Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1487666
68 W I N T E R 2 0 2 3 I C A S Q U A R T E R L Y ready to travel the gear and my team to Rosarito, Mexico. We negotiated the finer points and agreed to have the equipment picked up the next day, and my crew and I to travel to Mexico the day after that, a Saturday. It wasn't until I arrived at the location that I could string together a straight story of the preceding events. I found that my name had been put in the hopper by the co-first assistant director, whom I had worked with on Desperado, also in Mexico. Also, the truth came out that the A-list production sound crew from Mexico City had quit and given two weeks' notice to the production over incompatibility issues with the director. I was 42 years old, been mixing sound professionally for around 20 years, and had a 1-year-old baby daughter at home. I also had a policy of great caution when taking over a project already underway as, usually, it didn't bode well for the shooting environment. In this case, I reached out to the outgoing crew to get plugged in to their journey. This was initially brief and sketchy but I had enough info to know that I wasn't being used to sandbag them and that they were leaving by their own choice. It helped that the boom operator and I had worked together on Desperado and were good friends by then. I knew he spoke his truth. I could also tell by his voice that he was exhausted and stressed. So, my team and I—Donavan Dear (boom op) and Jim Osburn (UST)—arrive on Saturday to find our equipment dumped in a pile about ¾ of a mile from the shooting area. We began by requisitioning a box truck to build into for the duration. Pedro, the outgoing boom op, filled me in with his story and begged us to be able to take over that day so he and his team could leave. This wasn't possible obviously, and we prepared to begin the show in two days. That first day was critical for us. It would establish us with the director who had been at odds with the outgoing crew and could return to that tactic under certain circumstances. What amount of prep time did you get? Who else worked in your department and in what capacity? GR: My involvement with early post-production was as a help to Chris Boyes, the sound designer on the film. It was such a big job, so I was available to help the early design for the movie. Chris and supervising editor Tom Bellfort were primarily responsible for the planning and design of the sound job. TB: The sound crew had approximately 30 people working; editors, assistants, and mixers—the largest sound crew I had ever managed. If memory serves me, Chris and I began in February, with a stated release date of July 2. Titanic had its premiere in Tokyo on October 1. Jim stated that he wanted to come back for just a few days to do some "brush ups." Those few days became three very long days and weeks. That added extension gave use some breathing room to better craft the massive job. The easiest and the most facile method to create sonic chaos is to throw a bunch of dense and loud sound effects—throw everything with the kitchen sink. But what you get is a loud mess, "Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing" —a bit of Shakespeare. You fail to differentiate the tree from the forest. You lose what is primary, the purpose of each shot. And each shot has a purpose in a well-constructed movie. And that is what Jim gave us. What equipment did you use? What unusual techniques did you employ to be innovative? Imagine using today's tech—how would you approach Titanic if it were shot in 2022? MU: We filmed in Rosarito Beach, Mexico, at the instantaneously built studio facility and deep-water tanks assembled specifically for this project. We worked from September 1996 until early May 1997. We recorded the show on a stereo Nagra ¼" reel-to-reel as backup to a Fostex PD-4 DAT 2-track machine as primary. No multitrack safety net. I mixed on a Sonosax desk with a Mackie board, cross-patched as a communications mixer. My primary boom mics were Neumann KMR 82 shotguns with occasional Sennheiser 816's and 416's. Lavs were mostly Countryman EMW's, as they were certified as Gary Rydstrom CAS