11/1/22
Newletter145
The Crack of Dawn
We decided to do the sound mix of Thou Shalt Not Kill…Except in Toronto because the currency exchange rate in 1985 was almost two to one. We ended up paying $9,000 U.S. for a full week of mixing, which would have been at least $25,000 in NY or L.A. It’s a bit of an ordeal doing work in another country, so we were told to say that we were not working, we were supervising. Scott Spiegel and I drove in my Mazda Rotary hatchback containing boxes and boxes of magnetic soundtracks. At the border here in Detroit when we were asked what we would be doing in Canada, we said, “Supervising a sound mix.” No problem and off we went. Bruce Campbell drove separately. When he was asked what he was going to do in Canada, Bruce replied, “Work on a sound mix.” Having used the verboten W-word, they detained him for a few hours.
The mixer’s name was Mike Hoogenboom. From the first minute of the first day, Mike was an asshole. Anything we asked for, he gave us shit. By the end of the first day I was furious. I said to Bruce, “What happens if I punch this motherfucker in the nose?” Bruce said, “We’d certainly need to look for a new mixing house. I recommend not doing it.” So I didn’t. Mike was awful the second day, too, and I thought, “We’ll finish this job, then I’ll punch him in the nose.” On the third day Mike came in looking abashed. He said, “My favorite aunt is in the hospital and I was very upset the last two days, but she’s good and I’m fine, and I just want to apologize for my obnoxious behavior.” Mike Hoogenboom was then a brilliant sound mixer for the next five days. And he was great at coming up with oddball sounds. I have a shot with about twelve people standing up from a sitting position. There were background sounds like wind and birds chirping, but no sound effect for the people standing because what sound would it make? Mike said, “Try this,” and put in a tiny cloth rustle, and it was perfect. In movies it’s better to have any sound, then none.
In one big dialogue scene in the main cabin set we had a thing called RF, which is “radio frequency,” meaning there was a slight buzz in all of the sound. It hadn’t seemed so bad on the editing equipment, but on the big, clear studio speakers, it was unbearable. Mike asked, “Do we ever see the fourth wall behind the camera?” I said no. Mike said, “Then the window is open and it’s windy outside.” He added a quiet but steady whistling wind track and it eliminated the RF. Every time I see the scene I’m amazed; the dialogue is a little flat, but there’s no RF.
By the time we left Toronto we loved Mike Hoogenboom. He really saved our crummy soundtrack. Thank God, though, I had great music by Joe LoDuca (who scored Evil Dead, Xena, and for the past several years, Chucky). A 40-piece Hollywood studio orchestra with a five piece ethnic accompaniment of Asian drums. I own many war movie soundtracks and Joe’s is as good as the best by Jerry Goldsmith or Elmer Bernstein.
The front title scene of TSNKE is NBC news stock footage of the Vietnam War. Since back then you paid by the second, I bought one-minute of footage, then had it double-printed into slow motion to create a two-minute title scene, which worked out really well.
So, my buddy Sheldon, who co-wrote the story, and is an actual Vietnam veteran, came to see the film for the first time at the 1985 American Film Market in L.A. I sat in the lobby smoking cigarettes. 85-minutes later Sheldon came out of the theater. I asked, “So, what did you think?” He said, “For the first two minutes, with the real war footage in slo-mo, and Joe’s terrific music, I really thought I was going to see a good movie.” I said, “Yeah? Then what happened?” Sheldon smiled, “Well, then your movie started.”
I’m smiling.