The mix, once we actually settled down to do the final mix. We started mixing in December of 1978 and we were essentially done in... at the beginning of April. So whatever that is... December, January, February, March. So it was about 16 weeks of mixing. Then we had a number of previews of the film. We took the film to Cannes and showed that version at Cannes at the middle of May. The film won; it split the first prize with The Tin Drum, I think.
And then we came back and did another month of mixing because now we had the final music for the film. Before we'd had quick mix-downs but now this was the finished music for the film. And we were mixing actually right up until the release of the film. A few days... We were still mixing a few days before the film hit the theatres. And we were able to do this because the initial release of the film was in 70 mm, which is magnetic film. And we had stockpiled everything except the final reel and so we were there mixing the final reel on Tuesday, knowing that Thursday it had to be in front of the theatres.
When we finished that final reel, we sent that to Los Angeles to have the magnetic stripes on the edge of the film sounded, where you transfer the mix to the magnetic. And then I collapsed and fell asleep for probably 36 hours. The longest I've ever slept and woke up in a daze. Flew to New York, arrived Thursday afternoon, went to the Ziegfeld Theatre, which is where we were, the film opened. And sat in the empty theatre and said, 'Okay, run it.' Just see what, how it was, what was going to happen, what had we done.
