Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1544300
M OT I O N P I CTU R E S O U N D E D I TO R S 29 studio lot, and I talked her through why I was the right person for the film. It worked. SSS: Wow, so you got back on! MM: Yeah, I will say that was actually a success wrapped in failure. The second film was one I was hired on that went off the rails in a very unpleasant way. The director and the producer were abusive verbally and extremely negative. The environment they created was so toxic for me that, over a couple of months, I got an ulcer from dealing with them. Perhaps, like many of us might, I didn't quit because I didn't want to be a "quitter." So, I hung in there. The defining moment came as I was driving to the stage for a temp mix. The day before had been particularly abusive. The producer had been extraordinarily manipulative, rolling into a fetal position on the studio floor and crying because she was not getting her way. As I was driving, I thought to myself, "If I got in a car accident right now, I wouldn't have to go to work and face ... that. The hospital seemed like the better option. I stopped for a moment realizing quickly, "This is a bad sign. This is how bad it's gotten, Mark, wake the f*&% up." Though I had never quit anything and proud of that fact, I called the head of post from the car and said, "I'm really sorry, X and X and X happened, and I can't take it anymore. It's going to be bad for my health, so I have to quit but I promise you, I'll put somebody great from Weddington on the show, and I'll make sure it's a smooth transition and your movie sounds great. I've got to leave and I'm sorry to put you in this position." And he replied, "What took you so long?" and went on to say I was not the first nor the last person who has quit because of abuse from these filmmakers. And it's okay. Don't worry about it. Do what you can. We'll take it from here. SSS: Did you get somebody from Weddington to work on it? MM: No, another company finished it, which stung a little bit but I knew I couldn't go on. I had failed in the sense that I had allowed this abuse to go on for as long as it had and not taken care of myself first. I fear we all allow some amount of abuse to be rained upon us in this community, abuse that we never complain about publicly. There are megalomaniacal filmmakers that can make life for some people miserable. And yet, some never see it or feel it. You know, it's funny. Before I made that decision, I had complained to the music editor the day before, and he looked at me like I had three heads, like, oh my God, I have the best relationship with them. "What are you talking about?" I asked, "They don't do this and this and this with you?" He said, "No." So maybe I was crazy! [Laughs] SSS: But that was the only show you ever quit? That was one of my next questions is, if you've ever left a show, which you did. That was it? MM: There was a film that I left because I ran out of time and never solved its singular creative challenge. It took me so long to find something the filmmakers liked, which I didn't, I had to go onto another project I was already booked to do. I was hired because I was known as a creature voice designer who could do all the normal supervisor stuff as well. The film had an important character they wanted me to make a voice for. So important was this voice that the filmmakers felt if this sound didn't work, the movie didn't work. I worked on that film for six months, I made 17 iterations of the voice, and they just kept pushing the schedule until I had to leave. I never cracked it. I turned it over to the great John Pospisil, but I left the film feeling the sting of having not succeeded. It's one of the few times where I had a large, tectonic creative failure that I never solved. SSS: Have you ever been up for a film and not gotten it? MM: Many. And it took a long time to understand some very simple ideas: I'm not right for everyone, and not all directors are right for me. Another supervisor just might have a better take on the story and how sound tells it. It's hard to believe but true. My ego takes a hit. The interview is such a dynamic moment, a lot like going on a first date. You're always trying to make a good impression. Like many on a first date, I sometimes go into an interview, and it doesn't happen. I don't feel the chemistry, and they don't, and I don't know why. And, worse, they don't call me back while I'm staring at the phone, waiting for it to ring. I try to do a post-mortem soon thereafter to understand if I could have been better, studied the director's movies more, or had a better take on the script, etc. Nonetheless, one hasn't lived till one experiences the sting of unrequited love. That's the human condition. SSS: Absolutely, but I mean, it's hard to believe that you've gone through Sound editor Mark Mangini at Hanna-Barbera, happy and vindicated c. 1979