the conversation

francis ford coppola - the conversation - 1974

classic drone series
sound, sound design, music in film

opening sequence (some minor edits)

elevator drone, ends with reel to reel spinning, sounds like birds

dream sequence - train heard, not seen


music- david shire
sound editor, sound montage, sound re-recordist - walter murch

the radio mikes we had back then were not that good, and they picked up miscellaneous static and the microwave transmissions that swamp a city like san francisco. that meant that the actual soundtrack we were getting at the time of filming was about as imperfect as the track that harry himself records in union square! everything would be fine, and then suddenly there'd be the sweep of a microwave pulse across the track. you'd hear distortion and some garbled tonality that would obliterate everything else.
i used some of that noise in the finished film; as noise, it's very good.

from the conversations: walter murch and the art of editing
(michael ondaatje) - knopf - 2002

other films with walter murch on sound:

- francis ford coppola - the rain people - 1969
- george lucas - thx 1138 - 1970
- francis ford coppola - the godfather - 1972
- francis ford coppola - the godfather, part ii - 1974
- francis ford coppola - apocalypse now - 1979
- peter medak - romeo is bleeding - 1994
- anthony minghella - the english patient - 1996
- anthony minghella - the talented mr. ripley - 1999
- francis ford coppola - apocalypse now redux - 2001