International Academy of Film and Television - IAFT

I started as an apprentice film editor in 1972 in Chicago. I became an editing partner in 1975, cutting mostly national commercials for United Airlines, Mercedes Benz and Piper Airplanes. In 1980 I moved to Los Angeles and luckily got a job with the Disney Sound Dept. in 1981. I quickly worked my way up to Sound Mixer, and decided to concentrate on Sound Effects, and Foley in particular. In 1987, I moved to Paramount Pictures, and did about 15 films per year. I left Hollywood in 1994, moved to Maui and shifted focus to Production Sound Mixing, on location with the shooting crews. I worked on episodic TV, reality shows, national TV commercials, and independent features, although in 2000, I was reacquainted with studio pictures as one of 2 production mixers for John Woo's Windtalkers. In 2004, I relocated to Saipan, in the Northern Mariana Islands, and, with Butch and Les Wolf, developed the Department of Film and Television Arts for Northern Marianas College. The program was WASC accredited, and students earned an AA degree. In 2006, we formed a motion picture consultancy called GEFH Entertainment Group, and in January, 2007, Bigfoot Entertainment retained us to build the Post Sound Dept and train the staff. I also lectured as part of IAFT, and became full time staff in 2010. Teaching became important for me when I realized that the traditional procedure of "apprenticeship", the method by which most of us learned, was pretty much going away, due to shrinking schedules on movies and TV... There is a natural transition, a knowledge transfer that must happen as each new generation of filmmakers comes into play. The secrets of the motion picture business have been handed down this way for decades, and must continue now in the form of mentorship.

With fellow mentor Richard Hearsey, I am developing a new internship program for students, working on local media projects and event coverage. We are trying to immerse them in real production environments, with real clients, so they get a taste of what's really involved in the industry, outside of school. I also maintain the GEFH Group consultancy, and have clients and associates in LA, Maui, Saipan, Singapore, Malaysia, Bangkok, Korea, and Philippines. Additionally, I play music in local clubs as my hobby.

There is a relatively small group of people that work on big budget Hollywood pictures, so typically the Oscar awardees all know each other. Their skills as practitioners, in what I call the "A" group, are honed over years of practicing the craft. You must have an innate aptitude for the craft, a healthy dose of technical mastery, a finely tuned aesthetic sense of the material, and finally an affable demeanor so people want you on their crew.

I think that's an easy impression to be under. A big action show is usually heavy on hard effects and sound design elements and naturally carries a bigger punch. That's what it's supposed to do. There is nothing inherently harder about an action picture as opposed to a walkie-talkie. In fact, a subtle show that is rich in detail can be more difficult to do because each sound carries so much more weight in the building of the track, and must be more precise because of the subtlety. It's the layering of all those sounds that creates a rich texture of reality. Hunt For Red October won for best SFX partly because it was a very subtle and precise sound job, and I think people were tired of having their ears bombarded by big action soundtracks.

My advice is twofold: First, try to work with and under people who are better than you. There is an old musicians' adage: "Always hang with the top cats". I think it's especially important to get exposure to the top level in your field. Once there, you cannot go down, assuming you don't totally screw things up, haha! Accept the lowest position in the highest group. If you are hired at $2/hr. or $0/hr. to make coffee, you make the best coffee they ever had... Excellence, attention to detail, and pride of work is apparent to those who are looking (your bosses). That's how you move up. Secondly, think of this as a career and not just a fad. Resist the temptation for immediate gratification as DP of a series of no-budget horror pictures, in favor of being a runner for an "A" level production company. The contacts and experience you will get will far outweigh any temporary ego-high about being a DP. Be humble and respectful to your superiors, they are the ones that will help you get where you're going. Remember, you are only a director, or DP, or whatever, if you are working... Otherwise, you are just starving.