Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1535880
M OT I O N P I CTU R E S O U N D E D I TO R S 45 and a couple of "B's." My early film experience was as a janitor at the Holiday Theater on Topanga Canyon in Canoga Park. My dirty Ford Windstar minivan with the "My kid is student of the month at Township Elementary School" bumper sticker stuck out like a sore thumb among those BMW's, Porsches, Mercedes, and that Bentley of his in the parking lot. All other filmmakers no problem, but that Ridley, through no fault of his own, oh my. I was Chris Farley meeting Paul McCartney. I remember when we were mixing Gladiator and we were going to do a playback of Reel One. It has a huge battle scene which I had worked harder on than I had ever worked on anything. Cutting and re-cutting sword swings, clanks, whooshes, stabs and impacts, kludging up catapults, designing fireballs, trying to make everything perfect. The late great Randy Kelly had cut the horses, and Dan Hegeman had cut the backgrounds. Good old Dino was in there, and Craig Jaeger was again in charge of Foley which was "walked" by John Cucci, James Moriana, Dan O'Connell, and Jeff Wilhoit. The always-dependable and all-around good guy Chris Jargo was on the stage taking care of dialogue and ADR. There were of course, many more involved and judging by IMDb, an almost platoon-sized group of people I haven't heard of seemed to have worked on that film's sound as well. On Reel One, we had run into a hiccup with the Germanic tribes chanting vocals, not quite getting what Ridley wanted. This, of course, increased my nervousness. He kept referencing the 1964 film Zulu. We tried and tried until someone (Ridley? Per?) suggested getting the original mono Zulu track. We did. It's there in the mix dressed up with Sound FX and Group ADR. This was my first Ridley Scott film, so I was of course, nervous and the struggle with the tribal chants fueled my anxiety. You probably would have been fine. Good for you. So anyway, we're preparing the Reel One playback. Everybody settled in, grabbing bottles of water and getting notepads ready. I think those Soundlex light up with a click of a button write-in-the-dark pens we briefly had were being handed out. I'm at my rig down at the mixing board to the right of Bob Beemer when I sensed a change in the room. Good God, what now? I turn around and Ridley is greeting Stephen Spielberg who has come by to watch the reel. Really? Like I wasn't already nervous? Aw crap. This was back when people smoked on dub stages and there were Ridley and Stephen lighting up big fat cigars. Both comfortable and at home, with me much less so. Composer Hans Zimmer, who was always a nice unpretentious guy, was there with his music editors Adam Smalley and Marc Streitenfeld. Picture editor Pietro Scalia, who was always in our corner, was there and then there was that assortment of producers, executive producers, and associate producers whose names I should know but don't. Still not clear what all of that extended family of producers did besides show up for playbacks and give largely ignored notes. It was just Per Hallberg, Chris Jargo, and myself representing sound editorial. I looked at the gathering group and thought, "Nope, we're outnumbered, I'm outta here." Just a bit too nervous to hear notes from that gang about this reel, I had sweat blood on. If Ridley or Spielberg didn't like what I'd done, I'd be crushed and whatever fragile wall I had put up would crumble and they'd see me for the fraud that I was. I pulled Per aside and told him I was going to take a walk during this playback. He understood. He would take notes, and he would take the accolades and the slings and arrows. I spent that time walking up and