i had an experience recently that made me realise just how important sound is to a truly great production. now, as a sound producer, this is not some narcissistic babble. it is true that any great production is the sum of its parts and if there is something missing or doesn’t work, then the production as a whole falls on its face. now, onto my case in point.
hands up those who have seen Guy Ritchie’s latest, ‘Rocknrolla’? i have seen it twice, both times in cinemas, but both times were different. the first time i saw the film was at The Ritz, on ‘tight-arse Tuesday’ of course, and i was absolutely blown away! the scripting and the dialogue that Ritchie delivers is genius, a great balance between action and humour; the casting is spot on with Toby Kebbel stealing the show in the final scenes playing crack-head rock ‘n’ roller Johnny Quid. but the part what blew me away was the sound. the sound was huge heightening the suspense and drama and underpinning the comedic element of the film, whilst the accompanying soundtrack could not have been more on the money. the film surpassed my expectations of Ritchie, going further than both his classic London gangster films, ‘Lock Stock’ and ‘Snatch’.
However, and here is the point i wish to make the second viewing left me bitterly disappointed.
Let me set the scene for you: it was a quiet friday night, and as one does on a friday night, i was looking for some entertainment. a small gang of my buddies and i decided a night off the booze would be good for a change and so settled on the idea of heading to Govindas, a hare krishna joint on Darlinghurst Road that offers up a delicious deal of all-you-can-eat vegetarian wonders and a movie in a small and intimate cinema for only 25 bucks! so off to Govindas where we literally ate all we could, and headed up stairs to the cinema where, other than the usual arrangement of cramped cinema chairs, you are greeted with an assortment of bedding, couches and beanbags with which to make your viewing pleasure all that more, um, pleasurable. it is truly a fantastic set up, i was so comfortable i even whipped my shirt off.
but from the opening credits i realised something was wrong. the sound setup in the cinema was absolutely terrible! there was only a small pair of stereo speakers situated up the front next to the screen, and being in the backrow, we could barely make out the sound. the stereo system had zero dynamic range and seemingly were without any bass capabilities. it was like watching a bootleg copy of the film that had been caught on a mini-dv camera by some shaky-handed, bald, sweating Thai delinquent that had somehow been passed off as a genuine copy to the kind folk at Govindas. i couldn’t believe it! the sound was just awful and the full effects of the film were just not there. the sound was flat and the action seemed stale. the dialogue didn’t feel right as the intonation and inflection of the characters voices was missing, and as you can imagine the delivery of speech felt dead. the film as a whole suffered. it just was not the same, not even close to being the same experience as the first time i saw the film.it almost felt like a b-grade movie which it certainly ain’t.
after talking up the film as the best piece of cinematic entertainment i had witnessed in a long time, i was left red-faced as the full of effects of the film could not be impacted upon my peers. the poor sound let the film down massively! words do not begin to explain this, but what it made me realise is that any production is only as good as its poorest aspect, and the sound let the film down, making the whole thing seem utterly sub-standard.
so i guess where i’m going with this is that as media producers who are all multi-talented and with the abilities to work with an array of media platforms, we should be striving for excellence with everything we do. for if if we build super websites, beautifully constructed with interesting design contents, but settle for crappy content, or produce an awesome video but don’t think about the sound and use some contrite garage band loop, then we let the whole production down. for it is the productions where every aspect is tops that we sit back and say, that was awesome! if you think about how we view media we do often take productions to pieces, analysing each aspect and saying, well that part was good, but i didn’t like this; or that was good, but was let down by this, etc. but it is the productions where every facet works together to construct a perfect whole that are the ones we remember.
so let’s not become complacent, and strive for excellence in every aspect of our work! happy producing.
