In 2010, I had the privilege of leading the Film Seminar at the Glen Workshop in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I was a student posing as an instructor, a film enthusiast more interested in learning about movies from classroom discussion than in expounding upon my own movie-going experience.

Still, it caught me by surprise to learn that the “workshopper” with the most cinematic expertise was enrolled not in my seminar, but in the songwriting workshop. … 

During the Glen’s lunch break, he quietly listened in on a conversation among my film-seminar friends. I noticed his close attention. I introduced myself.

I learned, to my astonishment, that Pete Horner wasn’t just interested in movies. He makes movies. Or better, he is a gifted collaborator, a sound designer, who, in his work at Zoetrope and Skywalker Ranch, has helped create the enthralling soundscapes of major motion pictures like Jarhead, Rio, and one of my favorites—Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now Redux.

To read this two-part conversation with sound designer Pete Horner, visit Image’s Good Letters blog. (Part OnePart Two)