A Master of Sound, a Lesson in Color

When director Phil Alden Robinson shouted “Cut!” after one fitful day of filming his movie “Field of Dreams” a few years ago, the sound stage began rocking with the sounds of a James Brown record served up by production sound mixer Russell Williams II.

Any other crew member might draw a director’s ire by playing rock ‘n’ roll during a filming break. But not Williams. The James Brown song drew a conspiratorial smile from Robinson and prompted several people on the set to start bobbing their heads to the beat.

“Russell always has the best music for the crew,” said Robinson. “He keeps up the spirit on the set. He’s one of the best soundmen in the business.”

These days more film crews in Hollywood are growing accustomed to musical interludes from Williams, 38. A onetime radio disc jockey and TV stagehand who in 1988 won an Emmy for the CBS movie “Terrorism on Trial,” Williams was part of a team of four soundmen who last year won an Oscar for “Glory.”

Nominated again this year for his sound work on the film “Dances With Wolves,” Williams is fast becoming a behind-the-scenes star who could become the first black to take home a second Academy Award at Monday’s ceremony and one of the few in Hollywood to win back-to-back Oscars.

Don Bassman, sound director for 20th Century Fox Film Corp., said Williams does “an extraordinarily good job” of mixing the art of sound recording with its technical aspects. “He has a great feel (for the craft).”

Williams, who grew up in Washington and majored in film and art history at the city’s American University, found Hollywood a tough town to crack.

He knew only one person in the film business when he came to Los Angeles in 1979, landing in the city just months before the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists went on strike in 1980, forcing thousands of non-striking film craftsmen and technicians out of work. Williams spent years bouncing around Hollywood doing small television and film projects until 1983.

That year he received an on-location assignment to work on the Cannon movie “Making the Grade.” That assignment led to two other long film projects for the old Cannon Group studio. And the money Williams earned helped him buy several thousand dollars’ worth of sound equipment and establish himself as an independent production sound mixer.

The experience at Cannon typifies what many say are Williams’ strong points: winning over skeptics and thinking ahead.

“Russell is a hell of a networker,” said Shirley Moore, head of the Alliance of Black Entertainment Technicians, a group formed to increase the visibility of black technicians in the entertainment industry. “He’s worked with people who don’t have a lot of money just to learn his craft better and expand his contacts. A lot of people starting out in this business won’t do that. But Russell has overcome a lot of obstacles that way.”

Williams’ success at networking is partly a result of clever self promotion.

Playing music on the movie set, for example, has helped distinguish him in field where a competent sound mixer’s work is often taken for granted unless he makes a mistake. Williams has found that music makes an impression that lingers long after a business card is discarded.

After working with Williams on “Field of Dreams,” for example, cast member Kevin Costner hired Williams to work on “Dances With Wolves.”

“It’s kind of like one of my trademarks on the set,” Williams said of his playing music. “I just try to create a good mood.”

While Williams’ knack for ingratiating himself with movie crews is widely admired, he said he is a perfectionist who is demanding of himself and his staff. Although he is credited with helping to train several aspiring minority sound mixers, Williams has been known to become irritated by those who don’t perform up to his standards.

“I am a task master,” said Williams. “I realize that there is still a double standard in this industry. Generally speaking, if a white person . . . does a poor job, maybe they won’t get hired again by that producer. But if an African-American works on a show and does a poor job, then the next African-American that walks through the door may catch hell even though they have credentials that are totally flawless.”

William’s rising prominence comes as movie sound--traditionally over looked in the visually oriented film business--is receiving more attention in the entertainment industry. Studios and film sound engineers are incorporating surround sound, Dolby noise reduction and digital recording into films. And theaters now trumpet the latest soundtrack advances in their advertising to attract movie-goers.

The new technology, however, has brought greater complexity to the sound mixer’s job.

Williams, for example, hauls around his own sound equipment to movie sets and usually hires and manages at least two other people to work with him--a microphone boom operator and a person to string microphone and audio cable. And the rapid pace of change means William must often attend training classes and read technical journals to keep abreast of new technology.

His job is just one of several, however, that shape the final sound that movie-goers hear. While Williams records dialogue on the set and may make special recordings--such as the cricket and bird noises he recorded for “Field of Dreams”--many sounds are produced artificially in the studio.

Some of the buffalo stampede sounds in “Dances With Wolves,” for instance, were made by post-production crews banging rocks, coconuts and dirt-packed shoes into soil filled with microphones. While some in Hollywood claim that such post-production techniques have diminished the importance of on-location sound mixers such as Williams, others say his job remains critical.

“There is a misconception that with technology you can fix anything,” said Kevin Hooks, a producer and director who made the film “Heatwave.” “If you listen to a film carefully, you will get an idea of how important it is to have good production sound. In ‘Heatwave,’ for instance, we had 200 to 300 rioters and the sounds of bottles breaking. . . . In order for those things to be heard convincingly on film you need someone with the experience of Russell Williams to record it right the first time.”

Yet in the Hollywood film hierarchy, technical people like Williams still find themselves in the shadows of most actors, producers and directors.

“Directors, producers and actors are highlighted all the time,” said Willie D. Burton, a film sound mixer who in 1988 became the first black to win an Oscar for sound in “Bird.” As a result, he said “a lot of young people don’t even think about a career in the technical crafts.”

“I think it is great Russell has been nominated for an Oscar,” said Burton. “I wish more blacks could share in (getting) Oscars. But a lot of black people will say to themselves, ‘There is no chance for me behind the camera.’ Maybe his (Williams’) winning another Oscar will help change that.”