By Kyle Osborne
Every year at the Oscars comes the few minutes where we fidget, or go to the bathroom or check to see if we’re winning the office Oscar pool. I speak of the hurried acceptance speeches of the winners for Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing. Usually a few guys with beards awkwardly trying to thank their loved ones before, inevitably, the last guy’s mic gets cut and the orchestra plays us into the next commercial.
What a shame. It turns out these folks (men and women, including the director of this amiable doc, Midge Costin) have fascinating stories to tell, and are one of the most crucial elements to what you’d otherwise say was a visual medium. They are heard and not seen. Until now.
Walter Murch mixing “Apocalypse Now” (Matson Films)
Costin gives us insightful interviews with the top directors of the modern era and some of the most respected artists who collect sound effects from the most unlikely places, and then mix them so that your movie-going experience has been greatly enhanced, often without you even noticing.
In addition to an entertaining history lesson, we’re also treated to behind the scenes secrets: you’ll discover how the sound of dinosaurs came to be for the stars of Jurassic Park, and how Chewbacca found his voice, to name just a couple.
While it’s a movie nerd’s dream, the film also works for virtually all movie lovers. The producers and stars of silent film feared that “talkies” would be their demise. They were right, of course, but sound didn’t make the movies worse-it made them come alive. As Steven Spielberg says in the film, “Our ears lead our eyes to where the story is.”
“Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound” is easily the best film you will hear this year.
How did I never hear about this one? Sounds fascinating!
(See what I did there?)
Thanks for the heads-up, KO.