Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1075515
C A S Q U A R T E R L Y W I N T E R 2 0 1 9 21 LEE ORLOFF CAS What was your first exposure to sound growing up? My great uncle was in the Army band and played clarinet, so I gave that a shot. But then I discovered the guitar, which I enjoyed a whole lot more. So, I played it throughout my youth. Were any other family members in the music or entertainment industry? My family was, and still is, in "shmattas," the fashion business in New York. Since I was a teenager, my father had introduced me to manufacturing and sales with an expectation that I'd be joining his company when it was time for me to get a real job. Well, it looks like that didn't happen! Were you thinking you might make it in music instead? Growing up, I'd been playing music with one of my closest friends, and his father was a commercial animator. Both his brothers went into that field and people I'd met through his family were a lot hipper than those I'd been exposed to through mine. I figured if I'd be working hard my whole life, I'd be better off in the end doing it alongside people more like them in that type of field than if I were selling dresses. Is that what led to you studying film & television at NYU? In the '70s, there weren't many film schools and NYU, conveniently, was one of the foremost. After I got in, I found myself focused on sound and editing. Having some musical background must've made me feel more comfortable wading into those areas. Plus, the lines were much shorter than for directing and camerawork. Were you getting exposure to the industry outside of class during that time? During my last couple of years at NYU, I worked in their equipment department. That experience led me to receive an offer to manage a number of rental departments at an established New York firm. I took the job knowing it would mean night classes for the degree, but it was steady work and I was building contacts. Did those contacts and that interaction pique your interest in pro- duction sound? I left the rental house after a couple of years to venture into production, certain the sound department was where I ultimately wanted to be. However, I'd get calls from former contacts and others for pretty much everything, and I'd take it even if it wasn't solely sound. So you weren't immediately working on the sound side after you left the rental house? No. I PA'd, worked a bunch with electric, pulling four aught, tying into boxes in basements of crummy old NY buildings. One of my departments at the rental house had been "Projection," so I'd get calls for interlock projection of dailies on Xenon units I knew. On location in Monument Valley for The Lone Ranger. AN INTERVIEW WITH PRODUCTION SOUND MIXER Recording in Bronson Cave. Using analog and digital Nagra recorders on the set of Heat.