VizonTele Tuuba
by Alan O'Duffy
(Production Sound
Mixer and Sound Designer)
Long ago in 2001 colleagues of mine at Soho Images and De lane
Lea studio
recommended me to Yilmaz Erdogan as a production sound mixer
to work on
"
Vizontele"..... I had never heard of Yilmaz Erdogan and
he had certainly never
heard of me! I am a location sound mixer and have done something
like 50
feature films and TV dramas and have mixed and recorded three
number one
American albums!
The usual style of making films in Turkey is to shoot the film
without any
regard for the sound at all, and fix it later by dubbing over
the artists voice.
It's a good idea but often is does not have the spontaneity or
reality of a
film where the location sound is used. Well Yilmaz wanted to
get in an
expert, use the real sound and I got picked! A Turkish colleague
of Yilmaz and
I met in Camden town and when he asked if I wanted to work in
Van near the
borders with Georgia, Iran Syria and Iraq I said no. However
Ketch is a
persuasive man and the wine flowed, it sounded fun and he twisted
my arm ! So
in July 2001 Irishmen Barry Doyle and myself headed out to Turkey
for the
filming of Vizontele.
We stayed in a beautiful spot by the shores of VAN in chalets
and were spoilt by
the hospitality, music, dancing and great spirit of the people
there, who
invited us into their homes, and thoroughly looked after us during
the six weeks
shoot.
I was daft enough to go out at dawn on my days off and record
the birds and the
streams and the general sounds of the region, all of which were
used for the
film to give an authentic air to the soundtrack. Yilmas and Co
Director Omer
Faruk really wanted to retain the atmosphere of this great region
so that the
film would have a sound of its own. Usually film makers reach
for the CD
player and stick on sounds from California or the BBC sound effects
library
which although convenient have nothing to do with Turkey!
So the rest of the "Vizontele" story is history.......it
cost a fortune and was
fully postproduced in London, and went on to become the biggest
ever Turkish
box office film until Matrix Two came along in summer 2003
In August 2003 we headed out to Turkey once again care of Turkish
airline MNG
from Luton, with all our kit, to work on "VizonteleTuuba" and
the fun and
struggle of getting Yilmaz's ideas on to film a second time.
We brought the
computer editing equipment out from Istanbul and Yilmaz spent
the nights
editing by the VAN sea ( with the sound of the crew and actors
partying in
the distance) and the days directing on set in Gavash. Once again
I went out
at dawn ( when I could have been recovering) to build a library
of the sound
of this beautiful region, and over 240 sounds of Gavash and surrounding
mountains were used on the film. On a day off Barry Doyle and
I climbed the
mountain overlooking the shores of Van lake which were 3700mtrs
above sea level,
brilliant.
Now what on earth are two Irish sound men doing half way up
an mountain in
Gavash recording for a major Turkish film when they only speak
a bit of Turkish?
Well it's the same for Barry as the boom operator on Holby City, or for Alan
with John Malkovitch or working with Elijah Wood (Lord of the Rings). It's
down to experience, dedication, enthusiasm, being a bit mad, & working
with a
great translator Nese Akin. We are still recording drama, actors, & voices,
it's no different from any other language.
Yilmaz was on TV in Turkey the other week and was having fun
saying that he
thought that I would have taught his Turkish colleagues to do
the sound but it
didn't happen so he had to drag me back again, the most expensive
sound mixer
in Europe! ( it's not quite true!). This time instead of doing
the post
production of the film in London we stayed in Istanbul. When
major
international films reach Turkey they are either subtitled or
dubbed in
Istanbul at Imaj Studios. They have an expertise in dubbing "Lord
of the Rings"
and the "Matrix" and are a most successful operation,
well up to the Hollywood
benchmark. So the film was post produced there and I did the
sound design
with Ikut, Serdar and Ulash at Imaj. The chocolate cake in the
cafe down the
road was to die for and Yilmaz was a happy man and said "your
work is gold"
which is very kind of him!
On the night of the premier in Istanbul CNN Turk went live from
the venue for an
hour interviewing the cast crew and all the beauties who showed
up, and the
audience of 3000 gave the film a standing ovation.
"Vizontele Tuuba" the sequel, is about 1000 chicks
coming to the village, a
part autobiographical black comedy relating to the history of
1980. You can
read all about it at http://www.vizonteletuuba.com/
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