Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1433345
28 PRODUCTION SOUND & VIDEO – Winter 2022 While working on location in Hawaii on a sunny Sunday afternoon, I received an email from the New Mexico production office for Netflix's The Harder They Fall, confirming the script, written and directed by Jeymes Samuel, was on its way. Ten pages into my read, it was very clear that the music references in the script were going to be as essential and important as any performer or character in the film. I put the script down for a few minutes, opened a music app, and started my read again from scene one. Headphones on pulling up the music cues that Jeymes had noted in the script. It is rare that I read a script all at once, but I found myself unable to pull away from the pages. The Old West was illustrated in a way never represented before, a truthful exploration of mid/late nineteenth-century pioneers, lawmen, women, and outlaws. Next on the agenda, my first virtual meeting with Jeymes. I grew up in Bayamón, Puerto Rico, on the outskirts of San Juan, and Afro-Caribbean rhythms were a big part of my upbringing, and music is what lead my path to Production Sound. My conversation with Jeymes in our first meeting drifted immediately into the music aspect of the film, and the influence music had on both our careers. This first conversation and the ones that followed, put into perspective Jeymes' vision, and I began putting together a plan for our preproduction phase for The Harder They Fall. Boom Operator Douglas Shamburger and Sound Utility Nick Ronzio joined the sound team. Doug is an outstanding Boom Operator with decades of feature films on his résumé, and Nick's years in the field and vast Pro Tools knowledge were instrumental to our production soundtrack success. Joining us locally from our sister New Mexico Local 480 was Phillip Blahd (2020 Academy Award winner), and David Sickles, who was able to help with additional units and personnel. The Harder They