{"id":3073,"date":"2024-12-07T11:37:42","date_gmt":"2024-12-07T18:37:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmforno.com\/?p=3073"},"modified":"2024-12-07T16:18:39","modified_gmt":"2024-12-07T23:18:39","slug":"bud-smith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.filmforno.com\/?p=3073","title":{"rendered":"Bud Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"

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BUD SMITH\u00a0 AN APPRECIATION WITH ANECDOTES<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Bud Smith started his career at Four Star Television, a company formed by Dick Powell, Charles Boyer, David Niven and Joel McRae (hence the name). Four Star proved fortuitous for Bud.\u00a0 There he met Steve McQueen, star of \u201cWanted Dead or Alive\u201d they were both avid motorcyclists, racing around the desert with their pal Bud Ekins.\u00a0 I believe Bud\u2019s love of speed, adrenaline and the thrill of racing informed his visceral style of editing.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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In the mid 1960\u2019s Bud met David Wolper who would take Bud to his production company and introduce him to his biggest filmmaking ally, William Friedkin.\u00a0 There\u00a0 they collaborated on \u201d\u00a0 The Bold Men\u201d, the start of a long creative relationship.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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After leaving Wolper, Bud was in NYC cutting the featurette of \u201cGoodbye Mr. Chips\u201d when Bob Downey walked by his cutting room.\u00a0 Downey looked in and liked what he saw.\u00a0 \u201cYou want to edit my film?\u201d he asked and Bud wound up cutting \u201cPutney Swope\u201d an underground megahit about a black advertising agency.\u00a0 Bud and Bob would go on to make\u00a0 \u201cPound,\u201d \u201cGreaser\u2019s Palace\u201d and \u201cSticks and Bones,\u201d based on the David Rabe play produced by Joe Papp.\u00a0 It was one the of the first anti-Vietnam War films to show on network television and thanks to their mutual friend Jack Nitzsche, it had music by the Rolling Stones.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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In the early 70\u2019s, Bud re teamed with Friedkin for \u201cThe Exorcist,\u201d a film that caused a major sensation.\u00a0 One of the scariest movies ever made – lines formed around the block everywhere.\u00a0 It was a huge box office hit.\u00a0 Bud told me they were under such a tight deadline and were working so many hours that the studio had a nurse come to give them B12 injections to keep going.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Friedkin and Smith\u2019s follow up was the underappreciated (at the time) \u201cSorcerer,\u201d now recognized as a masterpiece.\u00a0 Bud was a producer and shot 2nd Unit as well as other footage for this film.\u00a0 He proved himself a brilliant 2nd Unit Director as is evident by the counterfeiting scene in \u201cTo Live and Die in LA\u201d and the scene where Ed Begley Jr gets his arm ripped off by the panther in \u201cCat People.\u201d\u00a0 Pure cinema.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Bud loved to experiment creatively with film.\u00a0 He used subliminal cuts in \u201cThe Exorcist\u201d and \u201cCruising,\u201d (another Friedkin collaboration that was unfairly boycotted during production). Once again it is now considered a classic.\u00a0 Recently I told Bud how much I liked that movie – how well it was made and this made him very, very happy to hear.\u00a0 I think he considered it some of his best work and the bad treatment the film received (by people who hadn\u2019t seen it) upset him.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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In \u201cCruising\u201d Bud used subliminal cuts of hardcore 8mm films during the murders to unsettle the audience.\u00a0 In \u201cSorcerer\u201d he was inspired while looking at Cynex strips on the Kem.\u00a0 A Cynex strip was an optical element created from a frame of a shot to judge exposure, each frame was half a stop lighter than the previous, from black to white.\u00a0 He cut them into the film during Roy Schieder\u2019s hallucinnatory drive through an eerie landscape.\u00a0 He also scored that scene with an album he had called \u201cThe Wind Harp,\u201d adding to the mind altering atmosphere.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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In \u201cZoot Suit\u201d he told me he mixed the film in Sensurround, a process that added powerful bass frequencies to emphasize the tap dancing.\u00a0 He was always coming up with new techniques to make films more expressive.\u00a0 The soundtrack of \u201cThe Exorcist\u201d is another example where he used so many creative cutting edge ideas to make the film more powerful and to make it work on a subconscious, primal level.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Bud edited \u201cFlashdance\u201d for which he won a BAFTA award.\u00a0 It was another giant hit and a big cultural influence. In the final audition dance scene in \u201cFlashdance\u201d, Bud seamlessly combined the moves of Jennifer Beals with three different dancers (one of which was a male breakdancer in a wig) to create the beloved dance sequence.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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A few years later Bud struck gold again with \u201cThe Karate Kid,\u201d another mega hit.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Bud was the recipient of an ACE Career Achievement Award in 2008.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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If you spent any time with Bud you were gifted with some great stories, like when some mafiosi showed up at the cutting room of Friedkin\u2019s \u201cThe Brinks Job,\u201d tied the crew up at gunpoint and kidnapped a few reels of dailies.\u00a0 Luckily Bud was not there at the time and what they stole was the work print which could easily be reprinted at the lab.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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If you look at the poster for \u201cSorcerer,\u201d you\u2019ll see a truck on a primitive rope and plank bridge leaning at an impossible angle.\u00a0 This image is a frame enlargement from the film.\u00a0 In the next frame the truck toppled over into a raging river below.\u00a0 In the cab of that truck, in real life, was Bud Smith and his old pal Bud Ekins.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Besides his great accomplishments as an editor and 2nd Unit Director, Bud directed the film \u201cJohnny Be Goode,\u201d starring Anthony Michael Hall, his friend Robert Downey\u2019s son, Robert Downey Jr. and Uma Thurman in her first film.\u00a0 I wish he had directed more films, but soon thereafter he took a job at Universal as their \u201cfilm doctor,\u201d recutting films as needed to improve their chances at the box office.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Bud was a very generous person.\u00a0 He gave a lot of people a leg up or a big break.\u00a0 He helped me as well.\u00a0 I was assisting him on a Downey film called Moonbeam.\u00a0 Bud agreed to edit it as long as he was free but then he had to leave to edit Flashdance.\u00a0 Downey asked who should take over and Bud replied \u201cJoe can do it.\u201d Bud Smith gave me my first editing job.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Renowned Director of Photography Bob Yeoman was shooting 2nd Unit for Bud on \u201cTo Live and Die in L.A.\u201d when Robbie Muller the 1st Unit D.P. \u201cgot sick.\u201d\u00a0 Bud proposed to Friedkin that Bob take over and Bob will tell you that it made his career.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Bud was blessed with a 33-year relationship with his lovely wife Lucy, a former dialog editor.\u00a0 They loved each other dearly and Lucy took amazing care of him in his last years.\u00a0 She is an angel.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Bud Smith is survived by three children from a previous marriage sons Scott, Steven,daughter, Jill as well as a granddaughter, __________<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Farewell dear friend.\u00a0 You will be deeply missed by the people who know and love you and all of those who were thrilled and moved by your brilliant work.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n