Peter Handford |
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Handford in 1945, Army Film Unit of the British Expeditionary Force |
Born | (1919-03-21)21 March 1919
Four Elms, Kent, England |
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Died | 6 November 2007(2007-11-06) (aged 88)
Wickham Skeith, Suffolk, England |
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Known for | Location Sound Recording |
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Spouse(s) | ? (?–?) (divorced) (2 Children) Helen Fraser (1964–2007) (his death) |
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Children | Marilyn Handford Pamela Handford |
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Peter Handford (21 March 1919 – 6 November 2007) was an English location sound recordist. He is considered a master and pioneer of this area of sound recording.[1][2]
Life and work
Born into a vicarage family at Four Elms in Kent, England, Handford began work in 1936 with London Films at Denham as a trainee sound recordist.[3] He honed his sound recording skills during the D-Day landings, where he served with the Army Film Unit of the British Expeditionary Force.[4] His first screen credit was on Black Magic (1949) and in the same year he recorded Under Capricorn for Alfred Hitchcock. In 1972, Hitchcock sought him out to work on Frenzy.
Handford pioneered the use of original synchronous sound recording for film director David Lean on Summertime (also known as Summer Madness, 1955) which was shot on location in Venice, and developed the technique during the British New Wave cinema movement, working on films such as Room at the Top (1959), The Entertainer, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, Sons and Lovers (all 1960), Billy Liar, Tom Jones (both 1963), Oh! What a Lovely War (1969) and on The Go-Between (1971) and other films for Joseph Losey.
He also worked on the 1970s railway-based Murder on the Orient Express (1974) and The Lady Vanishes (1979), on both of which radio microphones were extensively used. Later he went into semi-retirement, working as a freelancer for Anglia Television, but was recalled to the film business by Sydney Pollack for the location sound required on Out of Africa (1985), for which he was awarded the Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing and also a BAFTA. On this film he worked along with Chris Jenkins, Gary Alexander, and Larry Stensvold.[5]
Handford went on to work on Dangerous Liaisons, Gorillas in the Mist[6] (both 1988) and White Hunter Black Heart (1990). His last film was Havana (also 1990). Following his death in 2007, Peter's ashes were scattered at the site of Steele Road railway station on the former Waverley Route. He had spent days and nights at this remote location making some of his most well known steam locomotive recordings.
Transacord
Handford was also known for his recordings of steam locomotives in the 1950s and 1960s, during the last days of steam railways in Britain.[7][8] These were issued on the Transacord label between 1955 and 1961, at which point a deal was struck with Argo, by then part of Decca, for whom many new recordings were made under the "Argo Transacord" title. In 1980, Argo was phased out by (British) Decca's new owners, PolyGram and Argo's owner, Harley Usill, started a new label, ASV, on which new and reissued Transacord LPs were released in the early to late 1980s. The first CD was released in 1987 with others following in the 1990s. ASV is now part of the Sanctuary Group (itself now owned by Universal) and Transacord recordings remained on catalogue on CD into the late 1990s, with some still readily available until comparatively recently (as at 2011). The majority of the CD tracks were later made available as digital downloads. However, the copyright in Transacord's recordings reverted from Universal to Transacord on 1 September 2011 at which point the digital downloads were made unavailable. Transacord is currently looking at making both CDs and digital downloads available again, possibly via the National Railway Museum, which organisation holds Peter Handford's original tape recordings and other materials from Handford's private collections.
Transacord's records are listed in Jim Palm's Railways on Record book from the early 1980s (though the book does not include information on the many non-British or non-railway recordings released by Transacord). A partial discography is also included in Peter Handford's 1980 autobiography, Sounds of Railways and Their Recording – unfortunately this does not include the records released by Argo during the 1960s on their (Z)DA catalogue sequence and misses some later recordings out as well. However, 2011 saw the publication of Transacord: Sounds of Steam and other Transports of Delight. The book was written with major input from both Transacord and the National Railway Museum and includes a history of the label plus the most comprehensive discography of UK releases ever made available.
Family
His second marriage was to actress Helen Fraser whom he first met on location for Billy Liar. He died 6 November 2007, at Wickham Skeith, Suffolk.
References
- ^ Sloman, Tony (30 November 2007). "Peter Handford: Master of sound location shooting who won an Oscar for 'Out of Africa'". The Independent. Archived from the original on 1 December 2007. Retrieved 20 December 2007.
- ^ Clarke, Andrew (9 November 2007). "Obituaries: Peter Handford". Eastern Daily Press. Archived from the original on 6 December 2007. Retrieved 20 December 2007.
- ^ Jones, Kevin P. "Peter Handford". SteamIndex. Retrieved 12 March 2009.
- ^ Handford, Peter. "Sound Oscars". Association of Motion Picture Sound Newsletter. Archived from the original on 21 February 2001. Retrieved 21 December 2007.
- ^ "The 58th Academy Awards (1986) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 16 October 2011.
- ^ "The 61st Academy Awards (1989) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 16 October 2011.
- ^ "Peter Handford & Transacord records". Retrieved 6 January 2008.
- ^ Handford, Peter (1980). Sounds of Railways and their Recording. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-7631-4.
External links
- Peter Handford at IMDb
- "Peter Handford". Daily Telegraph. 12 December 2007. Retrieved 20 December 2007.[dead link]
- Discography of steam locomotive recordings
- Transacord: Sounds of Steam
- Peter Handford Archive
Awards for Peter Handford |
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1929–1950 | |
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1951–1975 | |
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1976–2000 | - Arthur Piantadosi, Les Fresholtz, Dick Alexander, and Jim Webb (1976)
- Don MacDougall, Ray West, Bob Minkler, and Derek Ball (1977)
- Richard Portman, William McCaughey, Aaron Rochin, and Darin Knight (1978)
- Walter Murch, Mark Berger, Richard Beggs, and Nat Boxer (1979)
- Bill Varney, Steve Maslow, Gregg Landaker, and Peter Sutton (1980)
- Bill Varney, Steve Maslow, Gregg Landaker, and Roy Charman (1981)
- Robert Knudson, Robert Glass, Don Digirolamo, and Gene Cantamessa (1982)
- Mark Berger, Tom Scott, Randy Thom, and David MacMillan (1983)
- Mark Berger, Tom Scott, Todd Boekelheide, and Chris Newman (1984)
- Chris Jenkins, Gary Alexander, Larry Stensvold, and Peter Handford (1985)
- John Wilkinson, Richard Rogers, Charles Grenzbach, and Simon Kaye (1986)
- Bill Rowe and Ivan Sharrock (1987)
- Les Fresholtz, Dick Alexander, Vern Poore, and Willie D. Burton (1988)
- Donald O. Mitchell, Gregg Rudloff, Elliot Tyson, and Russell Williams II (1989)
- Jeffrey Perkins, Bill W. Benton, Gregory H. Watkins, and Russell Williams II (1990)
- Tom Johnson, Gary Rydstrom, Gary Summers, and Lee Orloff (1991)
- Chris Jenkins, Doug Hemphill, Mark Smith, and Simon Kaye (1992)
- Gary Summers, Gary Rydstrom, Shawn Murphy, and Ron Judkins (1993)
- Gregg Landaker, Steve Maslow, Bob Beemer, and David MacMillan (1994)
- Rick Dior, Steve Pederson, Scott Millan, and David MacMillan (1995)
- Walter Murch, Mark Berger, David Parker, and Chris Newman (1996)
- Gary Rydstrom, Tom Johnson, Gary Summers, and Mark Ulano (1997)
- Gary Rydstrom, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson, and Ron Judkins (1998)
- John T. Reitz, Gregg Rudloff, David E. Campbell, and David Lee (1999)
- Bob Beemer, Scott Millan, and Ken Weston (2000)
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2001–present | - Michael Minkler, Chris Munro, and Myron Nettinga (2001)
- David Lee, Michael Minkler, and Dominick Tavella (2002)
- Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Hammond Peek, and Michael Semanick (2003)
- Scott Millan, Greg Orloff, Bob Beemer, and Steve Cantamessa (2004)
- Christopher Boyes, Michael Semanick, Michael Hedges, and Hammond Peek (2005)
- Bob Beemer, Willie D. Burton, and Michael Minkler (2006)
- Kirk Francis, Scott Millan, and David Parker (2007)
- Resul Pookutty, Richard Pryke, and Ian Tapp (2008)
- Paul N. J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett (2009)
- Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo, and Ed Novick (2010)
- Tom Fleischman and John Midgley (2011)
- Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson, and Simon Hayes (2012)
- Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead, and Chris Munro (2013)
- Craig Mann, Ben Wilkins, and Thomas Curley (2014)
- Chris Jenkins, Gregg Rudloff, and Ben Osmo (2015)
- Kevin O'Connell, Andy Wright, Robert Mackenzie, and Peter Grace (2016)
- Mark Weingarten, Gregg Landaker, and Gary Rizzo (2017)
- Paul Massey, Tim Cavagin, and John Casali (2018)
- Mark Taylor and Stuart Wilson (2019)
- Jaime Baksht, Nicolas Becker, Phillip Bladh, Carlos Cortés Navarrete, and Michelle Couttolenc (2020)
- Mac Ruth, Mark Mangini, Theo Green, Doug Hemphill, and Ron Bartlett (2021)
- Mark Weingarten, James H. Mather, Al Nelson, Chris Burdon, and Mark Taylor (2022)
- Tarn Willers and Johnnie Burn (2023)
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1968–1980 | - Winston Ryder (1968)
- Don Challis and Simon Kaye (1969)
- Don Hall, David Dockendorf and William Edmondson (1970)
- Vittorio Trentino and Giuseppe Muratori (1971)
- David Hildyard, Robert Knudson and Arthur Piantadosi (1972)
- Les Wiggins, Gordon McCallum and Keith Grant (1973)
- Art Rochester, Nat Boxer, Michael Evje and Walter Murch (1974)
- William A. Sawyer, James Webb, Chris McLaughlin and Richard Portman (1975)
- Les Wiggins, Clive Winter and Ken Barker (1976)
- Peter Horrocks, Gerry Humphreys, Simon Kaye, Robin O'Donoghue and Les Wiggins (1977)
- Sam Shaw, Robert Rutledge, Gordon Davidson, Gene Corso, Derek Ball, Don MacDougall, Bob Minkler, Ray West, Michael Minkler, Les Fresholtz, Richard Portman and Ben Burtt (1978)
- Derrick Leather, Jim Shields and Bill Rowe (1979)
- Christopher Newman, Les Wiggins and Michael J. Kohut (1980)
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1981–2000 | - Don Sharpe, Ivan Sharrock and Bill Rowe (1981)
- James Guthrie, Eddy Joseph, Clive Winter, Graham V. Hartstone and Nicolas Le Messurier (1982)
- Willie D. Burton, Michael J. Kohut and William Manger (1983)
- Ian Fuller, Clive Winter and Bill Rowe (1984)
- John Nutt, Christopher Newman and Mark Berger (1985)
- Tom McCarthy Jr., Peter Handford and Chris Jenkins (1986)
- Jonathan Bates, Simon Kaye and Gerry Humphreys (1987)
- Charles L. Campbell, Louis Edemann, Robert Knudson and Tony Dawe (1988)
- Bill Phillips, Danny Michael, Robert J. Litt, Elliot Tyson and Rick Kline (1989)
- J. Paul Huntsman, Stephan von Hase, Chris Jenkins, Gary Alexander and Doug Hemphill (1990)
- Lee Orloff, Tom Johnson, Gary Rydstrom and Gary Summers (1991)
- Tod A. Maitland, Wylie Stateman, Michael D. Wilhoit, Michael Minkler and Gregg Landaker (1992)
- John Leveque, Bruce Stambler, Becky Sullivan, Scott D. Smith, Donald O. Mitchell, Michael Herbick and Frank A. Montaño (1993)
- Stephen Hunter Flick, Gregg Landaker, Steve Maslow, Bob Beemer and David MacMillan (1994)
- Per Hallberg, Lon Bender, Brian Simmons, Andy Nelson, Scott Millan and Anna Behlmer (1995)
- Jim Greenhorn, Toivo Lember, Livia Ruzic, Roger Savage and Gareth Vanderhope (1996)
- Terry Rodman, Roland N. Thai, Kirk Francis, Andy Nelson, Anna Behlmer and John Leveque (1997)
- Gary Rydstrom, Ron Judkins, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson and Richard Hymns (1998)
- David Lee, John T. Reitz, Gregg Rudloff, David E. Campbell and Dane Davis (1999)
- Jeff Wexler, Doug Hemphill, Rick Kline, Paul Massey and Michael D. Wilhoit (2000)
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2001–present | - Andy Nelson, Anna Behlmer, Roger Savage, Guntis Sics, Gareth Vanderhope and Antony Gray (2001)
- Michael Minkler, Dominick Tavella, David Lee and Maurice Schell (2002)
- Richard King, Doug Hemphill, Paul Massey and Art Rochester (2003)
- Karen Baker Landers, Per Hallberg, Steve Cantamessa, Scott Millan, Greg Orloff and Bob Beemer (2004)
- Paul Massey, Doug Hemphill, Peter Kurland and Donald Sylvester (2005)
- Chris Munro, Eddy Joseph, Mike Prestwood Smith, Martin Cantwell and Mark Taylor (2006)
- Kirk Francis, Scott Millan, Dave Parker, Karen Baker Landers and Per Hallberg (2007)
- Glenn Freemantle, Resul Pookutty, Richard Pryke, Tom Sayers and Ian Tapp (2008)
- Ray Beckett and Paul N. J. Ottosson (2009)
- Richard King, Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo and Ed Novick (2010)
- Philip Stockton, Eugene Gearty, Tom Fleischman and John Midgley (2011)
- Simon Hayes, Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson, Jonathan Allen, Lee Walpole and John Warhurst (2012)
- Glenn Freemantle, Skip Lievsay, Christopher Benstead, Niv Adiri and Chris Munro (2013)
- Thomas Curley, Ben Wilkins and Craig Mann (2014)
- Lon Bender, Chris Duesterdiek, Martin Hernández, Frank A. Montaño, Jon Taylor and Randy Thom (2015)
- Claude La Haye, Bernard Gariépy Strobl and Sylvain Bellemare (2016)
- Alex Gibson, Richard King, Gregg Landaker, Gary Rizzo and Mark Weingarten (2017)
- John Casali, Tim Cavagin, Nina Hartstone, Paul Massey and John Warhurst (2018)
- Scott Millan, Oliver Tarney, Rachael Tate, Mark Taylor and Stuart Wilson (2019)
- Jaime Baksht, Nicolas Becker, Phillip Bladh, Carlos Cortés and Michelle Couttolenc (2020)
- Ron Bartlett, Theo Green, Doug Hemphill, Mark Mangini and Mac Ruth (2021)
- Lars Ginzel, Frank Kruse, Viktor Prášil and Markus Stemler (2022)
- Johnnie Burn and Tarn Willers (2023)
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