In my earlier ‘Precious’ post was the complete Music video filmed at at the studio.  I filmed some behind the scenes on my own camera and finally found some time to piece them together.  The quality does not come close to the Red Cam original, but you still get a good idea of what went on off camera.  One additional note,  The audio represents the studio before all the sound baffles were installed.

Life is never boring.   On this day we had a ventriloquist, ‘Dumb’ Blonde, bodybuilder and wrestler vying for a spot as the new Yamaha Representative bringing their owns sets of special skills.  I’m saying this ‘tongue in cheek’ as this was the the theme of the latest Yamaha Commercial.

This was the first rental since all of the sound upgrades and we received two enthusiastic ‘thumbs up’ on the sound quality from their audio engineer.

Originally a half dozen Yamaha bikes were coming on set.  Considering they had a 35+ crew and 2 grip trucks, it probably worked out better scrapping that idea.

Thanks to my gracious neighbors for giving up their parking lots for a makeshift outdoor restaurant.  I’m surprised how much better dinner is from these catered food trucks most restaurants.  P.s.  Thats my dog Nena.

Welcome to Vancouvers best soundstage!  I have put a great deal of effort this year improving the studios sound absorbing abilities and sound barriers.  One of the big challenges has been getting rid of the echo of cinderblock walls in such a large area.  The Monoglass on the ceiling made a huge difference in echo reduction but there was still a subtle reverberation in areas.  It’s a challenge when you have a big open area without carpets and soft furniture to block the waves.  I looked to a studio solution with sound absorbing walls.  These materials were quite expensive and had to be shipped from the US ($$$).  I quickly learned that even mattress foam can be packaged and marketed as a ’sound wall’.  I decided to create my own custom solution and specialty ordered my own foam design to spec.  Most of the products out there are only a medium density foam cel and none had any fire rating.  My panels are fire rated, one of the highest density foams, and 40% thicker than most of the options i found online.   More density = better sound absorbtion.

It was notable that the minute the bundles were brought into the building that there was an immediate ‘buffering’ of the interior noises.  I was getting excited to ‘hear’ and ’see’ the placement on the walls.

Each panel was sprayed with ‘Super 77′ as well as the wall where it was to be placed.

The panels are turned alternately to best ‘capture’ the sound waves from all angles,  that plus i think it gives a great aesthetic!I wrapped the whole perimeter of the studio from the ceiling down 8′,  excluding the cove.  I would have brought it to the floor but that was not practical within a working space, that and the fact that people would probably be touching and tearing them (human nature sucks).   Each 10′ section between the pillars (24 panels) was  $720 ($30/panel).  If you would like any of this product for your space, feel free to contact me.

Next to the new Roof,  this simple enclosure was one of the most expensive jobs i have taken on.  The City of Vancouver sure Sticks it to you with permits and shirking responsibility.  Apparently any wall over 6′ has to be engineered… And engineers aren’t cheap, even for the simple jobs ($1000) .  Then you have to get your building permit and construction permit ($860).   These permits used to include inspections, but on this job my engineer was the one who had to come and inspect the job on 2 occasions ($567).    $2367 and i had not even started the job… for filling in a hole in my wall!!!

Three loads of cinderblock in the truck, and three more loads for concrete and sand.   All these were loaded into the studio when i had a flash of intelligence… I picked up 8″ blocks instead of 12″ blocks.  I forgot my building had an oversized rear wall! -  oh well, i just write it off as needed exercise.

In a photography studio your great enemy is dust.  These are not exactly my favorite projects because of the mess, and that they take so long to complete.

I don’t know what was more painful,  seeing this huge mess,  or seeing this huge mess on my brand new driveway!  The wall had to be built with rebar and filled with concrete,  I think there were no less than 20 bags of concrete, and 40 of sand!

This made an amazing difference for soundproofing the building.  Once the doors were put in and closed,  all the outside noise was cut off… far superior to the garage door!

2010 is most definitely the ‘year of the reno’.  For my 20th anniversary the studio got a major facelift.   This has been a big project i was wanting to tackle for years.  I’m so fortunate to have friends like Gary and Ildyko from Concrete Concepts who did an amazing job for me.

This little beast worked for two days digging up the back lot and leveling the slope.

His crew worked fast, there was not a great deal of set up time as as the concrete had to be at an ideal firmness for stamping.  Fortunately it didn’t rain and wasn’t overly hot.

This is a pretty thick pad,  Probably at least 8-10″ thick in some spots.  I hope i never need to dig this lot up again.

Gary tried a new technique on my driveway,  he pre-coated all the stamps with a dye that colored the concrete.  Previously they used to powder the concrete directly.  This technique worked really well as the dye concentrated at the creases which really emphasized the natural stone look.