The importance of sound - Audio

Post, Dec, 2002 by David John Farinella

This past year was an interesting one for all aspects of the entertainment industry. What many audio post houses across the country saw was the increasing shrinkage of the market as more and more clients took their post work in-house. That has caused some audio post house casualties, and the companies that have stayed in business are tightening their belts to remain solvent.

However, the outlook for 2003 is positive in nearly every facet of the audio post production market. In the film industry, for instance, Liberty Livewire Audio (now known as Ascent Media Creative Sound Services) was pinched thanks to the threatened entertainment industry strikes. "There were a huge amount of shows, especially in the film world, that were completed and stockpiled in 2002" explains president Lon Bender. "So, post production was off something like 40 percent until the middle of the year when production started picking up again." Bender's initial prognosis is that the company will be back to around 85 to 90 percent of where the market was in 2001. But what about the rest of the audio post industry? Read on...

GARY RYDSTROM

Director of Creative Operations

Skywalker Sound

www.skysound.com

San Rafael, CA

STRENGTHS: The proliferation of DVDs and the success of that format has informed the public more about sound than other things that we've tried. It's elevating people's expectations, both at home and in the theater. Also, on the technical side, the equipment that people are using now -- the digital workstations and consoles -- are still getting better. For the past couple years there's been a huge revolution in the way people put together sound mixes -- to the extent that I wish I could go back and do some older ones again. There's so much ability that I think it's made a big difference in how people view their craft.

WEAKNESSES: Better integration of systems that are used in post production, most obviously between picture editing and sound editing software. The hope is to integrate visual effects work, animation systems, and picture cutting and sound cutting systems so they really are of a piece and become more of a true network as opposed to being more standalone. There's a lot of trickiness in moving between platform to platform. The other thing that needs to be integrated is mixing consoles with workstations. I see in the future that the mixing console will be more of a part of a workstation that's providing the source material and they're talking to each other.

OPPORTUNITIES: There's been so much technical upheaval over the past few years, it really has improved the ability of all of us to do our job. I think the opportunity, in a funny way, is that you want the light to shine more on the creative aspect. I would love the focus to go on the artform, especially in sound work and sound mixing because sometimes it's neglected or under utilized. There's so much that can be done from a creative standpoint on a sound mix and sound editing that there's always room for improvement

THREATS: The important thing is that if you do good sound work in a movie or game, you have to make sure that the end user hears it. So, one of the threats is that if people don't use good systems at home, they don't truly appreciate the work that you put in.

LON BENDER

President

Ascent Media Creative Sound Services

(Formerly Liberty Livewire Audio)

www.ascentmedia.com

Santa Monica

STRENGTHS: There is a continued increase in the understanding by the creative community that sound brings a heightened sense of production value and storytelling from a depth standpoint Ultimately, creativity has to drive the industry forward, which it does and it has, and it will continue to do so. Because of that I think there is strength in the knowledge that the sound portion of this process is a great value and it is something that expands the production value of a picture well beyond the economic remuneration that's given for that work.

WEAKNESSES: I see the sound post production market for theatrical motion pictures continuing to have downward pricing pressure that comes from competition of people that are able -- because of cheap technologies -- to do things without much infrastructure, as well as pressure from the studio system to make things cheaper. We're seeing a huge downward pressure ultimately in the quality of what we do. I think the aesthetic nature of what we do is the key. We bring quality pictures to the aural aspects of the motion picture experience.

OPPORTUNITIES: If the threats or the difficulties have to do with economic and time constraints, the opportunities have to do with how you deal with those things. Our perspective on how to deal with those are the following: connectivity, complete value chain from camera out to final completion, mobility of people and resources, and the technical infusion of various elements into digital asset management.

THREATS: [Bender believes that the industry's downward pressure will ultimately undermine the mixer's creativity.] From an aural perspective, the storytelling is a very subconscious, internal manner of experiencing a movie -- the visual aspects are much more about telling the story on the surface. We're telling the story often from the souls of the characters. Because of that, and the depth necessary to achieve that, there's a need to spend time and make these things as full as they can possibly be. So, within the framework of the industry -- as the pressures become greater and greater to do things more quickly more cheaply and better -- you can't have all three. The quality of what we do has increased in the last 10 years, but I'm concerned that the pendulum may swing back away from an emphasis on innovation and new creative ideas toward speed and cheapness.