MPSE Wavelength

22 M PS E . O R G and he was always going on trips, and I was saying: "Dude, why are you always leaving and packing bags?" He said: "Greg, I'm a noted authority in animation!" Well, that was John Lasseter! I didn't know what he was doing, you know, but it was when they were just starting Pixar. While that was happening, Gary Rydstrom was becoming their guy. So, I got to work alongside him. He started out in the machine room associated with the mixing stage and quickly advanced to mixing and being on the other side of the glass. That experience really set me forward, just having to deal with all the little Pixar elements. And I even worked on video transfer; they were working out new ways of processing videos. I got to work with them on that: varispeeding things, seeing what would work, what wouldn't work. It was a glorious experience working up there. TM: After that, did you move to Los Angeles? What did you do after Lucasfilm? GH: My experience there was great. You know, driving on the ranch every day—it's beautiful. You see deer running around, they've got horses. People are throwing baseballs around in the morning. It was just great. The thing is, at the time, they were the only game in town. I got to the point where I thought: "Someday, I'd like to own a house. Someday, I'd like my own stu‡." I wasn't sure that I would be able to transfer over to being a mixer, where I would make more money because there was a long line of people who want to do that. And there weren't a lot of openings at the time. But I found an ad in a magazine and came down to L.A. there—just an entry-level transfer job—and I kind of leaned on her… I never do that, but I did in this case. So she told me about this job. I fired up my Commodore 64, my dot-impact printer, fired o‡ my resume, and sent it up to them. A few days later they saw me, and two weeks later, I quit my job, moved to San Francisco, and with a six- month guarantee, I was working at Lucasfilm, which turned into six years. TM: What movies did you work on while you were at Lucasfilm? GH: When I was at Lucasfilm, they had Cotton Club (1984). They did a movie called The Mean Season (1985), Howard the Duck (1986), which will live in infamy. We did a bunch of Ewok movies. We did Michael Jackson's Captain EO (1986), Mishima (1985). I think I came there after the second Indiana Jones movie, so I didn't get to work on Star Wars and Indiana Jones stu‡ but worked on a lot of stu‡ after that. I call that my PhD program in sound. I just learned so much working there that I use every day—using things I've learned or imparting that knowledge to other people. At that time, I had this roommate Greg's sfx recording gear. Featured mics include Sennheiser 8040, 416, Neumann RSM 191, KM100 series with colette cables and various others. Sounds Devices MixPre 10, battery monitor and iPhone interface. Miscellaneous tools, connectors, cables, walkie talkies, batteries, and back up recorders including Sound Devices 722, Zoom F3 & H1.

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