DV Info Net - A visit to Warner Bros studio

In 1995 at our recording studios in Nth. Sydney I got a call from a Warner Bros. film crew. They were in Sydney producing footage for a project and they wanted to book in to transfer some sound tracks. It wasn’t a big job, they did it, they were all very interesting and they just loved Sydney, I remember their cinema photographer saying the light in the southern hemisphere is brighter than in the northern hemisphere. At the conclusion, the producer gave me his business card saying, “When you’re in Hollywood give me a call, ok?”

About 12 months later my wife and I were in L.A. so I rang the phone number. I was put through to a secretary who said, “Please wait a minute sir.” Then she came back and said “Would you like to visit Warners studios for a 3 hour tour?” Sure I replied then she asked “Next Wednesday?” I consulted my wife then answered yes thank you. She replied “Ok please wait a minute sir” The she confirmed saying, “There’s 2 of you right, please come to Gate 8 at 10am ok?” I said ok thank you and hung up.

From our L.A. hotel at 10am on the Wednesday we arrived at the entrance to Warners Gate 8, and I gave the business card to security and he went inside to phone. A few minutes later he returned saying “Please come inside.” He opened the big gates, we went in and sat down to wait. 15 minutes later a 6 seater golf cart pulled up outside and the lady driver/guide came in and introduced herself to us. We all went out and saw in the front seats was pretty Miss Argentina and her minder, part of her prize was a day at Warners studios in Hollywood. We said Hi! got in the rear seats and off we went driving around the sound stages.

It was great, the people there knew we were visitors and waved every time we passed someone. On the tour we visited every dept. on the Warners lot. The scenery, metal shop, wood working shop, clothing and engineering. One was the Foley studio where they were working on some tracks. The black Foley guy working saw us and he laid it on for the fun of it. He was doing ‘walking sound effects’ for a guy getting out of a car and entering a night club. We watched him and after his next take, he smiled at us through the glass window and says, “I’ll do it again, it’s not cool enough” And we all laughed.

Next was the Warners recording studio where a big orchestra was post syncing a movie sound track. We all watched through the glass window in the tape recorders room. In a break our guide went into the control room and whispered to the engineer at the big console. “There’s a guy here who’s a recording engineer from Sydney.” The engineer looked at us all and I waved. He beckoned me into the control room I went in and he says, “G’day Aussie, ya got your green card?” We both laughed and he waved me to sit next to him.

And it was great, he was using a big Quad Coranado console and said this was the last recording job before they replaced it with a new British SSL console. The orchestra was in a break sorting out a problem in the cellos charts. When this was done the conductor indicated they were ready for another take. The bells outside in the corridor rang and and everyone tensed up.

On the screen in the studio appeared the title and ‘Take 26. 10-9-8 to 3-2-1’ then Jerry the mouse appeared and ran down grand piano keys and Tom followed him. It was a Warners cartoon, the player at the big studio piano ran down the keys in sync with them both then the whole orchestra took off. Those guys were just amazing, take 26 was about 30 seconds and their musicality was wonderful to hear. This Warners cartoon will go around the world forever.

At the end I thanked the engineer then we all went to watch the 3 engineers mix the sound for the movie, ‘Absolute Power’ at their new monster SSL desk. Ah the money. Our guide looked in first and blocked us all from going in, she said they were mixing the bedroom sex scene. Then we did go in while they were having a break and talked with them for a few minutes.

Then we all went to visit a few sound stages in preparation, and the new Warners film museum, still not open for visitors yet.
Today it will be. It was a great tour we wished Miss Argentina and her minder all the best and if you ever get the chance to visit Warners Bros studios, do it. Cheers.