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Rich's Recommendations

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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!

 

 

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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

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