Making Waves: The Art Of Cinematic Sound
Dir. Midge Costin / Dur. 94 mins / Country. USA
Festival Strand:- Create
In A Nutshell:- Films aren’t just pictures, you know. A history of and tribute to the unsung heroes of the filmmaking world - the ones who make it sound as good as it looks...
The Good:- It’s definitely a part of the filmmaking world that doesn’t get as much glory as the visual part of cinema but sound is a as big a part of the whole experience as what you see on screen. There are an impressive number of A-list names on hand for the talking heads - Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, David Lynch and Barbara Streisand are just a few of the big names who’ve leant their names to it. The film offers a history as well as focussing on some of the big names in sound design - Walter Murch (Apocalypse Now), Ben Burtt (Star Wars) and (Terminator 2, Jurassic Park). There are some fascinating tidbits along the way - stereo sound only really became a thing in cinemas thanks to the Barbara Streisand version of A Star Is Born and her pushing for it to be heard in the best possible way; the jet sounds in Top Gun aren’t actual jets as it sounded too thin but chopped up, slowed down and remixed lion, tiger and monkey noises. The film also has a leasing analogy for sound design , comparing the different parts of the sound mix to the different parts of the orchestra.
The Bad:- It was an enjoyable and informative documentary - I can't think of anything that I didn't particularly enjoy about it.
The Verdict:- If you.ve got even a passing interest in how things work behind the scenes on a film then is is definitely a doc for you
The Venue / Intro / Q&A:- Over at the Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester Square for this one. On hand for the intro and the Q&A were director Midge Costin and writer Bobette Buster. Alright, I admit, I’ve become a monster - I was at it again with the questions… This time, I was curious as to whether there was anyone that they wanted to interview but weren’t able to. From the States, Martin Scorsese and the Coen Brothers were on the list; they didn't have the budget to travel but would have loved to have got directors like Danny Boyle and Terence Malick if they had. The production process took a while as it was - it was around 9 years from start to finish with three years of filming for the interviews - they had something like 200 hours of interview transcripts to work through...
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