– Charlie's Blog –

There’s nothing like watching a master at work. Last week, the documentary filmmaker Jonathan Gruber and I went to Baltimore to check out the sound mixing for Jonathan’s new film, Centered, which I scored. The mix was done at Studio Unknown, where Jamie Horrigan is the boss and Kevin Hill is the mixer-in-chief. I had already sent Kevin all the stems—the individual instrument recordings. That is a lot of audio information. But watching Kevin as he reassembled the score, with each track getting its own compression, equalization, and reverb, and added sound effects including crowd noise, explosions, jet engines, footsteps, sneezes, and, finally, the dialog was amazing.

In olden times (i.e., the 1970s) when this process was done physically, on the actual reels of film, this operation was known as “rock and roll.” It was a tedious back-and-forth process. Now, it is all digital. It may be less tedious, but it’s also much more detailed. Kevin’s screen looks like a high-tech NASA command center. But the end result sounds remarkably unaffected and completely natural.

When people talk about the magic of movies, they often are thinking about visual effects—green screen animation, for example. When I want to experience movie magic, I close my eyes and listen to everything the sound mixer has done.

After my third or fourth reading of Homer’s Iliad I became obsessed with Breseis, Achilles’ concubine—so obsessed that I wrote a play that transported the character to the campus of a small, modern-day college in upstate New York. Now, with a generous grant from the Arts & Humanities Council of Montgomery County, I will be able to see the play onstage … by producing and directing it myself. It’s my first go as a director, and I have been learning a great deal about the process, with kind help from several experienced directors, designers, and other pros. The play, newly renamed Classics 101: A Satyr Play, will be performed at the Bethesda Writer’s Center on August 23-25.

One of my favorite documentary filmmakers, Jonathan Gruber, is fearless in the face of controversial material. I have been lucky enough to score a handful of Jonathan’s films and am currently working on his latest: a clear-eyed profile of the recently deceased centrist politician Joe Lieberman. For a mild-mannered guy, Lieberman evoked strong feelings from others over the course of his career, from deep admiration to wrath. Jonathan is at his best when exploring a subject like this, and it’s a great challenge for me to be working on this balancing act with him.