Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1470109
36 I M PS E . O R G in New York he already had a great reputation in the sound world. And yet, he's this wide-eyed kind of a funny, energetic, irreverent guy who looks like he doesn't take the whole process entirely seriously, and yet, the work belies that. He's an incredible pro, very creative, and excited about what sound could mean, and also capable of working on any scale and budget, and making it work, whether it's as intense and involved as The Da Vinci Code or something like that, or Far and Away [1992], or a half-hour TV show that is on a really reduced budget. If he believed in the story, he would find a way to get it the sound design it needed. SS: Chic worked on 13 of your feature films, what was his style of delivering sound? RH: That entire post-production team, which included Dan Hanley and Mike Hill, Chic often had an assistant named Guy Barrissi there. Barrissi was a kind of a core, and because we were working on so many different kinds of films, it always came back to the characters, and trying to let the audience connect with those characters. And so whether it involved editorial rhythms and focus, whether it was music, or whether it was on the sound design side, ultimately, it was about making the moments effective for the audience, and connecting them with the characters so that they understood what it was like for those characters to experience what they were going through. SS: Character-driven. RH: Yes SS: I was the supervising Foley editor on The Da Vinci Code, Frost/Nixon and Angels & Demons. These three features had a huge impact on my career. I loved working with Chic and admired his sense of sound. We were creating sound design on the Foley stage, the opening of The Da Vinci Code was only my footsteps and Rickley Dumm's backgrounds. It was brilliant. I was very proud to have been a part of the process for all three films. You and I finally met on Angels & Demons. Thank you for such an incredible journey. RH: You're very welcome. And Chic loved the Foley stage, as did you, and I used to enjoy coming by and visiting. So I might not have met you that day, but I sort of remembered the shoes and the running. I did feel like it was one of those special opportunities. I agreed with the idea to try to make the footfalls the primary sound because I just felt like there'd be such a kind of loneliness and desperation in that, an urgency. And so as you're discussing it, I kind of remember the smile on my face as you guys were recording that. SS: Thank you, I'm very honored that you would be willing to do something as simple as visiting a Foley stage. It does matter, and it does affect the spirit of the Foley artists and the mixer that you would actually be there and contribute to part of the process because that doesn't happen. RH: Well, Chic—we're friends and we've done so much work together. He would let me know when there was some key sound that was going to be created, and when we were spotting and discussing, he would sometimes say, "I'd like you to be there for this one because I'm going to experiment with some sounds and I'd like to get your ears on it." It was probably at Chic's encouragement, and sometimes insistence, because I'm not sure how many other times I've really gone to the Foley stage. SS: Well, I'll tell you it does matter. And the Foley on The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons was actually brilliant! I have to tell you my Frost/Nixon story, because the character of Nixon would be sitting there on his chair, and he would do this [movement] with his hands, and it was all about his hands. We recorded every single move he made with his hands, all of it. I have a Foley library of hand pats and hand grabs and handshakes and hand everything because of Frost/Nixon. It was an incredible experience! I loved it! That was my favorite story about Frost/Nixon— his hands. CC: Wow! That's amazing! SS: It's something you would never even think of. Like you said, the audiences take it for granted. But if it wasn't there, you'd miss it. That was part of his character. We were developing his character. Ron Howard on the set of Apollo 13 [1995] ©Universal.