MPSE Wavelength

M OT I O N P I CTU R E S O U N D E D I TO R S I 39 big job on it. Ben and those other guys did. SL: And then came The Final Countdown. RLA: That was fun because I got to go out on the aircraft carrier with the production sound mixer to record all these sounds. He had been on during production, but we made a list of what we needed, and then we went out on the Constellation. It was a different carrier than was in the movie. It has since been decommissioned. We went out about a couple hundred miles in the ocean from San Diego. Basically, what they were doing was practicing takeoffs and landings. It didn't matter what we were doing —we were secondary to national defense! (Their jets) would take off from NAS Miramar, and go out there and practice landing on the ship, and taking off. And when they were done, they would go back to NAS Miramar. SL: That's perfect to record! RLA: Right, 'cause they were doing all the action that was in the film. So, they'd already recorded a certain amount of stuff, both stereo and mono during production. (Wild tracks) in addition to the sync stuff. I remember they recorded some of the Zeros. Which of course, aren't real Zeros. I think there's one real Zero in existence! Anyway, they were AT-6s. They recorded those things during production. What we did was record the ship. All the rooms, ambiences, and gear—things like when you're below and you hear the aircraft landing on the decks above you. And it was great, because it was areas they normally wouldn't let you access— many doors, equipment hums, and whines. To being a crazy kind of Twilight Zone time travel movie, it was really a documentary of what the Nimitz would have sounded like at that point in history. In addition to science fiction, to me the science fact of how the carrier worked was more interesting than the science fiction of a cloud that puts you through time. SL: As your librarian for many years, I remember that there was a Cadillac at the very beginning of the library from that film. RLA: Right, since that was the first film we did by ourselves, we started the library. A friend of mine owned a Fleetwood, and we went out to the Angeles Forest and recorded his car. And we recorded the whole series, because we thought, well, we may need it in the future. In The Final Countdown, we only needed it to come in and stop, and maybe drive away. Minimal stuff. But because we had the car for the whole day, we figured why not? SL: So now we're at my favorite— Raiders of the Lost Ark. RLA: The Final Countdown helped me get Raiders. SL: Oh yeah! I remember Steven Spielberg saying, "I want those guys!" RLA: Ben Burtt was thinking he could get me on it, but The Final Countdown, which did just okay in the United States, was a huge hit in England —where they were doing the stage shooting for Raiders. And there were lines around the block. So Steven went to see it, and said, "I want those guys!" So ironically, both parties got the guy they wanted! Like I said, one show will lead you into another. SL: On Raiders, Ben Burtt was the sound designer, working up North—and you were the supervising sound editor in Hollywood. RLA: Steven was cutting the movie down here (in Los Angeles). Unlike the Star Wars movies, which were cut up north, Steven and (picture editor) Michael Kahn and everybody was down here cutting the movie, so they wanted someone here. And Ben didn't want to be here for the whole duration, so he basically picked some of the cool scenes—the temple at the beginning, the flying wing, and the opening of The Ark. Pick of the litter, right? And we got the puppies that L to R: Stephen Flick and Richard Anderson in the library of Weddington Productions, circa 1992.Photo courtesy the collection of The Hollywood Sound Museum

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• 10-13 EIPMA-HEALTH