Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1490686
M OT I O N P I CTU R E S O U N D E D I TO R S I 37 those films in the middle like this one that we used to have that were often the most fun. No franchise or studio's well-being hanging in the balance, no asses to kiss, no quaking in boots, no six or seven studio execs and producers who you are seeing for the first time at a playback giving those notes you kind of resent before they are delivered. Just a bunch of professionals collaborating, having fun and doing what they do best. My dad's day on the lot was ending. My sister Maria and I slow-walked with him back to their car. I was hoping for a Clint Eastwood sighting or at least seeing one of those Big Bang Theory TV people. Didn't happen. Oh well, it had still been a full day for the old guy and it did have a fairytale ending. He had been born during the silent film era and lived to give notes on an Atmos mix. Amazing. He's gone now. We lost him at the end of 2019 at the beginning of the pandemic. My sisters remain convinced he had an early undiagnosed case of COVID. Who knows? He made it to 96 years old undiminished, smart and funny to the end. In his last days in his hospital bed just to make us laugh, he would point to the ceiling pretending to see loved ones who had passed hovering there calling to him. We would walk in and find him laying with eyes closed his forearms crossed making an "X" in the classic casket pose his small smile and the hiss of the cannula giving him away. What a funny, brave guy. Not a trace of self-pity or regret. Totally at peace with the life he led and where he now was. He decided when to turn the oxygen off and passed away with all four of his adult children crowded in that hospital bed holding him, telling him over and over how much he was loved. From some other movie I worked on, "It was a good death." Well, that quickly turned way too weirdly personal, sorry. I should have warned you to look away. Into the Storm was released on my dad's 91st birthday. My father and I later took great delight together reading the online Blu-ray reviews where most gave it five-star audio reviews with one saying, "The louder you play it, the more effective it becomes." The louder you play it, the more effective it becomes … we looked at each other and laughed. See you on the other side old man where all the bathrooms have heaters, the clarinet is still a respected lead instrument and the dialogue and music are always both clean and clear. Take that, Garrison Keillor. James Assells, Chris, Maria Assells Klein, Per Hallberg (2013).