M OT I O N P I CTU R E S O U N D E D I TO R S I 33
Richard L. Anderson
SL: USC usually starts everyone with a
general sense of fi lmmaking.
RLA: Yeah. You're required to learn
everything. Even if you want to be
a writing major, you still have to at
least make an 8mm movie. I think
they fi gure, it's easy to become a
critic, and just look at movies and
go "that's not very good!" But,
it's like, "okay buddy, YOU try it!"
You get to actually experience all
the things that happen, and the
frustrations, and maybe you'll be a
little more forgiving of other people!
So if you're going to be a fi lmmaker,
you know what everybody else's
job is. Not maybe that you could
do it professionally, but at least you
understand what they're doing so
you can work with them.
In the old days, when you got
a job in Hollywood, you got a job
as an apprentice or whatever the
bottom job was, say, in the camera
department, and you worked your
way up and you learned camera
stuff, but you didn't know much
about editing. Or sound. Or anything
else. That was the other guy's
problem. USC's feeling was that you
should learn everything so you can
appreciate the other guy's problems.
