Frame By Frame

In the late 1960’s and early 70’s, years before Sound One had established itself as one of the most successful and highly respected sound facilities on the East Coast, it was a solo operation. Elisha Birnbaum, a sound editor and foley artist who had recently emigrated from Israel, worked with a small team but quickly developed a reputation for creating a highly productive, family atmosphere filled with astonishing creativity, quality product and quick turnaround time that attracted both the established and uninitiated to work at his studio. 

At its apex of productivity Sound One would take in 85% of all post-production work in New York City and would help launch the careers of both post production professionals and filmmakers like The Coen Brothers, Spike Lee, Alan Pakula, Michael Moore and Ken Burns among others.  Here staff and clients share stories about the personal bonds and animal spirit that helped define the dynamics at work at Sound and how they created what has come to be known as the Sound One Family.

From 1968 to 2012, Sound One grew from a solo operation to becoming the most successful post-production sound and editing facility on the East Coast. At its apex, Sound One inhabited five floors of the famed Brill Building housed 150 edit suites and over 300 clients and staff at its apex and commanded 85% of post-production business in New York. As its reputation grew, it became the go to post-production home for such filmmakers as Sidney Lumet, Arthur Penn, George Roy Hill, Jonathan Demme, Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese and through its constant support of independents, helped launch the careers of  filmmakers like the Alan Pakula, Spike Lee, The Coen Brothers, M. Night Shyamalan, Michael Moore, Ken Burns and countless post-production professionals and helped post-produce some of cinemas most influential works.

From 1968 to 2012, Sound One grew from a solo operation run by Elisha Birnbaum a foley artist and sound editor recent emigrated from Israel to become the most successful post-production sound and editing facility on the East Coast. Inhabiting seven floors of the famed Brill Building and commanding at least 85% of post-production business in New York, Sound One housed 150 edit suites and over 300 clients and staff at its apex. As its reputation grew, it became the go-to post-production home for such filmmakers as Sidney Lumet, Arthur Penn, George Roy Hill, Jonathan Demme, Woody Allen, and Martin Scorsese and through its constant support of independents, helped launch the careers of  filmmakers like the Alan Pakula, Spike Lee, The Coen Brothers, M. Night Shyamalan, Michael Moore and Ken Burns and countless post-production professionals generating some of cinemas most important films. 

The Beginning tells the story of how Sound One answered a need for local sound stages in the early 1970's  New York film industry and redefined the post-production community in the process.

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Post Factory(now SIM) Founder, Alex Halpern and Picture Editor Angelo Corrao talk about their collaboration on Nine Good Teeth  as well as Angelo’s work on Bruce Weber’s Let’s Get Lost and their experiences coming up in the 1980's New York film scene and developing early relationships with filmmakers like The Coen Brothers.

Sound Editor, Maurice Schell (Gimme Shelter, Serpico, The Missouri Breaks,Apocalypse Now, All That Jazz, Melvin and Howard, Reds, Scarface) , Re-recording Mixer,Lee Dichter, (Grey Gardens, Sophie’s Choice, Hannah and Her Sisters, Miller’s Crossing, The Civil War) and Picture Editor Peter Frank, (The Verdict, Cadillac Records, Dirty Dancing) share stories about coming up in the 1960's 70's and 80's in the New York film industry and their collaboration on Sidney Lumet’sThe Verdict.

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Picture Editor Tim Squyres and Sound Editor, Phil Stockton share stories from collaborating together for over 20 years working with film directors such as Martin Scorsese, Ang Lee, Robert Altman, the Coen Brothers, Jonathan Demme and Spike Lee and recognize the advances in technology have encouraged a merging of their roles.

Frame By Frame is a podcast series hosted by editor Isabel Sadurni, that introduces you to the most influential, respected and accomplished cinema post-production professionals working in New York today. Through intimate, informal discussions between collaborators about post-production craft, aesthetics, process and technique, we’ll recognize and celebrate the iconic films and people that have made New York film history as well as those contemporaries who continue to make important contributions to the art of filmmaking. In conversations anchored by the film editor, we’ll share the stories that define New York as an essential ongoing capital of the global film industry.

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Television and feature film picture editors Kate Sanford (The Wire, The Deuce) and Tim Streeto (The Squid and the Whale, Greenberg) describe their process in developing the hit series Boardwalk Empire with Martin Scorsese, Tim Van Patten and Terry Winter as well as how they worked together  with Martin Scorsese, Terry Winter and Mick Jagger to create Season 1 of Vinyl.

Picture editor, Craig McKay, Re-recording Mixer Tom Fleischman, Production Sound Recordist, Chris Newman, Sound Editors, Ron Bochar and Phil Stockton and ADR Supervisor, Deborah Wallach talk about early influences getting started in the New York film industry of the 1960’s and 70’s as well as their work with Warren Beatty, on Reds and Jonathan Demme's Silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia.

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In Brian DePalma’s 1981 film Blow Out, the main character is a sound effects specialist who accidentally records a murder while collecting night sounds for his effects library. The inspiration for this character was Dan Sable, a New York-based sound editor and a collaborator of DePalma’s on nine of his films including, Carrie, Dressed to Kill and Blow Out. Dan Sable built a career as a sound editor working on films such as Annie Hall and Manhattan and multiple films with Woody Allen. Other directors with whom he collaborated include Bob Fosse, Volker Schlorndorff, Ron Howard and Jonathan Demme.

This interview was recorded in Dan Sable’s home by Ira Spiegel and Shari Johanson for Frame By Frame and may be included in a forthcoming documentary on the new York Post Facility Sound One. Here, Dan talks about how he got his start in the film business, specifically in working with filmmaker Brian DePalma, how he successfully transitioned from working in analog and adapted to the tools of the digital era. He begins by discussing the difference between taking on the position of sound editor versus sound supervisor

Coming together in the early 1980’s filmmaking scene of New York, picture editor Jay Rabinowitz and sound editor Bob Hein first met in collaborating on Jim Jarmusch’s film Mystery Train which led to multiple collaborations over 25 years of working with Jim Jarmusch on such films as Broken Flowers, Dead Man, and Limits of Control. Re-recording mixer, Tony Volante joined in mixing the feature film, Coffee and Cigarettes and has since also mixed on Paterson with Bob Hein as sound editor. Jay, Bob and Tony start out by describing the filmmaking scene of 1980’s New York and how that set the tone for future collaborations. Jay Rabinowitz also talks about his process as a picture editor working with Jim Jarmusch and how the film Dead Man came together.

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For Sam Pollard, Emmy and Peabody award-winning a director, producer, picture editor and frequent collaborator with Spike Lee (Style Wars, Mo' Better Blues, Girl 6, Bamboozled, Clockers, When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, Four Little Girls  and August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand), and for Lillian Benson, recipient of the 2017 Motion Picture Editor's Guild Fellowship and Service Award and Emmy and Peabody award-winning picture editor (Get In The Way: The Journey of John Lewis and Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise) documentary filmmaking has proven to be the most powerful form of expression artistically, personally and professionally. 

Coming up during the civil rights movement of the late 1960’s and 70’s New York they recognized the documentary film form as a medium that amplified their own voices and talents in telling the story of African Americans.  Though their paths crossed on several New York-based projects, it was the Peabody and multi-Emmy award-winning, Eyes on the Prize Parts 1 and 2, the landmark 14-part documentary series, telling the story of the American civil rights movement from 1952 to 1985 that was the most pivotal experience.

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In this episode, Pollard and Benson tell their story of rising up through the New York documentary film scene to become two of the most important and influential documentarians of their generation.