Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1524736
C I N E M A A U D I O S O C I E T Y. O R G 27 ST: These days, I think the missed opportunity or technique that is underused is perspective. I think many mixers—both production and post—get in the habit of forcing perspective and overusing the lav more than is necessary. Would you approach a scene differently if you were trying to emphasize a story point versus enhancing the development of a character? JC: My general approach is to watch a scene, ask myself, "What is the story asking for?" Then help it! Sometimes it's a piece of music and other times it's some cool sound design. I think the story and the character development go hand in hand. ST: Yes. You could have the same scene repeat from different perspectives and mix each instance completely different like in Blowout or Russian Doll. Recently, I mixed a documentary and there was one shot of a pig going into a pen. The first time, it was played very natural with BG's, Foley, etc. The second time, it played a little different and sinister. The pig was going into his pen, but vets were there to euthanize him due to the fear of swine flu. The hidden camera and mic in its raw form captured the struggle and screams, which was very different from what we originally portrayed in the beginning of the film. One director has become known for his more impressionistic approach to sound, where it seems mood or feeling supersede dialogue intelligibility. How do you think that affects story? RT: I admire Chris Nolan a lot as a filmmaker, and I think that we sound nerds are far more troubled by the occasional dialogue unintelligibility in his films than the audience is. Could Oppenheimer have made a billion dollars at the box office if the dialogue was catastrophically bad? I don't think so. "Letting that [office] phone ring throughout the entire scene can be distracting. So, we start the scene with the phone ringing and then gradually fade it out. The last thing we want is the audience wishing someone would just pick up the phone!" –Joel D. Catalan CAS