Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1475409
46 I M PS E . O R G a month in a bomb shelter. My parents used to have a radio/tape recorder to listen to the news in the shelters. It was common for all families to have that and as kids we had to listen to hundreds of radio news with background bombs, etc… I remember using this radio to record our voices, my voice as well, as music to listen to it later on. I maintained this practice for several years, recording everything around me using this same device. At times, I even recorded private conversations and so became the keeper of all the secrets! When I grew up, I understood that this habit of recording helped me overcome the violence of war and was, perhaps, my only assurance that I was still alive. My mother is a huge fan of cinema and she often forced me and my sister to watch films. We saw a lot of classics and I remember crying while watching Gone with the Wind because she made me! When it was time for me to choose my field of study, I knew that I wanted something that could combine sociology and creativity. I needed to understand my childhood's fears in order to live a normal life without traumas. That's when a friend suggested to do film studies. I jumped at the chance and started. I already had a huge interest in physics and when I took my first sound class and I immediately fell in love. I told my sound teacher about my recording habit and I will never forget his answer: "You told me that you like sociology, politics, and physics. I guess you know what you have to do … sound." And he was right. CM: Rana, how did you transition into doing sound as your vocation? RE: I graduated in 1999 to an extremely poor film scene. Almost all my colleagues went to work in TV stations and advertisement companies. I struggled a lot, since it wasn't what I wanted at all but I managed to survive while working occasionally on short films and documentaries as a sound mixer. At the time, the film industry was almost nonexistent and the directors and producers used to hire all the film technicians from abroad (especially France). It wasn't easy to have a place as a sound person. Being a young woman didn't help either. In 2001, a now deceased Lebanese director Randa Chahhal Sabbag, was planning to shoot her film The Kite (which won the Silver Lion grand prize of the Jury at the Venice Film Festival in 2003). The whole main position crew was French (The producer was French: the renowned Humbert Balsan who died several years ago). I worked as props manager on the film, to have the opportunity to be on a film set. A few weeks later, the sound mixer was fired. I gambled and asked Randa and Humbert to replace him. Randa was so happy to help a young woman, and Humbert wished me luck and promised to help me continue as long as I did a good job! And I did it, and the sound turned out well. It was the best day of my life. Then, in 2002, Humbert produced a film for the Egyptian director Yussry Nassrallah, Bab el Shams, on which he hired me as a boom operator with a French sound mixer. After that, Humbert and Randa offered to send me to France for training in sound editing on Randa's film. I stayed there almost a year, watching sound editors on several Arabic and foreign films. I decided then that sound editing was my thing. Humbert offered me the opportunity to stay in Paris and work as a sound editor. Though after a lot of thinking, I decided to come back to Lebanon. I didn't want to be another sound editor amongst several in Paris, I wanted to establish sound editing in Beirut. I wanted to listen to my city, to find the sound identity of Beirut, to do more professional work that I used to do as a kid. I wanted to prove that we can have "sound editing" as a profession in Beirut. I went back with this mission in my mind and in my heart. After 20 years, I can say that we have sound editing/design in Beirut. I have in DB Studios, a wonderful team and there are few independent sound editors as well. CM: Who are your mentors, and how did you connect with them? Foley on set by sound mixer Cedric Kayam for the Lebanese film All This Victory by Ahmad Ghossein.