See Music - Behind The Scenes
In 2010 I quit my job in advertising to pursue my dream of being a filmmaker. It was a giant step for me, and I hurled myself into the city of Chicago’s production, post and ad community as a freelancer trying to kick up some dirt and hopefully garner some solid working relationships and cultivate a portfolio. One of the first people I met during this transitional time was Chuck Bein. He had just started pursuing his own dream, See Music: an audio post production studio dedicated to the marriage of sound and visuals after leaving his job at Leo Burnett. Chuck and I hit it off on a human level, and over the years he has always inspired me to keep pushing as he has.
He has always been supportive of my work as we have collaborated over the years and I’m grateful to call him a friend and a professional partner for my art. Over the years he’s helped me bring my projects to life with sound starting with my 2015 feature on Derek Hess, Forced Perspective and continuing on to my latest for Kasama. In 2015, when I stayed at the old studio in river north, I started filming anything and everything that was happening while we worked. A music studio is a constant flux of creative collaborators popping in and contributing in different ways.
It only seems fitting that after this long covid stretch of lack of work, we reconnected full circle by creating a short film and character portrait on this adult playground he has created over the past 3 years. Chuck started construction on renovating an old feather duster factory and converting it into a sound studio with 3 rooms, one being a live room, another being a session room and of course his 5.1 mixing bat-cave. In true Chicago fashion, he rolled up his sleeves and used the pandemic as an excuse to build it all with his own hands instead of hiring a contractor. This of course is a through-line in our story.
Going into this project, I wanted to treat this as a mix of true documentary, and some staged high production value “scripted” scenes. My hope is that the film is not a boring branded content piece about another music studio, but rather: a character portrait of a talented dude, building a network of musicians and creative collaborators inside the backdrop of as my friend Fabio Viviani put it: “a high tech frat house”. Basically it’s the audio version of Rob and Bigs Fantasy Factory, mixed with American Movie. And trust me, there are plenty of characters to pull from.
Chuck also has finally started putting his own art out into the world, and another element of this is his transition from producer to artist. How to write meaningful songs that are honest and pure, and to express yourself and heal through the medium of music.
I immersed myself into this one, by living in studio B for a week, and truly filming everything that happened. The level of comfortability he and I had as humans let the camera melt away, and what we got is a true verite observation of a person pursuing their passions in real time. I met some of his newer collaborators like PIWA, Brenden, and of course reconnected with old friends Pablo and Nick. One of the highlights for me was Pablo doing true Argentinian Asado, for our film and of course for our enjoyment.
I Absolutely need to thank Daniel Kwon, who shot most of the footage. Without him, none of this project would of been possible. It was a truly deep experience and I am beyond reeling about what we have in the can. I am excited to start editing this one and demonstrate what Chuck and I do best, the marriage of sight and sound.
