His next big break came when he was hired under contract as a boom
man at Universal Studios. There he worked year round and was assigned
projects by the studio, including feature film E.T., the Extra-Terrestrial and
television series Quincy, The Incredible Hulk, Buck Rogers in the 25th
Century, Night Rider, and Battlestar Galactica.
Cooney served as a boom
man for four or five years
before moving up to mixing.
The first feature he mixed was
Blue Thunder, a helicopter film
starring Roy Scheider.
Afterward, he alternated
between boom jobs and
mixing, steadily building his
reputation until landing the job
of mixing the first four seasons
of Murder, She Wrote, which
finally established him as a
sound mixer.
"I've been very, very fortu-
nate. I have nine nominations
for sound," including three
Golden Reels, one of which he
won in 2000 for Noriega: God's
Favorite, three Emmys, two
CAS awards, and an Academy
Award nomination for
Cliffhanger.
Filmed in the mountains of
Cortina, Italy, "Cliffhanger was
an unbelievably difficult
show--logistically it was a
nightmare--but it still remains the most beautiful place I've ever seen.
The mountains were just unbelievable. We were there three months. As
I was getting in the car to go to Rome, to continue shooting in that loca-
tion, I kept thinking, `This place is magnificent. Inspiring.' Receiving the
Oscar nomination was like the cherry on the pie."
Cooney continued to work on blockbuster features, including: Conspir-
acy Theory, Demolition Man, Die Hard 2, Ford Fairlane, Lethal Weapon 4,
Marrying Man, Mighty Ducks 3, and We Were Soldiers.
Many believe Cooney's work on We Were Soldiers will win him a
second Oscar nomination. "They used 80% of my production track,
"The best advice I
could give anyone is one
sentence: Do something
to further your career
every single day. Period.
I don't care if you're sick in bed. You get the
trades, read them, and redo your résumé so
that you can send that out. Do something
every single day. Even on Christmas--go to
parties where there are people in the business
so you can hear about what shows are in pro-
duction. Find out if they have hired a person
for the category you work in. If you do some-
thing every day, you will succeed; and if you
don't, you won't. I've been working for 26
years, and after 26 years and nine [film
award] nominations, it still doesn't even get
me the interview. That's the reality of the
business."--Tim Cooney
"It's a people business. I don't care if
it's sound, if it's acting, or if it's producing.
You have got to know people; you have to
make contacts and remember their names and
where you worked with them."--Tim Cooney
CAREER TIPS
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