adolf Hitler.

In an new cinematographic project, discover or rediscover the hidden stories of the general public under the apogee of the future Chancellor of Germany.

Drama | Biopic | Cinematographic project
Swiss - German Production |

Production: Aurélie Giovannoni - Laurent Mohr - Andreas Reuther ( French - German)

Distribution:
Adolf Hitler: John Ludwig
Geli Raubal: Aurélie Giovannoni

Director of photography: Andreas Reuther
Gimbal operator: Kevin Bose

Light engineer: Daniel Errey - Adrian Angehrn
Sound engineer: Thomas Young

Photographer: Anastasia Chernykh
BTS Photographer: Yanina Isla - Kinwah Lok

Makeup artist: Jade Turrian
Making - of: Nicolas Turrain

Editor: Joe Marmy

Light assistant: Jan Merchant

Partners: Studio 25 am Holzmarkt - Epic Militaria - Soldier of fortune

Music: Archive.org - Museopen.org
The Requiem Mass in D minor (K.626) - I. Introistus Requiem aeternam - Mozart (Herbet von Karajan, Berliner Philharmoniker) from archive.org. // 

Social networks:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lapogeefilm

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lapogeefilm

L'Apogée - Short Film

We were totally impressed by your 2020 short film L'Apogée, a biopic about the young Adolf Hitler. It was your first experience as a director and a producer, and you also performed in it. How did you navigate such a controversial figure and what was your creative process in all of these roles?

In my approach and my artistic career, I am interested in the problems of collective memory. My projects retrace the memory of places, of people in their frozen temporal state. This setting of time is expressed by a duality mixing nostalgia, social and conceptual documentary, investigation, fiction and history. I am particularly interested in scabrous historical figures, as well as forgotten and controversial men and women of our society, working on different periods to question time and space.

I had been studying the Second World War for some years now and particularly Hitler as a man and not just as a politician. I found so many fascinating stories that were never mentioned once in the history books and that explained a lot of the public history that we know. I'm thinking in particular of the relationship he had with Emil Maurice and or Geli Raubal, his niece whom I play in this film. She is undoubtedly a person with whom I identify myself a lot, as strange as it may seem... I would add that this theme is also important on a personal level. Since I was young, I have been concerned by the tormented past of this war. Although I did not experience it personally, I experienced it through my family, through third parties, through testimonies, through collective history and my own, forging who I am today.

“At that time I had learnt filmmaking through my first training course and I thought why not try it. It was cheeky, but it could work. We learn by doing and not only through theory, right?”

The initial project was not about Hitler and was a photographic project that I did with John Ludwig, a German actor from Berlin. After the first version which was about a simple German soldier. I wanted to make a short film, however, without any bad puns, John had something special that made him appear as Hitler in the picture. At that time I had learnt filmmaking through my first training course and I thought why not try it. It was cheeky, but it could work. We learn by doing and not only through theory, right?

This project is my first film as an independent writer and director. I organised and financed this film from start to finish in only three months to be able to shoot in April 2019.  L'Apogée is a short film about the psychoses of Chancellor Adolf Hitler. This film project was co-produced with Andreas Reuther, a Berlin-based cinematographer and John Ludwig,  who plays the lead role. The filming, carried out on a small budget of 3,000 Swiss francs and involving a reunion between history lovers. I would say that my training helped me to organise all this. I had as much the foundations of a producer than of a filmmaker, which made me very independent at its creation. I think that this common passion for history is what made this project happen. Without this passion the result would probably not be the same! 

Who or what are your greatest inspirations?

I find a lot of inspiration in music and not so much in my peers. I think in particular of Woodkid for the Apogee project, otherwise I listen mainly to film soundtracks and classical music when I create. They are what forge my work. By listening to music, I invent a mental world for myself and all the rest is simply built without any effort: the scenario, the images, the characters... Each piece of music has a scene and all the music creates the film or the photographic project. 

As an inspiration, I would say that I identify myself with Virginie Rebetez, who is also a Swiss photographer, or Elina Brotherus whom I admire a lot for her audacity. In the classical field, Bertolt Brecht or Sophie Calle.

Now that you’re back in Switzerland, what’s next on your journey?

I plan to graduate as a photographer at the CEPV and then go on to study for a bachelor's degree in visual arts at the HEAD in Geneva, where I will develop my documentary and experimental projects on the memory of war and also make a new short historical film on the same subject. This is the idea for the next three years. 

Designer, photographer and filmmaker Aurelie Nydegger recently joined Catalyst Berlin's community as an intern. Learn about her creative vision.

Interview With Swiss Visual Artist Aurélie Nydegger

We Chat to Visual Artist Aurélie Nydegger About Her Striking Creative Vision

We speak to our Creative Production Masters Degree programme lead, synthesist Richard Scott, about his fascinating collaborative release with trumpet player Axel Dörner. Recorded in Prenzlauer Berg’s emblematic water tower, A Journal of Elasticity is a two-sided reservoir of creative brilliance. 

If you’ve ever found yourself strolling through the Kollwitzkiez neighbourhood of Prenzlauer Berg, you won’t have missed it: the 30-metre-high tower that has long been an emblem of the district. Since the round building is known as the Wasserturm, you’ll have guessed that it once had something to do with storing water. In fact, the industrial complex, housing several structures, was Berlin’s first public water system, supplying the entire north of the city from 1875 until 1914. The tower remains one of Berlin’s most architecturally interesting landmarks. And if you’re lucky enough to attend cultural events such as the Bohemian Drips label’s Speicher festival – taking place annually inside its large and small reservoirs – you’ll discover that it’s one of the city’s most acoustically interesting landmarks, too.

During the first edition of the festival for site-specific music, in 2017, our Creative Production MA lead, composer, synthesist and recording artist Richard Scott, had the pleasure and challenge of performing in the larger tank with trumpet player Axel Dörner. The unlikely duo’s soundwork was based on the bricked space’s ring structure – which provides up to 18 seconds of reverb and unique echo effects – using a hexaphonic speaker system, modular synthesizer and a modified trumpet triggering electronics. This was the first of two acoustically idiosyncratic sessions – the other performed in the empty space without an audience – of which the recordings, almost four years later, have been released on vinyl as A Journal of Elasticity.

“Two boundary-breaking musicians do not so much explore a middle ground between them, but rather use the dynamics of the peculiar spaces around them,” goes the LP’s blurb. “Scott and Dörner masterfully construct and play with tonal, temporal, spatial and sonic dualities.” For electronic music connoisseurs and acoustic nerds like us, A Journal of Elasticity is a two-sided reservoir of creative brilliance. 

What was it like to perform in such an iconic location and how did the fascinating project come together? Following the release, we spoke to Richard about his experience, and some of the exciting projects he’s currently got in the works. 

A Journal of Elasticity, by Axel Dörner & Richard Scott

We love the combination of your modular synthesis and Axel Dörner’s trumpet playing. How did your collaboration come together?

Actually the first few times I heard Axel play, although I liked it, I didn’t imagine we would ever work together. My background was a bit different – coming from a UK ping-pong dialogic kind of post-free jazz improvisation, derived from the Spontaneous Music ensemble – but with Axel it is very different. He came up more through the German echtzeitmusik tradition, and what we do is more like coinciding lines that have a lot of freedom in and of themselves but which don’t necessarily need to be discursive in the same way. It can also be very different between concerts. I always imagine we do some kind of ambient music but as the second side of the record shows, it can also be almost uncomfortably intense. We trust the moment and space – and each other – to tell us where to go.

“Working with Axel is an interesting balance between knowing and unknowing and weighing up which of the many paths available in any one moment to take.”

How challenging is it to synergise with another musician?

Working with Axel is an interesting balance between knowing and unknowing and weighing up which of the many paths available in any one moment to take. One is never certain one has taken the right decision, or how long that decision remains valid but it is essential to commit as completely as possible to what is happening between us at any one moment, without distinction over which one us is playing. That more individualistic aspect really has no meaning in the moment of playing this kind of music.

Above: Richard and Axel performing at Speicher I. Photo by Carina Khorkhordina

This composition was recorded almost four years ago in Prenzlauer Berg’s water tower during the Bohemian Drips annual festival for site-specific music, Speicher I. How did the location influence your conception of the piece?

The sense of constant ambiguity and elasticity between the two of us was amplified on these two recordings by the influence of such a unique and almost unwieldy sonic environment. The space is an interactive compositional element in its own right, creating transformational possibilities and limitations on every sound we performed. 

Eurorack modular synthesizer, an EMS Synthi A and a Ciat-Lonbarde Tetrassi. Esoteric stuff really. These are my performance instruments, very dynamic and responsive to touch and either slow or fast changes. It's more than I normally take to concerts but the venue is only a few minutes walk from my house so I took a little more.

Above: Richard performing at Speicher I. Photo by Nikolaus Götz.

At what point did you decide to release the composition as a record?

When we heard the recordings we realised this was more than a gig, but something which reveals itself more slowly, something someone could really get into by listening multiple times. Not all recordings are like that. Like a lot of records, this one just took years to finally get out there on vinyl.

You captured the spatial information using a binaural dummy head microphone for optimal immersion. How close is the listening experience of the recording to the live experience?

Firstly, I didn’t record, mix or master the record – which is unusual, and a relief. In performance you don’t get an overview, I am only hearing from one spot in the room. The acoustics in that space are insane and really every person in the room hears a different concert – the microphone just captures one possibility amongst thousands. I am not sure how well a recording can ever witness just how non-linear that environment was. But this stereo reduction somehow works in its own right.

“The artwork is not always the event itself; often it is a reduction or documentation of a kind of absence, like a book of paintings is not those paintings; a poem about the sea is not the sea.”

A Study of Place, by Shehryar Ahmad

One of your recent Creative Production MA graduates, Shehryar Ahmad, explored the immersive potential of binaural and 4DSOUND in his final project. How did you mentor him on this topic?

This project was an interesting mix of sound design, sound art, conceptual art and composition. Once the composition was in place – I do think it is important that spatial music be musically interesting – I talked with Shehryar a lot about how to document the project. In many ways it is very similar; you create a kind of infinitely spatial piece intended for many speakers or a 360-degree experience, but you can’t put all that either on a LP or in a master’s thesis. The artwork is not always the event itself; often it is a reduction or documentation of a kind of absence, like a book of paintings is not those paintings; a poem about the sea is not the sea. This process of translation and documentation is very important for all MA students and actually for the whole idea of artistic research. 

Richard Scott live at Moers festival 2020

In 2020, you performed at Moers festival - your only solo performance of the year. What was it like to perform for a stream instead of a standard audience? Did it influence your approach going forward?

Well, I played at Moers this year as well – crazily enough combining my modular with Seicento Vocale, a 22 piece renaissance choir which also only streamed. I can only say that, while it is nice to address many more people than would normally hear me via the Arte TV channel, it is a very strange and unusual experience to perform in a huge room with only TV cameras, sound engineers, festival staff and journalists. 

moers festival LIVE 23/05/21– ARTE Concert

You are under a microscope and have no idea how the cameras are focussing and translating your performance. It is a documentation you have no control over, so you have to just believe in what you are doing, and even if you don’t, you have to at least look as though you do! This is a new thing for me; concerts are normally more about intimacy and spontaneity. 

Irregular Transmissions #5: Seven Fundamental Concepts on Modular Synthesis

Now that the school year is through, what do you plan on creating this summer?

The MA semesters run through the summer so are never really over! This summer I am working on a solo double album, on two Hiss & Viscera albums – my duet with Audrey Chen – and an album with Audrey and Canadian saxophonist Yves Charuest. I will actually perform again in the water tank, this time with Hiss & Viscera on August 21st, again at the Speicher festival. I have a duet album with EMS Synthi master Thomas Lehn, which we have been mixing apparently since the dawn of time but must be nearly finished. I have recently launched a YouTube stream, Irregular Transmissions, a weekly broadcast of me playing and talking about modular synthesiser matters. I have several mastering projects coming up, apart from performing and teaching, that is my other job. For better or worse, I am always working on several fronts. 

We interview synthesist and Catalyst Berlin MA lead Richard Scott about his record with trumpet player Axel Dörner, recorded in an old water tank.

Richard Scott and Axel Dörner Release A Journal of Elasticity

A Journal of Elasticity /// Creative Production MA lead Richard Scott on His Collaborative Release

When life gives you lemons, make Lemonade Sorbet! Read all about our Screen Acting Certificate students’ triumphant recent online theatre performance, in which they showcased all they’ve learnt in their challenging first year of study.

Lemonade Sorbet

We knew this year’s Screen Acting Certificate students would have something special. Moving to a new city to kick-start a creative career in the midst of a pandemic takes courage, resourcefulness, persistence and, above all, a massive zest for life. Their triumphant final project proved they had all of that in pitchers. When life gave them lemons, they didn’t settle for making any old lemonade. They wrote, directed, starred in, promoted and presented Lemonade Sorbet, a tantalising online menu of 11 live performances which mixed the fizz of theatre with the sharpness of creative technology. 

Hundreds of viewers tuned into Lemonade Sorbet on the evening of the 7th of May to discover the up-and-coming international talents – many of whom will stay on at Catalyst for another two years to further hone their acting skills and earn a Bachelor qualification. And, wow, was the audience impressed with the diversity, range and creativity they were served. 

“It was a real trip,” says Merlina Scheffler, who opened the line-up with Manon Magnet in their striking performance Inside. “Collaborating on writing, directing and acting gave me more awareness and respect for the amount of work that happens behind the scenes.” The performance was the culmination of an intensive year of learning by doing. “Throughout this year, I have become more confident in myself and my body and I am aware of the amount of work and preparation that comes with becoming an actor – the process before you actually get a job.”

Laura Majid and Dagur Ingimarsson’s piece Broken World was stunningly visceral. Laura – who was also one of the witty Lemonade Sorbet presenters – describes her performance as “an emotionally, mentally and physically challenging journey projected through my vessel.” She says the “great learning experience and exciting collaboration” gave her “a much bigger understanding for filmmaking as a whole. I feel better equipped to work as an actor and even more curious to try other positions in the industry, such as screenwriting and directing.”

“You’re a team. You’re a little family working together...and it’s really fun and nice to solve problems together...That’s the key.”

At the end of the line-up, viewers were treated with a live Q&A session, where they were invited to ask the actors all of their burning questions. They touched on the highlights of the project and the challenge of being both in front of and behind the camera, as well as revealing the next steps they’ll be taking on their screen acting journey. 

Kristers Ozols, who performed brilliantly in The Boat and presented, closed up the show with a beautiful reflection on his experience: “You’re a team. You’re a little family working together...and it’s really fun and nice to solve problems together...That’s the key.”

Catalyst Berlin Screen Acting first years rose to the challenge of writing, directing & performing a tantalising online theatre show. Read our recap.

Screen Acting Certificate Students Stream Lemonade Sorbet Show

Lemonade Sorbet /// Screen Acting First-Years Write, Direct & Star in Online Show 

Creative Production MA alumnus Shehryar Ahmad, aka Outlier, explored the subconscious effects of ambient sound in his final project, titled ‘Study of Place: The Perception of Ambience.’ Dive into his practice-based research.

Did you know that musical memory is thought to be encoded differently from linguistic memory in the brain? For musicians and music lovers alike, it is perhaps not all that surprising. Music, like our strongest past experiences, can have a visceral quality that resonates in our ears long after the first fleeting moment of wonder. 

As Creative Production Masters alumnus Shehryar Ahmad, aka Outlier – whose captivating work you may have encountered at Eufonia Sound Circuits last year – posits in his final project, the same can be said for all sound. His research focused on the power of ambient sound in particular to induce sensory and contextual sensations in the listener. Posing the question, “What if everyday sounds all sounded like ambient: sonically pleasing, reverberated visions of themselves?” he set out to create an evocative sonic atmosphere by manipulating field recordings. The aim: to analyse how it might introspectively affect one’s peace of mind, mental wellbeing and imagination. 

Our MA programme – which can be studied for one year or two years part-time – is all about opening new frontiers in the exploration of your passions, whilst building and enhancing an artistic and creative industry profile. “I have always been interested in ambient sounds and the way that an ambient soundscape can drive a story,” Shehryar writes. “Certain sounds have always had an ability to remind me of past situations, environments, or more importantly, auras. It is this perceived sense of connection with sound and how much it affects us throughout our lives that drove me to this idea…this project combines the main element of my work with my favourite attribute of music, in a more research and exploration based manner than I have ever worked on.”

A massive congratulations to Shehryar for the completion of this truly fascinating and in-depth piece of practice-based artistic research, which he says could not have been possible without the opportunity to work as an intern at our neighbouring 4DSOUND venue, MONOM. Has your sense of curiosity been prickled? Read on for our summary of some of his project’s points of interest.

Anyone who has ever found themselves transported to another dimension by music or sound can attest to the sense of place sonic immersion can create. Shehryar is careful to point out, however, the distinction between immersion and presence. He cites this paper, which defines immersion as what the technology delivers from an objective point of view, and presence as a human reaction to immersion. In other words, immersion is an experience in time, whereas presence is a state of mind.

Shehryar reflects that hearing plays a major role in spatial awareness. In fact, the auditory system provides information for a much larger spatial field than vision. Purposefully move sound through spatial and temporal dimensions, with a fine-tuned spatial acoustics setup such as MONOM’s, and a great level of immersion can be achieved. 

MONOM’s 4DSOUND system was installed in 2017, ten years after the 4DSOUND interdisciplinary project was founded by Dutch composer Paul Oomen. MONOM was established as an experimental performance venue and spatial sound studio in tandem with Budapest’s Spatial Sound Institute. Its system uses 48 omnidirectional speakers, suspended throughout the venue, extending to nine sub speakers submerged beneath an acoustically transparent floor. 

Shehryar explains that the size, shape and positioning of the sound source can be effectively perceived by the listener in such an environment. In fact, 4DSOUND makes it possible for sound to be designed as an object with individual dimensions and positions (pictured above). For musicians who want to explore the inner workings of their art form, this technology is absolute creative dynamite. That’s why – through workshops and other opportunities – Catalyst students regularly make the most of our connection and proximity to the impressive MONOM venue.

How did Shehryar use his internship to fuel his MA project? He composed a number of spatial etudes, pairing the 4DSOUND visualiser with a binaural head recording of sonic objects to create soundscapes in different environments. The first two etudes utilised field recordings of vehicles, for example passing cars and aeroplanes, stalling engines and truck horns. “The moving vehicles were all given spatial paths corresponding to their real life motions and behaviours,” he writes. “Many different car sounds were employed, with different speed at recording, and were consequently given paths with different speeds as shown in these etudes.” The other etudes were created from recordings of a subway train, acoustic spaces, collisions, crowds, birds and a lake. 

Shehryar held a physical installation of the study at MONOM, which opened further areas of enquiry based upon the reactions of the participants, many of whom had never experienced a virtual sound environment. He invited them to complete presence and immersion questionnaires to obtain subjective data for his study.

“I was left to understand the ideal conditions to record through self study and practice.”

When MONOM added a binaural recording head (pictured below) and binaural headphones to their sonic repertoire for the purpose of live streaming, Shehryar knew he had to incorporate the technology into his project. Thanks to the hyper-flexible nature of our Masters programme, Shehryar was able to follow his intuition and explore a new dimension. 

“This was my first interaction with binaural audio,” he recalls. “My first response [was] being shocked at how the sound moved around my perceptual space while wearing normal stereo headphones.” After the scenes from his etudes were spatialised, he recorded them onto the binaural microphone first as separate files, before blending them together into one final composition. 

Shehryar notes that this was a rather challenging process, since recording binaural audio within a 4DSOUND system is not a common technique. “With a lack of descriptive material regarding this topic,” he explains, “I was left to understand the ideal conditions to record through self study and practice.” Once again, he invited participants of this work to complete questionnaires, in order to compare the immersion of the 4DSOUND installation and the binaural sound experiment.

“With different forms of composition and spatial design, it is possible for the immersive extent of the system to yet expand.”

Shehryar measured three values of immersion during his studies of the perceived effect of 4DSOUND and binaural sound: Spatial Presence, Experienced Realism and Involvement. What did his results on both fronts say about the participants’ perception of place in particular? 

“Comparing the results of the binaural experiment with the physical installation, there are definitely similarities in the trends,” he surmises, “as well as observations regarding the level of presence.” The 4DSOUND experiment yielded rather positive results for the application of 4DSOUND as a means of immersive spatial sound. “The system, coherently with my spatial design, proved to be very effective and applicable to sonic environment design. With different forms of composition and spatial design, it is possible for the immersive extent of the system to yet expand.” In comparison, the binaural presence data held slightly lower values, implying less immersive ability. Though he suggests that more accurately designed or mixed environments may bring about higher values.

“Being able to work entirely on one creative endeavour for an extended period of time was a new experience for me, and I am very pleased with the artistic end product.”

Over the course of the year-long project, Shehryar’s research evolved into a rewarding two-pronged artistic study on the many facets of sonic immersion. “I have been able to work consistently on this project,” he reflects, “and have explored and studied concepts I had never experienced prior to this course. My work at MONOM has provided me with the best possible opportunity to study spatial sound, and take this project in the right direction. Being able to work entirely on one creative endeavour for an extended period of time was also a new experience for me, and I am very pleased with the artistic end product. Exposure to new technology and my experiences composing and working on this project have been incredibly rewarding and further thought provoking.”

Want to go deeper into the topic? Contact us to request a copy of Shehryar Ahmad’s full MA paper.

Shehryar Ahmad aka Outlier researched binaural & spatial sound in his final Masters project, Study of Place: The Perception of Ambience. Read more.

Creative Music Production MA Alum Shehryar Ahmad Explores 4DSOUND

Perception of Ambience: A Look at Shehryar Ahmad’s Masters Project

As part of our recent series of Film Production BA workshops on the business of the cinema industry, filmmaker Carman Ho joined tutor Jon-Carlos Evans and his students for a live Q&A. Read our round-up.  

Filmmaker Carman Ho on the Importance of Chemistry on Set

Honesty, vulnerability, interaction, disconnection and grief. If you are inspired to research any of these ineffable concepts, film is arguably the best medium in which to do it. A visualisation of the visceral, it has the power to draw in the spectator like no other, to stir deep emotion at the very moment it is experienced. It is precisely these five concepts that drive Canadian filmmaker and photographer Carman Ho’s fascinating work. Her award-winning short film, Undertow, is just one example – an incredibly moving portrayal of a couple’s mounting struggle with depression. 

Exhausted and depressed, Lydia finds it more and more difficult to find reasons to get through each day even with the patience and support of her girlfriend, Emily. Seeing how much Emily is struggling for her, she makes a devastating choice.

Undertow was created as part of the Cinegate Short Film Slam.

Cast: Simone Geißler, Stephanie Marin

Director/Writer: Carman Ho
Cinematographer: Diego Gardo
Producer: Rike Lange
1st AD: Maria M. Burghi
Set Manager: Martin Herrmann
Editor/Gaffer: Felix Jentzsch
Script/Continuity: Patricia Gusovius
1st AC: Jens Schiweck
2nd AC: Dorothea Pilz
Best boy: Alfred Vidal
Lighting Assistant: Juan Sebastian Jimenez Ramirez
Dolly/Grip: Haroun Ricardo
Sound Recordist: Ludwig Bestehorn
Boom Operator: Gero Renner
Hair/MUA: Makeup by O Berlin - Paphawarin Rattanapuree
Costume/Set Design: Simone Wildt
Set Design: Hendrik Apfel
Costume/Set Design Assistant: Tamar Taibo Palomares
Composer: Martina Colli
Sound Mixer: Valentin Finke
Set Assistant: Fabian Zantz
BTS: Thomas Bonjernoor
Set Photography: Roy Stoltz
Color Grader: Delfina Mayer
Film Poster: MoralCloud Chen

Undertow - A Short Film

“We live in a world where we’re connected in so many ways...but at the same time we’re disconnected,” Carman told our Film Production BA students in a recent internal online Q&A session. “For me, it’s interesting to explore the different ways of disconnection and the relationships between different people… Mental health is very important because we don’t talk about it enough, and it’s always shown in a negative way.”

Jon-Carlos once told us that he “worked in almost every position on the film set, in order to become a more understanding, creative and diplomatic creator.” Carman took a similar path, cutting her teeth in lighting and assistant direction. During the session, she was kind enough to share a great deal of the wisdom she’s acquired over the past several years on set: advice on finding inspiration, working within creative and financial limitations, building a network, negotiating collaborations, setting boundaries, seeking feedback and more. She also talked about her creative process and personal inspirations.

“It’s important to have chemistry. You could work with the best, but if you don’t connect, it’s not a fun time at all.”

Touching on one of our favourite topics at Catalyst, collaboration, Carman said, “It’s important to have chemistry. You could work with the best, but if you don’t connect, it’s not a fun time at all. The most important thing is having a good atmosphere, building a team that you trust and understanding each other’s skills.” 

Carman spoke about one topic most fledgling creative professionals struggle with: payment versus exposure. “Figure out your boundaries,” she suggested. “In the beginning, doing a lot of projects helps you figure out what you’re interested in, or to build connections. But before you take on a project, you should consider what it gives you. Will it enhance your career, help you to build connections or to try something new, or earn you money?”

Above: Still from 'Love Lucy', writted directed and edited by Carman Ho. "After the death of her childhood friend, Lucy, Tess visits Lucy's grandfather to get closure but he has alzheimer's and confuses her with Lucy."

When Jon-Carlos asked Carman what inspired her to become a filmmaker, she said that she was most influenced by storytelling and the process of translating it to the screen. “The thing with humans is that we’ve been telling stories since the beginning of time,” she explained. “The cave people painted on the walls, a lot of indiginous people passed on stories orally. For me, I really liked this idea of passing on stories. It just felt natural to kind of combine the visual aspect and the oral aspect.” 

“Think about what exactly you are trying to tell and whether it will connect with someone.”

Carman also finds a great deal of inspiration in the work of other filmmakers. Pablo Larrain and Chloe Zhao were two names that came to mind. “When it’s possible, it’s important to attend film festivals because you see all these fresh voices from all over the world,” she advised. She also stressed the importance of finding stories that you want to tell. “A lot of filmmakers forget about that,” she continued, “they get distracted by tech… Think about what exactly you are trying to tell and whether it will connect with someone.”

Read all about our Film Production BA students' Q&A session on the business of the cinema industry with Berlin-based filmmaker Carman Ho.

Filmmaker Carman Ho's Industry Advice to New Filmmakers

The Biz /// Filmmaker Carman Ho Shares Her Film Industry Advice in Q&A

Jason Achilles recently met our Creative Audio Production & Sound Engineering students in a stellar online guest session. Read all about his collaboration with NASA on the sound for the Perseverance rover, his creative process as a producer and his advice to emerging artists.

Got ambition? As our latest guest, Los Angeles producer, composer and recording artist Jason Achilles, taught us, the sky is no longer the limit. His creative rocket fuel literally took his sound engineering to another planet: Mars. Through pure curiosity, the “armchair space enthusiast” landed himself the dream gig of helping NASA design a microphone setup for the Perseverance rover. It all began with one question: “Wouldn’t it be cool if we could hear what it sounds like on Mars?”

NASA Sound Engineer Jason Achilles Talks Field Recording on Mars

Jason started out at the very bottom, as a studio intern. Though he rubbed shoulders with celebrities, he lacked the required flair for window cleaning and coffee making to keep the job for long. Through a different kind of perseverance – the one all sound engineers must have in bucket loads – he went on to do his own thing, playing in rock bands and opening his own recording studio. Aside from his recent space mission as an independent consultant for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, he’s just finished producing Guns N' Roses keyboardist Dizzy Reed’s solo album. Nevertheless, he’s now moving his focus to his own music, using his fine-tuned studio setup to live stream his performances. Jason’s unconventional career path proves that passion, above all, is paramount to success. As he quipped to our Creative Audio Production & Sound Engineering students, “There’s so much more to making music than making music.”

They were thrilled to have a couple of hours of Jason’s time, when he joined them and tutor Ciaran O’Shea for an intimate online guest session. Ciaran’s wealth of experience in studios around the world, including LA, meant that the pair had plenty to chat about. In fact, Jason’s journey couldn’t be more aligned with Ciaran’s personal motto: “Shoot for the moon. If you miss, you’ll land among stars.” 

Full 16-minute audio captured on Sol 16 by the DPA 4006 capsule onboard the Mars Perseverance rover, released by NASA/JPL on Mar. 17, 2021. Audio has been processed to filter out electrical interference caused by various internal systems, while preserving clarity of the actual sounds being captured through the Martian atmosphere. 

Audio processing by Zandef Deksit Inc. / Mike Houge & Jason Achilles Mezilis on March 17th, 2021. 

Microphone is integrated with the Entry, Descent, and Landing Camera (EDLCAM) system, under direction of David Gruel, NASA/JPL.

Sounds of Perseverance Mars Rover Driving – processed audio (full) by Jason Achilles

But what exactly goes into landing a microphone on Mars? As it turns out, Perseverance has two: one for making scientific observations, and the other for the most far-out field recording ever attempted by humans. “The one that I worked on is associated with the landing system,” Jason told us, “which was honestly just there to pair with the video because they felt it would be cool…I think it’s fucking cool.” After a month and a half on the red planet, the microphone is still working, beaming back some increasingly interesting sounds. The sample above, which Jason calls his Martian mix, was processed on iZotope by his team to remove the mechanical pumping sound of the rover as it drives around. He hinted that the next recording to be released by NASA is going to be especially interesting to musicians. 

Atmosphere is something we artists are forever trying to generate, though we doubt many have ever had to think about it quite as literally as Jason. “The atmospheric properties definitely affect things,” he said, referring to the project. “There are only a few places outside of this world in which you can capture any sound at all. Mars has about one percent of Earth’s atmosphere, about the same atmospheric pressure as if you were 100,000 feet in the air on Earth, so sound does travel. You also have to consider the chemical composition of that atmosphere.”

 “Normally when you’re doing field recording, you want to hear everything but the wind. In this case, there’s nothing else to hear.”

Jason opted for DPA’s 4006 condenser microphone, for which he initially designed a containing metal box to shield it from the Martian wind. However, he and the team ultimately decided against using it. “The wind was probably the only sound on Mars so we didn’t want to negate it completely,” he said. “Normally when you’re doing field recording, you want to hear everything but the wind. In this case, there’s nothing else to hear.” 

Another concern was building a setup which could withstand the vacuum on the Perseverance’s six-month journey through space. “When you fly materials into deep space, or into a vacuum, they start to kind of evaporate,” Jason explained. “Small air particles that are microscopically captured inside materials... the vacuum will draw those out over that time and these materials get leached out of these things. That’s why, for example, every circuit board that gets printed and put onto a spacecraft has to be coated with epoxy to make sure everything’s glued in there… we had to be cautious to not include any materials that could lead to outgassing.” 

Of course, it wasn’t all space talk. There was plenty of nerding out about the studio space too. Jason praised Catalyst for giving students a chance to play with some of the best equipment in the industry, an opportunity he never had as an intern. Referring to our Trident console (pictured below in all its glory), he joked, “If you’re not in there every day working on that thing, you’re fired! That is a beautiful console and the fact that you guys have access to it is incredible. It’s an amazing console. I would marry that thing.”

Jason prefers to work with a fully analog setup. He and Ciaran shared their love-hate relationship with the time-consuming process of manually splicing and editing recording tape. Comparing the ‘old way’ to working in digital is analogous to the difference between using a typewriter and a word processor. Get it wrong and the results are irreversible (see ‘California Dreamin’’ by The Mamas & The Papas, the solo of which is in a different key). Still, it’s precisely this tangibility that keeps Jason coming back. 

“The thing about the analog world that I would say is really good,” he shared, “is that it makes you think about the process. It really makes you consider your edits. I would say that when you do something it becomes more purposeful, and more purposeful decisions make for better music. That’s not to say you can’t make purposeful decisions in the digital world, but analog forces you to...Even if it takes longer and causes you anguish, anything that creates that situation where you ultimately know you’re going to create a better product, at the end of the day, you should be doing.”

Trailer for the 90-minute documentary TOM DOWD & THE LANGUAGE OF MUSIC. The film profiles the extraordinary life and legendary work of music producer/recording engineer Tom Dowd. Historical footage, vintage photographs and interviews with a who’s who list of musical giants from the worlds of jazz, soul and classic rock shine a spotlight on the brilliance of Tom Dowd, whose creative spirit and passion for innovative technology helped shape the course of modern music.

Director/Producer: Mark Moormann
Producers: Scott L. Gordon, Mark Hunt
Executive Producer: Juan Carlos Lopez
Associate Producers: James Kirk, Wendy Perkins, Lawrence Saichek
Consulting Producer: Jonathan Dana
Producer’s Representative: Jeff Dowd
Legal Representation: Mark Litwak
Rights & Clearances: Larry Yelen
Stock Photo Research: Kati Meister
Director of Photography: Patrick Longman
Cinematographers: Mark Moormann, Andres Sanchez
Steadicam Operator: Carl Perkins
Assistant Cameramen: Rich Briglia, Camillo Jarquin, Sean Gilbert, Gabe Napolitano, Roberto Ballesteros
Still Photographer: Terry Townsend
Gaffer: Dan Tobias
Electricians: Jim Pescrille, Brian Earl
Key Grip: Scott L. Gordon
Grips: Chris Gordon, Richard Samuels, Joe Kimble, David Winters
Crane Operator: John Leeward
Set Decoration: Lewis Zucker
Graphic Design: Janet Santelices
Assistant to the Director: David Chaskes
Production Coordinator: Gabby Crohn
Hair & Make-up: Bea Diaz
Artist Coordinator: Keith Schantz
Sound Recordists: Dean Gudmundson, John Austin
Additional Sound Recording: Rob Freeman, Scott L. Gordon, Mike Barnitt
Boom Operator: Todd Reckson
Editors: Tino Wohlwend, Mark Moormann
Editorial Consultant: David Caploe
Post-Production Assistant: David Chaskes
Additional Editing: David Chaskes, Dan Morando, Mark Hunt, Nigel Galt
Assistant Editor: Klaus Wehlisch
Sound Re-recording Mixer: Lenny Rabinowitz
Production Associates: Bryan Monroe, Rozanne Sonnenborn

TOM DOWD & THE LANGUAGE OF MUSIC Trailer In HD

On the topic of the ‘old way’ of doing things, Ciaran spoke about one of his favourite producers, Tom Dowd, who went from engineering the atomic bomb to engineering Ray Charles’ music. “As much as you don’t imagine that his past would affect his music,” Jason commented, it definitely affected his decision-making process.”

"You’re Willy Wonka, you’re the one drawing all the crazy colours that no one else understands, but at the end of the day, you’re making this tasty candy for people to listen to."

NASA Sound Engineer Jason Achilles Shares His Approach to Studio Gear

Ciaran couldn’t end the session without asking about Jason’s creative approach. One of the most important insights he shared was knowing the “character” of your gear. “Every compressor has a character to it, every preamp has a character to it,” he advised, “and you select what you want to use based on the personality of that thing...Think of the character, don’t think of EQs... Think of silky or woody... stupid words we come up with to describe sound that mean nothing to anybody but us. But think about it, that’s your skill. You’re Willy Wonka, you’re the one drawing all the crazy colours that no one else understands, but at the end of the day you’re making this tasty candy for people to listen to… You do, of course, have to understand the technical aspects of these things, but you shouldn’t think about them like that.”

Jason Achilles - "Stratus" [LIVE IN STUDIO]

“Your whole school has been designed to give everybody a safe space to record in and try out ideas”

Jason’s parting advice to our students was to get out in front of a crowd as much as possible. “Your whole school has been designed to give everybody a safe space to record in and try out ideas,” he told them, “but I can’t encourage you guys enough to create stuff and throw it in front of a hostile crowd…because that’s how you develop. Get in the studio and then get out of the studio and put it in front of people. Don’t be afraid. Maybe it will get torn to pieces...But that’s the best thing you can do.” He recalled a gig in London where he and his band unexpectedly ended up playing to a bunch of unruly Oasis fans, which pushed them to try even harder with their set. “At the end of the day, you shouldn’t give a shit about people’s opinion,” he continued, “but you should give a shit about whether it’s affecting people. Even if you’re pissing them off, you’re doing something right. If you’re getting no reaction, that’s a problem. Go back and fix things.” 

Jason urged our students to make use of everything available to them at Catalyst while they have the chance: “Get in the studio, make stuff, even if it sucks.”

The rock artist who put a microphone on Mars shared his creative rocketfuel with our Creative Audio Production & Sound Engineering students.

Interview With Mars Perseverance Sound Engineer Jason Achilles

Producer & Rock ‘N’ Roll Artist Jason Achilles on Sending a Microphone to Mars

As part of our recent series of Film Production BA workshops on the business of the cinema industry, cinematographer Kevin Klein joined tutor Jon-Carlos Evans and his students for a live Q&A. Read our round-up.  

Cinematographer Kevin Klein's Advice to Fledgling Filmmakers

Read all about our Film Production BA students' Q&A session on the business of the cinema industry with Berlin-based filmmaker Kevin Klein.

Read all about it

The Biz /// ‘Jacir’ Director Waheed AlQawasmi Shares His Filmmaking Wisdom in Q&A

Step Inside Our Second-Year VFX Students’ Interactive Visual Installations

A Snapshot of Visual Effects Student Tommaso Capruzzi by Aurélie Nydegger

A Snapshot of Film MA Student Leonardo Greco by Aurélie Nydegger

We Chat to Visual Artist Aurélie Nydegger About Her Striking Creative Vision

A Journal of Elasticity /// Creative Production MA lead Richard Scott on His Collaborative Release

Lemonade Sorbet /// Screen Acting First-Years Write, Direct & Star in Online Show

Perception of Ambience: A Look at Shehryar Ahmad’s Masters Project

The Biz /// Filmmaker Carman Ho Shares Her Film Industry Advice in Q&A

Producer & Rock ‘N’ Roll Artist Jason Achilles on Sending a Microphone to Mars

The Biz /// Cinematographer Kevin Klein Shares His Film Industry Advice in Q&A

Making Music in Time: A Look at VIBKO’s Masters Project

CAP Selects S2: Listen to Our Student Albums of the Week

CAP Selects S2: Listen to Our Student Singles of the Week

Short Film & Practical FX Sensation Craig Murray Shares What Fuels His Creativity

Filmmaker Jayden Bailey on His FEST 2020 Selected Film ‘Not Olives’

Ableton Certified Trainer Stefan Knauthe Reacts to Live 11 Release

'Menarca' Filmmaker & Catalyst NoBerlinale Guest Lillah Halla on Feeding the Power of Imagination

Female Firestarters: Cecilie Sadolin Shares Her Journey in Audio Production Since Graduating

Female Firestarters: Audio Production Alumna Akila Shares Her Advice to Aspiring Artists