I found this blurb in The Hollywood Reporter this week:
“In a ceremony at the Wilshire Grand, the MPSE presented awards in 17 categories for areas including features, TV, direct-to-video and special venue, as well as a career achievement award to Bill Wilstrom.
Director Michael Bay received the Filmmaker of the Year award.
Bay saluted the audience, saying, “You sculpt sound and breathe life in movies. You make edits work, you influence characters, you create strong feelings.”
Then he asked “Why don’t you guys change more?” as he received enthusiastic applause.”
By Carolyn Giardina Feb 24, 2008
We all know the famous George Lucas quote:
“I’ve always had a very, very strong belief that sound is 50% of the psychological experience of watching a film.”
(from The Hollywood Reporter “Future of entertainment” Sept. 13, 2005)
Which got me to thinking, why is it the post sound budget always is the first sacrifice? Every post house hears this on a regular basis: “We went over budget on the shoot. (This translates into I have no money left for post.”).
I think it’s because post sound isn’t very glamorous. Think about it. Sitting on a mix stage can’t compare to being on a shoot, adrenaline flowing, people yelling action and chocolate chip cookies from catering (BTW we can provide you with chocolate chip cookies, no problem). There is no immediate visual reward or instant gratification. It’s a mysterious process that involves long hours in dark rooms that bores the heck out of most people unless you are the one doing it. I mean how many times can you listen to a line in a row, dialing out the sibilance and not lose your mind? Ah, the glamour of being a post sound person. We are paid a lot of lip service but very few actually heed those words. It’s much like music engineering. Being a rock star on stage is glamorous, but being the engineer who has been punching in the same line of said rock star who sings slightly out of tune for 14 hours in a row is not. (Of course these days you just auto tune the hell out of the line and move on, it doesn’t really matter if said rock star can sing anymore.)
Ok, I digress, but the point is even though it may be boring to you; it is a very important component of your film. You should be glad there is someone that cares enough to make your dialog track sound great and sit through hours and hours of tiny details to make it sound that way. Sound is the type of thing that if you DON’t notice it, it’s a very good thing. By that I mean, if bad sound is distracting the viewer they are less likely to be immersed in the entire film. So listen to George Lucas and Michael Bay, they know what they are talking about and save your pennies for post….we’ll give you cookies too.
