THE SOUND

                    Thirty years ago this week THE THING began it's final sound mix at what was then the best facility in Hollywood, Samuel Goldwyn Studio's Stage A. Having won the most recent Academy Award for RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK the room was constantly in demand, the chief reason being the talent being brought to the table by the late Bill Varney  and his capable associates Steve Maslow and Gregg Landaker.

L to R: Bill Varney, Steve Maslow, and Gregg Landaker with their  Academy Awards for THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

                     John had previously mixed ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK with the men and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. We were scheduled for a full six weeks ( time was needed to make six track stereo masters for the 70mm prints, two track Dolby stereo masters for regular release as well as separate monaural masters for theatres not equipped for stereo, as was the custom then ) after the crew completed work on POLTERGEIST ( which, as it happened, was of interest to us - we held hopes that the audience that went to see POLTERGEIST might come to see THE THING a month later )...

                  Initially Universal made a concerted pitch to have us stay at the studio ( having recently upgraded their facilities and built the brand new Alfred Hitchcock Theatre), and have the film mixed in something called "Ultra-Stereo" as they planned to do with one of their other signature summer attractions, THE BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE IN TEXAS. It certainly would have been easier to stay on the lot with all that was going on ( Rob's effects work was still in full swing, his operation a few minutes away ), but we made the case that it wasn't the equipment that made the difference, it was the skill and the instinct of the men who were utilizing it...

                   Our approach to monster sound - making was essentially the same as the method pioneered by the legendary sound engineer Murray Spivak on KING KONG - combining organic (animal) sounds, changing pitch, slowing them down, speeding them up, thinning, sharpening, running them backwards and anything else we could think of until we ended up with something we liked and seemed to fit - really, a process of sound shaping, of trial and error...

                     Work on this aspect began just after principal photography commenced, shepherded by David Lewis Yewdall and Colin Mouat. Originally the search was on for a signature sound for the monster, one you would have heard initially on the audiotape recording Copper finds at the Norwegian Camp, and again later. This concept was abandoned as we moved from the notion of the creature as one final form entity to the deconstructionist idea it could be anything, which certainly opened up avenues for audio experimentation. As John began editing the film these experiments were salted in to see if we were headed in the right direction, and were fully fleshed out on the mixing stage, with it's array of sophisticated processing equipment ( all analog ), some eight months later...

                          I wish I could recount with specificity exactly what went into, and in what proportion, the making of each individual sequence, but the fact is memory fails me. I do know that were looking for a sort of high pitched, painful, shrill sound for the introduction of the dog - thing which called for the extensive use of bird calls and and a pig squeal, all heavily processed. In the Blair Monster we were looking for a large, definitive, square sound and you certainly hear a great deal of lion ( and for those of you who find some similarity with KING KONG's final roar, you are correct - it was our tip of the hat)...

                     Benning's roar was created by custom recording human screams  and then have them individually synthesized by a gentleman named Craig Harris. These were later combined on the mixing stage with other, non human sounds and additionally processed to give you that haunting, forever lost in hell effect. You also hear the result of this particular processing in the off-stage, human sounding screams at the beginning of the kennel sequence, as well as during the Norris transformation...

                    Wherever possible, a special effort was made to custom record background tracks on location during breaks in filming. Many of the wind tracks heard ( including the steady state wind always present at the Norwegian camp ) were made this way. Also specific sounds indigenous to the location - helicopter start-ups, tractor engines idling, flamethrower whooshes etc. Despite the rigors of location filming there was very little dialogue replacement  done - less a dozen lines in all, a tribute to our production sound mixer, Thomas Causey... 

                      When we played back the completed kennel sequence for the first time we looked at each other and shrugged. There was something missing - despite all the meticulous work the scene fell flat. Our salvation lay in a track our music editor, Clif Kholweck, found at the last minute. The low drone sound that begins as MacCready and Co. slowly approach is a sound effect, actually background air conditioner hum sharpened, shaped, and eventually pushed to absurd levels ( the reveal of the dog - thing ) before being taken out on the first shotgun blast. But what the hell, it worked, and the scene came alive... 

                     This sound proved to be so effective we went back and added it to Clark's initial approach and confrontation to the kennel...

                       ... as well as MacCready's final confrontation with the Blair monster ( the sound begins as Mac drops the dynamite and is woven in and out until the first explosion ). Astute listeners will also hear part of Morricone's plucked-string cue "Contamination" thrown in for good measure...

                     My favorite sound effects story from THE THING is as follows... I asked one of the sound editors, Colin Mouat, how they came up with the ultra - realistic background sounds of the dogs howling in the kennel. He replied that he had his children gather together the neighborhood dogs on a Saturday morning, put them inside his house, turned on the recorder, left, and donned a hat and full trench coat. Pulling up the collar to hide his face, he then proceeded to furtively move around the house, tapping on windows and rattling doorknobs. The resultant hysteria is what you now hear ( I was assured the dogs were amply rewarded with waiting treats )...

Bill Varney

                 THE THING never sounded better than in Stage A, and it was for that reason we chose to have the first screening of the completed film there for Universal's President Ned Tannen. A crucial event, we invited a few close friends and relatives to help fill out the space. Ned was shown to the center seat in front of the mixing console, the sonic "sweet spot". The memory I will always carry with me was Bill Varney sitting at the controls,  watching the production executive sitting directly in front of him, and constantly making minute level changes in reaction to Ned's body language throughout the movie -  in essence providing him with his own custom mix in an effort to put our absolute best foot forward, the very definition of a professional at work...

CASTING GARRY AND COPPER

Lee Van Cleef

Jerry Ohrbach

Kevin Conway

Lee Van Cleef was an initial consideration, having just worked with John on ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK. Jerry Ohrbach was thought highly of on the strength of his recent work in PRINCE OF THE CITY. Kevin Conway came in to meet and read the part beautifully... 

Richard Mulligan

Powers Boothe

Richard Mulligan was a surprise submission from his agency at the time. He had gotten hold of a script and thought the role would be a great change of pace from his current work on the T.V. series SOAP ( not unsurprisingly, we also gave some thought to the idea of his playing Palmer ). Powers Boothe was mentioned as we kicked around the idea of playing the role younger, in an age range more contemporaneous to Macs...

Michael Ploog's original storyboard for Garry's death...

...and a literal definition of " hands on ". That's Rob Bottin's hand in the shot...

William Daniels

Brian Dennehy

             From my woefully incomplete notes : veteran actor William Daniels was submitted for the role  but it was Brian Dennehy who came within a whisker of playing Dr. Copper - a last second, back and forth decision made by John in favor of Richard Dysart ( I am somewhat surprised in retrospect that Brian didn't end up somewhere in this movie - he was considered for a number of roles, and we both liked him a lot...)

NAULS IN BLACK AND WHITE

               Recently an eagle-eared listener at IMDB noted that John's line regarding T.K. Carter on the commentary track of the original DVD release of THE THING - "he was constantly worried that all of us were racists" - had been removed from the recent Blu-Ray release of the film. Although I was not aware of any friction between T.K. and the cast and crew while filming ( or, for that matter, with Keith ), it brings to mind the fact that the issue of race did come up while casting...


              When actor-comedian Franklin Ajaye ( CAR WASH, STIR CRAZY, as well as a recent appearance in BRIDESMAIDS ) came in to read for the role he offered instead a measured fifteen minute critique on the stereotypical nature of the character, citing both the use of the vernacular in dialogue - "What's it going to do, come chasing after us?", for example - as well as the fact that Nauls was a cook. He also took  strong exception to the labelling of Nauls as black in the character descriptions in the fronts piece of the screenplay. None of this sat particularly well with John, and the meeting broke up amidst frosty silence...


                I spoke to Bill Lancaster about the incident afterword. Concerned, Bill offered to meet with whoever was cast  and work out any problems ( Bill intended the dialogue to be a play on the vernacular spoken by a smart guy but would tone down the idea if it was considered offensive ) but John ultimately chose to leave the character and dialogue essentially unchanged...  

QUE VIVA WINDOWS

                  ... who in the early drafts of the script was named Sanchez. It is in memory ( which can be unreliable ) that Bill Lancaster was intially indicating his thought that the role be cast Hispanic, but that John didn't want to be necessarily bound by the idea and wanted to be able to cast the role as he saw fit. The name was then changed to Sanders...


                The name Windows came out of the initial costume fitting with Thomas Waites. After wandering up to the massive wardrobe department at Universal, John had Tom try on the pair of dark glasses above, and Voila! a moniker was born. John considered it a tribute to Howard Hawks, who always had characters with nicknames in his movies ( I'm surprised we didn't change Copper's name to Stumpy...) 

CASTING BLAIR

                From a storytelling standpoint it was our intent that Blair be infected very early on in the proceedings, and off - screen. Here we were attempting to faithfully follow the dramatic line of the Campbell novella. We all liked the idea that his crackup was a ruse, a clever feint to isolate him(it)self from the rest of the group. It was essential on some level that the audience forget about Blair until the appropriate time, requiring an actor whose everyman persona could fade into the woodwork.

               As some of you know, John was initially considering DONALD PLEASENCE for Blair, but my notes from the time reflect a concern that he may have been too identifiable, too dominating a presence - one you were likely to miss and wonder about if he were off screen for a considerable period of time. Far from occupying his now familiar role as every one's authentic grandfather and Quaker Oats spokesman, WILLFORD BRIMLEY at the time of casting THE THING was completely unknown, a fresh face. His first film, ABSENCE OF MALICE, had yet to be released. David Foster arranged for us to see the rough cut at Warner Bros, and  with a strong recommendation from director Sydney Pollack, the rest is history...

             Addendum, April 7, 2012. Although I can speak authoritatively as to our intent with the Blair character, what I think is open to question is how successful we were in realizing that intent. This is one element of the film we did not plan to be  ambiguous about. Concerned, John added several lines of dialogue in post production to make things clearer. Naul's dialogue "Hey Blair - you down there ? We got something for you" and particularly Mac's "Blair's been busy down here all by himself " ( italics mine ) were added to underline to the audience the idea that Blair was a Thing when he was locked up, and to make the direct connection between the saucer they were seeing and the creature that had built it...

THE NOVELISATION

               The novelisation of THE THING was considered a publicity tool - Alan Dean Foster was hired by Universal's publicity department, as was the custom at that time, early in pre -production and it was they he reported to. He was given the latest copy of the script and sent off on his own. It was finished months before the film was, and therefore does not, understandably, reflect many of the changes that were made.

                    We played no role in its production, nor did we expect to. I don't believe any of us ever met or had any contact with Mr. Foster. None of us were aware of the finished product until it was published ( in time for copies to be sent to exhibitors in early April ). I don't mean to cast any aspersions on the quality of the writing, but to point out how things were done then - we were simply out of the loop. Any embellishments in the novel that are not directly taken from an early script are Mr. Foster's, and Mr. Foster's alone...

THE COMPUTERS

                 THE THING, having been produced on the cusp of a digital universe, is a resolutely all-analog film, without a frame electronically processed. It is somehow fitting that the computers appearing in the movie are both mock ups, non-functioning props made out of bits and pieces, with the video display portion in both cases shot well after principal photography.

              Originally a much shorter moment containing less specific information, with Blair at the computer John essentially created a new scene in post-production built out of inserts. The only two pieces done during filming were those of Blair intently watching. John saw this as an opportunity to hammer home to the audience, in the simplest possible way, the idea of assimilation and it's consequences ( this became a primary concern as editing on the film advanced ).

               

                      An analog endeavour, the program simulation was written by John and animated on film by fellow USC alumnus John Wash.    None of us had any idea what this ought to  look like, so JC instructed John to make it as simple and familiar as possible by using video game graphics... 

                    It was then transferred ( at a special 24 frame rate in order to avoid scanning lines) to U Matic 3/4 inch tape, fed back to a monitor, and photographed.

                 This information, written by John, was designed to lay out the stakes for the men ( and the audience) in sledgehammer fashion. There is nothing coy or shaded about the message here... 

                      Also added by John, Blair's reach for the gun was shot on the insert stage later ( with someone else's hands ) to complete the scene...

                McCready's chess game was an actual program, something designed for an Apple II computer ( the only one I knew of  was owned and offered up by our Production Manager Robert Brown). On set we tried to photograph it operating in the same frame with Kurt, but the results were a mess. For photographic purposes it too was converted to 24 frame analog video, recorded onto 3/4 inch tape and played back later, which resulted in an acceptable image...