Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1401019
22 I m ps e . o rg the same producer and my brother is there in Ireland working on it. One of the guys tried to push me toward picture editing. I saw what they (picture editors) had to deal with and I didn't want any part of it. I stuck with sound editing. I thought fi lm cutting was too straightforward and sound editing was more convoluted; nobody knew how we did it (sound editing). One good thing about sound editing, it keeps changing as well. When I started, I worked with Moviolas and coding machines. There was an entire room dedicated to coding machines. By the end of the show, the codes had overlapped so many times that you couldn't read them anymore, you just had to fi gure it out. The noise in the coding room was really bad, we had a dedicated assistant to just keep those machines running all day. In one of the movies I worked on, we recorded the sound and slowed it down to use as a strange BG in a movie. How was the switch to digital editing and when did you do that? DD: Somewhere around 1994, I switched to Pro Tools. Right around this time, my wife Kim and I met while working for Bobby Maxton on The Simpsons. She had walked out onto the balcony of the cutting rooms and heard me swearing at my Pro Tools and she asked if she could help me. I hated having to learn it. You feel comfortable with how you work and then they want you to learn something new. I still swear at my computer today. KIM DRUMMOND: I already knew Pro Tools. Bobby Maxton showed me how to edit. I got started actually on Avid, which had a sound application back then. I then taught myself Pro Tools by editing on the job. What was it like working with your wife Kim? DD: I have worked with my wife Kim a lot over the years. I think it really helped our relationship. There were high-pressure situations, but we were able to laugh about it. It was great to spend time together working and we complemented each other. It had its upside and downside. Kim could cut through me with a look. When we didn't agree, she would let me know. That's a bad thing and a really good thing. When you work together, you don't want to say something that hurts someone's feelings and visa versa. I think we both felt that way. Kim, you have done countless shows together. Did you have to marry him to get a job? KD: Actually, when we met on a show, we kept it quiet for 6-8 months, as we didn't want anyone to know we were together. You want people to hire you for your talent, not your relationships. I had to work my ass off to get where I am. I loved my job as an ADR supervisor. The great thing about Dennis is he always cared about his crew. I really loved working with him for that reason. He treated everyone really well. The best part (for me) is that we could be together. We spend a lot of time editing and this way we didn't have to be apart. Dennis is profoundly critical and knowledgeable in the way he listens to the soundtrack with such great ears. He has a sixth sense of what is needed and where it goes. His clients knew this about him and that's why they kept coming back. Here we are 25 years later still together. We retired in 2019, right around the pandemic. We didn't like the working conditions and decided it was time. My last fi lm was Trial by Fire with Edward Zwick. It was a very brutal fi lm. It's not my job to judge. My job is to make the fi lm sound as good as I can even if the content is diffi cult. How was it working with your brother Patrick? DD: My brother Patrick and I worked on a lot of projects together, but we would have loved to have done more shows. Scheduling didn't always allow for that. We worked together whenever we could. I miss the big sound crews you would work with When I was up in Toronto, I used to do a lot of Foley walking. Nobody knew what Foley was back then and I enjoyed doing it a lot. Kim & Dennis, NYC 2002