Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1500189
38 M PS E . O R G STEVE LEE: Let's talk about how you got into this crazy career. As I understand it, you weren't directly going into sound when you started school at USC, right? You wanted to be a filmmaker. Is that correct? GARY RYDSTROM MPSE: I went to USC Film School and when I went, it was a small program—and everyone wanted to be a writer/director. But at USC, you have to do all the crafts. You have to. So I did a little bit of everything. And I did sound—and I loved sound. But if I were to have chosen at the time, what to do if it wasn't writing/directing—I loved picture editing. And actually had some opportunities to maybe go into picture editing. But then, you know, as things happen in your career, you think you're going this way, and then you go THAT way. I got a job offer at Lucasfilm in sound—and that's all it took. At the time especially—you get a job offer, you take it! In retrospect, I can't imagine how anymore lucky I could have been. The timing, the job offer, the place, the people. I was very lucky. SL: Well, you were recommended to Lucasfilm by the great Ken Miura, who also recommended Ben Burtt before you. So he had to have known that there was some kind of disposition for sound in your DNA. GR: Well, Ken Miura is a legend. He passed away just recently. He was really beloved. Students, in film school, especially at USC at the time, we would often get stressed. And the sound department, mostly because of Ken Miura, was a place to go to kind of get some reinforcement and comfort. Because Ken was such a nice guy. I mean, people called him Yoda because he felt like Yoda! And lucky for us, he always kept a good relationship with George Lucas. Because George Lucas had that same experience when he was in film school and Ken was someone he wanted to keep in contact with. Ken was the go-to at USC for "who do ya got?" Ben was the famous one. On Star Wars, they got Ben. So I was in a line. Tom Johnson also got work the same way I did. So, Ken was completely instrumental in my career. SL: That's wonderful. And when you started, you made it a point to go through—or perhaps it was happenstance— through all the different jobs. You started in the machine room, I believe, and then worked your way through. GR: Yeah. When I started in 1983, it was called Sprocket Systems. SL: That's right … wasn't it like, in a renovated beauty store or something…? GR: Well, it was across from a beer distributor … it was in an industrial park in San Rafael. And that's where Lucasfilm was. ILM was right next door, we were all in these kind of "A" "B" "C" buildings. It was a great great time. Back then, the earliest sound jobs I did, I could walk across the parking lot to ILM and see what they were doing with the visual effects. Which was very very cool. You can't do that these days. Now, the visual effects are over there, the sound is over here. So I did what I was told—I did any job that came up. But because it was so small, and because it had a reputation already for sound, because of Ben Burtt and Randy Thom and Gary Summers and people like that… I was lucky to get opportunities on films really pretty early on. I started "sound designing"—so called—in 1987 Gary Rydstrom poses with his two Oscars at the 64th Academy Awards for Sound Editing and Mixing on Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). Photo: ©AMPAS