In ‘The Last Waltz,’ released by United Artists 40 years ago in April 1978, director Martin Scorsese trained his cameras on what was intended to be the last concert of the Band at San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom. […]
Few Americans, even those who work with motion picture sound, have heard of the Tagefon and Shorinofon systems, but readers interested in the intricacies of how sound first meshed with cinema can learn about these machines and the artists who used them. […]
From the age of six, Ada McGrath refuses to speak, yet film audiences first saw and heard how clearly she communicates on May 15, 1993, when Jane Campion’s ‘The Piano’ premiered at the 45th Cannes International Film Festival. […]
As a seven-year-old living in the jungles of Matute, Colombia, I was surrounded by an exotic land. My pets weren’t limited to the three dogs and six cats that roamed but also included a macaw named Ludwina, a howler monkey named Tarzan, several tortoises and an assortment of parrots and parakeets. […]
With an electronics background in the Guard, I acquired a 1st Class FCC license in the hope that it might open a door to the industry––and it did! […]
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s film legacy is its musicals. Perhaps because it was the most politically conservative of the major studios, MGM was more comfortable with melodramas and musicals than with social issues. […]
As a conductor leads an orchestra, and a composer creates ideas and sounds, so does a mixer. All the elements of dialogue, sound effects, music, creativity and technical ability coalesced as a career choice. My goal of sound for picture evolved. […]
Some people have a plan. I did not, do not, and am still not sure what I would like to be when I grow up. Oh, I am mostly grown, middle-aged, halfway to somewhere. Opportunities and luck drew me. […]
A ”Jack-of-all-trades and master of none” is what I thought of myself until I turned 30. […]
The canvas of The Right Stuff (1983) is rightly thought of as large — Herculean, even. In recounting the history of America’s valiant test pilots and astronauts, writer-director Philip Kaufman’s adaptation of Tom Wolfe’s acclaimed book is peopled by an enormous cast, and it traverses the earth, sea and outer space. […]
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