Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/830490
C A S Q U A R T E R L Y S P R I N G 2 0 1 7 53 judge the caliber of the students by their reaction to those scenes, and I agree. Whenever I watched it as TA or teacher, I saw that it was the lightbulb moment for many people who wound up getting into sound. But if people were bored with that (and many were, they were there to be directors, not sound designers or mixers), it could be a trying semester. Sometimes challenging students can turn out to be strong. John Singleton admits he struggled to pass Tom's class (it was notoriously difficult), but was the first to thank Tom when he gave a commencement speech at USC, pointing out that he got the gig direct- ing Boyz n the Hood by explaining that he would stick to the low budget by using sound design and lighting effects rather having to rent a helicopter and other vehi- cles for the film. Tom says that the greatest pleasure is seeing former students' names in credits (a sentiment echoed by Ron Curfman). Yet he is quick to point out that the students who force you to raise the bar as a professor are the ones who will get the most out of mentorship. He cites sound designer Erik Aadahl, two- time Oscar nominee for Transformers: Dark of the Moon and Argo, as one who made him step up as a teacher. Ironically, since Tom was the only person teaching in the film school who had a complex understanding of statistics, he was asked to do a survey of alumni to see what they thought of the program. Although Tom's name was not on the survey, the alumni overwhelm- ingly chose his class as their favorite at USC. Some of the other faculty questioned Tom's involvement, so they re-did it the follow- ing year with an outside group, and got the exact same response. Tom left USC in 2011. The day after spring commencement that year, he went to a wedding. The next day, he drove to Cupertino and, in typi- cal Tom Holman fashion, three days after commencement, he began work at Apple Computers without a break. Tom is still very active on the Board of the Cinema Audio Society and various other organiza- tions. Tom has been a mentor to me since he first chose me as a TA in 1987. Coming up on the 30-year anniversary of our relation- ship, I am incredibly thankful for all the guidance he has given me. Tom filled-in other gaps in my audio education, includ- ing the technical aspects of the industry, and he brought a working knowledge of post production to USC that was far more in-depth than my other mentors. His Fun artwork from Gary Rydstrom's animated short The Committee. Back row: Ken Robinson, Ken Miura, Dan Wiegand, Dick Harber. Front row: Gene Coe, Mel Sloan, Dave Johnson position in film sound is unique as he designed THX sound, which created a high standard of quality that sound designers and mixers want to live up to. Because of this, he taught re-recording mixing more extensively than the other faculty. It has also been tremendously important to my career for me to have people who were experienced in academia like Tom and Rodger as mentors. He has helped me innumerable times over the decades, and I am proud to consider him not only a mentor, but a lifelong friend. Ken Miura, Ron Curfman, Rodger Pardee, and Tom Holman combined to give me the mentorship I needed. While I was still a student, I got my first paying gig as a music editor on a theatrically released feature film. Immediately after graduating, I was hired by Bill Varney (former president of the CAS) to start working as a trainee at Universal Studios, and less than a year after that, I was mixing at a small facility in the Valley. I would never have been ready to sit down as a mixer without the combined knowledge and support of these four gentlemen, and for that, I am forever indebted. •