Architect Jeff Cooper, The Directors Choice — Jeff Cooper Architect
Jeff Cooper Architect , Calabasas, well known Sound Engineer and Architect to the stars, reminisces about how fortunate he has been in his 40-year career, to have been selected to design Theaters and studios for the world’s greatest film directors. In this multipart series, Jeff will recount his behind-the-scenes stories about how he met and came to build state-of-the-art Theaters and Studios for Hollywood’s most elite directors, including Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Steven Sommers, and Michael Bay.
Photo 1- Film Directors (pictured left to right) Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, and Steven Spielberg (photo courtesy AMPAS).
Francis Ford Coppola Selects Jeff Cooper to Design his New Studio — How it all Began | Architect Jeff Cooper
The Secret Client | Architect Jeffrey Cooper
It was built in the Flatiron Era, and its detailed exterior and its European copper & bronze elliptical dome summit were well preserved. Known as “The Sentinel Building” it was a historical San Francisco landmark, designed by the Architect, M.J. Lyon in 1923, to gracefully fit into the tip of a triangular downtown block intersection. Architect Jeffrey Cooper had seen aerial photos of this gem of a building many times, in his California architectural history studies at MIT.
Photo 2 — The Sentinel Building, located at the intersection of Kearny St. & Columbus Ave. in San Francisco, home to Francis Ford Coppola’s American Zoetrope Film Studios since 1971.
American Zoetrope — A New Breed of Film Studio | Architect Jeff Cooper of Calabasas
Coppola had recently finished directing the first Godfather movies, Parts I & Part II, both to critical acclaim and to numerous Oscars. Critics said, “The Godfather is epic in scope while maintaining a patience and intimacy characteristic of European art cinema” (Common Sense Media). “ The Godfather” is rightly considered one of the greatest films ever made. Coppola had now turned his attention to creating a new film studio, to be located outside of Hollywood, in the middle of downtown San Francisco. The venture was to be called American Zoetrope. The name “Zoetrope” was a reference to the first moving picture machine invented by Thomas A. Edison in 1891, the Kinetoscope. In this ingenious device, a strip of film is passed rapidly between a lens and an electric light bulb (also invented by Edison) while the viewer peers the passing images through a peephole, giving the impression of a stationary succession of moving images. It was the first miniature movie theater! Coppola had obviously studied the history of his chosen craft, during his years at UCLA Film School. Jeff was immediately intrigued.
Coppola’s Vision — A New Kind of Mixing Studio | Architect Jeffrey Cooper of Calabasas
Photo 3 — Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now” — Helicopters Descend to the sounds of Richard Wagner’s “Die Walküre” (Ride of The Valkyries) in the monumental opening 6 Channel surround soundtrack, a first of a kind, at the time.
A New Approach to Sound in Film | Architect Jeff Cooper
As a visionary director, Francis (everyone who worked with him simply called him “Francis”), wanted viewers to viscerally experience the shocking horror and the chaos of Viet Nam. He wanted to bring home the sights and sounds of war delivered through a compelling narrative. First, the audience would witness the sweeping Southeast Asian ocean vistas, seen from the air, accompanied by bold symphonic music in the audio foreground. The audience would feel the whirring blades of the helicopters, cutting through the music. Then they would experience the ground shattering explosions, with the floor vibrating beneath their feet. In Coppola’s characteristic directorial style, the large scale panoramic film experience would exist side-by-side with a smaller, intimate, and more personal side of the story; the whispered dialogue of soldiers fearing for their lives in the night set against the soundtrack of ever-present chaos. The ambitious film required a veritable symphony of sounds to be recorded in high quality and then mixed together carefully for full effect. Sounds such as the labored breathing of sweating soldiers crawling on the jungle floor, the harsh curses and expletives shouted inside crowded tents, the gunshots, the unexpected explosions, and the sound of machine-gun rapid-fire breaking the silence of the night, would all compose elements in the aural canvas.
The entire shocking and tragic story of the Vietnam War, with its desperate moments of bravery, its ever-present fear, its palpable moments of loneliness and its shocking human betrayals, would be set to a jarring background of 60’s rock music, including The Doors and Jimi Hendrix.
Can This Project Be Done in Time?
Jeffrey Cooper, of Calabasas, thought about the amount of design and construction work that would be involved to accomplish Francis Coppola’s vision and the limited time he had to accomplish it. He was 26-years-old and still a novice Architect. The pressure of failure would be unbearable. But he sensed this was a career-making opportunity that was unlikely to be duplicated. He also realized that he would have to drop everything else in his life immediately and move to San Francisco, in order to make it happen for Francis. He said yes.
Coming Soon
The next article in the series will describe how the groundbreaking Mixing studio, American Zoetrope, was built in record time and how the film, “Apocalypse Now”, went on to win the Academy Award for Best Sound and how it established a new standard for sound in film.
Originally published at https://jeffcooperarchitect.com on May 14, 2020.