“THE TECHNICAL RESOURCEFULNESS…IS MATCHED BY THE RIGOROUS INTEGRITY THE FILMMAKERS BRING TO THE CHARACTERS AND THE THEMES.” THE NEW YORK TIMES - A.O. SCOTT
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FEATURES Primetime Emmy Awards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 CAS salutes the winners
Career Achievement Award . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Dennis Maitland, CAS
CAS Filmmaker Award . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Paul Mazursky
Sideways Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 What are they saying?
What Happened to My Mix? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
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DEPARTMENTS President’s Letter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
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From the Editors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 A Sound Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Look at the size of that mouse!
European Roundup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Rollin’ on the river
Been There Done That . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 CAS members check in
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BEST SOUND EDITING Leslie Shatz
In Remembrance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 The Lighter Side . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
SOUND DESIGN & SUPERVISING SOUND EDITOR
BEST SOUND MIXING
Felix Bruce Andrew PRODUCTION SOUND MIXER/BOOM OPERATOR Leslie Shatz RE-RECORDING MIXER Chris David RE-RECORDING MIXER Gus Van Sant RE-RECORDING MIXER For up-to-the-minute screening information, to read Dustin Lance Black’s original screenplay, hear Danny Elfman’s score, and learn more about this extraordinary film by director Gus Van Sant, go to: www.FilmInFocus.com/awards08
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ARTWORK ©2008 FOCUS FEATURES, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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ALAN ROBERT MURRAY SUPERVISING SOUND EDITOR
BUB ASMAN
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The world’s attention has been turned toward many crises this year and our community too is not immune. Last year at this time, the entertainment industry was in the midst of a rocky labor situation and it is taking a long road to recovery. The CAS Board is constantly exploring ways to control our expenses and maintain our commitments to the membership. We have avoided a dues increase this year and we are striving to maintain the expenses for this year’s upcoming Awards presentation. Your Board of Directors is pleased that so many of our members have weathered the storms. Awards season is here. The 45th Annual CAS Awards will be in the Crystal Ballroom of the Millennium Biltmore Hotel. The heartfelt feelings that each and every one of us puts into our work will be celebrated on Saturday, February 14, 2009. Mr. Sam Rubin will join us as our master of ceremonies. We will be honoring two people who have dedicated their lives to the advancement of our industry and their crafts. Our Career Achievement Recipient will be Mr. Dennis Maitland, CAS and our Filmmaker Award is going to be presented to Mr. Paul Mazursky. The best of luck to all of you that will be honored by your peers during the 45th Annual CAS Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing. Elections for the CAS Board of Directors are just around the corner. We are always looking for fresh voices to join the ‘mix’ on the CAS Board. I personally do know how hard it is to squeeze that extra time into our already busy schedules. If you can find the moments to do so, it will help us continue
to prosper as we have since 1964. We have had a great influx of student members to the CAS this year. They are extremely important to the Society, for this is where our future is being cultivated. We respect and thank our Board members and other members who spend their time as full-time or part-time faculty. Part of the goals of the CAS is to inform and educate people regarding the impact that the sound elements bring to an entire project. To have the industry recognize the value of our members who proudly utilize the CAS initials as part of their signature and credits. The earning of the right to use the initials through active membership is representative of an amount of longevity and preservation of high standards. The Board of Directors is pleased to support the efforts of all of our members who continue to move forward in maintaining high standards and continuing to advance the art of sound. Regards,
Edward L. Moskowitz, CAS President, Cinema Audio Society
THE PRESIDENT’S LETTER
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FROM THE EDITORS...
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
The leaves are falling and temps are not far behind. We welcome you to the fall edition of the CAS Quarterly. This issue brings important announcements about this year’s Career Achievement recipient, Dennis Maitland, CAS and Filmmaker Award recipient Paul Mazursky. Both have brought a great deal of respect to their craft and the industry as a whole. In his “A Sound Discussion” column, Matt Foglia, CAS describes the parallels between a DAW–like Pro Tools and the analog mixers from which they were modeled. Paul Marshall, CAS contributes a great article on a foreign-language shoot he just completed on Sideways Japan. Our European representative, Carrie Giunta, CAS provides a look at “A Sound Design” cruise down the rivers of Germany. Finally, Ed Greene, CAS and Paul Marshall review the proceedings from our “What Happened to My Mix?” seminar held this past July. G. John Garrett, CAS has been busy campaigning this election season, but will return with his “Technically Speaking” column next edition. We also say good-bye to two sound professionals who, while not members, made great contributions to the field of production sound. Finally, both co-editors have some news of their own. Peter Damski, CAS after a couple of years of being an adjunct professor at Moorpark College outside of Los Angeles, along with his “real” job as a production sound mixer, has accepted a faculty position at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in Savannah, Georgia. Professor Damski will be teaching the art of location sound recording (along with other things) in this excellent sound-for-picture-based program. Additionally, Matt Foglia packed up the wife and kids and made the trek from NYC to just outside of Nashville after accepting an associate professor position at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) in their Department of Recording Industry. Matt was brought on to expand the sound-for-picture offerings of this top-notch music-centered program. Both Matt and Peter will continue to be active members of the sound-for-picture community, especially during semester breaks (In fact, Matt has already mixed a dozen TV episodes remotely for his NYC clients). So when that new hire thinks a boom is the sound an explosion makes or that PAL is another name for your buddy, know that Peter and Matt are on the case.
OFFICERS
President: Edward L. Moskowitz Vice President: David Bondelevitch Treasurer: R.D. Floyd Secretary: Peter Damski BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Agamemnon Andrianos James Coburn IV John Coffey David Fluhr Ed Greene
Doug Hemphill Melissa Hofmann Sherry Klein Paul Massey Michael Minkler Lee Orloff
ALTERNATES
Bob Bronow Paul Marshall Joe Foglia Ken Polk OFFICE MANAGER
Patti Fluhr EDITORS:
Peter Damski Matt Foglia PUBLISHER:
IngleDodd Publishing 11661 San Vicente Blvd., Ste. 709 Los Angeles, CA 90049 QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS:
Peter Damski, CAS
Matt Foglia, CAS
Participation Request…
from Matt Foglia, CAS
As technology advances, the potential for increased flexibility improves. I’m looking to touch base with those of you who, like myself, are utilizing technology in order to work in locations away from your client base. A scenario being a major city client having you mix their show even though you’re 500 miles away. I have a brief questionnaire whose results I’d like to include in an upcoming article for the CAS Quarterly. For the membership as a whole, I’m sure it will be interesting to see how their peers are operating/adapting when given this flexibility. Please email us at quarterly@CinemaAudioSociety.org with the subject heading “Distance.” Thank you for your participation. I look forward to presenting the results. 6
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Cinema Audio Society 827 Hollywood Way #632 Burbank, CA 91505 Phone: 818.752.8624 Fax: 818.752.8624 Email casquarterly@cinemaaudiosociety.org Website www.cinemaaudiosociety.org ADVERTISING:
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©2008 by the Cinema Audio Society. All rights reserved. CAS®, Cinema Audio Society®, and Dedicated to the advancement of Sound® are all trademarks of the Cinema Audio Society and may not be used without permission.
FROST NIXON BEST SOUND MIXING
PETER DEVLIN PRODUCTION SOUND MIXER
CHRIS JENKINS FRANK A. MONTAÑO RE-RECORDING MIXERS BEST SOUND EDITING
CHIC CICCOLINI III SUPERVISING SOUND EDITOR
CINEMA AUDIO SOCIETY MISSION STATEMENT
To educate and inform the general public and the motion picture and television industry that effective sound is achieved by a creative, artistic and technical blending of diverse sound elements. To provide the motion picture and television industry with a progressive society of master craftsmen specialized in the art of creative cinematic sound recording. To advance the specialized field of cinematic sound recording by exchange of ideas, methods, and information. To advance the art of auditory appreciation, and to philanthropically support those causes dedicated to the sense of hearing. To institute and maintain high standards of conduct and craftsmanship among our members. To aid the motion picture and television industry in the selection and training of qualified personnel in the unique field of cinematic sound recording. To achieve for our members deserved recognition as major contributors to the field of motion picture and television entertainment.
NEW MEMBERS Student Ryan Nelson Lauren Ashley Roberts Richard Anthony Vanderscoff Billy R. Faulkner Dane S. Klima
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Barri Marshall Shaun Burdick Keith Huff Bradley Jarvis Richard Bean
Look at the Size of That Mouse! Traditional Console vs. Control Surface Signal Flow
A SOUND MIXER: RONALD JUDKINS RE-RECORDING MIXERS: ANDY NELSON SUPERVISING SOUND EDITORS:
— CHRISTOPHER SCARABOSIO
BEN BURTT — RICHARD HYMNS
As mentioned in the “From the Editors” column, I’m nearly a semester in to my new faculty gig at MTSU. At a recent “Production & Technology” faculty meeting (that’s what our concentration is called), we were discussing consoles. The department is fortunate enough to have the enthusiastic support of the campus, so we’ve been able to purchase a new console. Given the beautiful live and control rooms of our two flagship studios, the department opted to go with an incredibly designed analog board that has some very impressive surround sound capabilities (not to mention the manufacturer’s renowned mic pres, compressors & EQs that are a music engineer’s dream). During the conversations, however, it was questioned as to why we weren’t opting for the “console” that seems to be showing up more and more these days. Yup. Digidesign’s ICON. A couple of months before I left my post as chief audio engineer of PostWorks New York, we installed an ICON in our larger print mastering room. Some people think of it as “one big mouse” and, in theory, I guess it is. However, it is miles away from some other control surfaces like the Control24 and the ProControl. In audio post, many folks have gone the control surface route. In fact, a number of your colleagues can be seen on the Web toting the attributes of Digidesign and their control surfaces. If that’s the case, then why did we go with a super cool analog board? This got me thinking about signal flow. If you think about how things are recorded when interfacing with a control
b y M a t t Fo g l i a , C A S surface, the signal path is pretty minimal (see Diagram 1). For recording, you have a source, such as a microphone, that goes into a preamp. The preamp brings the signal up to line level and then it runs through an analog-to-digital converter (ADC or A/D). For Pro Tools, in the professional world, this is the 192 I/O Interface. The only gain stage you have to worry about is your preamp. Granted, you could add a compressor or EQ prior to the A/D, but you don’t need to. Once the signal is in the digital realm, the computer’s drives handle it. To hear your audio, you assign the program to your
pressor inserted—along with how and where (pre or post fader, and pre or post one another). Then that signal hits a fader (either the small or large fader on an inline console—operator’s choice), which determines the level that is sent to a recorder (either a digital audio workstation or, OK I’ll say it, tape). Note that this signal is bussed to a particular input on the recorder. If the fader is all the way down, no signal will get to the recorder even though you “see” signal on the meters. The output of the recorder returns to the opposite fader on the console. So, if you sent the signal to tape
Diagram 1
Diagram 2
interface outputs (such as outputs 1 and 2 for a stereo program), then connect those interface outputs to some form of monitor controller. In the land of the analog console (see Diagram 2), the microphone signal enters the console preamp and then you decide whether you’d like an EQ or com-
using the small fader, then it comes back on the larger one and visa versa. This fader is then assigned to the main program out so that it can be heard. Here in my new world, 30 minutes outside of Nashville, music recording and mixing is where a lot of fun happens. Being that there is a lot of tracking that
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goes on, the analog signal flow offers a big chunk of control as well as sonic fidelity we’d have to spend a truckload of money on in outboard gear to replicate. Plus, the analog board is just super cool. Now, you can make a case for setting up Pro Tools in the same analog fashion for recording. In this scenario, you have each input feed an auxiliary input (post mic pre). On that input, you can add your plug-in EQ, compressor, etc. Then the output of that auxiliary channel feeds an audio track that you go into record on (see Example 1). Note that if you put an insert on an AUDIO track and record on it, those inserts DO NOT affect the recorded audio signal. They just affect what comes out of the monitors. This is why you need to set up an aux input that feeds your record channel. Also, like the faders on the analog board, the aux input acts as a gain stage for the recorded signal being sent to the audio track. You bring the aux channel’s fader level up, the signal to the audio track increases. You lower the fader level of the aux input and the level sent to the record track decreases. The one big current bummer is that you can’t have the inserts (your EQ & compressor) happens post-fader except on a Master Fader. Basically, in Pro Tools, the signal level that goes into the channel triggers your inserts—NOT the level of the fader. So if you have a channel with a compressor on it, that compressor is not reacting to the level of the channel’s fader—it reacts to the input signal (or the unity level of the file). Meaning that you can push the fader all the way up to +12 (or 11 if your Nigel Tufnel) and the channel’s 12
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Example 1
compressor won’t act any differently. On the analog board, you can have the EQ & compressors inserted before OR after your send-to-tape fader. This provides a lot of useful flexibility. So, for music recording, the analog board comes out ahead. On the mixing side, though, things are a little different. The one thing that really stands out with the ICON is that it looks and feels like a traditional inline console. Sure, it has one fader per strip instead of two, but earlier inline consoles had rotary pots where the small faders are today and, with the banks of faders, you don’t need a ded-
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icated second fader. The original control surfaces work very well for volume level, send level (using the fader flip) and panning. So well, in fact, that I remember while working at Sony Music Studios in New York, there were some music mixers who would bring in their ProControl interfaces and place them on top of the SSL 9000J console. Making the SSL one of the most expensive “tables” you could buy! On the control surfaces, however, the area that was a bit more of a challenge was effect adjusting. The ICON addresses that by offering knobs on each channel that you can adjust in a more traditional “analog” fashion if you will—making it function and feel like a “real” console. What’s also neat is that you don’t need to have a physical input or output for each fader. Doing a stereo show? You can use one hardware interface even though you have 20 Dialogue, 48 FX and 12 stereo music tracks. Just do your DME routing with your master stereo bus assigned to interface outputs 1 and 2 and you’re golden. On the analog board, you have to have a physical input for every channel you want to hear—plus inputs for the effects returns (reverbs, delays, etc.). Is one better than the other? Well, if I were tracking a band or doing overdubs and had the option, I’d be silly not to use the analog board discussed here—even when recording into Pro Tools. And while I do like traditional signal flow architecture, when I’m mixing, the ease of having everything “in the box,” “real” adjustable parameter knobs, plus the simplicity of editing automation, makes the ICON quite attractive—especially for post sessions. Let the tug-of-war continue. •
’ on t n i l l h o e River: R
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The European Sound Delta Project In the cinema audio world, our work fluctuates according to the time of year or season. Depending on your area of expertise, the summer months are either your busiest time or three long months of R&R and time to work on your tan. Now, I know what you’re wondering, how do European sound people spend their summer vacations? A cruise would be nice. For three months during the summer, the European Sound Delta (ESD) Project embarked on two cruises along Europe’s rivers. I spoke to Nicolas Horber, the man at the helm of the European Sound Delta, just after completion of this incredible trip and chanced to ask him what the project entailed. The project involved two boats, two rivers, one destination, and more than 30 international sound artists. In nomadic fashion, two boats simultaneously navigated upstream on the Rhine and the Danube rivers from the North Sea and the Black Sea, converging on the French city of Strasbourg on September 26. On deck and in each of the stopover cities, artists were invited to record their sound environment and to use the shared sound materials to compose pieces and produce live events along the itinerary. The studios installed on the boats acted as a kind of lab with small digital editing stations on board. The Danube is the second largest river in Europe, while the Rhine is the longest river in Germany. Strasbourg is situated in the Rhine Valley, connected by canals with the Rhine. The Danube Delta is where the Danube meets the Black Sea in Romania. That’s enough of a European geography lesson. We are talking about sound geography here. The idea behind ESD is to create a new “cartography of Europe.” Artists attempted to capture the sound identity on the river and at each stopover along the way.
by Carrie Giunta, CAS New York sound and video artist Phil Niblock was a resident for the first stretch of the cruise which set sail on the Danube Delta. The Danube Delta sound environment is a veritable playground of water sounds. Niblock sought to record “everything pretty much having to do with moving water.” A simple ensemble of a stereo microphone and a “very small, but elegant solid state recorder” gave him the flexibility he needed to set up quickly and record at a moment’s notice. The first video ESD produced is called Zound Delta by Vincent Voillat. It was shot on the Danube Delta, at the Romanian steel mill factory owned by the ArcelorMittal Galati Steel Company, one of the project’s sponsors. Niblock provided a fluvial sound design of the Danube lapping between the boat and the dock to Voillat’s images of hot, flowing molten metal, and a giant blast furnace. Meanwhile, back on the Rhine, the other boat headed upstream toward Strasbourg, the final destination. The final event was a three-day celebration to commemorate the completion of the project. Several sonic cruises along the Strasbourg canals featured live performances by many of the project’s participating artists. Also, during the three-day finale, Vincent Voillat’s Mirror Ball screened documentary videos of the two boats’ journeys. The fun and festivities kicked off at a place called Les Nuits électroniques de l’Ososphère. I know how I’ll be spending my summer vacation next year... If you would like to hear clips from the ESD sound archives or check out the itinerary, visit the website http://www.sound -delta.eu •
CAS Salutes the 6Oth Primetime Emmy Award Winners The CAS congratulates the following mixers for receiving Primetime Emmy Awards at this year’s gala held Sept 13, 2008: OUTSTANDING SOUND MIXING FOR A COMEDY OR DRAMA SERIES (ONE-HOUR) Lost “Meet Kevin Johnson”
ABC
ROBERT ANDERSON CAS, Production Mixer FRANK MORRONE CAS, Re-Recording Mixer SCOTT WEBER, Re-Recording Mixer
OUTSTANDING SOUND MIXING FOR A COMEDY OR DRAMA SERIES (HALF-HOUR) AND ANIMATION 30 Rock Episode 210
NBC
GRIFFIN RICHARDSON, Production Mixer TONY PIPITONE, Re-Recording Mixer BILL MARINO, Re-Recording Mixer OUTSTANDING SOUND MIXING FOR A MINISERIES OR A MOVIE John Adams “Don’t Tread on Me”
HBO
JAY MEAGHER CAS, Production Mixer MARC FISHMAN, Re-Recording Mixer TONY LAMBERTI, Re-Recording Mixer
OUTSTANDING SOUND MIXING FOR A VARIETY, MUSIC SERIES OR A SPECIAL 50th Annual Grammy Awards Thomas Holmes, Production Mixer Klaus Landsberg, Production Mixer John Harris, Broadcast Music Mixer Eric Schilling, Broadcast Music Mixer Eric Johnston, Broadcast Audio Playback Mixer
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
CBS Tom Pesa, Foldback Mixer Mikael Stewart, FOH Production Mixer Ron Reaves, FOH Music Mixer Mike Parker, Stage Foldback Mixer Bob LaMasney, Audio Sweetener
BEST SOUND MIXING Re-Recording Mixers:
TERRY PORTER, DEAN A. ZUPANCIC Sound Mixer:
DOUGLAS CAMERON BEST SOUND EDITING Supervising Sound Editor:
JOHN LEVEQUE, M . P. S . E .
OUTSTANDING SOUND MIXING FOR NONFICTION PROGRAMMING (SINGLE OR MULTI-CAMERA) American Masters “Tony Bennett: The Music Never Ends”
PBS
JASON KING, Sound Mixer
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For screening information:
C A S Q U A R T E R LY
DisneyStudiosAwards.com ©Disney Enterprises, Inc.
Dennis Maitland
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Production sound mixer Dennis Maitland, CAS will receive the Cinema Audio Society’s highest accolade, the CAS Career Achievement Award, to be presented at the 45th CAS Awards on February 14, 2009, in the Crystal Ballroom of the Millennium-Biltmore Hotel, Los Angeles. Additionally, director/writer/producer/actor Paul Mazursky will receive the CAS Filmmaker Award. In keeping with the synergy of the three previous CAS Filmmaker and Career Achievement recipients, Maitland and Mazursky both have distinguished individual careers which have overlapped on many projects resulting in wonderful collaborations on several films including the Oscar®nominated An Unmarried Woman, Tempest, Willie and Phil and Moscow on the Hudson. Maitland has worked on more than 80 feature films including the critically acclaimed and Oscar-nominated: As Good as It Gets, The Prince of Tides, Moonstruck, Prizzi’s Honor, …And Justice for All, Lenny, The Pawnbroker, The Way We Were, Three Days of the Condor and
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Searching for Bobby Fischer to name a few. His television credits include The Honeymooners, Playhouse 90, The Sunshine Boys, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Jackie Gleason Show and many more. As a music mixer, Maitland has worked with Miles Davis, Frank Sinatra, Count Basie, The Beatles, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, the New York, Boston, Berlin, Philadelphia and Montreal Philharmonic Orchestras. On Broadway, Mailtand was the sound designer for Prisoner of Second Avenue. Maitland has been a leader in the use of SR Dolby, R-Dat, A-Dat, live production and multi-track. He is credited with introducing wireless mics to feature films in the early ’50s. As the 27th recipient of the Cinema Audio Society’s highest honor, Mr. Maitland joins an illustrious group of past honorees that include Ray Dolby, Robert Altman, Jack Solomon, John Bonner, Bill Varney, Don Rogers, Walter Murch, Jim Webb, Richard Portman, Tomlinson Holman, Mike Minkler, Ed Greene and Dennis Sands. •
BEST SOUND MIXING BEST SOUND EDITING
C A S Q U A R T E R LY ©Disney Enterprises, Inc.
For screening information: DisneyStudiosAwards.com
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THE CAS FILMMAKER AWARD
Walt Disney Studios Post Production Services
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Multi-hyphenate Paul Mazursky began his career studying method acting under Lee Strasberg. After moving to Los Angeles, where he worked with the UCLA Repertory Company, he began a career as a writer on The Danny Kaye Show and wrote the pilot for The Monkees.
In 1969, he wrote and directed Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice and the success of that film launched his filmmaking career. Next came, Alex in Wonderland, Blume in Love and Harry and Tonto (directing Art Carney to an Academy Award). His next effort remains his most highly regarded film, An Unmarried Woman which garnered three Oscar® nominations, Jill Clayburgh for Best Actress, Mazursky for writing and a Best Picture nod. In 1980, he directed Willie and Phil—an homage to Francois Truffaut’s Jules et Jim and in 1982, Tempest, an update of the Shakespeare drama, starring John Cassavetes, Susan Sarandon and Gena Rowlands. He then directed the 1984 comedy Moscow on the Hudson, a vehicle for Robin Williams and in 1986, Mazursky scored his biggest success in years with the satire Down and Out in Beverly Hills, starring Bette Midler, Nick Nolte and Richard Dreyfuss. The year 1988 brought Moon Over Parador, starring Richard Dreyfuss, Raul Julia and Sonia Braga. With 1989’s adaptation of Isaac Bashevis Singer‘s Enemies: A Love Story, Mazursky achieved new levels of acclaim, scoring Best Director honors from the New York Critics’ Circle and leading stars Anjelica Huston and Lena Olin to Academy Award nominations. Mazursky is the fourth recipient of the CAS Filmmaker Award and joins previous honorees: Quentin Tarantino, Gil Cates and Bill Condon. •
© Disney
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What Are They Saying? by Paul V. Marshall, CAS How often does a production sound mixer have the unique opportunity to mix a feature in a foreign language and not understand a single word that is being spoken??? I’m not certain what the answer is to that question, but I know I certainly had the opportunity on the film Sideways Japan and I had a blast. Yes, Sideways. Sound familiar? That’s because the director of Sideways Japan, Cellin Gluck, was approached by Fuji Television and Fox International Japan to direct a remake of the original film Sideways (2004). However, Gluck, who rewrote the script, calls it more of an adaptation rather than a remake. “Coming of age, best buddies, and wine are some of the themes used from the original movie but the similarities end there,” Gluck said. Gluck describes his version as a fish-out-of-water romantic comedy with many Japanese cultural twists. Gluck’s knowledge of filmmaking and his fluency in Japanese (He is half Japanese and half American), made him the perfect candidate to direct this film. A superstar cast from Japan, Kyoka Suzuki, Fumiyo Kohinata, Katsuhisa Namase, and Academy Award nominee Rinko Kikuchi (Babel, 2006) are the main characters that brought their phenomenal talents to the film. 22
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With all of the breathtaking views, came more sound challenges. Many of the wineries were in the middle of the harvest season, so machinery became a major issue as well as the coolers inside of the wineries. We got into the mind-set early on of wireless micing all of the talent all of the time.
Fuji Television and Fox International wanted this film to have an American look and feel to it, so they asked Gluck to assemble an American crew to work on the movie. Treading in uncharted waters, the crew was about to embark on a journey that had never been done before. According to executive producer Toru Miyazawa, Sideways Japan would be the first Japanese feature with a Japanese cast, Japanese dialog and an American crew. This is where I enter the story. Cellin Gluck has been a dear friend for more than 15 years so when he called me to mix his film, I told him that I would love to work on it but I had a knee surgery scheduled and it would conflict with his shooting schedule. Gluck would not take no for an answer and offered to wheel me around in a wheelchair and personally shoot me up with morphine for the pain. I asked him who his second favorite mixer was and he replied, “My second favorite mixer is now a screenwriter.” Curious, I asked him who that was and he replied, “your wife, dummy!” My wife Aletha Rodgers, CAS has retired from sound and has dedicated herself to our daughter Kaylee and her screenwriting. She and her writing partner, Trisha Hopper, sold their screenplay Rodeo Girl this past year. It is scheduled to go into production this spring (2009). Well, after this endearing exchange, I committed to mix Gluck’s movie and rescheduled my surgery. Sideways Japan was set in two primary locations: Los Angeles and the Napa Valley. Shooting started in Los Angeles where I used the talents of boom operator Rene Defancesch. We were working with the two male leads at the time and later would be joined by the two female leads up in Napa. Defancesch did a great job of booming, but did not speak Japanese, so the
Japanese producers made the decision to bring in a bilingual boom operator from Japan. I made a special request to bring in a friend of mine from Japan, Rin Takada. I met Takada eight years ago when he was living in Los Angeles and just getting into sound. Rin says he has been busy since 2000 working with Peter Devlin on The Fast and the Furious, 2001; with Jeff Wexler on The Last Samurai, 2003; with Jose Garcia on Babel, as well as a host of top-notch Japanese mixers. Production approved of my request and brought him over. The film’s budget was just more than $3 million, and we had a 25-day shooting schedule, so we were cutting it tight. The challenge for me as a mixer became apparent early on. As far as languages go, I have a working knowledge of Arabic and Portuguese, but nothing would prepare me for the Japanese language. Every department would have to step up their game on this project. I have known and worked with most of the key department heads over the past 15 years so this was the core element that would drive the shoot: A bunch of friends working together for a month (away from home) to help out our friend Cellin Gluck so that his dream and vision would get completed. Starting in Los Angeles, we were shooting with a single Panavision 35mm camera but since we were behind schedule, a second camera was added. What was a workable mixing situation—wide and then coverage became wide, tight at the same time and a lot more lights. The director of photography, Garry Waller, his camera operator, Eric Tramp, and gaffer Mike Butler were constantly apologizing for the challenging setups that the sound department faced. Our bilingual script supervisor, Mizuho Kudo, did a great job of keeping us on the
right track and Hal Lewis, our video assist, made sure we had both monitors up at all times to give us picture to mix to. Using my Cooper 208, Venue Field VRF receiver unit, Sound Devices 788T for multi-tracking and the 744T for two-track telecine, I felt confident that we could capture the audio needed for the shift in mixing tactics, but realized it was going to take a lot of radio micing and double booming. My utility, Paul Romo, stepped up to the plate, and although he did not speak Japanese, he and Takada had such a good rapport with each other that the language barrier did not seem to come into play, and we captured some great sound. Shooting at spectacular settings in more than a dozen wineries throughout the Napa Valley was certainly the highlight of this shoot. Some of my favorite locations were the wineries of Frog’s Leap, Domain Chandon, Dariouch and Lynmar. With all of the breathtaking views, came more sound challenges. Many of the wineries were in the middle of the harvest season, so machinery became a major issue as well as the coolers inside of the wineries. We got into the mind-set early on of wireless micing all of the talent all of the time. That habit got us into a rhythm that, in most cases, worked to our advantage. Finishing, the success of Sideways Japan came down to the determination of Gluck and his friends to work together and (somehow) overcome fatigue, to overcome the language barriers and multiple location issues in order to make a beautiful and compelling movie. The bonding between the American crew, cast and the Japanese production team was great to see and experience and cultural barriers where broken down very early in the process. In my opinion, we achieved our goal and we all had a great time doing it. •
Opposite page from left: Rin Takada, Paul Romo, Cellin Gluck, Paul Marshall, CAS. Left: Rin Takada Napa photos: Shane Sato.
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From left, the panel: Steven Venezia, Tim Kubit, Ed Greene, Hugh Healy, Tad Scripter and Steven Silva
After listening again to the presentations given at the CAS seminar this past July, I can only encourage anyone who was not there and is concerned with “What Happened to
What happened to my mix?
by Ed Greene, CAS
Kudos to Ed Greene, CAS for putting together the Cinema Audio Society seminar “What Happened to My Mix?” On Saturday, July 26, 2008, Greene brought a panel of experts together who discussed what happens to the programming that production and post production mixers have worked on, along with the process of getting it to the public. CAS President Edward Moskowitz welcomed more than 100 attendees to the seminar and thanked the production sound technicians, television engineers, video assist technicians and studio projectionists of IATSE Local 695, members of the Motion Picture Editors Guild, Local 700, members from the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), the Audio Engineering Society members (AES), and members from the Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE) for participating in the CAS seminar. Moskowitz also thanked Warner Bros. for hosting the event, and further thanked Greene’s sons, Sam and Grant, for providing the audio, and for recording the entire program. Many attendees expressed gratitude saying the seminar was very informative and quite engaging. Appreciation should also be extended to the new CAS office manager, Patti Fluhr, for greeting all of the attendees and signing them in. Following is a brief summary by Greene about the seminar. – Paul Marshall, CAS
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My Mix?” to go to the Seminars section of the CAS website and download and listen to the seminar recording. It is perhaps the best insight into the complex audio paths and potential problems affecting programs on their way to the home viewer. We were lucky to find, with many on vacation, the speakers briefly summarized below. Steven Silva from Fox Network: Steven described how Fox carefully manages the quality of their program distribution. At the network level, they up-convert to 5.1 any stereo material part of their HD 5.1 programs. While all the networks do their best to take similar care, Fox presently has the newest facility and distribution system. Steven Venezia from Dolby Labs: Steve heads the broadcast division of Dolby Labs, Burbank. He gave a tutorial on their various systems used in television transmission along with other tools to properly monitor and process audio. Steve and his colleagues are always available to help solve problems in the complex transmission of pre-recorded and live-event programs. Tim Kubit: Tim is a systems engineer involved in many television tapings and live programs. He also does forensic engineering for many companies having transmission issues. His descriptions of present program audio distribution gave the first insights into the economics, complexity, and problems with present transmission chains.
He provided statistics of how viewers actually receive their programs and the exploration of unusual new transmission possibilities. Tad Scripter: Tad is the EIC (Engineer in Charge) of many different programs. While his responsibilities are far greater than audio, he is dedicated to making sure programs are recorded or reach their destination in a timely manner (in sync) with the quality they deserve. He encouraged people to actively provide information to stations and distributors when problems occur. He emphasized that most folks involved are really interested in doing a good job and if you speak with someone who disregards helpful information, then you’re speaking with the wrong person. Hugh Healy: Hugh is also a truck systems engineer whose primary responsibilities are in audio. Beyond that, he designs and fabricates specialty audio equipment. He talked about three primary areas of responsibility that constitute a good television audio chain. They are: intelligent content providers, intelligent program distributors, and intelligent viewers. Each has the job of knowing that their part of the chain is operating properly. Hugh also agreed that speaking to the right person is essential when trying to solve a problem. Television transmission continues to be a rapidly changing landscape. There will be a major change in February 2009 when analog transmission ceases and broadcast television becomes digital. While this has the promise to be an improvement for audio, there are truly no guarantees. The CAS needs to remain active and vigilant in pushing the envelope of quality audio transmission. The expressions “the better it looks, the better it sounds” and “the better it sounds, the better it looks” continue to be important. I suggest we reconvene a second seminar sometime after February to see if indeed there have been improvements so that we can be less concerned about “What Happened to My Mix?” •
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David Barr-Yaffe CAS is currently
Curtis Choy CAS has ditched the
mixing Season 3 of ABC/Touchstone’s Brothers and Sisters with Tim Salmon and Jessy Bender on the poles.
headphones temporarily to complete his 30-year project Manilatown Is in the Heart. This documentary portrait of San Francisco poet and institution Al Robles is now making the festival rounds. Dates and info at www.chonkmoonhunter.com. In October, Choy received commendations from the city of San Francisco, the California State Assembly, and the U.S. Congress for service to the community and contributions to independent film, art and culture.
Eric Batut CAS is mixing Cats and Dogs II . Boom operator is Danny Duperreault. John Pritchett CAS, along with his crew, Dave Roberts and Shawn Harper, are in Los Angeles filming Judd Apatow’s newest comedy fest, literally a comedy fest with practically every comic of note making an appearance—from Sarah Silverman to Dave Attell and starring Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen. Oliver Stone’s W. has just come out along with Appaloosa, John’s latest projects. Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life will be in editing for at least another year, Not John’s fault... Ed Golya CAS has recently won an Emmy (his fifth) for Outstanding Post Production Audio/MLB on Fox. Robert (Bob) Wald CAS, Robert
Five – that’s the number of Academy Five – that’s number of Academy Awards won bythe sound mixing teams Awards by soundaudio mixing teams workingwon on Euphonix mixing working Euphonix systemsonsince 2001. audio mixing systems since 2001.
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(Max) Maxfield and Jeff Zimmerman are still enjoying their good fortune on the new ABC Family series The Secret Life of the American Teenager. The show has shattered all ratings records for the network and has been the No. 1 TV download on iTunes every week that it has aired. Producer Brenda Hampton carries over the same philosophy from her previous show, 7th Heaven, which enjoyed an 11-year run … very reasonable hours and lots of care for her cast and crew. Right now, Teenager is in production for its second season, which starts airing in January, and they have been picked up for at least another season after that. Teenager shoots the same number of pages per day as any other TV series, typically eight to nine pages, but they manage to do it in about 10 hours per day. Bob and crew say they absolutely love having time for a “life,” and nobody on the show EVER complains about anything! Bob also spends time working on his other career as a realtor, as well as doing a little helicopter piloting.
Sylvain Arseneault CAS is working on Aaron Stone, a series for Disney Channel. Eric Putzer, boom operator. Production sound mixer Buck Robinson CAS is currently mixing the John Wells–produced pilot Police, for Warner Bros. Television. The high-paced cop drama shoots with the new RED Cameras in Los Angeles, and demands a combination of studio style (on-the-cart) and documentary style (over-the-shoulder) production recording. Tom Caton is booming the show, and Cole Bluma is doing utility sound.
Andy Wiskes CAS had the pleasure of recording Ferrari prototypes for Michael Mann. Fastest I’ve ever been on four wheels. He also recorded the piano score for the upcoming film Etude at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. And recent commercials include: Microsoft, Spice Islands, Honda, Cialis, Nortel, and Intel. Also did recording on Milk, the Gus Van Sant film. He finally got to go to Mars, via NOVA, and their “Mission to Mars” series. Paul J. Zahnley CAS had a busy late summer mixing a bounty of shows. Recent projects include mixing Zoo Tiger Escape for National Geographic Explorer, 17 episodes of Jacques Pepin‘s More Fast Food My Way for KQED, When Medicine Got It Wrong for PBS, written and directed by Laura Murray and Katie Cadigan, and a feature documentary for Oscar
winners Irving Saraf and Allie Light titled The Empress Hotel. It’s been a busy end of summer for Gavin Fernandes CAS. He spent August and September finishing Young Queen Victoria (with Louis Gignac as second and Martin Pinsonneault editing) for GK Films, and jumps right on to Bruce Neibaur’s IMAX feature The Greatest Journey (Peter Thillaye IMAX god as supervising sound editor). Gavin finishes off before Christmas with a Belgian feature shot in Morocco called Un Ange à la Mer. With Scrubs coming to a rest after eight seasons, Joe Foglia CAS is starting prep for a new ABC show Castle. Says Joe, “My regular crew is happy to join me, and with Anna Wilborn a newlywed and Kevin Santy as my boom op, we are keeping our fingers crossed in hopes the show also goes another eight seasons! I want to give a shout out to my East Coast friend, Mathew Price CAS, for the help.”
Jay Patterson CAS, along with R. Joe Michalski and Steve Sollars (both are now associate members of the Society!) are gleefully working on the seventh season of Without a Trace at the Warner lot.
Stephen Tibbo CAS is busy mixing Season 2 of Life for NBC along with John Fors and Dan Lipe swinging booms.
Jonathan Andrews CAS has just come back from Talkeetna, Alaska, where he was working lead audio with mixers Glen Piegari, Michael ‘Ponch’ St. Hillaire, Rob Rosales, and Scott Hanlon on Out of the Wild: Surviving Alaska for the Discovery Channel. Steve Bedaux CAS has been keeping busy with ABC News Specials. He covered the Democratic National Convention in Denver and also mixed World News Tonight’s Live Cancer Awareness Special. Steve was privileged C A S Q U A R T E R LY
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to mix the exclusive Charlie Gibson’s Governor Palin interview for 20/20. He has also been mixing on hidden-camera commercials for Carl’s Jr. and Pizza Hut. When he is not on location, Steve runs his sound equipment rental shop, CineLUX Sound Services Inc., which packages and designs audio systems for various projects. I’m back for my fourth season of Grey’s Anatomy, with Raul Bruce and Derrick Cloud. During the writers’ strike I did the indie feature Lure, then during the regular hiatus, a pilot This Might Hurt, with Randy Johnson and Jesse Kaplan. Thanks to the intrepid guys that come in on double-up days, Ken Segal and Steve Hawk and their crews! -Beau Baker CAS
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This past September, Jim Corbett CAS and Charles Dayton CAS put the finishing touches to a 5.1 mix at Sony‘s Dubbing Room 11. Their project, The Nail: The Story of Joey Nardone, was finished on a Sony D-5. Charles was the supervising sound editor and was responsible for all of the sound effects, the Foley (recording and editing) and supervising the backgrounds. Jim cut the dialogue, the ADR, the music, and was a Foley walker. Charles and Jim were also the re-recording mixers. The pre-mixes for this unique boxing story were completed at Charles’ studio in 5.1, then taken to Sony on drives. Thank you to Richard Branca CAS and Brian Van Leer for making our visit so smooth. The film was directed by James Quattrochi. The writer, producer and lead actor was Tony Luke Jr. Also starring Tony Danza, Leo Rossi, William Forsythe, Dayanara Torres and a young new actor, Paul Orrantia. More information on IMDb.com. This marks the third theatrical feature that Jim and Charles have worked together as the re-recording mixers. They are also preparing to complete a Kodak Student Film Project for Brooks Institute. Charles is currently mixing the Fox Reality series Solitary 3.0 at his Twisted Avocado Studios. You can discover more about Jim’s kite boarding activities at bskitehaps.blogspot.com.
Terry O’Bright CAS and Keith Rogers CAS have been hard at work with their company Smart Move Sound, Currently working on the new ABC/Fox show Life on Mars. Also, Season 4 of Bones for Fox, and films Into the Blue 2 for director Steven Herek and Front of the Class for Hallmark.
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Greetings from Shawn Holden CAS. I have been blessed with a great year. It actually started out about this time last year with Quarantine, a crazy scary movie. My crew consisted of Scott Heflin on boom, along with Chet Leonard and Jesse Kaplan. Then came Obsessed. My boom op was Kevin Compayre, who since has returned to his TV show The Unit as the mixer. Go Kevin! The fabulous Peggy Names was second boom on that one. Currently, Anthony
Ortiz, Rocky Quiroz and I are on Bone Deep. Is that a great crew or what? Like I said, I have been blessed. Here’s wishing everyone a healthy and happy holiday season and a VERY busy New Year!!! Peace.
James Ridgley CAS writes: Earlier I finished up a feature film shot mostly in Big Bear, California, called Frozen Kiss. Then had a great opportunity to record a bunch of Get Out and Vote spots that Leonardo Di Caprio graciously got rolling up at his Hollywood Hills house including an unwelcome visit from the paparazzi. Also did a Rock the Vote spot. (thank you Paul Marshall CAS) and some of Microsoft‘s I’m a PC spots. (thanks Mort) I have also been working a lot of one-man band for The Doctors, America’s Best Dance Crew, So You Think You Can Dance?, Teen Nick and Turbo Nick. Also, promos for Nickelodeon TV. Production mixer Robert Marts CAS and Myron Partman, boom operator, recently finished World’s Greatest Dad, a comedy/drama feature with Robin Williams and directed by Bobcat Goldthwait shot this summer in Seattle. Marts is currently mixing the feature comedy The Whole Truth filming through October.
Richard Branca CAS from Sony Pictures Studio, reports… G a r y Bourgeois CAS and Bill Benton are pre-dubbing Bedtime Stories in the William Holden Theatre. Jeff Haboush CAS and Greg Russell CAS are finaling Stepfather in the Kim Novak Theatre and predubbing Confessions of a Shopaholic in the Cary Grant Theatre. Tateum Kohut CAS, Greg Orloff CAS and Rick Kline are finaling Seven Pounds in the Kim Novak Theatre. Deb Adair CAS and William Freesh CAS are pre-dubbing Mall Cop in the Anthony Quinn Theatre. On Dub Stage 11, Alan Decker CAS and Mark Linden CAS are dubbing The Simpsons. On Dub Stage 12, Nello Torri CAS is dubbing The Beast and The Starter Wife. Rusty Smith CAS and William Freesh CAS are mixing Big Love on Dub Stage 6. Wayne Heitman and John Boyd CAS are mixing Medium on Dub Stage 17. I have finished Bedtime Stories for Disney C A S Q U A R T E R LY
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with a Christmas release scheduled. My wife and I are just back from a trip to Sicily, which was a delight and a gastronomical adventure. One of our sons was married in August, while the other three sons are successfully employed in the entertainment business. Regards, Thomas Causey CAS
Jonathan Gaynor CAS is finishing a very busy 2008 in and around Charleston, South Carolina, recording director Lasse Hallstrom‘s latest feature effort, Dear John. Once again he has the extremely capable help of boom guys Tim Cargioli and James Peterson. Glenn Berkovitz CAS, boom swingers Mark Grech, Corey Woods, and Danny Greenwald, finished their third pilot in as many months—Fox’s The Emancipation of Ernesto followed by TNT’s Men of a Certain Age—and have now moved on to Disney Channel’s Zeke & Luther. If the pilots all go to series, it might be difficult to decide where to stay … well, there are
certainly worse problems to face.
Mac Ruth CAS and team, Pal Szuros and Gyorgy Mihalyi, are currently on the very funny BBC/Comedy Central comedy series Krod Mandoon, and are about to spend the next three winter months on night exteriors in and around Salzburg, Austria, and Budapest, Hungary on the Nicolas Cage vehicle Season of the Witch. Keyword: COLD!
Carl Rudisill CAS has picked up a new project mixing on The Nut Farm after finishing the 102nd and 103rd episodes of HBO’s East Bound and Down. Earlier this summer, he was busy mixing for the production of I Hate to See the Evening Sun Go Down. Carl’s company, North Star Post and Sound, Inc., just wrapped up providing ADR services for the second season of Lifetime TV’s Army Wives. North Star continues to support One Tree Hill with ADR and voice-over, supervised by sound editor and mixer Alex Markowski. Other recent projects include Four Christmases,
Prayers for Bobby, Blood Done Sign My Name, Who Do You Love, Jury of Our Peers, and The Informers.
John Reitz CAS and Gregg Rudloff CAS recently completed Whiteout with director Dominic Sena and are currently working on Gran Torino for director Clint Eastwood on Warner Bros. Re-Recording Stage 10. Ron Bartlett and Doug Hemphill CAS recently completed Yes Man for director Peyton Reed and Max Payne for director John Moore. They are currently mixing director Nick Cassavetes’ My Sister’s Keeper on Warner Bros. Re-Recording Stage 9. Steve Pederson and Brad Sherman CAS finished mixing He’s Just Not That Into You with director Ken Kwapis and Who Do You Love for director Jerry Zaks on Warner Bros. Re-Recording Stage 5. Steve Pederson and Brad Sherman also completed Spread on Warner Bros. ReRecording Stage 12. On Warner Bros. Re-Recording Stage 5, Skip Lievsay CAS, Rick Kline and Tim LeBlanc com-
pleted Rock On for director Todd Graff. Kevin O’Connell and Beau Borders are currently mixing Public Enemies for director Michael Mann. On Warner Bros. ReRecording Stage 6, Skip Lievsay completed It Might Get Loud for director Davis Guggenheim. Greg Watkins CAS and Tom Ozanich completed All About Steve with director Phil Traill, Greg Watkins and Tim LeBlanc completed In the Electric Mist for director Bertrand Tavernier and are currently mixing 12 Rounds for director Renny Harlin. Up next on Warner Bros. Re-Recording Stage 6, Aaron Glascock and Curt Schulkey will be mixing The Unborn for director David Goyer. Currently on Warner Bros. newest ReRecording Stage 12, Mike Babcock & Tom Ozanich are mixing Punisher: War Zone with director Lexi Alexander. Skip Lievsay is mixing Brothers with director Jim Sheridan. Terry Rodman and Steve Pederson are mixing Observe and Report with director Jody Hill. Gary Rogers CAS and Dan Hiland CAS are back for another season of Terminator: The Sarah
Connor Chronicles and Smallville on Warner Bros. Re-Recording Stage 1. Todd Grace CAS and Ed Carr CAS continue to have a full schedule mixing Californication, Chuck, The Mentalist and the new CW series Surviving Suburbia on Warner Bros. Re-Recording Stage 2. Mike Casper and Tennyson Sebastian are mixing One Tree Hill, Pushing Daisies and the Lions Gate Television series Crash on Warner Bros. Re-Recording Stage 3. Adam Sawelson and Doug Davey mixed the Feature An American Carol, directed by David Zucker. Their television season continues with ER and The Unit on ReRecording Stage 4. Kathy Oldham is mixing Two and a Half Men on Warner Bros. Re-Recording Stage 7. Rick Norman and Peter Sullivan are mixing the Showtime series Brotherhood on Warner Bros. ReRecording Stage 7 and the Warner Bros. Television series Privileged on Warner Bros. Re-Recording Stage 11. Charlie McDaniel continues to have a full schedule mixing According to Jim, The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, Old Christine, Rules of
Engagement, Gary Unmarried, Roommates, Rita Rocks, and Till Death on Warner Bros. Re-Recording Stage 8. Re-Recording mixer Matt Vowles CAS is currently working on Warner Bros. Post Production’s Remote Re-Recording System. The shows include HBO’s In Treatment, Little Britain USA, and LAPD (Police), the upcoming pilot from John Wells Productions and Warner Bros. Television. Peter Waggoner and Sean Garnhart are currently mixing the Sony Television series Damages at Steiner Studios, located in the historic Brooklyn, New York Navy Yard, on a Warner Bros. Post Production’s Remote Re-Recording System.
Mark Rozett CAS has been keeping out of trouble and off the streets by re-recording the upcoming Rock Prophecies (production sound by Peter Damski CAS) as well as Infestation, Greta and Tenure with Ke l l y Va n d e v e r CAS at the new Monkeyland stages.
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Mathew Price CAS here, in the rapidly chilling Northeast. After a spotty year that starting with the four-month writers’ strike, I went on to mix Notorious, the Fox Searchlight biopic about the rapper Notorious B.I.G., aka Biggie Smalls. Then my team and I—with Laurel Bridges on Boom and Timothia Sellers as second boom/utility—did a couple of pilots for ABC (Castle and Cupid), both of which were picked up for production. So we’re going on to Cupid for a while, which has a very funny premise about a guy who thinks he’s Cupid, the Roman god of love, banished to Earth and unable to return to Olympus until he matches 100 couples. Hilarity ensues.
Edward L. Moskowitz CAS adds: Reporting from the set of The Pie Hole on ABC’s Pushing Daisies, we are deep into the second season and still continue to bring dead people back to life. My crew of Jack
Nitzsche, Dean Thomas and Leonard Moskowitz has been backed up by Joe Kenworthy CAS and Dave Parker CAS and their crews on “B” Unit days. While the days keep going, so does the direction of the Cinema Audio Society from my cell phone and laptop.
Nicholas Allen CAS and his team, Ron Wright and Chuck Homyak, kicked off the fall TV season recording the first four episodes of Chuck (NBC) for Warner Bros. When Eli Stone (Disney Studios/ ABC TV) received its second season renewal, the team transitioned back to the show they have been on since the pilot. Solemnly, Andy Ackerman, our producer on Eli Stone, is no longer with us but we carry on in his spirit. He is very much missed. Here’s to the economy, no more strikes and a back nine. Cheers!!
Pud Cusack CAS, Joel Reidy, boom op, Ross Levy, utility, are on location in the Boston area! Edge of Darkness, directed by Martin Campbell, starring Mel Gibson. Aug.–Nov. 2008.
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Bob Bronow CAS just finished up Season 1 of America’s Toughest Jobs. He’s looking forward to starting up on Season 5 of Deadliest Catch as well as Tornado Road and 1000 Ways to Die. Scott Harber CAS is still on the “Untitled” follow-up to Borat with Sacha Baron Cohen. An epic endeavor, that so far has taken us all from Texas and Arkansas to Jordan, Jerusalem, Berlin, Milan, Paris and ??? Larry Charles is driving the bus and most of the welts and bruises are subsiding. •
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My beloved friend and boom operator, David Allen Smith, died unexpectedly on the eve of October 21 in his Los Angeles apartment of medical causes. He had had several serious medical challenges over the past year. David collapsed on the set in June with pancreatitis and developed a staff infection in his brain while being hospitalized and became severely disabled. After being confined to a walker, he had done an extraordinary job of rehabilitating himself. Two weeks before his death, he was riding his bicycle, lifting weights and preparing for his first movie since June. David mentioned not feeling well over the past week. He was, simply put, an amazing person. He was a very talented painter and cartoonist. He taught art to kids in the neighborhood where he lived. Many people on and off the set enjoyed his work. On set, he would draw at lunchtime or get inspiration by
something in between setups, do a cartoon and pass it around. The humor in his art made people laugh. He often gave cartoons to actors in appreciation. He was also an amazing guitarist and singer. For those lucky enough to jam with him or be the audience in the crew hotel restaurant after work, it truly was an experience. His songs were emotional, and I will never forget the night he sang Cat Stevens at the El Canto Hotel in Las Cruces and sounded exactly like Cat Stevens. It moved us to tears. David was philosophical and highly intellectual. His mother impressed upon him the need for philosophy in his life. It helped shape his charm and gentleness on and off the set. He was a career boom operator of 25 years. With his keen ear and quiet set manner he worked with some of the best. His career started with Coppola’s Rumble Fish and included Ace Ventura, The Locusts, Vertical Limit, Hidalgo, The Missing, Hostage, Meet Dave, Street Kings, and The Burning Plain, to name a few. He also earned an Oscar nomination as part of the sound team for The Mask of Zorro. David and I were introduced by boom operator Dave Roberts. Our first movie together was a collaboration that worked well from the beginning. We became fast friends and family. We expected to be working together as a team until we both retired. I will miss him more than I can say. David had just turned 50 and is survived by his wife Tatiana, his brothers, his father and his dog of 18 years, Pasha, who he always joked would outlive him. –Lori Dovi, CAS
David Lee
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David Lee, Oscar-winning production sound recordist, has died at the age of 70. David was a big man, with a big appetite and a passion for life. He was hugely generous and humorous and enormously talented. In 2003, this talent was recognised with an Academy Award for Chicago, this was another “big” production for David, for which he was justly proud. Queen Latifah said that the sound environment created on the set of Chicago was key to her performance. David was thrilled when all the sound elements came together and he saw the smiles. Further acknowledgement of his talent was given with a BAFTA for Chicago; an Emmy for Unnatural Causes; a Canadian Film Award for The Silent Partner and seven further nominations.
Originally from Scotland, David began his training with the BBC working in documentary, but he chose to make Canada his home. He grew a beard, donned a huge elk coat and fought his way through to make feature films. He was an ardent spokesperson for many causes. He dedicated time to teaching literacy in community colleges and passing on his vast knowledge in film as a lecturer at the International Film School in Havana. His love of South America took him to live in Panama in his last year, where he was able to indulge his love of music. Don Carmody (producer) remembers, “David was always astounding me with some weird piece of music he’d found, like the Moroccan woman singing “I’ve Put a Spell on You” in Arabic with the melody played on finger cymbals!” David was fiercely loyal to friends and colleagues in an often cutthroat business and he will be sorely missed. We raise a glass to David Lee. –Sarah Prince, agent and friend
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FALL 2008
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Robert Marts, CAS production sound mixer (left), director Bobcat Goldthwait, Robin Williams, Myron Partman, boom operator, on the set of World’s Greatest Dad.
On Set
James Ridgley
CAS filming cosm , etic surgery for The Doctors. In Beve rly Hills, of course.
John Pritchett giving some friendly advice to the “President.” Al Robles in white hair, Curtis Choy with camera. Photo: Boom op Frances Nkara
d in the Steve Bedaux, CAS picture or Palin and foreground mixing Govern rview Charlie Gibson’s 20/20 inte ). ska (Fairbanks, Ala
Without a Trace crew: Steve Sollars (utility), Jay Patterson, CAS (mixer), R. Joe Michalski (boom).
Pud Cusack, CAS, Joel Reidy, boom op, Ross Levy, utility, on location in the Boston area!
UK member
Dave Humphries,
CAS with his wife Sue at their son Christopher’s graduation at the University . nology. Chris of Huddersfield s) in music tech on (H BA a sound design. th wi ee in interactive He graduated gr de r’s te as m a is returning to do Nicholas Allen and crew on Eli Stone.
On the Road David K. Grant, CAS mixing
This picture was taken while we were working on the Get Out the Vote Internet “Don’t Vote” spot. From left to right: James Ridgley, CAS, Leonardo Di Caprio, Paul Marshall, CAS, and boom operator Rene Defrancesch. The Di Caprio photo was taken by DP Roman Jakobi. 38
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C A S Q U A R T E R LY
One Week, an award-winning film at TIFF 08. Shown with his Norton motorcycle and crew during a road trip from Toronto to Vancouver Island.
