Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1075515
18 W I N T E R 2 0 1 9 C A S Q U A R T E R L Y She later approached me to come to Shanghai to give an extended workshop to their graduate film students and film professionals at the prestigious Jiao Tong University. Their international program is in deep collaboration with University of Southern California (USC). After Amsterdam, we were diving head first into Quentin's passion project for the next six months, however, we could be available right after, which is what happened and what a blessing. My partner and longtime boom operator, Patrushkha Mierzwa, and I flew to China at the end of November and taught an intensive two-week workshop in Shanghai to a group of Dr. Ho's amazing and devoted graduate students, all in the heart of their creative careers. We dove deep into the theory and practice of creative sound for film, covering attitude, philosophy, and technique of telling the story, revealing the characters and serving the project. The iconic Japanese sound master, sensei Tetsuo Segawa, joined us in our teaching. Tetsuo rounded out our team with his extensive history and knowledge of post production, as well as his approach to production work. We focused on the creative relationship with the project, the director, and the performers. The dominant metaphor was our membership in the orchestra of filmmaking. We perform the score-script, lead by our conductor-director as musician-filmmakers. We're passionately devoted to the study and performance of our instrument, but become fully expressed when we make music and telling the story with our fellow musicians. Daily practical exercises in sound approach, dailies the next day, the individual projects, then taken through post and evolving over the two weeks was a testament to the learning going on in the class. Dr. Ho and her husband/creative partner, professor of Art Ouchal Hwang, became fast friends with us as we recognized like spirits and common ground. The teaching was focused and reciprocal. We learned as much about Chinese film culture as we taught about creative sound culture. A true meeting of the minds was achieved. Once we had booked our time in Shanghai, I naturally alerted my old friend Xueli about our trip and he responded by approaching his friends and colleagues at the Beijing Film Academy (now grown to substantial size and sophistication compared to nearly 20 years ago) about taking advantage of our presence for the Beijing school. And so, we were invited to add a workshop for them as well. Professor Li Wei was an old classmate of Xueli and she is now head of the sound program at BFA. When we completed our time in Shanghai, we tearfully said our goodbyes to our great new friends and took the four-hour bullet train from Shanghai to the freezing December weather of Beijing. Xueli, his wife, and professor Wei met us at the train station with gifts of giant down coats and warm hearts. It's an amazing feeling to travel to a strange city in a foreign land and to be greeted warmly by old friends. The Academy had grown enormously from my last time there. They had to move the venue to the major lecture hall as the response to news of our class overwhelmed to the intended space. We had several hundred attendees to our two days of talk and demonstration. While there, Patrushkha and I would be celebrating our 37th wedding anniversary and unbeknownst to us, our hosts arranged an amazing dinner for us and a whole film faculty; over 25 teachers brought us flowers and gifts and blew us away. Most special was the opportunity to reconnect with Xueli and make new relationships, bringing the East and West sound communities closer together. We have been asked to return for a touring lecture series for several other universities and look forward to advancing the art with our piece of the conversation. We also look forward to 2019, with bookings in Dublin, London, Oslo, Rome, and Maine. •