Roger Grange

Thank you Sean for your thoughtful post about our Larry. He was an important figure in my early career and I learned a lot from him. Lee, it's great to see your post as well; I'm glad to know that you worked with Larry on some big pictures in LA. I remember fondly the times when you and I worked with Elliott and others in the mid-80's. It was a highlight of my life. I'm not a sound person so I knew Larry differently from the sound people here. I was a young DP without a camera, so Larry was my go-to source for a rental video camera in the late 80's and early 90's. He only had a few cameras so I had to call him right away when a job came in. Going to Broome Street for the pickup was always an experience. If I could get a sound mixer on the shoot, I would ask for Larry. Our most memorable shoot was for Dutch TV. We filmed a bunch of standups and interviews around NY and also had to film amateur night at the Apollo Theater. That was- me alone on stage with an Ike 79E on my right shoulder and a Umatic (or Betacam??) deck on my left shoulder with a 26 pin cable coiled up and hanging behind my back. Larry manned the 79A in the back of the house and recorded sound. During setup for an interview at the Apollo, in the house seats, Larry said "your lighting is pretty unusual. Not the way most people do it." I didn't know if he meant that as a complement or a criticism, to be honest, but I guessed he would have coached me if he thought I was getting in trouble. Larry always liked having lunch in Chinatown, where he had a favorite place, and he could get special dishes for people who were with him. Like, not just the gringo dishes, he could get us the authentic Chinese dishes. One of those days on the Dutch TV shoot, we were on the upper west side, and Larry convinced the producers that we should go to his place in Chinatown for lunch. Not really a great idea in terms of the schedule! We had a great lunch, it took us about an hour to get to our afternoon location. They didn't fire us but I don't think they were really happy about that Chinatown lunch. Lastly, one thing Larry liked around his rental shop was a collection of toys. Mainly RC cars. There were always RC cars driving around in the loft. It wasn't CSC, FERCO, Camera Mart or General Camera. It was Larry Scharf Productions. They had city film parking permits you could stick in your window (no longer possible!) Everyone who went there was a friend, a co-traveler in the time capsule that was the independent documentary world in NY in the 1980's. That was a special, unforgettable time and Larry was a big part of it. Larry enjoyed all the people and wanted to have fun as well as get the work done. I send all of his friends and family condolences.