Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1061972
92 CINEMONTAGE / Q4 2018 one for the director in a stereo mix, the reaction was not what was hoped for. "Woody asked, 'What's that?'" Dichter remembers. "I said, 'Well, the opening music; it's nice.' He said, 'It's too big, it's too fat, it's too wide, it's too…everything. I want to bring it more to the middle of the screen.'" Allen was only satisfied when Dichter had moved the sound from full stereo to mono: "He said, 'That's it.' I said, 'It's right down the middle.' He said, 'It's perfect.'" Allen finally made the jump to stereo on Cassandra's Dream (2007); composer Philip Glass' original score for the film would not fold into mono because of phase cancellation, in which sounds are lessened or lost in a mix. Nevertheless, Dichter still had to mind his Ps and Qs. "We didn't use the word 'stereo' because that was too dangerous," he jokes. Top: Lee Dichter, right, with actor/director Robert De Niro during the mixing of A Bronx Tale in 1993. Right: Lee Dichter working on the mix of the documentary Walter Rosenblum: In Search of Pitt Street at Sound One in 1999. In the background are the film's subject, Walter Rosenblum, center, and director Nina Rosenblum. Photo by Tanya Braganti Below: At a visit to the Zoetrope Studios mix stage in Napa, California in 2002: Back row, from left, Blake Leyh, Skip Lievsay, Lew Goldstein, Lee Dichter, Dody Dorn, George Berndt; middle row, Gary Rydstrom, Larry Blake, Michael Kirchberger, Jerry Ross, Dale Strumpell; front row, Richard Beggs, Eugene Gearty and Tom Scott. Right: Touring Pixar Animation Studios with colleagues in 2005: Back row, from left, Larry Blake, Tom Scott, Dale Strumpell, "Sully," Ron Bochar, Michael Barry, Paul Soucek; middle row, "Mike," Lee Dichter, Blake Leyh, Michael Kirchberger; front, Elliot Tyson.