Frank Serafine


Frank Serafine was an American motion picture sound designer and sound editor, and composer.
He was best known for his work as a Hollywood Supervising Sound Editor / Designer on such blockbusters as the Star Trek and Tron movies, Addams Family, The Fog, , Robot Jox, Ice Pirates, Hoodwinked 2, Orgazmo, The Lawnmower Man, Virtuosity, Field of Dreams, Emmy-Winning Sound Design on The Day After and Oscar-Winning Sound Design for The Hunt for Red October.

Early career

After his beginnings performing live with progressive rock guitarist Robben Ford, for laser light shows at the Fiske Planetarium in Boulder, Colorado, Serafine was selected by Disneyland to compose, produce and perform live grand opening summer shows at the Space Mountain Pavilion which brought him to Southern California. Soon after he produced several records and toured live throughout Europe and the US with avant-garde jazz great Don Cherry.
Serafine produced his friend and music teacher Ravi Shankar along with George Harrison on Tana Mana and produced with William Orbit the remixed Peter Gabriel "Kiss that Frog” traveling Pepsi ride film, which won the MTV Award. Serafine went on that same year, 1993, to perform sound design live on stage with Gabriel’s Secret World Concert Tour for the shows in California and Phoenix Arizona.

Sound Designer

Beginning his film career in the 1970s, Serafine worked on engineering sound effects on ', ', and both Tron films.
Serafine has done 100s of commercials and TV episodes including Baywatch, VR.5, Thunder in Paradise, 13 years of Chrysler, CBS and FOX IDs, Eveready Bunny series, Nintendo, National Geographic ID, Mercedes, Maserati, California Lottery, Seaworld and Disneyland’s California Adventure Park,
Serafine supervised the audio production, acoustic design and construction installations for several ride films and interactive themed attractions with Six Flags, Busch Gardens, Ford Museum, Disney, Epcot Center, Iwerks, Universal and Sony.
Serafine's Game credits include TRON, Grand Theft Auto, Pocahontas, Wing Commander, Interstate '76 and The Suffering.
The Serafine Collection is volumes of top selling sound effects libraries featured by filmmakers and editors throughout the world for their unique hard to find, high resolution audio quality and 5.1 surround.. Frank was commissioned to produce 2 CDs, Emotional Response and Ice Sculptures for the European music library-licensing group Media Music. After great success he was then commissioned by the biggest US Music Library Giant APM Music to custom compose 2 CDs titled “The Serafine Experience” that are now heard on over a 100 global broadcasts including the Clint Eastwood, Brad Pitt and Jane Fonda Documentary’s, as well as To Catch a Predator, MSNBC, Dateline and Animal Planet.
Serafine composed music and supervised the sound editing and design for the documentary on the life story of Paramahansa Yogananda film then went on produce, design and construct the interactive museum exhibit installation for Disney/Marvel’s Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N. currently featured at the historic Discovery New York Times Square building.
Serafine had been a major part of several advanced hardware and software innovations in the film sound industry including the first to implement Apple Computers and Avid/Digidesign Pro Tools on a major feature film.

Sound Advice Tour

Kicking off April 2015, Serafine will be teaching a 33-city educational tour, through MZed, called Sound Advice. The tour will walk filmmakers through his award-winning secrets for sound recording, editing, effects, mixing, design and inspiration. Product sponsors for the Frank Serafine MZed Sound Advice 33 City US and Canadian tour include: Rode, Izotope, Sony, Universal Studios, Sandisk, Shutterstock, Auro, Adobe, Figure 53, Zoom, DPA, ESI, Roland, Triad-Orbit, Anvil Cases, Wirecast, Samson, Mytek, Presonus, Angelbird, Zynaptic, TriCaster, Manfrotto, Countryman, Aja and many more. Introduction of workshop by Director Brett Leanord.

Death

Serafine was struck by a car on September 12, 2018, in Palmdale, California, as he was crossing Palmdale Boulevard between 12th and 15th streets East. He died at the scene of major head and body trauma. Deputies at the scene said the other driver, described as a man in his 20s, stopped at the scene. It was not immediately clear whether charges, if any, will be filed.

Accolades

Serafine won an Oscar in 1990 for his work on The Hunt for Red October. He won a Primetime Emmy Award in Outstanding Sound Editing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Special for his work on 1984's The Day After.