Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1448505
M OT I O N P I CTU R E S O U N D E D I TO R S I 63 Flight 93 (United 93), BandE, Young Hannibal (Hannibal Rising ) On a Monday in late October 2005, I got a surprise phone call from the editor Stuart Baird who I hadn't spoken to in years. He had been chosen to be the editor on the next Bond film which Martin Campbell was directing and in which Daniel Craig was making his debut as Bond. Mike Solinger had told me that he had tried to get me on the last two Bond movies but this was particularly interesting as the approach this time wasn't from Mike. Was I free in 2006 and was I interested? I was and who wouldn't be? Stuart and I arranged to meet the next day to discuss how it could be done. We had a good meeting and shook hands on it. Stuart explained that he liked to get everything settled regarding post-production before shooting began. Suited me. The next day I rang Solinger to see if he knew and how he felt. I also rang my boss in Hollywood, Bob Rosenthal, who was thrilled at the news and said that that had guaranteed Soundelux London's existence for 2006. At Soundelux we were busy with various projects, including Adidas adverts on which my son Alex was the sound designer. Martin Cantwell was involved in Dead Chronicles but that was never going to happen! In the meantime, Mike Solinger wanted us to do a low-budget film called Flight 93 (which became United 93) and could I prepare a bid. A few days later we were asked to prepare a 40-minute soundscape of Flight 93 having the aircraft starting up, taxiing, taking off, continuing in flight and, finally, going into a dive. This, it was explained, would be a playback which Chris Munro (the production mixer) would start at the beginning of every 40-minute take that the director Paul Greengrass would shoot and act as a guide for the 40-odd actors on board to react to! I said that it was crazy! The last thing we needed for clean usable dialogue was to hear a noisy ever changing background. Nevertheless it was what Paul wanted and so I asked Richard Fordham to prepare the track. On Wednesday, 9th November, I got summoned to a post meeting at Pinewood for Flight 93 with both, one of the editors, Chris Rouse, and the director on phones. I decided to take Simon Chase with me to back me up about the logic of aiming for clean sound. We all told Paul but he was adamant. So there we were throwing logic out of the window. A week later I got Stuart Baird, Mike Prestwood Smith (MPS) and Mike Solinger, into the main mix room at De Lane Lea. Stuart said that it was a bit small and wanted to hear clips from previous Bond films through their system. We played Goldeneye which Martin Campbell had directed and another two. Goldeneye sounded OK but not fantastic, the others less so. Martin Cantwell and I went to see Lisa Gunning, Breaking and Entering's editor, in Hampstead at Anthony Minghella's headquarters. That evening I had organised a recording crew (with 3 recorders) to go to a stage at Pinewood where an entire interior aircraft was assembled to shoot anything that moved from the cockpit right down to the galleys, the toilets, overhead lockers, etc., you name it we could shoot it. This we did. Kind of guerrilla Foley and subsequently very useful. The script told us approximately what would be taking place on board the aircraft and so we recorded and recorded and?? On Monday the 28th, we sent Richard Fordham to be on set at Pinewood for the two weeks of shooting on the aircraft to help Chris Munro with the playback. Pene (my wife) and I had been invited to The Coliseum to see Anthony Minghella's version of Madama Butterfly. It was mesmerising. I had been involved in some sound effects for this particular production. Martin had the opportunity to record police cars at Hendon. Which, of course, he took. We started foley recording on BandE at Universal at Amersham. Colin Ritchie, our principal dialogue editor, had decided to be part of a sailing crew on a round-the-world yacht race and wouldn't be back until next summer. I said that if he was back in time he could work on the Bond! I promoted his understudy Simon Chase which proved to be inspirational. I introduced Mike Prestwood Smith to Paul Greengrass and Lloyd Levin (producer) hoping that they would accept him as the re- recording mixer on Flight 93. We began a temp on Breaking and Entering on Friday 9th in Goldcrest Theatre 4. The BandE preview was held on Wednesday 14th at the Everyman Hampstead. There were technical problems in rehearsal but it played well. Anthony Minghella took BandE to LA to show it to his producing partner Sydney Pollack and to Harvey and Bob Weinstein! 2006 We had a technical meeting on the Bond on January 6th with Stuart and Mike Prestwood Smith. A week or so later Stuart Baird, Mike Solinger and I had lunch together to finalise the post- production or rather Stuart told us and we agreed! This is a kind of diary I kept for a year from October 2005 to October 2006.