BIOGRAPHY
D. CHRIS SMITH
“Sound is half of the experience, perhaps more. I’ve always been fascinated with building and sculpting an entire world of sound, from nothing… from complete silence. Telling the story through sound and music, a world only limited by my imagination. I approach each day with an excitement for my work”.
Chris grew up in Baltimore, MD and moved to Los Angeles in 1989 to attend recording engineering school. Fresh out of school he landed a job at Hollywood’s Post Logic, and at the same time he also assisted for Grammy nominated record producer David J. Holman.
In 1995, Chris joined Stephen Dewey’s “Machine Head” as a staff sound designer. Since then, he designed over 500 commercials for all the major agencies; Chiat Day, Publicis, Ogilvy, Saatchi, Wieden+Kennedy, Deutsch, McCann Erickson and many others.
Chris has worked for all the major studios; Disney, Universal, Warner Brothers, Sony, Paramount, and the award winning Formosa Group. Chris has worked on Academy Award winning and nominated feature films such as The Revenant, Twister, and Fences, and for cult classics John Wick: Chapter 2, Ghost in the Shell, Talladega Nights, Jackie Brown, Spawn, Dumb & Dumber and Friday.
In 2001, Chris founded Eclipse Sound Design, and has supervised and mixed the sound for over 150 short films, indies and documentaries many premiering at major film festivals such as Sundance, Toronto, Tribeca, Berlin, Dublin, Los Angeles, and SXSW.
Chris has been involved with many special projects, presentations, events, and installations for IMAX, Apple iTunes, The Academy Awards, SDDS, Playstation, and CocaCola. Most recently, two VR360 experiences at the SXSW and Tribeca film festivals.
Under the moniker “Smitty”, Chris produced over 80 EPs in the house music genre, and did remixes for countless artists such as Morcheeba, Jill Scott, Silversun Pickups, Kaskade, and Alanis Morrisette. He still produces today.
Chris is no stranger to live concert tours, contributing sound design for AC/DC - World Tour ’08, Metallica - Live Shit, Binge & Purge - ‘93, Michael Jackson - Bad World Tour ’92, Madonna - Girlie Show ‘93, Katy Perry - World Tour ’11, Pink - World Tour ’09, and others.
Chris has been a Judge for the 2017 and 2018 Emmy Awards, The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
Chris currently lives and works in Venice Beach, California.