Michael Kammes Blog February 18th 2007
Michael Kammes talks Creation vs. Restoration More often than the general public want to believe, my job is less creative than the term "Sound Designer" may appear. Creativity always gives way to intelligibility. That is, if you can't hear it; understand it, then whatever message you were attempting to convey is lost. Michael Kammes and That's where restoration comes into play Guerilla filmmaking, run and gun, low budget filmmaking - all involve filming (or taping) scenes which involve some sort of compromise to their Hollywood counterparts. Usually this comes in the form of equipment or manpower or sometimes in experience. This translates to sometimes less than stellar shots, and sometimes less than acceptable sound. Wind noise, ambience, echo - all are problems that occur daily onset, and must be accounted for in post. Short of Looping or ADR (Automated or Automatic Dialogue Replacement - which is neither auto-anything, by the way) somehow, someway, we have to "fix this in post", a phrase often used on set, and abhorred by all in post. Contrary to popular belief, there is no "suck" knob, which I can turn on my mixing board to reduce the sonic problems on set. Removing echo and wind noise is not as simple as using an expensive software filter. More often than not, it's hours tweaking every syllable to pull out as much intelligibility as humanly possible, while retaining as much quality as possible. Making sure it sounds better, not just different. By and large, this takes up a majority of my time. I don't mind it, per se, but it does frequently limit the amount of time I can spend creating custom sound effects and moods for any given scene. Scenes become much more direct, rather than contributing to your story on another level - a level most moviegoers don't even consciously realize.
What is also a limiting factor, is that for all of the imagination and creativity that may be allowed on set, or even in the picture edit, sound tends to get a much tighter leash. Many times, the powers that be are reluctant to push the bounds sonically. And I don't mean just making it louder. That is a symptom of virtually every movie out there. "Hit the Reds" as it were, and make everything the absolute loudest possible. This not only numbs the audience, but kills the dynamic that only soft and loud can bring. You can't have sweet without sour, and you can't have happy without sad. Loud only happens when there is soft to offset it. We strike out a lot. We spend time tinkering, molding various effects into a completely different creature. Maybe combining these 3 sounds, changing the pitch and using some EQ will transform a previously lame sound effect into one that you may like. We, as post sound people, cannot always see the end product, so we experiment. Much like a chef, we season to taste. We know when we get there that what we've done is right. However, sometimes our soufflé falls flat, and sometimes we should be on TOP CHEF. And I find that sometimes this experimentation causes some fear in people. The manipulation, while in process, many times appears like a bad choice to the client. It's always a work in progress. Maybe it's because I feel sound is still kind of a black art. It's not something our senses are not tuned too. With Avid and Final Cut Pro and the like, we have all of these tools to assist our first sense - sight. We use it more than any other sense. Sound, although a constant in everyday life, is not something that we hone often. So when it comes to molding it in post, most are afraid because they don't understand it, and are unaware of just how much it can help (or hurt) a project. What I like to tell aspiring filmmakers is a tidbit of knowledge known by most indie fanboys out there. Kevin Smith, the man behind Clerks, Chasing Amy, etc. took a very hands approach to all of the location duties. Aside from writing and directing, he also shot some, did some lighting, some location sound, etc. He even edited the film. But when it came to sound? He handed it off. Sound is not something that comes naturally – and is one main reason why if I have more time in post to focus on the creative instead of restoration – your project is that much better.
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