My Own Private Idaho Audio Mix - Part Two
More Alcohol, Stupidity, and Becoming a Dad
At some point I will write more about the sound design and the creative parts of this mix but for now you’ll have to put up with behind the scenes stuff that might only interest me.
The Phone Call
The following day I got a phone call that changed my life. My wife (at the time) called to say she was pregnant with our first (and only) child. Gus was the first person I told and of course he said we’d have to go out and celebrate. And boy did we.
We went to a nice restaurant and the alcohol started flowing. We finally left that place and went to a bar where we were turned away. They didn’t say it but we were already pretty far-gone and they didn’t want to deal with us. I certainly couldn’t blame them. We found a late night coffee place and some of their coffees had alcohol in them. So we began ordering these amazing coffee drinks and telling the waitress to hold the coffee. It was pretty much straight booze we were drinking at this point. We left when they closed still in a party mood because I was going to be a Dad.
The following day was a holiday in Canada, most places were going to be closed, but we were working anyway. On our way back to our hotel we accosted some poor fellow demanding to know what this holiday was all about. I still remember the guy looked at us like we were crazy (he was probably right) and said, “It’s Queen Victoria’s Birthday.” You would think that since the holiday was “Victoria Day” two college-educated people could have figured that out.
We passed by another bar/club with a line waiting to get in. The music was loud so we got in line. Apparently it was a place Gus had heard about and wanted to check out. We stood in line for quite a while. Finally Gus looked at his watch and it was after 2 am as I recall.
“This is kind of stupid, isn’t it?”
… Gus said.
I nodded and we walked back to the hotel. The next morning I felt like absolute crap. Gus finally rolled in around noon and he looked worse. I have no idea how much we consumed that night and it’s probably better that I don’t.
That was how I celebrated learning I was going to be a Dad. And Fiona has never heard this story…
Eventually the producer, editor, and one of my assistants, along with a couple other people from the production arrived and so my evenings became my own and mostly I went back to the hotel and slept.
It was a very intense and fun mix and I think we did a hell of a job on that film. Remember this was back in the day when all of the sound was edited on upright Moviolas. We had no editing room in Vancouver so any changes we needed to make were done on a set of rewinds and a synchronizer, on a table in a hallway. And of course there were changes. (And yes, I know that’s a 16 mm moviola and we were using 35’s. It’s just a picture…)
We finished the final mix and while the rest of the crew was making various versions of that mix (mono, TV, airline, etc) I had to leave to drive to LA to participate in a graduate program at the American Film Institute.
An Easy Border Crossing, for me anyway…
With an empty car it was the easiest border crossing I ever had. Probably the last easy border crossing I’ve had.
One of the assistants drove the van back across the border with all of the material in it. I heard from the producer later that he drove right through the border and didn’t deal with customs at all and they never checked the van.
The producer was pissed, as there was all the paperwork that needed to get signed off on at the border so she could get her money back. She made him turn around and drive back to the border and take care of everything.
My Own Private Idaho is still one of my favorite films.
Los Angeles and AFI
I went to LA and developed a proposal for a documentary on prison inmates that I shopped all over the place and although people were interested, no one ever came up with funding. The program at AFI was sponsored by CBS in the hopes of finding the next, The Civil War. There were some very impressive filmmakers and film projects from all over the country participating and CBS passed on ALL OF THEM.
In a moment of honesty when we questioned the executive from CBS who was in charge, as to whether they would have funded The Civil War if Ken Burns had come to them first he replied. “No.” It was only after that series did so well and got such high ratings that all of the networks were looking for the next big thing, their own The Civil War. It’s all about money…
But that’s another story.
My New Book
Don’t forget my new book, Dennis Barton Is A Bastard And Other Stories is available on this website. Please buy it from me and not Amazon. Jeff Bezos doesn’t need your money, but I could use it for things like paying bills and buying food.
“It’s in the quiet places, the things unsaid, that Kelley Baker’s keen observation of the human condition emerges. Within each story he quietly transports you to specific times and places and then allows you access to his characters’ inner worlds. Captivating.” – Robert Tinnell, Writer/Director of Feast Of The Seven Fishes
Posted on October 22, 2021