old school Posted April 1, 2013 Report Share Posted April 1, 2013 Rich's Recommendations Grab yourself a free NAB Guest Pass with our Guest Pass Code: LV5597. You can find us at Booth # C2156 at the Las Vegas Convention Center April 8th-11th I will be speaking at NAB. Don't miss it. Details below Event: PAP - Sound Education with Richard Topham, Jr.Time: 1:30 PM - 1:50 PM Location: LVCC, Central Hall, Booth C3155 As Bob Dylan once said, the times they are a changin'. Our New Orleans store will be under new management. Here are some parting words from Dan Izen. "It’s only been 6 months, but I’m going back to being a customer of Professional Sound Services. Yep, I’m leaving the new store and returning to the freelance world of sound recording. I miss being on set and hitting that record button. New Orleans is a great place to have this sound store and I’m proud for my role in starting it. I’m even more proud to be handing it off to a far more accomplished sound mixer, Richard Van Dyke. With his immense knowledge base and incredible amount of experience, I know the store will be in good hands." -- Dan Izen Thank you Dan for all the hard work you've done for us over the last six months. On that note, I'd like to personally welcome Richard Van Dyke as our new Manager in New Orleans. Rich and I go way back to the old Audio Services days. Richard can be reached at our New Orleans office at 855.309.7112, or by e-mail at rvd@pro-sound.com. His biography speaks for itself. See you at NAB! Biography Richard Van Dyke was born into a family with ties to Hollywood, his paternal Grandfather was an actor in the silent film era, Truman Van Dyke, and his paternal Grandmother was an Academy Award winning costume designer of over 200 feature films. Richardʼs Father, Truman Van Dyke, Jr. worked as an actor and extra from the age he was nine years old up until he entered the University of Southern California. Richardʼs Father appeared in “Gone with the Wind,” at age nine and worked on many productions including working with the great Orson Welles on the film, “The Stranger.” Richardʼs Mother was the longtime producer for Edith Headʼs traveling fashion shows. Having a family history like that it was almost inevitable that Richard would end up in the film industry, just where was a mystery until in 1973, while still in High School, Richard got a job as a deliver driver at the post production sound studio, Sound Services, Inc. While working at the sound studio Richard was exposed to all aspect of film sound, from production to final mixes. His mentors there were the owner Robert Terry Walker, and Michael Denecke, who worked as the maintenance engineer on the gear and built many of the patch bays at SSI. It was during this time, at SSI, that Richard first learned of the job of “production sound mixer,” the person responsible for recording the initial dialogue during the filming of a scene. Under the tutelage of Michael Denecke, Richard learned how to work the Nagra tape recorders, the state of the art machine at that time, and was responsible for helping to maintain the rental equipment at SSI. Another duty that Richard performed at SSI was the “transferring” of sound from the “daily roll” to film sound stock, known as “dailies.” This task gave Richard the opportunity to listen to the work of many production mixers of the day, Jeff Wexler, David Ronne, Lee Alexander, Jan Brodin, to name just a few. While doing the dailies transfers Richard learned what the job requirements, and expectations were for the production mixer. In 1976, with the encouragement of both Robert Walker and Michael Denecke, Richard started to “mix” commercials on his own. These were mostly small jobs with clients that Richard had met through his time at SSI. Interspersed with the mixing jobs were a few “boom operator” jobs, this is the person who holds the microphone just out of frame, and follows the actors around the set keeping them “on mic.” Richard realized early on that he felt he was better suited to the job of Mixer, than that of Boom Operator. In 1977, Richard left SSI and pursued a career as a Production Sound Mixer. Early in Richardʼs career he worked solely in the field of commercials, these were a perfect training ground for a young mixer, as the shots were fairly simple and it gave him the opportunity to build up a resume and confidence in his abilities. 35 years later, Richard is a member of a very select group of Mixers, those whoʼve mixed multiple Best Pictures, Richardʼs are “American Beauty,” and “Crash.” Richard has had the great pleasure of working with some of the top directors of the day, Mark Romanek, Ridley Scott, Sam Mendes, Martha Coolidge, Steven Soderbergh, Warren Beatty, Garry Marshall, McG, James Mangold, Paul Mazursky and Paul Haggis to mention a few. Richard has worked in every medium of film, documentary, commercial, industrial films, television series and feature films. This gives Richard a well rounded understanding of all aspects of the movie business, and the requirements of the sound department on any type of production. When Richard was starting out on his career in production sound there was a company starting out on their journey, and that business was Audio Services Corporation. Dick Topham, and his son Rich Topham, Jr. came out to Los Angeles to fill a need for a company that would supply the needed and necessary products to the film sound professionals. This was the start of a relationship between Dick Topham and, Rich Topham, Jr. and Rich Van Dyke that has lasted for 35 years. Also welcome back to mixing Dan Izen. CrewC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferdinand Almalvez Posted April 1, 2013 Report Share Posted April 1, 2013 Congrats Rich! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip Perkins Posted April 1, 2013 Report Share Posted April 1, 2013 Good move, Rich Topham. Knowing that there is someone like RVD on hand, who has been in the hot seat on every sort of movie, is a big draw for the rest of us. philp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rb1138 Posted April 1, 2013 Report Share Posted April 1, 2013 That's awesome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Wexler Posted April 1, 2013 Report Share Posted April 1, 2013 Congratulations Rich!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Miramontes Posted April 1, 2013 Report Share Posted April 1, 2013 L.A. is going to miss you. Congrats! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whit Norris Posted April 1, 2013 Report Share Posted April 1, 2013 Congrats Richard! Wish you the best! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justanross Posted April 1, 2013 Report Share Posted April 1, 2013 Awesome Richard!<br /><br />In May its looking like I will be in the area working on a Canadian series. I plan to stop in and visit it you all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmfsnd Posted April 1, 2013 Report Share Posted April 1, 2013 Rich, It was a pleasure working with you, and I wish you the best in years to come! Congratulations! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DWsoundservice Posted April 1, 2013 Report Share Posted April 1, 2013 Congrats RVD. Rich couldn't have picked a better person for the job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McL Posted April 1, 2013 Report Share Posted April 1, 2013 What? Now I gotta get to NOLA to hang out with RVD? Great news for everyone concerned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Blankenship Posted April 1, 2013 Report Share Posted April 1, 2013 Congrats, RVD! That's great news for our industry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexander Burstein Posted April 2, 2013 Report Share Posted April 2, 2013 Congratulations RVD! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Wielage Posted April 2, 2013 Report Share Posted April 2, 2013 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old school Posted April 2, 2013 Author Report Share Posted April 2, 2013 I will definitely swing by when I get down your way RVD. The long suffering Mrs Chamberlain and I have been wanting to do a "Southern" trip for a long time. She'd love to see you again. Post all you can RVD. I'm a big fan. Cheers. CrewC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
studiomprd Posted April 2, 2013 Report Share Posted April 2, 2013 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macruth Posted April 2, 2013 Report Share Posted April 2, 2013 Looking forward to visiting! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PelicanSound Posted April 13, 2013 Report Share Posted April 13, 2013 Congrats RVD, I look forward to stopping by PSS Nola on Monday! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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