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32 CINEMONTAGE / Q2 2018 tried to run a little bit of a test five minutes before, because as soon as the mixers walk in, they want to press that button — 'Let's go and start mixing.' You don't want to have any issues." With his headphones — or, as he calls them, "cans" — in place, Nichols plowed through one scene at a time. "You start with Reel 1, Scene 1," he says. "You just stay with one particular thing — music — and you stay with it until you're blue in the face." Because multiple tracks were used, there were often as many as 50 pre-dubs per reel. "You would have the gunshots and the flybys and the F-16 flybys," Nichols explains. The music was also split into multiple tracks, too; vocals might be on one and strings on another. "My responsibility is not mixing them but listening to them," he adds. During the process, Nichols listened to the music alone; without the benefit of hearing dialogue or effects, the dips or fades in a passage of music occurred out of context. "Eventually, we took that reel and put in another reel and another reel, and mixed those all down to what you hear on the screen," he reflects. "Sometimes we went down and watched the playback, and I said, 'Wow! Okay, now I get it.' Before that, I was listening to it as music, and it kind of dipped or went high, and you don't understand why. Well, because the dialogue is coming in." Although Nichols had to keep his mind, and ears, on the music of Top Gun, he is equally effusive in praising the work of supervising sound editors Cecelia Hall, MPSE, and George Watters II. "They were on point as far as having the right sound effects," Nichols observes. "If there was a Kawasaki motorcycle that Tom drove, it had to be that same bike for the sound effect. At that time, nobody did anything like that — you know, 'a train was a train, and a car was a car.' It really made a difference." Nichols also commends director Scott, who went on to make such accomplished films as Days of Thunder (1990), True Romance (1993) and Crimson Tide (2005) before his death in 2012. "Tony was always very cool," Nichols says. "We had a cigar together a couple of times — what a treat. A little bit loud. A little cranky after 13 or 14 hours, but who isn't?" The two-month-plus mix kept Nichols away from his wife and children at home in Manhattan Beach. "It got to the point where I just got a room at a Holiday Inn," he says. "It was just easier for me to stay there than come back, because I would get off at about 12:30 a.m. and have to be back at 6:00 a.m. It was probably one of the longest movies I've ever worked on, but also one of the most rewarding movies I've ever worked on." Audiences were no less effusive. Prior to the release of Top Gun, many military movies had taken as their subject the trials and tribulations of the Vietnam War; Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter (1978), Karel Reisz's Who'll Stop the Rain (1978) and Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now (1979) considered the tragic costs of the conflict. Taking a different tack, Top Gun celebrated the men and women who served in uniform in an entertaining, unapologetic fashion. "The timing was amazing," Nichols reflects. "America needed this. It boosted up the military morale. They all wanted to be Maverick. There are quotes that are still being used today: 'Need for speed,' or 'You can be my wingman anytime.'" The film was honored at the Academy Awards, receiving nominations in all three post- production categories: Kline, Mitchell, O'Connell and production mixer William B. Kaplan, CAS, for Best Sound; Billy Weber, ACE, and Chris Lebenzon, ACE, for Best Film Editing; and Hall and Watters II for Best Sound Effects Editing. The prize for Best Original Song was awarded to the creators of "Take My Breath Away," composer Giorgio Moroder and lyricist Tom Whitlock. Nichols attended the ceremony to root on his colleagues, but perhaps even more thrilling for the recordist was the premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, when he knew his hard work had paid off. "I'll tell you, I got goosebumps," he reflects. "Coming out of the theatre, my shoulders were high and my chest pumped out. I thought, 'Wow! I had a piece of that.' It was just like being a proud papa." f CONTINUED FROM PAGE 30 Top Gun. Paramount Pictures/Photofest