Veteran filmmaker instructs college
BY MIKE STRICKLAND
STAFF W RITER
You may not know him by
name, but you’ve likely heard
his work. Kelley Baker is a
sound designer and director,
having worked on several
critically acclaimed film s
such as "Good Will Hunting"
and "Fin d in g Forrester."
Baker is also a seasonal
instructor at Clackam as
Community College in Digital
Media Communications
The Clackamas Print: Tell
us a bit about what you do
in your film m aking work
and the various roles you’ve
taken up.
Baker: I was the editor on W ill
Vinton’s “Adventures of Mark Twain”
and he didn’t have anybody lined up
to do audio ^ t h e pmWproduetkm]
audio on it. So I volunteered to do
audio on that, and that plunged me
info about a nine-m onth nightmare
of creating an anim ated universe
from s c r a tc h y I went freelan ce
and was an editor for hire while I
was developing my own film s, and
when “ [Adventures of] Mark Twain”
came out people said “ The Sound is
amazing,” so they hired me to do the
sound for their movies andlhat’s how
I got hooked up with Gus Van Sant.
I did seven of his films as the sound
designer, post sound. With “ Finding
Forrester” and “ Good Will Hunting” one of the things I did, what Gus
the studios pushed me for an Oscar wanted, and his only comment was,
nomination. While I was doing all the “ I want Revolution 9/’ which is an
Gus work I had my own production old Beatles, song and it’ s just chaos
com pany, and eventually, I made — all sorts of weird stuff going on.
eight short films that haye.been seen So I put in all sorts of strange things
all over the world, I’ve written and going on, but I also put things in to
directed three features, a bunch of define the character. Like ¿.ne of the
documentaries^ commercials, music, effects you’ ll hear is church bells
videos and I ’ve also written three going on and an angelic choir. And
bookstand my goal is to publish tWo .this is supposed to be from his point
more books this year.
of view, all of the things in his head.
Now, what do. church bells and an
TCP: Out of all of those roles, angelic choir have to do with beating
which is your favorite thing the crap out of someone? The main
to do?
character had led a life of abuse, and
the only time he’s happy and at peace
B: I’m a storyteller. When I’m making is when he’s dishing out punishment.
my own film s, when I ’ m w riting, Since that scène was done from his
directing, publishing, that’ s my good point of view, by putting these happy
time, that’s my favorite time. I enjoy effects, I’ m trying to tell you that
doing sound, but if I never did sound this is his happy moment.
design on another film I’d be ok with
that as long as T could continue to TCP: What would you say has
write and. direct my own film s and been your favorite project
write books. Sound design is fun, you’ve worked on?
and I enjoy doing it; but if I had to
lose one of these things, that’ d be B: If i t ’ s a w O rk-for-hire th in g,
p ro b a b ly “ M y Own P r iv a te
the easiest one.
Id a h o ,” the early Gus film . I got
TCP:
You
p r e v io u s ly to experiment a lot. Gus let me do
m e n tio n e d
th a t
you whatever I wanted because it ’ s5 a
have a unique approach weird movie. This is pre-computer,
to film m akin g. Can you so I’ m doing everything in 35 mm
film stòck. That was a lot of fun.
elaborate on that?
It was a challénge and we had no
B: In “ Good W ill H untin g,” in the money. W h e n d id the remake o f
fight scene, when I designed that, “ Psycho,” I had some ideasand I just
Photo by Hank Bagwell
Wei nstei n Company
Clackamas Print
theclackam asprint.com
didn’t tell anybody what I was doing.
I created all these effects, whenever
we were in the house in “ Psycho,”
you hear a ll sorts of breathing and
w hispering and all this low -level
stuff. But i t ’ s riot there all the time,
it kind of comes in and out depending
on where you are in the house and
what’ s going on. I wanted to give the
house life. So we’re mixing that and
I have these faders on the console
that are unmarked, and I’ m moving
them around, bringing the levels
up and down, and just as soon as
you start kind of hearing it, I pull
it back. Finally, at one point, I hear
from behind me, where Gus and the
producer are sittin g, and they go
“ What is that?” and I said “ W hat?”
and they said, “ There’ s something
going on and it ’ s just creepy as
all h ell. But I can’ t identify what
it is .” And I said “ H ere’ s what it
is, ” and they said, “ That shouldn’ t
work/’ and I go “ But it does. You
guys are getting creeped o u t.” So
they eventually said to keep doing
it. Audio is so ethereal. People can
visualize what a picture is going to
look like, but what’ s this weird place
going to sound like?
You can visit Kelley
Baker online at www.angry-
filmmaker.com and check
out his page on IMDB.
Weinstein Company
February 27, 2019