Fuzzy in LA, cinema mixing part 4

Greetings once again for my penultimate blog post! Yesterday was probably one of those highlight days in my adventure in sound that I will look back on in years to come and smile about. I travelled to Todd-AO Burbank and spent a day in the studio with mix legend Gary Summers.

Now I don’t like to use the word “hang” as it speaks of a certain familiarity (like someone brushing past Samuel Jackson at a hotdog stand inflating the story to “hang” status, you know?) So while I was tremendously excited and thankful that Kim had organized for me to pop in to Burbank and see Mr Summers in action, I expected to sit in quiet euphoria in the corner—which was not the case.

Turns out Gary Summers is a friendly, approachable and all round fun guy! In between mixing we chatted at length and he told me some wonderful stories and anecdotes from some of the movies he’s mixed, including Avatar, Transformers and one of his recent favourites, Warrior.
We talked a bit about EQ and workflow, dialogue mixing and directors, all with an air of affability. In short, once again I was blown away by how someone on this level was happy to chat about experiences, was free with information and generally super helpful! In fact, perhaps the unaffected and easy manner of the people I have met here, all of who are leaders in their field, is the greatest lesson I’ve learned.

I was also lucky enough to sit alongside picture editor Maysie Hoy for the mix. Maysie has edited many dramas and comedies including Smoke, What Dreams May Come, Freeway and For Colored Girls. Another person very happy to talk about her craft, it was quite an insight talking to her from the perspective of project management, ADR and scheduling, and the pitfalls that go with it. I still have so many questions, thanks Maysie for giving me your email!

On the way out of the complex, Phil form operations (pictured) was nice enough to give me a facility tour (drool!)
And on the way home I decided it was time for some pop-Americana and indulged in a chili dog and a root beet float. Nice.
Till part 5,
Simon Fuzzy