MPSE Wavelength

M OT I O N P I CTU R E S O U N D E D I TO R S 25 You wouldn't put it on a computer because, you know, that might crash. Everything was in this thick book, all his notes and everything. I'm looking through it: "Okay, okay, Foley. Well, I've recorded Foley and I've even walked some Foley, so Foley can't be so hard…" I just put it together. It turns out I had learned everything I needed to be able to do this, but didn't know it. I just put it into action and did it and we did the show and it came o• great. I remember one moment with John where we're on the dub stage. He's going: "What's that?" We're like: "What?" He's like: "What's that sound? Play, play, play! … THAT!" He's pointing at the surrounds… So we start soloing tracks and it turns out it was birds! He said: "Get those m.f.'in' birds out of my movie!!!" I guess where he grew up, there weren't a lot of birds! So it was: "Note to self, no birds…" especially if the movie takes place in "the hood." Until we did Rosewood (1997), which took place in the country—the swamp actually—where we were allowed to put birds in. He just hired me for that, and Bobbi Banks as well, and then [we did] Higher Learning (1995). I remember talking to Dwight Williams after Higher Learning. I said: "I don't know if John really likes me because he didn't really talk to me a lot and we didn't have, like, a relationship." He said: "No, no, no, he likes you. He hired you for this movie." By our third and fourth movies, we developed a relationship and a secondhand way of talking and everything, but it took him, or maybe me, a while to warm up to him. He was a highly intelligent guy, and he knew more about film than most people you will meet. I went over to his house one time. He had a great library. When he passed away, his mom said: "Take some of the books if you want." So, I have my John Singleton library in my ošce: books about movies like The Conversation, about Jaco Pastorius, and (Walter Murch's book) In the Blink of an Eye, and lots of really great books that I got from him that I've learned from. Some of my favorite books. I really have an appreciation for what a brilliant guy he was, because he had very eclectic tastes. He was planning on doing some more films before he passed. But unfortunately, it was not to be. Talking about Rosewood, which was up to that point, probably the biggest thing I'd ever done… This movie takes place in the 1920s, and there's everything—there's period cars, there's horses, there's fire, there's gunshots, lynch mobs, the town gets burned down. All these things I hadn't done before! All kinds of sounds. There was this one scene that took place in the sawmill. It's one shot. As I remember, you're looking through the sawmill and you're seeing the saw, this big huge saw blade, go back-and-forth. It was steam-driven, so there's all this steam coming o• this thing, which, for a sound designer, you know, I want to sink my teeth into that! While the saw is going back- and-forth, the sheri• runs up and tells the guy that his wife has been attacked. But the beauty of this is the saw is going by. The saw is the main ingredient, and it is the monster in the room. It's representative of so many things: the oppressive nature of the town, the danger people are in. Just Greg with Mike Horton and Eva Coly at Hi Fi Foley in Los Angeles.

• Cover