Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1543098
Spring 2026 – LOCAL695.COM 19 Whit Norris CAS At the time of writing, One Battle After Another, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, had a worldwide gross of $205 million. I caught up with busy Production Sound Mixer Jose Antonio Garcia on the sequel of The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping in Berlin, Germany. Later, I spoke with Boom Operator Dave M. Roberts in Asheville, North Carolina, and Utility Sound Technician Rachel Schroeder in Los Angeles, to get a full perspective on this challenging production. Jose Antonio Garcia: The film was shot mostly with a VistaVision camera, its eight perforations per frame, so it's noisy. I say mostly, because when it came to intimate dialog scenes Paul would use a Super 35 camera. We shot for more than one hundred days. It was my first time working with Boom Operator Dave Roberts, who has worked on many PTA (Paul Thomas Anderson) projects with John Pritchett. Rachel Schroeder was our Utility Sound Technician and has been working with me for a couple of years. A very good crew with incredible spirit. I really enjoyed Dave very much. It's the first time I've worked with him, and I would work with him anytime. Richard Lightstone: This is also the first time you've worked with Paul Thomas Anderson? JAG: It was a pleasure to work with a filmmaker like him and with such fine actors, too: Sean Penn, Leo DiCaprio, and Benicio Del Toro. What's amazing about this project was that there's no egos. It was always about the movie. All the problems, all the solutions, all the thinking was, how do we make it better. How can we do this? It was a very intense project, but there was no video village, there were no producers. We used to joke about an eighth of a page on the call sheet, calling it "death by an eighth," because it was never easy. Suddenly, there were seven microphones out there. Paul likes to be in the car shooting with the actors. So, there is no space for me, it was a Hail Mary, tie the recorder as best as I could, and then feed Paul hardwired headphones, he has a very good ear. Then pray a lot, and light a lot of candles. We were constantly on the move with a bag-rig. There were scenes that started with me mixing off the cart, let's say it starts on the stairs, and then they come down, get in the car and take off and the bag-rig takes over. We ended up mic'ing the cars a lot and putting lavaliers on the actor and a planted lavalier on the visor. We also had a bunch of what I call stunt mics, because they were constantly being smashed by the car door closing or placing them near the exhaust or on the engines. I think it worked, it helped a lot for post. RL: It was a majority location film? JAG: There were more than thirty locations. We started up in Eureka and then we went to Modesto, Sacramento, the Stockton area, then the mission in San Juan Bautista. Then we moved back to L.A. for a day or two, of exteriors, and then to San Diego and Tijuana and El Paso for the opening scene that we recreated by Tecate. We were also in Borrego Springs which was deadly in the summer. That was tough. RL: Was there any stage work at all? JAG: Very minimal. The stage work was two or three days for the tunnel scene, a tunnel that you could shoot down into and the body drop through the dumpsters. I have very deep respect for Paul, because he has all this recognition and power but it's never about him, it's always the movie in his mind, the movie, the movie, the movie. I really enjoy working with him. It's very motivating working with an individual like that. For instance, Paul always wants both sides of a telephone call recorded with the actors. PTA would even fly the off-screen actor in to the location to achieve this. The post people also did some magic to mask the camera noise; it was very impressive. RL: Your 1st AD was Adam Somner. JAG: I loved Adam, he was one of the best AD's I have ever worked with, and unfortunately, this was his last movie. He died of thyroid cancer November 27, 2024. You know sixteen of the movies he worked on received a Best Picture Oscar nomination. I loved that guy. Boom Operator Dave M. Roberts Dave Roberts: Even though this was my first time working with Jose, we dovetailed pretty quickly. It was good fun and it just felt like a fever dream. That's kind of how it was, a fever dream. RL: You have worked with Paul Thomas Anderson and many times with John Pritchett. Tell me about your relationship with Paul, PTA.