Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1353865
40 I M PS E . O R G JJ: The last film I supervised before I retired was John Lee's (Hancock) movie, Highwaymen. SSS: Did you plan on retiring? JJ: Yes. SSS: So what happened? JJ: It's John Lee Hancock! I heard about the film in October previously. I talked to my wife of course, and said, "Look, I went out on the Highwaymen but I think this is going to be pretty good. He's always been a great guy to work with." She said, "Well, if you insist on it, then I'm going to go see my friends in England and Scotland." I said, "Oh, OK." But then the whole COVID thing happened. It was a pretty good way to keep out of her hair. So I drifted back in. SSS: So are you done? JJ: Yeah, I'm done. I'm done. SSS: Really? JJ: Yes. I'm just about there. (laughs) Actually, now that you talked about it, I was thinking about back in 1988, '89, when the computer thing was coming, and the Synclavier, and how difficult it was. I was in my 30s and I was on top of it. And now, there's a lot of things going on that I don't know how they are getting it done. There's an incredible program for cleaning up dialogue called iZotope, and it gets better and better at what it does. I see these guys, you know, that's their toolkit. You have to be able to make that work. SSS: But they've never done it like we did it. In the past? They've never cut dialogue like we cut dialogue. It was a craft. It was a skill. It was all about the listening. JJ: That's why it was great working with Darren who's got all of that skillset behind him. I'd say the same thing about Sound FX. If SSS: I worked on that! JJ: Yes, of course you did! I knew Greg from back then. Greg continued on with his company and I shut down and went to Sony for a while. I saw Greg while he was on the Sony lot and said if anything comes up, let's get together and see what we can do. Then 42 happened. A movie he'd known the post supervisor on. I said that would work for me. Working with Greg is a wonderful experience. He's very creative. I always think you can get the last drop out of a bottle of ketchup. (laughs) The people are very enthusiastic and a little whacky, the way I like it. Stability of instability. SSS: So you got that same feeling of your independence from Fury and Grace at King Soundworks? JJ: Yeah, yeah. He backed me up. SSS: That's great! So it all started with the movie called 42? JJ: Yes, Chad Boseman's film. SSS: Wow. Very sad. JJ: Rest in peace. Great, great guy. I'll tell you a quick story. Darren King was doing ADR on it. SSS: Are Darren and Greg related? JJ: Yes, they are brothers. Darren does the dialogue and Greg does the FX. So Darren was shooting ADR with Chad, way back in 2012. Chad was just starting to get paying gigs. The ADR mixer said, "Hey, I'm hearing some jingling. Do you have some change in your pocket?" "Oh yeah, sorry." He took out a fist full of quarters and put it on the table and said, "I was going to do my laundry today." (laughs) "Don't worry, after today, you'll be able to buy the washer and the dryer." (laughs) Wonderful guy. SSS: So you met him at the bridge of his career. JJ: Exactly. He was very approachable. Wonderful talent. SSS: I want to talk about your retirement. You came out of retirement to do The Little Things. JJ: Yeah, it was like, two months. (laughs) SSS: What's the last film you did before you retired? Jon Johnson in 2018. Pretty much the same work surface but monitors and mix board are desktop.