
Tom Hanks signals for help... but when Skywalker Sound needed help, it turned once again to CEDAR
Skywalker Sound is a state of the art audio post-production company located in Marin County, California. World famous for many award-winning productions including the original Star Wars Trilogy and the more recent "Episode 1", the studio has already used CEDAR dehissers to remove tape hiss and background noise from recordings.
But when, in September 2000, it was faced with problems on the new Tom Hanks movie, "Castaway", it needed something different to remove the sounds of sea-breezes, surf and other background noises.
Fortunately, sound engineers at Skywalker Sound had heard and tested the pre-production prototype of the DNS1000 when Clive Osborn (CEDAR's Sales Director) and Fraser Jones (head of CEDAR Audio USA) had demonstrated it to them some weeks before. The engineers were sure that the DNS1000 was exactly what was needed to clean the Hanks dialogue so, when CEDAR launched the product at the 109th AES Convention in Los Angeles, it became a race to supply the first unit in time for Castaway.
With a scheduled shipping date of 10 October 2000, the DNS1000 was going to be a few days late for the start of posting, so CEDAR Audio's Senior Engineer, Christopher Hicks, hand-built the first unit, and shipped it to Leo's Professional Audio in San Francisco for immediate onward delivery to Skywalker Sound in Marin County.
As a result, the DNS1000 arrived in time, and Castaway received the world's first CEDAR "Dynamic Noise Suppression".
On Sunday, 21 January 2001, Tom Hanks was presented with a prestigious "Golden Globe" award for his performance in Castaway. Against competition that included Javier Bardem, Russell Crowe, Geoffrey Rush, and Michael Douglas, he was honoured as the best actor in a film drama.
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