Schaumburg native wins sound award

Schaumburg native and Conant High School graduate D.J. Lynch has received his second consecutive Golden Reel Award for excellence in sound for a TV series.

Lynch, the 33-year-old son of Carol and Dan Lynch of Schaumburg, won the award for his sound work on the Nickelodeon animated TV series “Penguins” Sunday night during the 58th Golden Reel Awards sponsored by the Motion Picture Sound Editors.

“I’m part of a team of sound people,” Lynch said during a telephone interview Tuesday. “As a team, we won best sound editing.”

George Lucas appeared at the Sunday event to honor his old friend, Walter Murch, with a career achievement award.

Did Lynch meet Lucas?

“No, unfortunately,” Lynch said. “He’s one of those guys who hangs out backstage, then after he gives his award, he magically disappears.”

Lynch, a 1999 graduate of USC in the film and television production department, won the same honor last year. He also supplies the sound for Nickelodeon’s “SpongeBob SquarePants.”

“With Nickelodeon-style animation, it’s all about picking the right sounds to get an emotional response, usually something funny,” Lynch said. “The writing is witty and funny, and that helps. The kids at home have to be laughing.”

Lynch shot his first feature film, “Missy and the Maxinator,” on location at Conant High School in 2003 for a budget of $50,000. He used lots of local people in supporting roles. “Missy” has since been picked up as an on-demand item for Comcast and also has been released through many major home video retailers.

Lynch will soon be supplying sound for Nickelodeon’s new series “Fanboy.” On Tuesday, Lynch began his sound duties for MTV’s relaunch of the popular animated series “Beavis and Butthead.”

“I’ve sort of found this niche in animation sound editing and mixing,” Lynch noted.