≡ Menu

The Director’s Chair Issue #74 – Feb. 27, 2007 (A Sound Mixer: Notes for Directors)

A Sound Mixer: Notes for Directors
by Rob Young

In my 35 or so years working in sound for films I have
worked for many directors, the good, the bad and the ugly
but probably the most memorable were the six films with
veteran director George Schaefer. Two of these were with
Katherine Hepburn and one with Betty Davis but what made
these films memorable and unique where that all six of them
were 100% production sound. Not one word was looped and
every word was recorded on a practical location. How was
this possible? It can be summed up in one word:
communication.

It all starts in the initial interview were a good director
will be honest with the sound mixer and lay out his
priorities. Is sound important to him? Would he do another
take for sound? Of course this can all change when ‘the
unstoppable snowball rolling down the hill’ known as
production starts. I have actually worked on films with as
many as three directors before it was finished.

My first big American feature was ‘First Blood’. I left the
interview with the producer with mixed feelings. Buzz
Feitchans, a veteran of several action films told me they
expected a good guide track. My only response was ‘I have
never been hired to record a guide track and would really
like to try for good production sound.’ I told no one that I
had been hired to record a guide track. Three weeks into
production Buzz came to me and said ‘the post people love
your sound, forget what I said about a guide track’. I
should also point out that we had a wild but sound friendly
director.

Step Two is the location survey. I have always attended the
location survey although I have been told that some
productions consider it a waste of money. If the sound mixer
can save one scene as a result of the survey his salary is
more than covered. A good director will include the mixer as
part of his film making team. If the location is perfect in
every way except for the road or river in the background,
consider including it in at least one angle to justify the
background sound. This simple shot could save looping a
perfectly acted scene that might be impossible to reproduce
four months later in a studio.

This is also the time to get to know your crew, the people
that will be supporting you for the next three months. It is
much better to get to know the key members of your crew in a
less stressful atmosphere than that of a busy film set.

The next step of course is production when fifty people are
asking you questions all day. The crew is watching the
director regarding his attitude toward things like sound. I
have noticed it time and again. If the director cares about
sound so will the crew. Sadly, the reverse is also true. If
the director says “we’ll loop it” then it is not long before
the forth grip is repeating it as he drops equipment in the
middle of takes.

As director you have the power to control all of these
things. Remember you are the leader of the most efficient
form of government, a dictatorship. When training new people
one of the first things I tell them is ‘the director is
always right even when he is wrong’.

I have not always followed my own advice regarding this. One
of my early mixing jobs was on an American movie of the
week. These were in the days when they always brought in a
sound mixer. The producer had looked at footage from a
series I had worked on to the check out the work of a local
camera operator. He didn’t get the job but the producer
wanted to know who the sound mixer was.

During the interview he told me he was going out on a limb
by hiring me because the network wanted and American sound
mixer. The first week was in the bowels of Robson Square.
During the survey we were told that the people there would
need at least three to five minutes warning in order to shut
down the exhaust fans. The first day the 1st A.D. gave them
one minute warning and yelled roll. I refused to roll
thinking that I could not hand in such a noisy track. When
the noise stopped I rolled. This happened several times and
the 1st AD and the director were very annoyed. I thought my
first day was going to be my last day. At lunchtime the
producer who had gone out on the limb arrived and wanted to
talk to me. I was mentally packing up my equipment and
looking at unemployment. He took me aside and said ‘I heard
about what happened this morning.’ Pause. ‘You did the right
thing. You are definitely going to finish this movie but
this director probably will not.’ As it turned out we both
finished the movie and the director turned into a sound
friendly one.

If I could stress one thing to a director it would be this:
You have looked at the resumes, hired the best crew possible
so why not utilize their experience and skills during
shooting. Any suggestions from your team are made only to
give you a better film. Don’t reject their ideas because you
didn’t think of it first. You have enough to do, leave the
sound to the sound mixer. My personal theory is not to
bother the director with trivial things; most of these can
be worked out between departments. I only approach the
director when the problem is serious and it is something
only he can solve.

Let’s look at a couple of these. First the multiple camera
situation. When I started in the business you know when we
rode to the set on Woolly Mammoths and not crew vans. In
those days the film was shot with one camera although a
second one would be brought in for big stunts, car crashes
etc. Today two or more cameras are the norm. Since it is
impossible to turn the clock back lets look at the best way
to shoot with two cameras. Having more than one camera means
a compromise in lighting, camera angle and sound quality.

Simply put, when a shot is too wide for a boom microphone
the mixer has to resort to radio microphones. When two
cameras are used as in a wide and tight radio mics are also
used. I find nothing more frustrating than the wide and
tight and then the next setup is one tight for the coverage.
Why not do the wide and then two tights? I have managed to
persuade several new directors to shoot with this method so
that their tight shots are big fat boom microphone tracks.
These close tracks can also be pulled and used over the wide
shots so the whole scene is beautiful rich seamless sound.

This is just one example of how a bit of communication can
give you have a much better soundtrack with no time lost. By
the way, George Schaefer would never use a second camera.

———————————————————–
Rob Young C.A.S. is a veteran of over 35 years recording
sound for motion pictures. Starting in documentaries in the
early seventies he moved into feature and television sound
about 1975 working as a boom operator for American feature
films. As a production sound mixer Rob has worked with
directors such as Clint Eastwood, Edward Zwick, Sean Penn
and Bryan Singer. He as an Oscar nomination and two British
Academy Award nominations as well as one for the Genie
Awards, Cinema Audio Society and two MPSE Golden Reel
nominations. He is the subject of a one act play, ‘The Sound
Man’ which premiered in New York in 1999. Most of his work
is in Vancouver, Canada where he lives.
———————————————————–

Copyright (c) 2007 Peter D. Marshall / All Rights Reserved