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Halloween production sound


PaulLosada

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Hi all... I've been re-visiting the Halloween series after the new 15-disc Blu Ray set came out recently, and now after watching some of these films for the first time in years (and probably the first since I became a professional filmmaker) I'm struck by the excellence of much of the original production sound.

 

I see Thomas Causey (mixer) and Joseph Brennan (boom) worked on the first three films of the series and are retired now. Does anyone here know them? Related with them much around the time these films were produced, and can shed some light on their work habits?

 

I was particularly impressed with a deleted scene from the first Halloween in which Jamie Lee Curtis and P.J. Soles exchange dialogue while looking out a window. Both actresses are facing the window, which means their mouths are just inches away from a flat wall, and the shot (like many in the first Halloween) is very wide to the point where some of the ceiling is visible. Both actresses sound spot on in the pattern of the microphone, and it doesn't appear to be ADR. I imagine radio mics at this time were sketchy at best and probably mostly utilized for complex walk + talks, but it looks like a very difficult scene to boom. Apparently it was a practical location where flying in over a wall wasn't possible either.

 

If anyone has some stories about this sound team I'd love to read them!

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Tommy & Joe are great people. They were a long time team who did some great films together. Very well respected by their peers. Venturing a guess I'd say they most likely boomed 95% of scenes in most films they did. That percentage dropped as they neared the end of their careers is another guess I'd make. Hope you meet them someday.

CrewC

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I know both Tommy and Joe they were an incredible team. Joe boomed for me in New Mexico on a series before he retired 2 years later. He is a incredible person and one of the masters of the boom. One of his favorite lines that I love was "There is a boom shadow in every shot, you just have to know where to hide it".

 

I always enjoyed hearing Joe's stories from the John Carpenter pictures that they did because I grew up on those films. Escape from NY, The Thing, as well as the Halloween Trilogy and many other pictures that they worked on.

 

I feel very privileged to have had the opportunity to have worked with Joe.

 

Whit

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