SUTASI MAKES HISTORY: WORLD FIRSTS FOR MUSIC AND FILM IN SINGAPORE
Los Angeles, 23rd October 2008
Following a widespread search throughout Asia for the hottest, up and coming music and artists, Asia Sounds Pty Ltd has filmed its premier season of SUTASI, a new music program featuring 99 artists from 13 countries across Asia. Music and film professionals from around the world converged on Singapore for two weeks to record the initial shows, due for global release next year.
The creation of the SUTASI programs has initiated a series of world firsts. The concept itself is a unique process. 42 musical acts were selected from over 4,000 submissions from more than 20 countries in Asia. The premise of the SUTASI is to provide the opportunity for these talented Asian artists and their music to become internationally recognised and find their place in the international arena by launching them on a worldwide stage.
Thoughts of Idol, Academy Fantasia or the Eurovision series’ of talent search shows come to mind, but the SUTASI concept is very different to any talent quest that has surfaced so far.
Founder and President of Asia Sounds, Colleen Zulian, says the differences are powerful: “SUTASI is not about putting artists on the stage to be judged or ridiculed for the sake of entertainment. The quality of musicianship and performance will be evident to everyone who watches the shows. These artists represent some of the very best talent that Asia has to offer and their performances will be treated respectfully and fairly by a panel of industry experts from around the world.”
Ms Zulian added: “Our objectives are very clear. These artists and musicians deserve to be seen and heard by everyone, not just audiences in their own countries and SUTASI is offering very real opportunities for this to happen. We’re not just creating a television program; we’re firmly focussed on building the future careers of these, and other talented artists from Asia.”
The creation of the programs has heralded other world firsts in respect to production. A specialist film and production team, headed up by Los Angeles based Director, Anke Thommen, and New York based Executive Producer, Gayle De Poli, have guided their experienced teams to produce the first HD multi–camera, live musical performance series shot completely tapeless with field support of six documentary crews.
Gayle De Poli explained: “Our team designed a recording system which allows native HD footage in real time to be stored directly to a hard drive. This revolutionizes pre and post production processes in quality, efficiency and cost effectiveness, while also allowing for instant editing.”
“We utilized technology provided by both Remote Digital Media from New York, and Broadcast Solutions Asia of Singapore, using a system for direct acquisition to Final Cut Pro. A switched Program feed and all camera ISO’s were shot in 24p with Thompson World cams LDK 8000’s The marriage of a digital media company with a traditional HD broadcast fly-pack achieved 250 hours of multi-camera performances directly to hard drives. This in addition to 64 tracks of music recorded on a Nuendo system, allowed the production team to hand carry all of the original material on their flights back to their edit suites in Los Angeles.”
Anke Thommen is very pleased with the results: “The process has been simplified and we’re delighted with the end result. The initial shows look amazing and we’ll continue to use this process when we film the SUTASI Finals.”
SUTASI will be broadcast across Asia as well as internationally following the Grand Final to be held in the US in early 2009.
For further information on the program and finalists visit http://www.sutasi.com
