It’s safe to say that Full Sail Recording Arts grad Marc Fishman has found his niche. As film re-recording mixer at Todd-AO Studios in L.A., one of the biggest independent audio postproduction facilities in the world (as you probably know if you’re an avid movie credit watcher), Marc has racked up over 100 film credits in his 16 years in the industry. “If you’re into sounds and into movies, this is an amazing job,” he says.
Working on five or six films a year, Marc has built up an impressive list of mixing credits including Legally Blonde, The Wedding Planner, Bring it On, Mean Girls, Monster, and Crash. More recently, he has just finished up the hit new Paramount movie Nacho Libre, starring rocker/comedian/all-around-freak Jack Black.
Marc’s job as the re-recording mixer is to “take all the sound that was recorded on the set, all of the music and sound effects and mix them all together to make the final soundtrack that you hear in the theater.” He really enjoys the unique quality of his role in the film’s creation. “Only a handful of people get to do this. It’s a real collaborative process with the filmmakers, a real one on one relationship.”
Marc’s biggest credit to date (and his own personal favorite experience so far) was mixing last year’s triple Academy Award winner Crash. His role as the mixer was instrumental in creating the highly emotive and ethereal quality of the film. “We’re there to fade into the background, and with Crash I think it really worked. A lot of the emotion came from the music. It was a great score.”
Witty and laid back, Marc credits his success in the industry to his ability to get along with clients. Since mixing is done as the last part of the process, “they’re seeing the film come together for the first time... the baby’s there. Sometimes it’s a little ugly.” Marc also must rely on his ability to interpret the director’s intent. “The director might say, ‘I need this sound to be more purple.’” It’s the mixer’s job to “figure out how to layer the sound to bring out the needed emotion in the scene.”
Marc can trace his fascination with film sound to the release of Star Wars. “I was 8 years old then, and it had a huge impact on me. Not only visually, but the sound was amazing.” That interest led to enrollment at USC and dreams of entering their film school. But after two years there, Marc decided to leave. “I don’t remember how I found out about Full Sail, but I got the brochure and saw the studio and I knew this was the place to be.” He quickly moved to Florida and began the Recording Arts program, graduating in 1990. “When I came out of Full Sail, I was so prepared on the technical,” he says. “It was so nice not to have to worry about the tech side [so] I could really focus on my career.”
While he was still at Full Sail, L.A. based company EFX came to Universal Studios to work on the new Jetsons ride. Marc landed an internship as “one of five in a mixing room inside the stage of the ride. That was a fantastic experience”. He enjoyed working with EFX so much that when he returned to L.A. after graduation he resumed interning and they eventually hired him on full time. He worked with EFX as a supervising sound editor on several films including Disclosure and Mortal Kombat, but quickly decided that he would prefer to try his hand at re-recording mixing.
With no experience, he luckily filled the “right man in the right place” role while working on an indie film at Digital Picture and Sound. “I literally had never mixed a film yet,” he explains, but “the first night, the mixer’s appendix broke” and they needed someone to step in. “The first night was a little shaky, but the director was happy.” Marc stayed on at Digital Picture and Sound as they merged into Todd-AO. Marc has now been at Todd-AO for about six years.
He reminisces about watching Crash in the theater on opening night with director Paul Haggis. “It was a movie that none of us really knew how people were going to react to, and I remember turning around about halfway through and [seeing] everybody just glued and silent in the theater. You knew you were a part of something special.”
Marc is now content and happy to continue on his career as a film re-recording mixer. “What’s cooler than sitting in a dark room making cool sounds and hanging out with directors all day? I love what I do.” With a dream job in Hollywood and upcoming projects like a prequel to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and a Jessica Simpson film called Employee of the Month, who wouldn’t?
