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16 M PS E . O R G BREAKING ENTERING & Frederic Dubois MPSE Supervising Sound Editor/ Re-recording Mixer hen I was a child, my relationship with sound developed slowly. I could never have imagined that, decades later, I would be working in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles. I was born in Lyon, France, in the mid-1960s—the city where the Lumière brothers invented the Cinématographe. My family was solidly middle-class. We went to the movies regularly, had a television, and owned a record player. I spent countless hours listening to Sergei Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf." I played the record so often that my mother eventually had to buy a second copy. Whether I was watching films in theaters or on French television, I was fascinated by sounds I never encountered in real life: the classic MGM cartoon effects (Tex Avery), the famous Warner Bros. kookaburra from Porky in Wackyland, Universal's legendary "Castle Thunder," Dirty Harry's Smith & Wesson .44 Magnum, the charge of the 7th Cavalry, the beautiful gunshots of Spaghetti Westerns, and, of course, Ben Burtt's groundbreaking work on Star Wars: Episode IV. The real turning point came in 1981. France's radio broadcasting monopoly ended, and FM radio was finally deregulated. Like thousands of teenagers, I became captivated by the magic of radio. I spent my days playing vinyl records and speaking into microphones as a young radio DJ. That was the moment I discovered my passion for sound, and I knew it would shape the rest of my life. I enrolled in a film school in Paris because it offered a sound technician specialization during the third year. In truth, I had little interest in filmmaking or television production. Our instructors were devoted to the doctrines of the French New Wave. Post-production was never discussed. For them, sound meant a microphone, a boom pole, and a Nagra recorder— nothing more. But I didn't mind; my goal was to work in radio. After my second year, I began looking for a short internship. I visited major radio stations to submit my résumé, but received no responses. One day, I left my résumé at the reception desk of RTL, France's leading radio station at the time. Unbeknownst to me, it was forwarded to a new television broadcaster called Métropole Télévision (M6), whose offices were in the same building. Two months later, I never returned to film school. Instead, I was hired as a sound technician. Ironically, I never worked in radio. Instead, I spent nearly 10 years in television and documentary production. Although I enjoyed the fast-paced world of broadcasting, I found myself increasingly drawn to the mysterious world of sound post-production. In October 1989, I joined Audiophase, one of Paris's respected audio post- production facilities. On my first day, the owner, Sylvain, simply told me, "You'll become a sound editor." I wasn't entirely sure what that meant, but I was eager to learn. Digital audio technology was still in its infancy. I learned to work on the AMS AudioFile, an early digital workstation featuring a green monochrome screen, eight audio tracks, massive external hard drives, and real-time backups recorded onto U-Matic tapes. Primitive by today's standards, but revolutionary at the time. During those years, I had the privilege of working with the Cousteau Society. My mentor, Anne Belin, was an exceptional sound editor who taught me how to create rich underwater soundscapes using only a handful of effects. The entire AudioFile system at Audiophase was limited to just one gigabyte of storage. I fell in love with sound editing. I devoured books, magazines, and interviews with leading sound designers. I watched "classic" films. Radio was no longer my future—cinema was. I purchased a stereo microphone, a preamp, and a DAT recorder. I bought my first Apple Macintosh IIci, along with Sound Tools® from a little-known company called Digidesign. I began recording my own sound effects and wanted to focus on something unusual in Europe: firearms. I obtained authorization to record machine guns, artillery, explosions, and military exercises. My passion eventually led me to release several commercial sound effects libraries. Although I was still working primarily in television, my career changed dramatically in 1996 when acclaimed French actor Alain Chabat asked me to serve as supervising sound editor on his directorial debut, Didier. The film became a major success in France, and I transitioned fully into cinema. Over the following years, I worked as supervising sound editor on numerous successful French and European productions, including Asterix & Obelix vs. Caesar for Pathé, projects for Gaumont, and many independent films. In 2005, I joined EuropaCorp for Revolver, directed by Guy Ritchie. Luc Besson had built a massive post- production facility in the middle of W