Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/830466
17 productions. I entered the "real world" convinced that since no one wanted to do sound at UCLA, there must be plenty of openings out there. While we worked on our scripts and waited for Hollywood to call, my partner and I bought a Nagra, some mics and radio mics, put up a shingle … and waited ... and waited. I met a wonderful new mentor, the late, great Production Mixer David Ronne, who also pointed the way to sound. He gave me my first job in the business (thrown off the set by Bob Fosse!) and sold me that first Nagra. David and Richard collaborated memorably on the Oscar- nominated On Golden Pond—two masters at their best. I always figured that if you were making a movie and it wasn't certain that the cast would be around (as in alive) for looping, you'd hire David on the front end and Porto to finish. Eventually, the jobs started coming, not writing and directing, and thirty-six years later, One To One Sound lives on while I record and mix movies and television. I did production sound on several projects that Richard re-recorded. Early in my career, I visited him on the dub stage where he was mixing Sam Shepard's directorial debut, a very challenging but inconsequential little movie. When I entered the sanctum sanctorum, he made a point of effusively greeting me so that Sam would notice, as a hero and the savior of the soundtrack. It wasn't a very good movie but it sounded great! I am incredibly lucky to have encountered Dick Portman at such a formative moment in my life. Not just for the chance to bask in his genius and enjoy his company but even more because he was such a fantastic, inspiring and encouraging teacher who always challenged us to dig deeper and go further. It is fitting that he transitioned into full-time teaching at Florida State University, where he would influence several generations of filmmakers at a program that was essentially built around him. As a mixer, Richard Portman changed the way movies sound, as a teacher, he changed lives. I can't think of a better legacy for this great man. –Steve Nelson CAS Clockwise from top left: Richard Portman in mix; sitting down; with his mixer. (Photos courtesy of FSU College of Motion Picture Arts); From left: Richard Portman, William McCaughey, Darin Knight and Aaron Rochin, winners, Sound (The Deer Hunter) with presenters Margot Kidder and Christopher Reeve, third from right, backstage, 1978 (51st) Academy Awards ceremony. (© The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences)