The Dead Pixel Podcast

Calling this episode a discussion about sound is really an understatement. Because although Dean Hurley has been David Lynch’s official “sound guy” for many years, it’s clear that you’re getting way more with this guy than a conversation about audio. We won’t spoil things, so just listen and enjoy the ride.

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Dean is a sound designer, re-recording mixer, and composer best known for his collaboration with film director David Lynch. Hurley operated Lynch’s Asymmetrical Studio from 2005 - 2018, where he collaborated extensively on the sound and music for an array of Lynch’s film projects, commercial work and music albums. In 2017, Hurley served as sound and music supervisor for the return of Lynch’s iconic Twin Peaks on Showtime. He has also supervised and mixed projects for directors like Werner Herzog, Randall Wallace, and most recently 2021's ‘JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass’ for Oliver Stone.

It might be difficult to conjure up exciting images when someone brings up the library. Quietness, stacks of books, and card catalogs likely come to mind. But the Library of Congress? Well, that’s different. It’s the American people’s library, after all. And it’s the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. The Audio-Visual Conservation at the LOC in Culpeper, Virginia is home to more than 1.1 million film, television, and video items. With a collection ranging from motion pictures made in the 1890s to today's TV programs, the Library's holdings are an unparalled record of American and international creativity in moving images.

In our tenth episode, we get to speak with two incredibly talented and knowledgeable librarians at the LOC: Heather Linville and George Willeman. We get to hear about all the goodies stored in the library that you probably have no idea about. We talk about how to store and catalog over a million sound and video items and we find out what technology the library uses to keep all these items available for the future. And you want to hear about nitrate? You got it! The big question is: are they librarians or archivists? You decide!

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Heather Linville is the Motion Picture Laboratory Supervisor at the Library of Congress’ National Audio Visual Conservation Center (NAVCC). Heather manages NAVCC’s film digitization and 35mm black and white photochemical operations. Prior to arriving at the Library in 2018, Heather was a Film Preservationist at the Academy Film Archive in Los Angeles for 14 years. She has supervised over 300 digital and photochemical projects including eight films on the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry.

Geo. Willeman is the Nitrate Film Vault Leader for the Library of Congress National Audio Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, VA and feels having the words “film leader” in his job title is very cool. Geo. has been enamored of motion pictures as far back as he can remember. His epiphany came when his dad took him to see The Ten Commandments in a local movie house in Ohio and he became hopelessly hooked. While earning a degree in Motion Picture Production at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, Geo got a part time job inspecting nitrate film at the LOC’s vaults at Wright-Patterson AFB next door. He figured it would be a temporary job until graduation---this May will mark thirty-eight years with The Library of Congress.

Joe and Lee go back a very long time. When Lee first started mastering movies in New York City, there weren’t a lot of colorists who could work on feature films outside Hollywood. Most colorists in the city were only doing commercials or music videos and the emphasis was on the 30 second spot or the 3 minute MTV special. Joe could do these of course, but Lee quickly learned that Joe could handle the long form movie re-master very well. With the advent of high definition and the needed content to supply broadcasters with HD versions of classic films, Lee and Joe spent a lot of time together moving through dozens of films including Bergman, Fellini, Tarkovsky and countless others. Cut to 2022 and Joe is one of the leading feature film Digital Intermediate colorists in the world.

In this episode, Ryan and Lee go back to Joe’s humble beginnings, share some great stories, and talk about the evolution of the telecine transfer up to the digital camera and the changes in technology. It’s a fun and fast paced conversation.

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Over the years, Joe has built long- standing collaborations with respected cinematographers including Ellen Kuras, Harris Savides, Ed Lachman, Bradford Young, and Florian Ballhaus. Gawler’s recent work includes Disney’s "Hamilton," Kelly Reichardt’s "First Cow," Ron Howard’s "Solo: A Star Wars Story," Greta Gerwig’s "Little Women," Robert Eggers’ "The Lighthouse," and FX’s "Fosse/Verdon." In 2020, "The Lighthouse and" "Little Women" earned nominations at the 92nd Academy Awards for ‘Best Cinematography’ and ‘Best Picture’, respectively.

“Finding the bespoke look for a project drives my process,” says Gawler. He finds that the art of color grading is “a balancing act to push the most compelling images while staying true to the creative intent for all filmmakers involved.” His subtle art of ensuring that every filmmaker in the room is happy with the final image, and delivering a signature look, is what has given him the reputation of a trusted collaborator.

A few months ago, Lee was speaking with filmmaker Barry Sonnenfeld. They were catching up on a few things related to one of the Coen brothers films, and he started to tell me why he didn’t like HDR and why he has a problem with 4k. Intrigued, I continued the conversation. But, while he was ranting I asked him if he would come on the Dead Pixel Podcast and discuss it in detail. He agreed, and we had a very funny and frank discussion about both of those subjects. But that’s not all - we speak about his favorite lenses, moving on from cinematographer to director, shooting for Martin Scorsese and Penny Marshall, and so many other topics.

Barry was the cinematographer for the early Coen brothers films including Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, and Miller’s Crossing, but also shot for Penny Marshall, Rob Reiner, and Danny Devito. He directed many big budget Hollywood films including Addams Family, Get Shorty and Men in Black. He currently lives in Vancouver and continues to work in both feature films and television. He recently released his very hilarious book “Barry Sonnenfeld, Call your Mother: Memoirs of a Neurotic Filmmaker.

The discussion of film scanning doesn’t come up too often. A lab has a scanner of their choosing for various reasons, and we simply send our film to them for the scanning work asking little questions. But there are plenty of questions to ask with the biggest one being “is this the right scanner for this job?” Maybe it it is, maybe it isn’t. We spoke to Manuel Götz after seeing him teach Southeast Asian film archives students on how ARRI’s famous scanner works. With a huge range of options that could handle just about any piece of film from missing sprockets to shrunken frames that had no right getting through any scanner, the ARRI is the workhorse of many labs and archives throughout the world. Manuel shares his knowledge on the great ARRI machine but also his very interesting perspective on the future of scanning including AI.

A native to the city of Vienna, Austria, Manuel studied at the School for Independent Film Friedl Kubelka before graduating from the film preservation-MA at the University of Amsterdam. He has been working at the film restoration departments of ARRI Media and MoMA, was involved in restoration projects with Bill Brand at BB Optics and is the serving chairman of filmkoop wien. Currently an independent film restorer, he has most recently been engaged in digitization projects of the Bavarian Broadcasting and film scanning workshops for several national film archives.

We wanted to know what it’s like working for just one filmmaker, albeit an incredibly diverse and prolific one as Francis Ford Coppola. What we learned after talking to James Mockoski is that it’s always kept interesting because the filmmaker is continually interested in the past as much as the present and the future. Keeping classics like Apocalypse Now and The Godfather alive in new mediums for multiple generations is a busy job, and James (just like his boss) knows how to surround himself with the right artists and technicians. It’s a fast paced and honest discussion.

James is the film archivist and restoration supervisor for American Zoetrope in San Francisco, California. He received his B.A. in Film/Video from UCSC and graduated with a M.A. in Film Archiving from the University of East Anglia. In 2002, he joined Francis Ford Coppola's company, American Zoetrope as their Film Archivist and he has supervised the restorations of some classic films such as Apocalypse Now, The Conversation, Tucker and The Cotton Club. He also oversees the Coppola Family Archive of Costumes and memorabilia, including the Museum Collection held at Inglenook Winery and Francis Coppola Winery in Geyserville.

John Polito is the founder and chief engineer of Audio Mechanics in Burbank, California. Founded in 1991, Audio Mechanics is one of the most sought-after, respected, award winning audio service providers for film studios, music labels, content owners, collections and archives, with a reputation for aesthetic integrity and unparalleled technical proficiency.

Under John expert guidance, his staff of talented audio engineers are trained and skilled in the meticulous art of listening to professional audio content, and have acquired the mastery of the technical tools (both old and new), enabling them to bring forth the very highest quality in audio design, capture, preservation, transfer, restoration, mixing, re-mastering and audio enhancement.

Speaking audio engineer to audio engineer, Ryan and John trade war stories and anecdotes while discussing many years of working in the audio world. It's a frank and insightful conversation about restoring old films and how good archiving skills can set you up for a successful career.

Davide Pozzi has been working at Cineteca di Bologna since 2001, and in 2006 he became the director of L’Immagine Ritrovata film restoration laboratory. Under his management, the laboratory has established itself as one of the most highly specialized facilities in the field of film restoration worldwide. L’Immagine Ritrovata is exclusively specialized in film restoration and is equipped to cover every workflow, from 4K to photochemical. The equipment with which the laboratory is furnished is at the forefront of technological innovation and is designed for the restoration of films from all type periods.

In this episode Davide goes into the history of building a restoration empire that is unparalleled in the small world of restoration and film.

Archiving thousands of film and digital assets for a giant studio like Paramount Pictures seems like a daunting task. But Andrea makes it seem both fascinating and exciting. We spoke to her about life at the big studio, her former work at the British Film Institute, UCLA and Dreamworks. And we get into the nitty gritty of War of the Worlds, the world of The Godfather and many other titles. The discussion about creating a great workplace for your team is especially inspiring.

Michael Pogorzelski is the Director of the Academy Film Archive, whose collection now includes nearly 100,000 titles representing 214,000 items. Over 1,100 films have been preserved at the Academy Film Archive including features, documentaries, animated films, avant-garde and experimental films and home movies. Pogorzelski has preserved and restored over 50 films and recently co-supervised the digital restoration of Satyajit Ray’s Apu trilogy, Edgar G. Ulmer’s Detour(1945), Philip Kaufman’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988), John Ford’s How Green Was My Valley (1941) and Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon (1950).