Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1500189
22 M PS E . O R G fter attending four universities in four years and graduating from NYU, supervising sound editor Gwendolyn Yates Whittle was at a crossroads. She was living in New York with her sister and they were looking for new adventures and possibly careers, so they got a bottle of wine and a map of the United States and spun the bottle! It pointed to San Francisco. The year was 1984. A not far from San Francisco. I borrowed his car, and drove up to the interview. They asked me what I wanted to do so I said, 'How about the art department?' I'm still friends with my fellow paint brush cleaner on the show, Mark Levinson. I also helped in the production office, doing anything needed, organizing resumes, etc., when through pure fluke (story of my life, really), I heard they needed a picture assistant, and I piped up that I could do that based on what I had learned from NYU. I was in WAY over my head, but the very patient picture editor, Patrick Dodd, stuck with me. It was the best education— trial by fire, and I survived! "The film was Laura Dern's Sundance film, Smooth Talk. Patrick Dodd and I were the entire picture team. Clearly, he saw that I wasn't a seasoned assistant, so he taught me everything about a cutting room. When we were ready for sound, we brought on [sound editor] Doug Murray, and my roommate, Polly Holmes, as the sound assistant. It's funny because Doug was also nominated for an Oscar this year [ for The Batman] so we got to catch up at all the Oscar events." As I was listening to Gwen talk about her start in the business by spinning a bottle and following its direction, I was curious about her life's "through line." Timing, chance, and sometimes making choices based on circumstances is what puts you where you want to be. Victoria Rose Sampson MPSE: How did you get the job at Skywalker? Gwendolyn Yates Whittle MPSE: I got a copy of The Hollywood Reporter. They used to run ads for jobs so I had sent out resumes for jobs in both Los Angeles and San Francisco. We didn't have cellphones back then, only answering machines. I forced myself not to sit by the phone one day, and when I came "Sometimes it's a matter of timing and having the sort of audacity to follow up on it." Gwen didn't know how to get a job in film—she had no connections and didn't know anyone in the business. But she followed her own advice and she and her sister moved to San Francisco with the caveat that "We can always move back to New York." (Which her sister did after two years.) But Gwen liked San Francisco. She saw an ad in the Film Arts Foundation magazine looking for non- paid help on a low-budget production. "My grandfather lived in Redwood City, L-R: CJ Appel—supervising ADR editor (died way too young), Chris Beaver (assistant ADR editor), Gwen (very young— assistant dialogue editor), Michael Silvers (supervising dialogue editor), Tina Fallani (apprentice dialogue editor— now teaches Italian film history in Florence!)—at the wrap of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988) at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley.