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August 23, 2003
Crivitz native nominated for Emmy for 'West Wing' work
By ERIC LaROSE
The EagleHerald
MARINETTE -- It's always neat to watch award shows, to see the big celebrities walking down the red carpet, smiling, waving and dressed to kill.
But for every Jerry Orbach and Debra Messing, there are thousands of tech people making sure they're lighted correctly and sound perfect when the director yells "action."
It's good to know that those people are recognized as well, even if their award show is separate and not as flashy.
Better yet, it's good to know that one of Marinette County's own is up for one of those prestigious awards.
Patrick Hanson, originally from Crivitz, has been nominated for an Emmy Award for his work as a production sound mixer on the NBC drama, "The West Wing."
For 28 years, Hanson has been working as a sound man in Hollywood, the self-described entertainment capital of the world. He has worked in the entertainment field for 30 years.
"A lot of things in our business, you sort of evolve," he said. "You get in and you can't get out, you sort of wander from one thing or another."
He left Crivitz right after high school and worked in Kohler, Wis., for a while before joining the Navy. The Navy led him to Hawaii and from there he moved to California.
Hanson, 53, said that after a couple of years of evolving, he decided that he wanted to be his own boss, and working with sound seemed to be the best way to go.
"The way most people do that is to work in the camera department, but the equipment is basically so expensive and changes so often it's very hard and very expensive to own your own equipment," Hanson said. "And so I looked around and sound was one of those departments were you could own your own equipment and be your own boss and that's sort of how it started."
He got his start working with interviews and documentaries to get his feet wet. That lead to a fairly big job, working on a documentary on the making of a music video.
The documentary was "The Making of Thriller," starring Michael Jackson, and he won a Participation Grammy Award for his work on it. That lead to more work with music videos, which was perfect since at the time, the early to mid-'80s, the music video was in its heyday.
"I found a sort of niche in that area," he said. "I had all the equipment and everything by that time. I just did a lot of music videos. I think I did over a thousand of them. I went to Russia with Billy Joel in '87, I've been all over the world doing music work, and then I sort of fell into television."
His first foray into television was with commercials. He again traveled the world doing commercials for American Express. He brags that he has been to every continent, except for Antarctica.
Today he lives in Hermosa Beach, Calif., with his wife, Vicki, and children Caroline, 16, and Max, 14. As the production sound mixer for the "West Wing," he's responsible for the entire sound recording for the show. It's something he finds very rewarding.
And one of his biggest fans is his mother, Helen Hanson, who still lives in Crivitz, as does his brother.
"Of course, I'm so proud of him that he's done what he has," his mother said in a telephone interview. "You know, every time you see your friends they want to hear how he's doing. He's done a lot of different things and he's won some awards, too."
There are also some benefits to having your son work on a popular television show. On her 75th birthday, she got a phone call from none other than Martin Sheen, one of the stars of the "West Wing."
"He was working one night, and when they weren't busy, he mentioned to Martin Sheen that it was my 75th birthday. So he called me and wished me a happy birthday," she said.
In fact, Patrick Hanson said the phone call even surprised him.
"It was just out of the blue, that just the kind of guy he is," Hanson said.
And as far as awards go, Hanson has already won a Cinema Audio Society Award, the most prestigious award for sound producers, this year for his work on the "West Wing." Regarding the possibility of winning an Emmy, he can't even describe his elation.
"Beyond words," said Hanson. "It's very, very exciting."
He has some heavy competition. In the category of Outstanding Single-Camera Sound Mixing For A Series, the "West Wing" is up against "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," which airs on CBS; "ER" which also airs on NBC; "The Sopranos," which airs on HBO; and "24," which airs on FOX.
The technical awards portion of the Emmy Awards, the Creative Arts Awards, will air on E! Entertainment Television Sept. 13. The Emmy Awards will air on Sept. 21.
If you want to hear Hanson's work, the new season of the "West Wing," which also stars Wisconsin native Bradley Whitford, begins Sept. 24.
Posted by Jo at August 23, 2003 09:32 AM