Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1500189
M OT I O N P I CTU R E S O U N D E D I TO R S 69 roar and howling of the storm going 'round the horn—a vast orchestra of sounds. And Richard the conductor. Even the premixes were fascinating, let alone the final. He's a master of his craft and a gentleman to boot. He gave so much to that complex film I can never thank him enough." –Peter Weir, via email, March 2023 And I can never thank Peter enough for bringing me on, I learned so much from him. Doug Hemphill and I worked for several days pre- dubbing the sound FX for the storm sequence and it really sounded great. We brought him in to see what we'd done and did a fairly sloppy, live 'final' pass for him of the scene. Inevitably, some things were too loud and others were too low, a bit of a mess. He loved it and we continued to polish and refine. When we felt we were done, we brought him back in (he had an office off the stage where he spent a lot of time so he could retain objectivity and avoid ear fatigue). As we were playing the 'refined' version, he seemed less than enthusiastic and said afterward that he'd liked it better before; spiky sound effects, shouted commands that were all but inaudible. It was dynamic and chaotic. The rough version sounded much more dangerous and shocking, as it would have in a hurricane, so we went with that. It was a great lesson in not overworking or overthinking. A common rookie error is to presume a lot of your time would be spent working on sound FX or with the sound FX team. But your supervising role also extends to dialogue. What is your involvement in the dialogue side of any film? My strategy with the dialogue team is to hire the absolute best, most creative, and like-minded dialogue/ ADR supervisor(s) to whom I can leave much of that specialty to. I rarely attend ADR sessions unless there's a reason I need to be involved. I participate a little in recording exterior Group ADR sessions to the extent of mike placement and finding the 'sound' we're going for. I'll give my suggestions to the dialogue/ADR supervisor and the sound recordist. I don't stick around for the recording as I usually have too many other things to do. We work as a team, and I have to delegate responsibilities, or we'd never get things done. Besides, the dialogue/ADR supervisor and the recordist are better at those jobs than I am. So, I'm involved with dialogue prep as much as I need to be. There are always a few issues on every movie that I get drawn into. What is the spark for your ideas when you begin a new project? How do you know what a film needs in terms of sound? I try and imagine what the characters are feeling, not just emotionally but physically. Is it windy? Cold? Noisy? What could I imagine hearing if I was in their world. It's just instinct, a gut feeling, and like I said before, just 'following my nose' and looking at the The sound team L-R: Robert Kizer, Hugo Weng, Jeff Sawyer, Chris Flick, Richard, Andrew Bock, Mike Babcock, Michael Mitchell & Linda Yeaney, The Dark Knight (2008). Photo by Bob Beresh