Directors who truly care about sound

[Ridley]

Just wanted to quickly share a nice experience I had recently.

 

The past few shows/projects I've done have been discouraging to say the least. The sound department was treated as an afterthought (frequently with blatant disrespect) and I was feeling pretty dejected until this most recent show.

 

I got called on to fill-in for another sound mixer on a big budget short. Even though the drive was 3.5 hours from my city, the experience I had on set with the directors was well worth the drive.

 

The two co-directors frequently checked in with me during every setup, told me what they wanted for the scene (foley, ambience), asked the actors to run through the scene for wild lines in a clean environment, and communicated a clear sense of the soundscape they wanted to create with the location sound I gathered.

 

I left the wrap feeling very happy with our work.

 

I have often found that directors who gloss over or downright don't care about sound are amateurs. It was very encouraging to work with professionals with a clear sense of what they wanted from the sound department.

 

Hopefully this story will brighten your day, it certainly brightened mine.

 

Maybe this will prompt some of you to share similar stories.

[Olle Sjostrom]

I worked on a show recently where the director really did care about the actors and their delivery of lines, not just the camera, which is a rare thing over here. They usually just read the lines exactly and no one cares. This director didn’t exactly do what yours did, but sort of; she would really listen if we said “we need another take” or if the floor was creaking, she’d really make sure to either change the blocking or that we get clean lines in other ways, like taking the time to put out mats and so on. Very nice to actually have the head of everything on your team. 
 

My experience is mostly that you as the sound team are the only ones to actually care about the actors delivery and performance, the actual playing so to speak… the directors are more focused on pleasing camera and props dept, and forgetting a bit about the actors.