Added: 03/20/2006 |
Film Sound Designers -- A Profile on Carmine Coppola and Walter MurchOne of the most famous film sound designers Carmine Coppola was born in 1910 in New York. This famous American musical director, composer, editor and songwriter contributed a lot to famous movies such as "The Godfather, Part II" and "Apocalypse Now". However he is most known for being the father of Francis Ford Coppola and grandfather of Nicolas Cage, Francis' nephew. From his childhood Carmine Coppola was fond of music.
Coppola studied music at the Manhattan School of Music. His specialty was the flute. During the forties Carmine Coppola worked with Arturo Toscanini participating in the NBC Symphony Orchestra. In 1951 Carmine Coppola left the NBC Symphony Orchestra to pursue his career as a music composer. Coppola worked on Broadway as an orchestra conductor and he was a music director of many of his son's (famous Hollywood filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola) movies.
Carmine Coppola wrote additional music for Francis Ford Coppola's "Finian's Rainbow". Afterwards Francis invited his father to write additional music for his masterpiece "The Godfather Part II". Carmine Coppola collaborated with Nino Rota to write music for the movie for which they were given Oscars for the best score. Later on Carmine Coppola composed music for Francis' "Apocalypse Now" for which he won Oscars for the best score again. Carmine won the third award for the best score for "Napoleon" directed by Francis in 1981. One of the most influential film sound designers,
Carmine Coppola died in 1991.
One of the most innovative film sound designers Walter Murch was born in 1943. In 1961 Walter entered Johns Hopkins University where he studied until 1965. Afterwards Walter Murch attended film school in the University of Southern California. Murch's first work was editing and mixing sound for Francis Ford Coppola's "The Rain People" in 1969. Walter Murch edited picture and mixed sound for Coppola's "The Conversation" for which he was first nominated for an Academy Award in sound. In addition Murch edited and mixed sound for Coppola's "The Godfather" and "The Godfather Part II".
His talent was appreciated in 1979 - he won an Oscar for mixing sound for "Apocalypse Now" and was also nominated for Oscar for picture editing. Walter Murch is known for his innovative approach to sound mixing and editing. Murch was the first to use the term "sound designer" and along with his colleagues set new standard in sound by implementing the current film sound format, the 5.1 channel array.
In 1996 Walter Murch won two Oscars for picture editing and sound mixing for "The English Patient" - Walter's Oscar for picture editing was the first award for a digitally edited film, using the Avid system. In his edition of "Cold Mountain" by Anthony Minghella, Walter Murch used Apple's Final Cut Pro software being the fourth film editing system that Walter used in his practice. By this he set a record in film editing, making him one of outstanding film sound designers of all times. In addition Walter Murch appeared as a director of movie "Return to Oz" and also wrote book on film editing "In the Blink of an Eye".
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