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| Not my photo. I couldn't take photos when I was in this room... |
May 2010 on the Warner Bros Studio backlot in Burbank,
California.
I was on a private tour and lucky to step into places
tourists never get to see.
The Eastwood Scoring Stage, originally built in 1929 and
renamed for Clint Eastwood in 1999, has seen the recording of musical scores for
such films as Casablanca, The Wild Bunch and Back to the Future.
My guide had to step away to take a phone call and I was
left on the stage to take in its history. I chatted briefly to a technician who
was setting up for the next recording session.
“What are you setting up for?” I asked.
“Michael Giacchino is coming in tomorrow to score the final
episode of Lost.”
Giacchino had won the Oscar that year for his work on the Pixar
film, Up. And he was about the record
the music for the highly-anticipated final episode of a television phenomenon.
“Are you a VIP?” the tech asked me.
“No,” I said. “I make short films at home. I write scripts
but this is the big time.”
“That’s what we’d like you to think.”
And he went back to plugging in cables and running leads
across the hardwood floor. Not too hard, though. You could see indents from the
endpins of a cello or double-bass.
My guide explained that Warner Bros thought of turning the
scoring stage into another soundstage. Eastwood objected; this was his
favourite place to record the music for his films.
Warner Bros wanted to replace the floorboards. Eastwood
objected; any changes would affect the sound produced there.
I was standing on the Eastwood Scoring Stage of Warner Bros
Studios in Hollywood where one of the biggest composers in the world was about
to record the soundtrack to the final episode of one of the world’s most
popular television shows.
And the tech who worked there didn’t think it was the big
time.
It’s all about perspective, isn’t it? He just saw it as a
job. I saw it as a glimpse into another world.
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