Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/634968
myth in their own language, Keresan. The leaders of the Pueblo were worried the young ones were losing the lan- guage, so they wanted to record the old man telling the tale. I was about to volunteer when they told me it takes three full days to tell the story. Couldn't do that on our production schedule, but I had a plan B. I carry a beautiful Nagra SD handheld recorder that I used for ambiences. It has an excellent built-in mic and easy one-button opera- tion. I left them the recorder with instructions on how to use it and a request to mail it back when they no longer need it. I think my grandchildren will receive a mystery package from the Laguna Pueblo many years from now! I can't say enough about our Director, Denis Villeneuve. He's calm, quiet, focused, good-natured and incredibly talented. Two years ago, I was flipping channels in Taos as a movie started. It was Prisoners. Within a minute I was saying to myself, 'Who shot this?' after another minute it was, 'Who directed this?' So when I got the call for Sicario, I realized it was the same director and DP. It didn't take long to say yes! Sicario was that rare perfect storm of script, cast and crew. Emily Blunt, Benicio del Toro and Josh Brolin are superb actors and consummate professionals. My crew, Jay and Andrejs, are young but incredibly talented, hard working and unflappable. The Key Grip, Mitch Lillian, can put any- thing anywhere seemingly by magic. And the Gaffer, Chris Napolitano, was a master at sympathy whenever Roger lit a scene with bare bulbs. Thank you to Prop Master Keith Walters and Wardrobe Jennifer Gingery, for their help in wiring actors in full Delta team gear. Although I never met him, my thanks to Mexican Mixer Fernando Camara, who came in for the few days when the company shot drive-by scenes in Mexico City, doubling for Juarez. After working on a number of movies and television shows that seemed a bit divorced from the art of filmmaking, Sicario was immersed in it. Films like this are the reason, I suppose, that most of us are in this business. Oh yes, the goatheads. I think they appeared in New Mex- ico shortly after the Atomic bomb tests in Alamogordo. They are incredibly hard and sharp seedpods that attach to everything and love to puncture pneumatic cart tires. They are at their diabolical best when they stick to your boots and fall off in your hotel room eagerly awaiting your bare feet. A subtle reminder of the previous day's location. Left: A lighter moment at the border crossing with Andrejs (Captain Latvia) Prokopenko, Second Boom, Utility, Jay Collins, Boom, and Judi Townsend, Script Supervisor. Above: The cart. The monitors have since been replaced by Marshall Dual 7 SDIs. " The difference between a good boom person and a great one is their command of the set. "