Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1353865
You've both worked with Paul Greengrass on a couple of films now. How did this relationship begin? OT: The first time I worked with Paul was on United 93. It's an extraordinary film. The overall tone that Paul achieved for such a complex project felt very different to anything I'd seen before. His background as a journalist definitely gives him a unique voice. RT: My first Greengrass experience was Captain Phillips (2013), as an assistant sound editor. I got to know Paul and the whole team well, attending the final mix and working every late night up to that point to perfect the soundtrack to what was a masterful piece of cinema. It was hard work, but he always made us feel we could come to him with anything, that we were all working toward the same goal and that our opinions were valued. He is a 'normal bloke' and by that I mean he has a down-to-earth and personable approach. We always look forward to working with Paul and know that it will truly be 'with' and not 'for' him. When did you first hear about News of the World and at what stage did you sign on? OT: Paul told me about the film on a phone call, six months or so before filming started. He was really excited about the project, and said he'd always wanted to make a Western. In fact, 'I have always wanted to work on a Western' was the unanimous response from everyone on the team as they were told about the project. News of the World is adapted from Paulette Jiles' novel. Did you read this before you started on the film and were there any pieces Paul Greengrass used from the book to influence the soundtrack? RT: I read the novel from Paulette Jiles immediately after we had secured the job. I wanted to become fully emersed in that world and glean any little details I could that would influence what we recorded from the crowd artists, how busy and multicultural to make the different towns, what was happening in history at that point, where immigrants were largely coming from and why. Also, the mood of each new location—for example, the palpable air of violence as Kidd and Johanna enter Durand is so well described by Jiles, it couldn't fail to influence not only crowd but the oppressive tone in the mix as a whole. That leans, right into my next question. The loop group in this film is fantastic. The accents feel authentic and the performances feel so natural. There is a great amount of content that just fills the space around us. By the time we make it to Dallas, I noticed a shift in the accents, like there was more variety there. How much thought went into the various towns and the people inside them? RT: The changing, multicultural nature of Northern Texas at this time was crucial to Paul, and one of our earliest sound notes he gave us. Dallas is a prime example of where you really start to notice this. On the initial ride in, German, Irish, and Spanish are woven in, floating by us in the streets. Once inside the restaurant, small groups of new immigrants are huddled together at various tables. Paul wanted us to be very aware of this thread of a newly emerging nation running through the film. As we continue the journey toward Castroville, the German population starts to take over, and then onto San Antonio, where Spanish then comes to the fore as the emerging population in that town. On this film more than any other, it is as if we used crowd like artists use colors on a palette.