Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1533995
26 M PS E . O R G the nature of the act that's about to happen to these people. The guy runs up and he says: "Tim … your wife … a Black man…" He doesn't say: "Black man." He says the N-word. But you only hear three words that you can discern [between the saw passes]. It gets the point across better, much better than if you just had a camera focused on them and you heard, "Hey, your wife was just attacked by this guy." You're straining to hear. It's just a piece of perfection as far as sound is concerned. This past week, I was working on a film. The mixers were trying to get all the words of dialogue through. There was a car crash happening and some other things. I said: "You know, the crash is what's important. This is what is creating jeopardy here. We have to understand not their dialogue, but what the scene is about." So, we got to pick out which words were important, and those are the words we got to hear. And because they were oˆ camera, we moved some of the words around in between bangs and diˆerent things. But you just hear a few words yelled out while this crash is in process. It makes the whole crash seem louder and more visceral. I had explained to them the whole Rosewood scene, and I said: "So guys, this is your Rosewood moment." And they got it. They did it. They pulled it oˆ. TM: You mentioned the film Higher Learning. I have a very, very vivid memory of seeing that movie in the theater with my friends. I was in grade 12, looking forward to going to college. I love that movie. What are your memories of working on that one? GH:Talking to John Singleton about the college experience, you know, there were a lot of scenes that took place in dorms and apartments. There's always music thumping through the walls and a bit of mayhem. How could we use that to focus people's attention? If you start to dial back the music, it starts getting quieter and this stuˆ is oˆ in the distance. It's as if you're leaning in and really focusing. It was very eˆective. When Tyra Banks' character gets shot, I believe we pulled out a lot of the sound, and we're kind of focusing on her and the character Malik just over her. It's not about people running around and screaming. It's about their connection in that moment. It reminds me of something I was thinking about, which is, I went to the University of Maryland and I studied radio, television, and film. I learned techniques and technology, but what I didn't learn about was story. It was once I started working with John that I really started to understand the idea of story and sound, because before then, it was see a door, hear a door, put a door in there. With Higher Learning, we were really trying to get the feel and the environment across to the viewer, even more so than we did in Poetic Justice. And I think we kind of did it. John spent a lot of time talking about story, which to me translated into: What does a sound mean as far as telling a story? And so, I'll say what's obvious to some of my, you know, seasoned brethren, which is [for example in a scene], a door closes. Well, how heavy is the door? How thick, how resonant is it when it closes? When it closes, what kind of latch does it have? Does it go click or is it a sound that has a Greg explaining predub groups from the film, Chevalier (2022) at Wildwood School in Los Angeles. 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003) screening and panel at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.