Q&A with miami vice post production crew member!


COOPER&BURNETT

Recommended Posts

We are lucky enough that a member of the POST PRODUCTION UNIT of MIAMI VICE at UNIVERSAL has agreed to answer questions from US!His name is MICHAEL SCHULTE, and he worked on MIAMI VICE for all Five Seasons. He was hired before the start of the pilot episode. To sum up what his general work duties were, here is what he said about himself..."I started out as the stock footage librarian. First job in the industry. I was a kid, barely out of high school. Ended up doing a little editing, appeared in a montage I helped shoot and also did some source music (speed metal tune in "Line of Fire"). I think I'm one of the few people who were on the show from beginning to end. It was a steady gig and I was making more money than all my friends combined. It was a lifetime ago.""The footage for the Main Ttitle was gathered by me and a guy named Eddie Mitchell. Eddie was the first black man admitted into the Editor's Guild - the Jackie Robinson of the union and a great guy who sadly passed away many years ago. That part of the business was still pretty racist in the early 80's. During the pilot, I took over the show and stayed with it throughout the run. Yes, I was in LA at Universal."I asked him if he had any idea who the two bikini clad women were on the opening credits.He replied, "No idea who the chicks were. We scavenged everywhere for that stuff. It's possible that was 2nd Unit stuff shot by John Nicolella (also dead) because its so specific, but I've long forgotten."I told him about my hardcover pilot episode script that was a gift from DON JOHNSON to the crew in 1989. I asked if he had one too. His response, "No, I never got the DJ script you mentioned. Never even heard of it. Maybe it was for the Miami crew exclusively? It's too bad. I also cut 90210 and we got a script of the final episode signed by all the cast members. One guy I knew sold his for $1500. Oh well. The things you throw away are often more interesting than the things you keep. To clarify, when I did the music for the Line of Fire episode, Hammer was long gone. Tim Truman was the composer. That's why I got the break. Hammer would never have allowed the outsourcing. The script called for speed metal music and Truman wasn't familiar with the genre. I was a kid punk rocker, moonlighting as a bartender at the Cathay De Grande and said, "let me go home and record something." The Post supervisor said, take a shot wiseass, so I went into a buddy's studio overnight and multi-tracked two minutes of shredding. They used it and I got paid nicely. By complete coincidence, today I got a whopping $68 residual check. It still plays. And pays.As for the notes, yes. We?d make a first cut, the director would have a day or two in the chair to do changes, then it would go through a phalanx of producers, ending up with Michael Mann ? or later Dick Wolf, who I went on to work for on other shows.I asked Michael what exactly he did for his music from the LINE OF FIRE episode."For the Line of Fire tune - they needed some speed/thrash metal that the kid would listen to. Most of the guys I worked with in Post were older - not so hip gents, so they asked me to record some temp stuff overnight. I did and the producers loved it so they used it in the final and even laid it over the bumpers. I can't believe I still get residual checks from that thing."Michael is a pretty nice guy, and he's willing to take questions from you, the MIAMI VICE ONLINE MEMBERS.If you have a question for him, please post your question to him, and he'll try to answer your questions. Remember, he did not work with the crew in Miami, he was at Universal in L.A.. You may post several questions, and I'll select those that I think he may be able to answer. I'll do my best to send him all the questions you ask, but he's quite busy, and may not be able to get around to answering all of them (or even know the answers to them), but hopefully, he'll try!O.K., You may start asking Michael questions!-COOPANOTHER MIAMIVICEONLINE EXCLUSIVE!
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awesomeness, C&B! Thanks for getting Michael to answer some of our questions. Small world...I used to go to the Cathay de Grande around '81-'82. I used to see The Untouchables there and another band I really liked called the Question. Crazy to think that at some point I probably saw Michael. I think the club became the China Club in the mid/late-'80s if memory serves. Anyhow, I'm basically cutting and pasting my questions from the previous thread:Ask him how he and the other editors were able to turn around an episode so fast with the editing being done at Universal and the show being filmed in Miami. The obvious answer is they had film sent overnight to LA (or Burbank airport) by courier after the day's shoot.OR, did they schedule an extra week in the production/editing sched. to allow for the distance in shooting on another coast?Also, what was the procedure to put the editor's cut together then wait for the director to come in (is this the question that was answered in the original intro to Michael post? That scenario is more of a final cut situation. Would the director fly to Universal immediately after an episode wrapped so he could get in the editing room?And finally, what did they do about 'pick-up' shots? Or ADR? Were either of these done in LA? Or was it all Miami and they had to overnight this to Universal too? I've always been curious as to whether there was a little bit of Vice that had to be done at Universal.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

WOW! Right out of the gate, Great questions Charlie Glide! :thumbsup::clap:(* Remember members, make sure all questions are asked of him directly (as though you are asking him in person), as I will use copy and paste when I send these to him to answer. Also, I cannot guarantee that all, or any of the questions will be answered, but they will be forwarded to him, as he has agreed to take your questions.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm abit of a car guy and I'm not a fan of white in the slightest. outside of it being used on a white muscle car like the one in vanishing point so I gotta askSo how much footage of the testarossa was there taken of it in its original cool as ice black metallic color and how much of it actually hit the post production area before the call was made to have it repainted and dump that footage probably?and in regards to the daytona, in the pilot was there ever any extra stock footage from that episode of the car that was never used in the rest of the show?and would any of the said unused extra footage above still exist and be around somewhere?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Brilliant questions Kavinsky, Brilliant! (Let's hope he knows the answers to these questions, as I sure would like to know!)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Apologies if the answer is already well known to this one, but I'd love to know more about the ending to Freefall from him. Specifically:Apparently 4 different endings were filmed to freefall. Was the plan always to stick with the eventual ending or was there serious discussion about killing off C&T? Whatever happened to the alternate endings and will we ever see them as a DVD extra one day?

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The most obvious question: WHERE ARE THE OUTTAKES?!? If he worked in Post Production for Universal in L.A. during the entire series, he has to know if there is an outtake reel somewhere, that's where they're cut...Ask him, Coop, inquiring minds want to know!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

If I read the posting correctly in seems in reference to the opening montages they scrambled to gather footage for the clips. I am particularly interested in the shots where they are flying over water. Are these second unit shots or did they borrow this footage. If so from where? Magnum, Hawaii Five-o? It has puzzled me for a long time and I suspect this could be footage from Hawaii. Also is it possible he could know where the water sking shot was filmed. I would love to know where some of these shots came from. Any other information on the stock footage shots that we see of CA. throughout the series would be great. For example could he possibly know where the footage we see in Glades of the police van came from. I would love to know it's origin. Thanks.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've got another one. Did they ever think of redoing the intro for the show during the later seasons to fit the change in tone over the years? and why were the only changes done to it outside of the first couple of episodes of S1 restricted to the change of the color scheme of the title card and the addition of the TR shot in it in S3?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Actually that reminds me of another question: does he have any idea who/where the windsurfing women in the title sequence is? Seems unlikely, but would love to find out! :p

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Again, I don't know if he knows any of these questions (only he knows), but hopefully, he will answer those which he knows.Any more questions that he might be able to answer?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Were the post facilities on the Universal lot? Or was the space rented off-lot? And how far away was the writers room from the editing facilities...Did you ever go to the writers office and if so, what was the office(s) like? I'm really curious about this. I've always wondered what it was like.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I contacted Michael, and he said he might join this site, and answer the questions personally here, on this thread! This way, he can come on here whenever he wants to, to answer questions! :thumbsup::thumbsup:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I contacted Michael' date=' and he said he might join this site, and answer the questions personally here, on this thread! This way, he can come on here whenever he wants to, to answer questions! :thumbsup::thumbsup:[/quote']That would be insane. If he does show up here, hopefully we wouldn't scare him away.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

That would be insane. If he does show up here' date=' hopefully we wouldn't scare him away.[/quote']Were all polite here, I'm sure he'll like being here. Remember, he was actually "there". How cool is that?! :thumbsup:
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Michael let me know that he tried to register here several times, but somehow, he's unable to. :confused: There must be a glitch somewhere, and hopefully, it will be corrected soon. We're working on it....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Michael let me know that he tried to register here several times' date=' but somehow, he's unable to. :confused: There must be a glitch somewhere, and hopefully, it will be corrected soon. We're working on it....[/quote']Michael was able to successfully register here, and, whenever he has the time, he said he try to answer some questions.I know you will show him the respect he deserves, as you all are so classy! :prost::klatsch:
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks Coop for bringing more actual vice history here and thanks to Michael for sharing his time with fans.

He appears to be quite busy these last few weeks, as he hasn't contacted me lately (he mentioned earlier he would be busy, I think he said for three weeks) so hopefully, he will be able to visit when he finds the time in his schedule.
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 years later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.