Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1061972
88 CINEMONTAGE / Q4 2018 was screaming on camera, and I had to get both of them." Yet if equalization was added to the scene, the screaming would be rendered even sharper, so the mixer had to get creative. "By de-essing the loud one, I was able to bring the other one up," he explains, referring to the process by which "ess" sounds are diminished on the soundtrack. Dichter's generosity of spirit — another hallmark of the Fellowship and Service Award — is evidenced in his passion for one of his most notable documentaries, Rob Epstein's The Times of Harvey Milk (1984), which takes as its subject Harvey Milk, an openly gay politician in San Francisco who was murdered in 1978. A store run by Milk's family was located in Dichter's boyhood town of Woodmere, New York. "They sold clothing and sneakers and things," Dichter remembers. "My mother used to bring me in frequently as I was growing out of my sneakers at a rapid pace. The Milks lived around the corner from us, and I would walk past their home daily. Working on the actual film itself was very moving." The mixer had the opportunity to leave Photo- Mag for Trans/Audio — the company created by brothers John F. and Richard J. Vorisek that had since merged with Todd-AO — about six years earlier, but his father discouraged him from doing so. "I said, 'Dad, I was contacted by Trans/Audio. They want to have a meeting with me. What should I do?'" Dichter recalls. "He said, 'As a businessman, I have to tell you to go. As a father, I have to tell you not to go.' My father drew the line. I made the decision to stay because I couldn't live with breaking up the family." LANDING AT SOUND ONE In 1980, however, Dichter's younger brother Bobby unexpectedly died, leaving the family, particularly his father, despondent. "My dad also taught him how to mix," Dichter says. "From that point on, Dad was crushed and didn't come to work much. After my father was diagnosed with inoperable cancer, his business partner tried to take control of the company, making it untenable for me to continue to work there." Star 80 — Bob Fosse's 1983 film about the murder of Playboy model and burgeoning film actress Dorothy Stratten — had been booked to mix at Photo- Mag but moved with Dichter to Sound One that year. "It was during the second week of the mix that my father died," he says. "It was a very dramatic and traumatic transition." After Dichter settled into his new job, however, he found that Sound One was the perfect landing spot. "They had about 35 rooms of picture and sound editing for features and documentaries," Dichter says. "They did Foley recording. They did ADR recording. We had none of that over at Photo- Mag because we weren't set up for it." What's more, the re-recording mixer was able to hit the ground running with a client list he took with him from Photo-Mag. Among his 24 credits in 1984-1985, for example, were films for directors Francis Ford Coppola (The Cotton Club), Sidney Lumet (Garbo Talks), Arthur Penn (Target) and Jerry Schatzberg (Misunderstood). "I just knew I was in the thick of it," Dichter comments. "Sometimes when you're mixing a film the hours can be crazy, but it was always very exciting to be working with At the mix of the docu- mentary Joe and Maxi at Photo-Mag in 1978: Standing, co-director Maxi Cohen, left, and co-director Joel Gold; Lee Dichter is seated and flanked by unknown women. Photo by Susan Lazarus Lee Dichter on his first job in film — as an assistant sound recordist and an actor — on the set of Flesh and Lace with actress Heather Hall in 1965. Photo by Ivan Henry