Comments on: “Film Sound Effects”, New Library with Sounds from 1966 https://designingsound.org/2012/03/20/film-sound-effects-a-new-library-with-sounds-from-1966/ Art and technique of sound design Sat, 23 Feb 2013 14:47:38 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2.8 By: Umbe A Adan https://designingsound.org/2012/03/20/film-sound-effects-a-new-library-with-sounds-from-1966/#comment-3373 Wed, 04 Apr 2012 11:39:36 +0000 https://designingsound.org/?p=12467#comment-3373 Sorry for typos – and it’s from my iPhone!
Adan

]]> By: Umbe A Adan https://designingsound.org/2012/03/20/film-sound-effects-a-new-library-with-sounds-from-1966/#comment-3372 Wed, 04 Apr 2012 11:16:29 +0000 https://designingsound.org/?p=12467#comment-3372 I am in my office in Los-Angeles just worked on docu from England on CEO for huge kids gaming Company called ‘Moshi Monsters’ – and I did sound for them. I looked up on the Internet for additional article on my buddy Peter handford production Sound Mixer for ‘out of Africa & Gorillas In The Mist.’ – just being curious.
You article on Peter amazed me how he as a camera man in WWII and kept his compassion for sound he had early on.
I was fortunate to work with him as a Local crew member in Kenya on Location at out skirt of Nairobi – at Aberdar’s National Park – about 200-miles in 1987. Peter, Me and our driver took off from ‘Pan-Afric’ hotel up at the hilly side of City of Nairobi, and only three of us in the Van. We headed with a producrion van towards the filming location going north of Nairobi, and Peter acted as he already knew the exact location as we got closer to the last exit from the main road, he warned the driver to slaw down that we were close to the exit, and he was right. The driver missed the exit by few hundreds of feet and he has to turn around to take that paved road that took us to the camp in the middle of the forest, The filming location was, one of the major hide out for mau mau freedom fighters After WWII.
Ofcourse, have been here in Kenya during the filming of ‘out Of Africa,’ and he feels at home very much. He very specific and right on wherever we were going. I was surprised he knew Kenya more than I and the tour driver – without the present day GPS technology at hand.
I was 25 years old, and eventhough I was assigned to be the sound assistant, I was not aware of who they were – and actually, they were one of the best film makers in the entire face of the earth.
To make the story short, at Aberdar’s national park, I worked with Peter for almost a Month, and he taught me everything I wanted to know about film sound. Taking it further, he set for me my seprate gear next to his actual set up on set and I was listening to exactly to what he was recording during the entire filming of ‘Gorillas In The Mist.’ I remember the sound engineer Don whispered in my ear that, ‘do you know that you are sitting and mixing sound with one of the best film sound expert in the world?’ and he adds – ‘every one wants to be at where you sitting right now.’ and it’s an eye opener for me and I used every oportunity to learn from the best, and me and peter went deeper in to the forest farther away from any human contact, and at the same time, he totally immersed himself was in unison with total suroundings listens carefully to every thing. And I was the one who was carrying the reel to reel anlalogue Nagra machine, and he grabs it from me and stands still for quite sometimes and gathers the general ambiance – the harmony of birds sounds the wind, the silensceI etc. Peter liked hiking, in his early sixties he was very consistent very sharp on his subject. You may find in his collection what we recorded at Aberdare’s in ‘Gorillas in the Mist.’ I carried the Nagra – reel to reel recorder and walked with him climbing up skiding down the slope and dacking the tree branches in our ways at times. Peter was in his early sixties, was able to fucntion with love and compassion – and liked my presence playing with me during the lunch cue. I was so naive I did know much back then; and when I look back, I think he made every attempt to make me benefit from working with him – and I did. We were done with filming and went back to Nairobi. Peter was busy getting me recommendation typed from the office to give me with his signature on it. I did not know what even the WBROs(Warner Brothers) bold as the head of the letter. I never watched the TV growing up – and I kept the letter he signed for me – with care until today. The Production company did not give me theatrical credit, I did know what happene and also I did not care to look for it – or may be I was not that important, however, peter made me very important and I think that’s itself was huger than anything I could have imagined.
Years passed, and I got married to a special costumer on the same film and moved to LosAngeles in 1990. I carried his emblem – the knowledge he aquired me as a platform with me whereever I went. And Currently, I am the only African in 400 members of Local 695(IA) of sound union of LosAngeles – and I am very good at what I do because of the work ethics he introduced me to earlier on in my life, and that became the reason for me to help the others whenever I could…
Peace!

Umbe A Adan

]]> By: Film Sound Effects, 1966 Sound Library | OH DRAT https://designingsound.org/2012/03/20/film-sound-effects-a-new-library-with-sounds-from-1966/#comment-3371 Thu, 29 Mar 2012 17:17:54 +0000 https://designingsound.org/?p=12467#comment-3371 […] first saw this collection over at designingsound.org, where Miguel Isaga wrote about it, and interviewed Andrew Walker – the man who brought the […]

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