Daniel Saxlid, supervising sound editor and re-recording mixer for The Other Side of the Wind, explains the role iZotope RX software played in restoring the film’s dialogue in a new video short, Restoring the Audio of Orson Welles’ Final Film.
With some of the original audio elements missing from the footage Welles shot in 1974, Saxlid had to rely on the sound taken off the workprint, which he described as being in “horrible shape.”
He estimated that 70 percent of the finished film’s audio came from workprint materials restored using iZotope RX, and the remaining 30 percent from the quarter-inch Nagra reels.
“Only five or 10 years ago, it would not have possible to save these tracks … that’s where iZotope RX saved us,” Saxlid said.
The noise reduction and audio repair software is demonstrated by Saxlid in this brief promotional video from iZotope.
For those who enjoyed Ryan Suffern’s magnificent short A Final Cut for Orson: 40 Years in the Making, the video provides more evidence of the Herculean effort it took to bring The Other Side of the Wind to the screen.
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