FILM
For more than four decades, my place on a film set has been a few feet from the action: close enough to hear every breath, far enough to stay out of the shot. From there I've watched hundreds of people bring a single story to life, and I've spent my career making sure the audience could hear it.
A CAREER IN PRODUCTION SOUND
I started in the days of film and analog sound, booming for Roger Corman, and became one of the first women boom operators in Hollywood. Since then I've worked on more than 90 films, alongside directors including Robert Altman, Robert Rodriguez, James Gray, Quentin Tarantino, and Martin Scorsese.
Both Ad Astra and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood earned their sound teams Oscar nominations. Along the way, I've also served as an Emmy judge and on the board of IATSE Local 695, the production sound union.
DOCUMENTARY AND SPECIALTY PROJECTS
Alongside my sound work, I've produced and contributed to documentary and specialty projects. I'm drawn to stories about people, the creative process, and subjects that usually go overlooked: the worlds that exist just beyond the edge of the frame.
Some of that work has taken me to wonderfully unlikely places. I worked on Buckminster Fuller's last interview, a public television program featuring Katharine Hepburn, and a series on early phonograph collections. Along the way came a public service announcement with Barbra Streisand and a commercial for the Jerry Lewis telethon.
Documentary and short films:
Julianna: A Portrait (1984), documentary short. Co-Producer · Sound.
I Build the Tower (2006), documentary. Sound.
I Love What I Do (2007), documentary. Co-Producer · Sound.
Just Desserts (2008), short. Producer.
WHAT THE SOUND DEPARTMENT BRINGS
Production sound is everything recorded while a film is being shot: the dialogue, the performances, the atmosphere, and the small details that become the foundation of the finished soundtrack.
It’s a movie when you’re watching it, but live theater when we’re making it.
MORE THAN SOUND
The best sound professionals understand the whole production, not only their own department. They know when to speak and when to stay quiet. They notice what another department is trying to accomplish. They recognize problems before they become emergencies. And they understand that filmmaking is collaborative, and that sound exists inside that collaboration.
The human side
Technical knowledge, preparation, and concentration are only part of the job. A film set is a temporary community, a film family, and every production develops its own personality, with its own strengths, weaknesses, and dysfunctions.
Doing the work well means reading that environment: communicating with different kinds of people, understanding the power dynamics, building trust, and solving problems without creating new ones. Knowing how to do the job is not enough. You also have to know how to work with people while you do it.