HOT HOUSE: World Wide Audio

Georgia Hilton, president of World Wide Audio, wants you to know that her studio has the only private DTS- and Dolby-approved dub stage in the United States. She also wants you to know that World Wide Audio is the only permanent DTS dub stage in New York City and that it’s an authorized Dolby content provider. Most importantly, Hilton wants you to know that World Wide Audio is more than an audio facility. In fact, since about 50 percent of its work is now picture editing, motion graphics, title design, post production supervision, even shooting, Hilton and company are about to change the name to World Wide Post.

The projects at World Wide are as diverse as the people who create them. Hilton started out as a keyboard player. Then, after a six-year stint in the navy as a pilot, she spent 20 years on Wall Street, in various IT departments where she made "tons of money, but was miserable." When someone asked her to help mix the sound on a movie, she loved it so much she quit her job, learned the biz and launched World Wide Audio.

But Hilton doesn’t rule the place alone. Rebecca Lloyd is by her side as resident composer and conductor, as is RJ Bucaria, president of Edge 1 Records, an in-house record label. Lloyd, a native of Australia, is a flutist and composer who has released six CDs, scored eight movies and also played at Nicole Kidman’s wedding. Bucaria has been a musician since he was nine months old and his "mom has the pictures to prove it." He plays 45 instruments, manages and books artists and serves as music supervisor on World Wide Audio projects. This all means that Hilton can shoot, edit and post your film, Rebecca can compose the music and conduct the orchestra for the score, and RJ can supervise the audio and then produce the soundtrack.

All additional staff members at World Wide Audio are non-paid interns. Yep, interns. And if your first thought is "That’s a noble idea, but I don’t want college kids working on my project," you might want to reconsider. This is a highly competitive program that gets thousands of applicants from prestigious colleges all over the world who are, explains Hilton, "highly motivated, exceptionally talented and receive constant supervision from all of us." She adds that she models her intern program on the training she received in the military. And it must be working: "Most of our clients are returning customers," she says. And since these boot camp interns are unpaid, the cost of services at World Wide Audio is drastically lower.

While most post houses claim that they provide an atmosphere that feels like home, World Wide Audio actually is home to both Hilton and Lloyd. The three-level facility in TriBeCa boasts a full kitchen, sleeping quarters right off the tape library and a roof-top conference room where clients can do some serious entertainment-industry multi-tasking.

And since the three main players of World Wide Audio boast diverse talents, their clients are equally diverse, running the gamut from the traditional, like Warner Brothers, Fox Broadcasting and Discovery HD, to the further afield, like Murder Inc. Records, The National Maritime Museum and The Cubby Hole (a local lesbian bar). "We like to be a little crazier than everybody else," boasts Hilton. But not too crazy, she says, adding, "Our motto is:‘We keep the drama in your movie.’"