“An Open Letter from Your Sound Department” – Part One
This letter is being written by audio professionals to help
directors and producers understand how good sound can be recorded
on the set. We want to help you make the best film possible.
For this piece, we will not discuss the topic of mixing itself,
as this is the “hocus pocus” part that you trust us to do so
well.
We want you to have information that will enable you to evaluate
what is interfering with good sound, before a hasty decision is
made that can harm the quality of your film’s sound. To help you
make your decision you need to know about some of the obstacles
that we sound people face, before we can even begin to get usable
production sound on the set.
This is after all, the age day of digital sound. Theaters have
wonderful THX (the audience IS listening) and SDDS with 5.1
surround. Home audio is often better than many theaters as a
sophisticated audience demands DVDs with 24 bits. Yet, today’s
sound at it’s source on set is suffering like never before.
THE PROBLEM
We, the sound crew, are the ones that you depend on to create and
protect YOUR original sound tracks during production.
Unlike the work of the majority of the people who are working for
on-camera results, the mixer’s efforts can not be “seen” on the
set. Almost no one hears what the microphone picks up. Too few
are sure just what we do. Only the most obviously bad noises are
even brought up for discussion.
Included in our job is to monitor the sets for unnecessary,
accidental, ignorant and sometimes even malicious actions or lack
of actions that may compromise your sound track. To emphasize
this point: WE DO THIS SO YOU WILL HAVE THE BEST TRACKS POSSIBLE; IT IS NOT FOR US.
We are too often frustrated by the state of conditions that now
exist on most sets. Many times we are expected to solve all sound
problems alone. Instead, this should always be a cooperative
effort with the assistant directors and other crafts.
Sound mixers are often perceived as pests or even a hindrance to
the film’s progress. We don’t like being put in this untenable
position because it is humiliating and unnecessary. We don’t like
to be considered adversarial to the rest of the production and we
certainly don’t want to be the “sound police”!
A mixer on a tough show, who fights alone to get you good sound,
stands a good chance of burning out from all the excuses and
defenses put up. It’s hard to put it all out there without
support. The temptation is to cave into the pressure and just go
with the flow, and no good can come when that happens.
The problems that we face may lead you to believe that good sound
cannot be achieved without set disruptions and added costs. This
would not be necessary if reasonable measures are anticipated and
endorsed by you both in pre-production and during production.
We know the limitations of our equipment. For example,
microphones are just tools, they don’t make miracles happen. If
on-set audio problems are not dealt with immediately, they will
only be back to haunt you again in postproduction.
You can help us do a better job for you. Good sound can most
often be achieved by using reasonable preparation to avoid
pitfalls.
We need your understanding and your backing.
THEN AND NOW
To understand the sorry state of audio affairs today, you must go
back in time.
There once existed a major studio system where an assembly line
of crafts worked together to churn out film products. No matter
which studio we worked at, all crafts understood they were
expected to take reasonable measures within their purview to
allow for good sound recordings. It was instilled as part of
their job description. These duties were passed on to the young
apprentices. Grips cut microphone shadows sharply with flags. The
electric department would change out a noisy light that buzzed.
Camera assistants would try everything possible to quiet camera
noise and many is the time that an operator had blankets and
pillows over them and the noisy camera. Every other craft would
do whatever was deemed reasonable to help get good sound, because it was considered to be part of their job. No one had to try to
persuade them to do it. It was an era where reasonable
co-operation with the Sound Department was the normal way to make
good movies.
Today’s crafts still have pride in their jobs but it seems they
NO LONGER consider sound assistance to be a part of their job
description. The problems began when the in-house studio training
system broke down as non-union independent films proliferated.
Along the way, the process of learning what their jobs entailed
changed the way they perceived sound. The other crafts now don’t
think they should do anything to help YOU get good sound for YOUR
movie. There is no longer an apprenticeship system to pass along
this knowledge. They now learn on the job under fire through
osmosis.
They must now be requested in each instance to do reasonable
things, which are necessary to protect YOUR sound tracks, because
they just don’t consider it to be a part of their job anymore.
The Sound Department would gladly cut the shadow on the back wall
of the set ourselves or cover the noisy camera, but that’s not
how the game is played. Instead, we have to convince, cajole,
coerce, plead and use every other psychological persuasion
technique to get the other crafts to help us prevent sound
problems.
That last second, scrambling time on set should only be used to
fix the unexpected problems which will inevitably occur. Instead,
that last second is the first time that the sound mixer finds out
about changes in dialog, staging or unwanted noises from on or
off of the set.
All of the other departments work for what is seen and not heard.
Every single person on the production from make up and wardrobe
to grips and props concentrates only on what’s seen in the
viewfinder.
Because the other production crafts work only for picture, no one
knows or cares what’s happening to YOUR audio.
You are the only person on set with the power to allow us to get
you good sound. It is always tempting for sound to give in and
not go against the grain when circumstances impose impossible
barriers.
Film schools are going to need to add psychology courses to their
sound mixing curriculum soon. The situation is often that bad.
That is why we want you to know as much as possible about the
audio minefield lurking on every set.
What may often seem to you to be a lot of complaining, is in fact
simply communicating negative factors to you, so that you will
know what you are getting on your sound tracks, and what sound
problems can be fixed NOW. For bottom line, these are YOUR
choices. Just because we hear a noise does not make it a sound
problem. It is your problem too. After all, we turn over the
tracks to you at the end of the day.
After reading this, hopefully it will be much easier for you to
make the informed decision about when it’s really the time to
loop. It’s far too late to reverse a sound calamity later in
post.
Even though this topic is last in the chain of events, we should
start first by talking about why ADR is not a fix.
—–
PART TWO TOPICS – Looping, Sound Problems on the Set, Locations
Preproduction, Art Department, Assistant Directors, Production
Managers, Camera Department
PART THREE TOPICS – Special Effects, Wardrobe, Props, Grips,
Electrics, Craft Service, Transportation, Actors, Directors,
Final Notes
———-
An Open Letter from your Sound Department. Written by John Coffey
<mailto:johncoffey@coffeysound.com>, with help from Randy Thom,
Jeff Wexler, Noah Timan, Mike Hall, John Garrett, Scott Smith,
Rob Young, Mike Filosa, Wolf Seeberg, Darren Brisker, Charles
Wilborn, Todd Russell, Brydon Baker, Larry Long, Glen Trew, Dave
Schaaf, Charles Tomaras, Klay Anderson, Brian Shennan, Hans
Hansen, David Marks, Bob Gravenor, Von Varga, Mark Steinbeck,
Carl Cardin, Eric Toline, Joseph Cancila, Stu Fox, Peter Devlin,
Matt Nicolay and many others.
———-
Copyright (c) 2001 Peter D. Marshall / All Rights Reserved
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