"The Pacific" – Interview with Tom Bellfort

Post Magazine has published an interview with Tom Bellfort, talking about the sound of “The Pacific”, the 10-part miniseries of HBO.

In mid-March, HBO began broadcasting its new 10-part miniseries, The Pacific. Executive produced by Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and Gary Goetzman, the series recreates the stories of three real-life Marines — Robert Laeckie, John Basilone and Eugene Sledge — who served during World War II. But unlike the 2001 miniseries Band of Brothers by the same executive producing team, this drama takes a look at the battle with Japan in the Pacific, as opposed to the war taking place in Eastern Europe.

Soundelux’s (www.soundelux.com) Tom Bellfort (Oscar, Titanic) was supervising sound editor on the project and likened the demands of this TV series to the film work he’s been involved in over the course of his career. Here, he talks to Post about The Pacific’s soundtrack and the nine months the team at Todd-AO spent getting it ready for broadcast.

Post: What were you trying to achieve for The Pacific’s soundtrack?
Bellfort: “I would say that our job as sound editors on this series was to create an envelope, a soundscape that put the viewer viscerally inside the soldiers’ experience and reality as they marched from island to island. And the attempt to recreate that environment that dealt with heat, rain, mud and fear. That was really our goal — to create — viscerally — that environment sonically. It was a big challenge and hopefully what we achieved.”

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