Wednesday, September 4, 1991 - North Snore News - 29

PINEWOOD SOUNDTRACKS Studio founder Geoff Turner, who
lives in North Vancouver, has deliberately maintained a tow

profile,

NEWS photo Cindy Goodman

Pinewood’s sound man

Geoff Turner remains realistic in an
industry that manufactures dreams

ALKING INTO Pinewood Soundtracks Studios on

Homer Street in Vancouver's downtown core is

like getting lost in an Ikea store on a slow day: it’s
spacious and for the most part quict; the pins wood, which
seems to cover every inch of the interior, lends the place a
clean, warm, modern look. There's even a mini-kitchen
where employees and visitors can munch on home-made

cookies.

“My mother’s mother bakes
them every day,” Pinewood
founder Geolf Turner says as he
squeezes a bag of freshly baked
chocolate chip coo
freezer. “In fact, most of the
comments in our guest book are
about how great the cookies are.”

To North Vancouver's Turner, a
comfortable environment is as
important as clean air.

“ive had to spend so many
years of my life in back rooms that
1 was determined to do it ditferent-
ly when | opened my own stu-
dio.”’ he says.

The Manchester-born Turner
designed and built Litthe Mountain
Sound Studios after working in TV
in England and spending 10 years
in the business in New York.

Then in 1976, he opened
Pinewood, a post-production stu-
dia, on a shoestring budget.

Fifteen years later, Turner has
turned the 4,000 square-foot
business into an expansive 22,000

Evelyn Jacob
SPOTLIGHT FEATURE

square-foot operation brimming
with some of the best sound
editing and mixing equipment, It’s
been used on dozens of TV series
and feature films, notably, Look
Who's Talking. the Russia House,
and thirtysomething.

Back in 1980, Pinewood pro-
duced Vancouver's first [V-variely

show series, the Tom Jones Shows,

Now Disney, Paramount, Colum:
bia, Orion, CBS and the Fox Net-
work number among the stucdia’s

list of clients,

But this white-haired, bearded
man who speaks so quickly | fear
an imminent sonic boom, says
he’s been careful not ta toot his
own horn.

In fact, he’s been deliberately
low-key when it comes to publici-
ty.

“You can mislead pecple by
saying how great you are, and
that’s part of the reason why we
maintain a low profile,” says
Turner.

“But, forexample, carlier this
year we were doing three TV
shows — Scene of the Crime, Fly
By Night and Max Glick. That's
phenomenal — there's not
another studio in the city that’s
capable of turning out three hours
of TV programming a week. Even
the top studios in L.A. aren't doing,
that.”

The anly difference between the
Tom jones days and today is that
now there is more competition —
but Turner says there are only two
studias in Vancouver that offer all
aspects of the post-production
business: Pinewood and Paul
Sharpe's Sound Studio in North
Vancouver.

“How many post-production
tacilities are there in Vancouver? ft

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