Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/942009
25 Q1 2018 / CINEMONTAGE By the early 2000s, Lowry felt she was ready to make the jump from assistant music editor to full-fledged music editor. Two of her first jobs in that role — Jon Turteltaub's The Kid (2000) and 61* — reunited her with composer Shaiman, with whom she had worked as an assistant on several previous films. When offered the opportunity to work on 61*, she was in the middle of another project. "I ended up leaving that job, which was in a lot of tumult, because this was just too good to turn down," Lowry reflects. "It wasn't a lucrative job — HBO didn't pay me a whole lot to do it — but it was the chance to work again with Marc, who wrote this lush, amazing score." By the time Lowry arrived on 61*, source music had already been added to the film by Crystal and Jablow. "Even before I came on, Michael had cut all these great montages to songs like 'I Love Mickey' and 'Walk Don't Run,'" Lowry says. "To be perfectly honest, I hardly had to do anything but sit back and enjoy it. One of the joys of being a music editor is the fact that it's your job to listen to music. It's an amazing gift to be able to do that." Adding to the appeal of the job was the fact that the score was recorded at the legendary Stage M on the Paramount lot, the setting of many of Lowry's previous jobs; the stage, she adds, was demolished in 2008 to the dismay of the Hollywood scoring community. "Scoring mixer Tim Boyle and the orchestrators did a great job," Lowry comments. "Any time you get to sit in a scoring session with the exquisitely talented musicians we have in Los Angeles — and hear the score come to life as it's being played by those artists — it just gives you chills. "Watching 61* again," she continues, "one of the highlights for me is when Mickey Mantle hits his one-armed homer. The score just hits you right in the heart. When Roger breaks the record and hits the 61st home run, the cymbals crash when he has to come out of the dugout and tip his hat. Then the score swells again when he has to come out and tip his hat again. Without Marc's score, the movie would be totally different." Throughout the process, Lowry remembers, Crystal was a hands-on collaborator. "This was Billy's baby," she says. "He was having the time of his life making the movie of his life, based on his idols growing up. It was a total passion project for him." Yet the film ended up being equally rewarding for Lowry, who was among the team honored with Emmy Awards for Outstanding Sound Editing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special. The film, which also won an Emmy for Mali Finn's casting, was nominated in 10 other categories, including for Crystal's direction, the sound mixing team of Jeff Wexler, Matt Iadarola, Gary Gegan and Gary Coppola, MPSE, and for the picture editing of Jablow, ACE. "I actually felt guilty getting the Emmy because if anyone should get it, it should be Michael," Lowry observes. "He's a great editor, and he has a great ear for music." For Lowry, however, more important than recognition was the project's personal significance. She thought of the film again in 2015, when she paid her first visit to the new Yankee Stadium (opened in 2009) with her father, stepmother and other members of her family in tow. "We got there early so we could go out to Monument Park and look at all the monuments," Lowry says. "There's also a little museum that you can visit, which is really cool. They have Maris' and Mantle's jerseys and bats, photos; and World Series rings and trophies." She adds: "You better believe that I was thinking about 61* on that day!" f Top: 61*. HBO/Photofest Above: Stephanie Lowry in 2001 with her Emmy Award for her work on 61*. Photo by Mathew Photographic Services