FX Rentals continues working relationship with Oscar-winning Howard Shore

FX Rentals has completed work with Academy Award-winning composer Howard Shore, putting together a package of audio-visual equipment for Shore and Abbey Road Mobiles for the scoring of the new Martin Scorsese film 'The Aviator', based on the life of Howard Hughes and starring Leonardo di Caprio.
Shore, who picked up an Oscar earlier this year for his work on 'The Return of the King', worked extensively with FX Rentals and Abbey Road on the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy. The team was reunited to score The Aviator in an historic theatre in Leuven, Belgium. Formerly an emporium of adult entertainment, the now-respectable theatre is home to the Flemish Radio Orchestra.
FX Rentals put together a package of audio-visual equipment, which included a 48 I/O Pro Tools HD3 rig with Prism ADA-8 converters and four Millenia HV3D 8-channel mic pre amps for Abbey Road Mobiles to record the orchestra, together with a second Pro Tools HD 192 rig which was used to edit to picture. A 42-inch Sony plasma screen was placed in the control room in the theatre for Howard Shore and the recording engineers to view the picture during recording and playbacks.
FX also supplied Shore's production company Eventone with production packages for a writers' room situated in a nearby hotel. This included three Mackie 1202VLZ mixers, three Roland PC300 MIDI keyboards, Genelec 1029a and 1031a powered monitors and stands and eight Neovo LCD monitors.
FX Rentals' project co-ordinator was John 'Oz' Osmond, who had worked extensively with the audio team throughout the Lord of the Rings sessions. Osmond ensured that all the necessary equipment was delivered to Leuven and set up correctly, liasing extensively with Eventone's technical coordinator Tim Stritmater.
"It's my job to source all of the equipment needed for the session, and I use FX Rentals because I like to sleep at night," said Stritmater. "Taking a gamble on a large session is not something I am fond of. With FX I know that whatever I need will arrive in working condition and on time. The staff are knowledgeable and very accommodating. A first class operation on all counts.
"On The Aviator we were working in an unfamiliar city in a concert hall, not a studio. FX as usual came through with all of the gear I needed. The staff were fantastic and I really would not even think of using anyone else."
(GB)