Studio Daily had an interesting talk with Tom Bellfort, supervising sound editor of the HBO miniseries “The Pacific”.
The Pacific–the WWII miniseries from the producing trio (Tom Hanks, Steve Spielberg, Gary Goetzman) who brought us Band of Brothers–will debut on HBO on the evening of March 14. This ten-part series depicts the brutal war in the Pacific by following the intertwined real-life stories of three U.S. Marines throughout their deployment until they go home after V-J day.
If Band of Brothers is any indication, The Pacific will be gripping drama with a tremendous attention to the kind of authentic detail that builds the “you are there” reality. While much is written about how the visuals achieved that level of realism, the important contributions of audio don’t always get the same attention.
I spoke with Tom Bellfort, supervising sound editor, who notes that watching the entire miniseries is an emotional roller coaster. “It is genuinely a quite an experience,” he says. “You go through ten episodes of the enthusiasm towards war and the Marine Corps, but by the end of the ten episodes, you also experience some of the bitterness and cynicism towards the war.”