Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1500189
68 M PS E . O R G up on the water on sailboats and had read all the Patrick O'Brian books, so I was really keen to get this movie. I was in NY with my family mixing a film when I got a call from the picture editor Lee Smith. I guess he liked me because when I got back to LA, I was invited to visit the set in Rosarito Beach, Mexico. That's where I met Lee and Peter. Peter was gracious enough to show me through the gundeck set they were shooting on that day. Peter said he didn't want to use a lot of music and wanted the audience to experience the ship as a living thing, almost a character. He wanted the sounds of that world to comprise much of the film's soundtrack; not to make light of the musical score, which is perfect but comprises less than half the running time. That year working on Master & Commander was one of the most enjoyable years of my creative life. After the shoot wrapped, my recording buddies John Fasal, Eric Potter, and I went down to the Fox lot in Baja to spend a few days recording. We recorded on the full-size set, the 'Frankenship,' located in the artificial lagoon they dug for Titanic, as well as a couple of trips out sailing on the full- rigged ship Rose (aka HMS Surprise) and got a world of material. During that year on Master & Commander, we recorded not only the Rose at sea but several more large sailing ships out of Long Beach Harbour, one in gale conditions, several large muzzle-loading cannons of different calibres firing full loads at a large wooden target we built, muskets, wind through rigging (that's a story!). We borrowed a sail from the Rose's inventory to record sail flaps out in the desert where the wind is strong and predictable, and group ADR in London with a truly international loop group to get a variety of accents and languages as would have been the case on Royal Navy vessels at that time. And a whole lot more. We asked the crew of the Surprise to run around deck while we recorded in quad below as you'd pretty much always hear other people on a 100- foot ship with hundreds of crew members. We're onboard the ship for almost the entire film (save a brief landing at the Galapagos) and sound was a good way to differentiate between the different decks and generally add variety and accurate detail. My editors and I created those distinctions with this enormous library of material we'd recorded. Then we mixed the film with my good friends, Doug Hemphill and Paul Massey. Everything just clicked. So, a smallish group of talented people, working on a passion project got the time and resources to make the film sound as cool and dynamic as they could. All of us were led and inspired by Peter Weir. For me, just meeting Peter would have been memorable, but then I got to work on his movie! Set in a world I was obsessed with and happened to know a bit about!! On sailboats!!! With good friends!!!! But I've gushed enough… It's interesting you should mention Peter Weir. When I asked Peter if he would talk to me about your contribution to his films, he replied, "It's a pleasure to recall our work together." "Our first meeting was a blast if I can use a sound effect! Richard was into detail, minute detail, and so was I, and the task I set for him on Master & Commander was going to put him to the test. On a square-rigged ship, everything moves all the time—there are groans and chafings, flappings, drips, and gurgles, and the constant slap of water on the hull—and then there were the ship-to-ship battles—the crash of cannon fire, the shattering screech of the gun carriages—then the L-R: Richard, Eric Potter, John Fasal & Andrew Bock, The Dark Knight recording team. John Fasal & Richard, recording Bruce Wayne's Lamborghini, The Dark Knight (2008). Photo by Andrew Bock