Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1525020
36 PRODUCTION SOUND & VIDEO – Fall 2024 My father started in film in 1922, in the silent days. He did both Ben-Hur's, the 1927 and the sound version in 1958. From five years old and throughout my life, I visited my father on his movie sets, all over the world. At six years old, I sat on the second seat of the camera dolly and watched Gene Kelly dance in Singin' in the Rain and Bogart push The African Queen, at MGM Studios. I watched the Westrex, 35mm mag, sprocketed tape machine start up in a glass booth. When the weighted arms on the machine stopped swinging, the recordist would yell out, "Speed." I was photographed sitting on "Jackie" the MGM lion, when Technicolor first shot the MGM logo, the lion's roar. I visited my father's sets of Doctor Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia, The Ten Commandments, Cleopatra, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, North by Northwest, Jailhouse Rock, Mutiny on the Bounty, and so many more. My Path in Sound by William B. Kaplan CAS We each have a unique, personalized story on how we got into film, and how that path evolved to a career in sound. I thought I would share mine. Sometimes I think I'm a DP in a five- decade time- out. Please don't get me wrong, I love sound and I'm getting better at it all the time. Over fifty-five years at it, it's a really good start!