In addition to the many people Dave Stone has graciously included in his acknowledgements, I wish to add my gratitude to a few more people who deserve to be recognized for their contribution to the development either directly or indirectly to this book.
Much thanks to Leo Chaloukian, who has encouraged my sound career and my various enterprises for several decades. My fondest appreciation to James Honoré, who saw potential in my work back in the day at Gomillion Sound and encouraged others to offer me opportunities to work in Foley. Were it not for him, I really wonder what I might be doing now. My gratitude to the many Foley artists and Foley mixers who have joined in the journey to perfect this grand craft. I must also thank the wonderful re-recording mixers who have finessed my Foley so it would lay smoothly in the final mix of the many films and television shows for which I have performed and edited Foley.
I have learned more from the sound editors and assistant sound editors that Dave Stone mentions above than I can ever express. They are all very special, and I am so glad I shared those wonderful days “in the biz” where we were all in the trenches together. However, there are so many other editors, mixers, recordists, and engineers who were a big part of my life and who I still treasure. I have been so very lucky to be able to talk sound with all of you. Many of them will never know how much I treasure their influence on my right-brained performer’s perspective.
My academic colleagues give me a great deal of latitude in my research and pedagogical style, and I am so grateful. It is my hope that they will see the value of this compendium that Dave and I have assembled as our homage to a life we lived and loved. Special thanks to Telecommunications Chair Tim Pollard at Ball State University for giving me a tremendous opportunity as an Endowed Chair, where I am allowed to expose students to the Los Angeles culture and methodology of filmmaking. Additionally, I must give another special acknowledgment to Dr. David Cheshier at Georgia State University for being willing to allow me all the latitude I needed to explore a Ph.D. in a program that had no experience with a sound professional from Los Angeles, and yet was willing to give me a chance to spread my scholarly wings. While Dave has already acknowledged Rick Altman, I would be remiss if I did not thank him again for his belief in me as a scholar when I know that I will always be surrounded by greater minds than my own.
To Nathaniel Ament-Stone, I say thank you for making each day worth getting older. And finally, to Dave Stone, thank you for being my partner during the best ride I ever had. Film sound has been good to both of us, and I cannot think of a better person to have shared the work, the joys, and the disappointments with than you, my dearest colleague of all.
—Vanessa Theme Ament, Muncie, Indiana