Post Magazine

34 Post • March 2009 www.postmagazine.com cer tain scenes. Once digital came along, that window was really opened up." Initially, the digital revolution in film audio resulted in some people making mixes loud for loud's sake, rather than the need for it. "I like to give the analogy that all of a sudden, we were given really bright reds, bright blues and bright yellows to paint with," he says. "So, some directors and mixers went too far with it. Consequently, ever yone star ted asking, 'Why is everything so loud?'The answer was, 'Because we can.' It was like the lid was taken off, level-wise. The use of it regarding taste was in question at the beginning." Once the boundaries of how loud a film could be were stretched, many people quickly realized it was not always desirable. "We have to consider that we work in a medium that is on average 90 minutes long," explains Bourgeois. Creatively as mixers, we have to be well aware of dynamics.You can't be painting ever ything with bright, bright, bright colors all the time.You'll get saturated or worn down with all those colors after a period of time, and they will not have any meaning. Not ever yone realizes that, so it's par t of our jobs as mixers to educate peo- ple and let them know how dynamics work. And yes, there will always be a director or a film that appropriately calls for it to be loud." Despite the trend to be louder, Bour- geois has recognized how many films today have the proper audio levels. "Anyone who says that everything is too loud, I would have to disagree with. There are a lot of ver y tasteful films, including big action films, which have been mixed with lots of dynamics and used their colors tastefully. They are big and bold when they are meant to be, but they are not sitting up there all the time. So, you can't say that taste should be regulated. Sure, in some cases, a picture might be very loud to fool the audience to think that it is bigger and better than it really is. But, audi- ences are very sophisticated and it's obvious to them when that happens." One advantage the film industry has over most other types of media is the implemen- tation of very strict audio guidelines. "There are standards that are adhered to very strin- gently on our end," says Bourgeois. "We have what is called the Academy Standards and the SMPTE standards for constant levels in the theater. For example, in our mixing the- ater, we play pink noise through each speaker, one at a time, calibrated to 85db at the location where the mixer sits. Once it is set, the volume is never changed during the mix.That's because at a theater, you are mix- ing for large audiences without actually being there, unlike a live concer t event for exam- ple. So, we must rely on the industr y wide standards that are in place.That also includes standards for the frequency response of the speakers so that all the colors we are using to paint with translate to the audience." When mixing at Sony's beautiful 238-seat William Holden Theatre, Bourgeois uses the 320-channel Harrison MPC3D digital con- sole, which is configured with 896 inputs on a digital 1120x1340 router. "The board is lay- ered," he says,"so, when I am looking at all the inputs in front of me, I can just flip layers, indi- vidual faders or the whole console. I can go from layer, one, two, three, four, and so on. And for mixing dialogue, I like to use the board's EQs and compressors because it's just an amazing digital control surface. I also like to use Cedar for noise reduction and Junger for D-essing.The TC Electronic M6000 is great for all my room matching because their algorithms are based on rooms rather than reverbs. But you know, it's less about the technology and more about of how we us it." Bourgeois offers an intelligent solution to help ensure proper audio playback for movie theaters: "Unfor tunately, each movie theater has its own volume control. It's pos- sible that an inexperienced theater manager might change the audio levels for a film's playback, completely disregard- ing the set standards. There- fore, I would like to see a vol- ume control for theaters that are only plus or minus 2db. That way, we would be pre- senting what the director's vi- sion was." M A K I N G I T B L E N D Mastering engineer Joe La- Porta at New York's The Lodge Mastering and Music Produc- tion (www.thelodge.com) knows that one of the first types of media to experience a boom in loudness is the CD. The shuffle mode on any MP3 player reveals how much this trend has increased over the years. Many other forms of media have quickly followed suit. LaPor ta has worked on music projects for Garbage, Goldfrapp,Tiesto,The Subways, Death Cab For Cutie, Matt and Kim and The Stills. In addition, The Lodge has done audio post and mastering for TV spots for Bud Light,Volks- wagon, and Hampton Inn. La- Todd-AO's Ken Teaney mixed NBC's My Own Worst Enemy, starring Christian Slater. He says, "We need to take it on a case-by- case basis and re- adjust for every show and network." How loud is LOUD?

• Cover