Words You Can Use: The BAVC BLOG

Debra Schaffner, BAVC Senior Postproduction Technician

I worked with BAVC Mediamaker John Lightfoot in the audio suite on the mix for his film “Obituary: A Caustic Tale”. This is an experimental, first-person biography of Hiram Maxim, inventor of the automatic machine gun. While I EQed and compressed, I asked John about the man who changed the way we slaughter our fellow humans. Apparently, Maxim was prompted to invent the gun after meeting a fellow American while in Vienna. The man said, “Maxim, if you really want to make money, invent something that will enable these Europeans to cut each others throats with greater ease.” I wondered if Maxim expressed any regrets later in life for his role in modern warfare. According to John, he did not. Nor did his son, Hiram Percy Maxim, who was certainly no Sarah Winchester. He never built rooms or passageways to ward off the souls of dead gun victims. Instead, he invented a well-known gun accessory- the silencer. I guess there is something to be said for knowing your path, or at least for walking a silent one. One last piece of trivia about Obituary. The archival film footage of the elder Maxim seen in the film was actually shot by his son. He used an early 16mm cameras when they first became available to (wealthy) consumers.