MPSE Wavelength

38 I M PS E . O R G Star Trek: The Motion Picture was a frustrating experience for the sound crew. Many of the opticals came in at the last minute. Some shots weren't even seen until the premiere—they had to make their best guess as to the length of some of the e›ects they were cutting sounds for. RLA: I met Mark (Mangini—another future partner at Weddington) on Star Trek. He was one of the ADR editors. He was working at Paramount, and he had previously worked at Hanna-Barbera. Sean Hanley was the main ADR editor, an old-school guy—he was the one on the stage with the actors, but Mark was doing the actual editing. Star Trek: The Motion Picture would become an all-star team of sound editing talent. RLA: CeCe Hall worked on it, George Waters worked on it, those were the Paramount people. And Alan Murray. They all became big- time supervisors in their own right. Richard also brought in Stephen Flick to work on the film … making it the first feature the three future Weddington partners worked together. The top talent roster extended to the e›ects designers as well. RLA: I was used to doing stuff on my own, but because of the heavily unionized rules at Paramount, I couldn't record things, I didn't have a facility—I wasn't even allowed to have a tape recorder in my room, because we would have had to have a Local 695 guy to operate the tape recorder. Anyway, we ended up hiring outside guys like Alan Howarth, Frank Serafine, Dirk Dalton, and Joel Goldsmith because they could all do stuff in their own studio and sell it to us—kind of like buying stock footage. But that was the flow. Each job kind of came out of another. I went from Gomillion to working at Lucasfilm, and came back, and I got Star Trek. And that was my first really big movie. I mean Star Wars was a big movie, but I didn't have a S ometime in March 1981, Richard Anderson, Steve Flick, and I found ourselves on the Ryder Sound Foley stage attempting to record wild track of fire sound effects for the Raven Bar sequence in Raiders of the Lost Ark. There's a particular scene where Indy is pinned to the bar and a goon spills whiskey and lights it on fire hoping it will travel up the bar and ignite him. So blissfully ignorant of fire codes or even common sense, Richard and I plopped ourselves in the sand pit, armed with Sterno and benzene (and a highly flammable Stewart film screen only feet away!!), and began making sounds. As I stirred the mix together, Richard squirted a little too much benzene on an already sizzling flame, which then traveled up the stream and the can caught fire in his hands. Instinctually, Richard dropped it on the ground (not wanting to burn his hands, duh!) which caused the cap to pop off and create and even bigger ball of flame. Richard's reflex response was to "stamp it out," which he did, causing quantities of fuel and fire to travel up his leg. He was now... The Incredible Burning Man! The recording that was rolling during all of this (many thanks to Rich Rogers for keeping his cool and his mouth shut!) captures this mayhem gloriously, especially all the panicked screams and exhortations. Steve Flick saves the day with the fire extinguisher but not before Richard, not exactly an athlete, jumped into the water pit hoping to extinguish himself. It was empty! It is important to note that at no time, while he was engulfed in flames, did Richard Anderson utter a single sound to ruin the recording. Fearless and focused. Always the professional… Richard had his eye on the ball and did what it took to get the job done. I wish I could have peered into his brain while he was on fire. I bet I would have heard something like this while he was engulfed in flames "If I just keep my mouth shut, maybe we can use some of this in the library… Hey, wait a minute… I'm on fire!" Mark Mangini, Sound Designer Oscar nominee for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Aladdin, and The Fifth Element, Oscar winner for Mad Max: Fury Road. Above:Mark Mangini listens adoringly to his former partner at Weddington Productions, Richard Anderson, speaking at a benefit for The Hollywood Sound Museum in 2019. Photo by Debbie Lynn Elias –Mark Mangini

• Cover
• 10-13 EIPMA-HEALTH