Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1081203
27 Q1 2019 / CINEMONTAGE MY MOST MEMORABLE FILM mentor," he relates. "He scored the orchestra after I did all the pre-records." The crew then returned to Signet Sound, where Vicari merged the orchestra and pre-records into the final mix. With the help of mix assistant Tom Hardisty, the final stems were mixed to Pro Tools. The final mix of music includes many original pre- records, such as the haunting scene in which Sullivan and his son drive to the warehouse where the murder that launches the plot takes place. "That whole piece of music is all pre-recorded, and then you have strings coming in at a certain point to add emotion," Vicari recounts. Other scenes, including the journey of Sullivan and son to Chicago, stand out for other orchestral appeal. "The 'Road to Chicago' is one of my favorite orchestral pieces," the scoring mixer offers. "The melody is really beautiful, and it kind of builds. When the kid sees Chicago, the camera pans around, and then the music really crescendos until he gets past all the people having dinner and then gets to an elevator." As the scoring mixer describes it, the composition itself was completed during the mix. "There are a lot of elements that get put on tape, and then Tom sits with me in the mix and we audition it," Vicari explains. "I can pretty much tell whether it's going to make it or not, but we put it on, because you never know. It may be a good piece here, a piece there. It all added to the mosaic Tom created." Newman, he added, was part of the process each step of the way. "He's involved in the direction that the musicians go all the way to the end of it," he reports. For his part, Mendes was impressed with the mix of music — and how prominent it was in the film's overall soundscape. "The way that the sound effects and the music co-exist in that movie is revolutionary," Vicari maintains. For Vicari, the adventure of working on Road to Perdition went beyond working on a memorable score. Despite his past experience on other projects, the film served as his official introduction to the world of major feature films. "I was new to the film business," he says. "On one of the scoring dates, Sam Mendes came in with cinematographer Conrad Hall. Now I did not know who Conrad Hall was. I used to wait for the credits to roll, but I was usually looking for music. That movie is so beautifully shot. It was Conrad's last film." It was just the beginning for Vicari, who went on to a multi-film collaboration with Newman. The two worked together on such films as Ron Howard's Cinderella Man (2005), Andrew Stanton's WALL-E (2008) and Steven Spielberg's Bridge of Spies (2015), as well as two more films for Mendes: Jarhead (2005) and Revolutionary Road (2008). "As far as growing up, all of this stuff with the record business was fun — and I was young," he reflects. "But these are great movies; Tom picks great movies." Today, the scoring mixer is as active as ever, working with composer Nicholas Britell on Moonlight (2016) and last year's acclaimed If Beale Street Could Talk, but he remains partial to the unique power of Road to Perdition. "If Road to Perdition was the only movie I ever got to work on in my lifetime, that would be OK with me," he says. "It was one of the highlights." f Road to Perdition. DreamWorks/Photofest "Keep in mind, this is a totally analog movie. Every 10 passes, I have to make a slave and then bounce it all back to two multi-tracks."