Have you ever wished?

[Kevin Sorensen]

Ok, here's mine : Its a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World ", Favorite lines, everything Johnathan Winters said. And the " Wizard Of Oz " pretty much everything the Cowardly Lion said.

[old school]

Kevin, can you imagine showing up everyday at MGM, (now Sony), and working on that film? IMO, one of the best ever for using all of the craft. I would of listed this classic as well, but it is such a huge film for my 1st son Case that I have come to think of it as his. He may of watched it 2 or 3 times a day for 2 years when he was 4 n 5. No wonder he.....?  I also loved "It's a Mad...", but "Great Race" is the better Comedy IMO, but maybe Stanley Kramer had more in mind when making his film. I think he did. $ talks, n BS walks, and the rules go out the window when gold fever hits. Great choices. So many good films to choose from.

CrewC

[soundtrane]

<<Next, "Rope" by Alfred Hitchcock.>>

Hey Rich, I did not include the films that were made before i was born! In which case, there will be so many, I can't figure where to begin...

-vin

[Kevin Sorensen]

" The Great Race " & " Rope " , gonna put 'em in my Netflix que. Thanks for the tip RVD & Crew.

[studiomprd]

"  and the great supporting cast including "

a young James Earl Jones...

[old school]

Hey Vin, no rules to this thread. As Cleve and I pointed out, it doesn't even have to be a movie I wish I was there for, but for me it is about films. Stanley Kubrick is rightfully considered a master of the cinema. If I were to choose the 3 films of his I would loved to have worked on, #1 would be "The Killing". A great story and Sterling Hayden. #2 "Dr Strangelove" for all the reasons RVD mentioned. Talk about a black comedy. #3 "A Clockwork Orange" a disturbing and sadly true vision of the future written by Anthony Burgess and envisioned by Kubrick. Still disturbing today. Absolutely shocking when it came out in 1971.

CrewC

[Tom Visser]

Although I love Kubrik's work, especially Full Metal Jacket, it should be noted that Kubrik's interpretation of the Burgess work lacked the redemption aspect and enlightened vision of the novel.  The final realization of the tortured soul was that man's essence and motivations were more than animal, more than simple "clockwork", and that value was supposed to have been a more upbeat, positive, and optimistic rendering of the human condition.

[Kevin Sorensen]

" 2001 a Space Odyssey " and " the Shinning " are my favorite Kubrik movies. Mike Nichols film adaptation

of " Catch 22 " is one of the few DVDs I own. As far as know, it came out around the same time as " M.A.S.H. " did and it overshadowed " Catch  22 " ,  the latter being far more cerebral.

" The Graduate " is my all time top of the list movie :-)

[Mick]

When I was kid growing up in Birmingham, England, the two bigest movie stars of the day were Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster. I could easily add "Spartacus" and "Bird Man of Alcatraz" to my personal wish list of movie jobs, but back then I didn't even know what a sound mixer was. To an impressionable kid in working class England those two guys were bigger than life. My dad always liked Paul Newman.

I could fill a page with all the stars and movies I would have liked to be associated with, but if, one time before I retire, I could work with Anthony Hopkins...unless he guest stars on a TV show, highly unlikely.

Michael Caine would be another. Oh well.

Mick

[cmgoodin]

O.K. I have to throw my 2 cents in.  Speaking of Michael Caine I would have loved to work on "The Man Who Would Be King"  With Caine and Connery on an adventure of a lifetime shot in exotic locations with thousands of extras and a great director like John Huston.  Supporting Performances by Christopher Plummer as Kipling and Saeed Jaffery as Billy Fish are great.  Storytelling at its best.  Before CGI and digital matts.  Still one of my favorite films.

---Courtney

[old school]

Courtney, "The Man Who..." could well be Hustons best film, though I love "Fat City" and "Treasure..." so much that I could be wrong. I know he tried to make this film with Bogart n Gable way back then. Can you imagine? I can for sure. J H's style of shooting and the location work make this a sound mans challenge and best shot at great sound for film IMO.

Just a thought, but maybe the best way to address this thread or concept is by director rather than all known movies. Hope all is well.

CrewC.

[graham]

I grew up on Mel Brooks movies. Out of those, I would have loved to work on "Young Frankenstein". So many memorable moments and quotes with an incredible cast all of whom performed their roles brilliantly.

[cmassey]

Marty Feldman...."Hump, what hump?"  This is getting FUN!!!!...

cleve

[graham]

I believe Richard Pryor is responsible for the beans in Blazing Saddles. He co-wrote it

[old school]

Hey Tom V, it has been 40 years since i read 'Clockwork', but I would agree with your point, but that could be said for all his films which were all adapted from novels. I think that was his vision and interpretation of the books he made films from. Hard to say other than he knew how to make movies his own.

I am sorry my boom op Marydixie is out with a bad back, but it is a good thing that Randy Johnson is available to work with me. He says "True Grit" is indeed on the road to being made. Wow.

CrewC

[Jimmy Tuffrey]

Ah Richard Pryor! 'The Toy', simply because he's so funny in it. How anyone boomed that without laughing I don't know...

[Mick]

Feldman..It could be worse, it could be raining...(cue thunderstorm)

Marty was a comedy writer for British TV for many years and one of the funniest on camera too, making full use of his physical anomaly to enhance his comedy genius. Personally I think Ricky Gervais has assumed the mantle of England's best comedy export of recent years.

Mick

[studiomprd]

" Dalton Trumbo wrote the screenplay for "Spartacus" after he had been blacklisted, he had to use a nom du plum.   "

while Mr. Trumbo had been working, writing, under an alias, Mr. Douglas put his real name up on the screen, where it belonged!

[old school]

It was great to hang w RJ today. A true pro who was under challenged but well paid for what we had to do/did today... Big fan. Who knows, he may even post here someday. He traded in his pager and bought a iphone n macbook, so jwsound.net must be next.

CrewC

[old school]

Since RVD has taken the day off from this thread, and I am working Downtown with not much to do, I thought I would bring up one of my favorite Directors, Mr Hal Ashby. He was a big influence on my cinematic thinking and knowledge. While I was fortunate enough to work with Mr Ashby, it was sadly on one of his lesser efforts. From 1969 until 1979, Hal made 7 brilliant movies. "The Landlord", "Harold n Maude", "The Last Detail", Shampoo", "Bound for Glory", "Coming Home", "Being There" are all classics and I would of loved to work on all of them, so my top 3 would be hard to determine. On this October day in 2009 they would be #1, "The Last Detail" such a small story that stands so tall.#2 "Bound for Glory" excellent period piece and Jeff and Haskel. #3 "Coming Home" which showed the war at home that most Americans witnessed. For me he was a great artist who used all the tools of cinema to tell The American story of the 70's and for all times. Also, no one used music in films as well as Hal IMO.

CrewC

[Izen Ears]

  After careful consideration, I have come up with the following list of movies that I think would be the coolest credits ever possible by a human:

- Return of the Living Dead

- Demons

- Dawn/Day of the Dead

- The Thing

- Aliens

- Terminator (yes Lightstone you are totally my hero!)

  Dan Izen

[Matt McGowin]

I wish I could have worked on "Tron" because this movie is badass...need I say more.

It would have been rad to work on this movie. It had insane graphics for the time.A man in a computer fighting programs.

I would die and go to heaven in Flyns arcade. All those retro games. They just dont have arcades like they used to.

There is a PC game called Tron 2.0. its also pretty Rad.

Im looking forward to the new Tron movie.  with the budget this movie had Im sure the sound is Quality. The soundtrack is most def going to be sick!

The Dude abides...

And I wish I could have worked on any of the Mad Max movies because I think they were great movies , and Planet Earth,evil dead II(because the audio kinda sucked but it is a great movie) full metal jacket, Train Spotting , mean streets,drugstore cowboy,Amelie,human traffic..

[RPSharman]

"Young Frankenstein" - "Blazing Saddles" - so great!  Any of the early Mel Brooks films would have been a real treat to have worked on.  "Excuse me while I whip this out" must be one of the most quoted lines ever.  Also, "It's good to be the king!"  I love comedies, and would love to work on them more.

"The Blues Brothers" is one of my all-time favorite films.  All the great dialog in the cars.  John Candy cameo - "Orange whip..."  Would love to have worked on that.

And "Caddyshack" - Chevy Chase, Ted Night, Bill Murray, Rodney Dangerfield

Perhaps a tangent... what specific line would you have liked to have recorded?

Carl Spackler: So I jump ship in Hong Kong and I make my way over to Tibet, and I get on as a looper at a course over in the Himalayas.

Angie D'Annunzio: A looper?

Carl Spackler: A looper, you know, a caddy, a looper, a jock. So, I tell them I'm a pro jock, and who do you think they give me? The Dalai Lama, himself. Twelfth son of the Lama. The flowing robes, the grace, bald... striking. So, I'm on the first tee with him. I give him the driver. He hauls off and whacks one - big hitter, the Lama - long, into a ten-thousand foot crevasse, right at the base of this glacier. Do you know what the Lama says? Gunga galunga... gunga, gunga-lagunga.... So we finish the eighteenth and he's gonna stiff me. And I say, "Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know." And he says, "Oh, uh, there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness." So I got that goin' for me..., which is nice.

[Richard Lightstone, CAS]

It was James Tanenbaum, who was the Production Mixer on "The Bonfires of the Vanties". However, RVD wrote in March 2008 and credited Les Lazarowitz.

Title: Re: How'd they do that ?

Post by: RVDMIXER on March 08, 2008, 10:48:35 AM

I worked last year with Larry McConkey, the stedicam operator, and Larry Huston, the assistant cameraman that did that shot for Brian DePalma.  I too asked them how it was done, mostly from their point of view, not sound wise.  

Les Lazarwitz (sp?) was the production mixer and I was told that he just followed along with his Nagra over his shoulder and radio receivers in the pouch of his recorder.  Unfortunately, many stedicam shots if you listen carefully and the track is from the production, you can hear about five extra sets of footsteps, usually dragging or sliding, along with the actors in the shot.  I find this most annoying, but very difficult to deal with from a diplomacy point of view.  I worked with one stedicam operator who when pressed into service I referred to the shot as a Michael Jackson, due to the fact I felt like he was always 'moon walking' during the shot.  He couldn't operate the camera without dragging his feet.  Like anything else the good guys, and Larry McConkey is one of the best, make it look easy and the weak make it look like it's harder than brain surgery.

A few trivia notes, the fellow in the cab helping Bruce Willis get dressed was his on set costumer Charles Mecuri.  I know this because Bruce met Charles on 'Moonlighting' which I worked on.  Also during the shot, which was rehearsed for a full day and shot for another full day, Larry Huston the assistant, was knocked down by someone following along on the shot, and knocked out.  He finished doing the shot with a slight concussion and then was taken to the hospital.

I enjoy Brian DePalma's films for just this reason, there's always or usually, some terrific camera work.  Two of my favorite shots are, in the 'Untouchables'  Sean Connery's death sequence.  This is genius filmmaking at it's best.  The other is in a not so memorable film, 'Snake Eyes' in this film there's a shot that goes over the top of several hotel rooms showing the different events taking place in each room, while we track to the room of our subjects, I think it's a great shot and a very creative use of the camera.

Hope this sheds some light for you.

Cheers,

RVD

Whomever mixed it -- I'm sure it was an adventure and a half.

Perhaps it will be Jim's next installment in Coffey Sound's "The Coffey Audio Files" ??

RL

Added note: RVD, you are correct it was Les who mixed the New York scenes. Linda Murphy who was his regular Boom Operator was also credited as well. BTW Linda now lives and works in L.A.

[old school]

Hey RVD and all you jwsound people, Billy Wilder was/is a writer, (with I.A.L. Diamond) and a director which is not all that common, especially back then. Super talent IMO. While all his films are worthy of "Wishing.." #1 for me would be "Double Indemnity" the Noir double cross genre template for many lesser efforts that have borrowed from this original. #2 "Some Like It Hot", Screwball comedy at it's best. Also copied many times since. #3 is a bit odd in that many haven't seen it, but "Kiss Me Stupid" is a great work often over looked when compared to the other greats. Maybe I just love comedies.

As for De Palma, I probably wouldn't waste the way back machine on his works. Perhaps "Scarface" for the over the top classic lines. No pun intended. Maybe "The Fury", but I would save time travel for other Directors.

CrewC