TALES FROM THE STUDIO - TAKE 8

One time I worked with a famous Portuguese film director to whom, in his own words in the first meeting, sound was very meaningful in his films. When a director makes such a powerful statement about sound, I usually remember Lawrence Kasdan’s “Grand Canyon” opening sequence: “Mayday, mayday, we’re going down”. And then my creativity energy fades out while I think to myself “here we go again”. This type of director is like a womaniser: whenever he approaches a beautiful woman with cheap and worn words, the last thing that comes to his mind is that she is used to and tired of it. I don’t think I am the last film sound designer resort, but I like directors who do credit me as an experienced one and used to that kind of bu§@%it.

Nevertheless, I liked this director. He had also been a film critic ten years before me and among a few others he inspired me to evolve from film review to film making. He recalled me the French "Nouvelle Vague" I loved: film critics turned into film makers. You have to admire anyone brave enough to go the distance. But he was far from the genius of Fran?ois Truffaut or Eric Rommer, though I am a filmmaker today due in some degree to his inspiring case. When he chose me as the sound designer of one of his films, I accepted at first sight.

It was a documentary about Portugal’s world wide cultural influence during the time when this little nation decided to go off its borders to discover new lands. One of the scenes in the film had several Portuguese wooden ships drawn on historical Persian tapestries. The director wanted the sound to fill in the gaps of the visuals, like the boats were sailing through a violent storm. The sound should imprint most of the story and dynamics of the scene. It was a no voice over and no music scene. The sound effects were to be the only sound source during a minute and a few seconds.

Because it was a low budget documentary, I used pre-recorded sound effects from a few libraries. It was a sequence of sea storm sound clichés: creaking ropes, creaking wood, sea waves, low frequency rumbles, stormy winds, boat sails and the occasional sweetener of lions and tigers’ roars. It ended as effective as I wanted, thought I remember thinking at the time how far the finished work was from a Hollywood film. I wished I had the money to do some original recordings at sea in a well known Portuguese navy historical ship. But you adapt and evolve to what you have, just what an experienced professional does. And so I did.

When the director screened that scene, he stood in silence for a few eternal minutes. I respected his silence because I knew he was a very introspective person. When he finally decided to give me an answer, he long mumbled something about Film History. I consider myself someone with a reasonable knowledge of Film History, so usually any director that "shoots” it to convince me I’m just a "technician" gets the backfire. After telling him that I did not agree with the film theories he was using to clarify his point and that he was misusing them, I put an end to his mumbling by telling I did not understand what he wanted. He kept beating around the bushes, never looking at me. So I got up from the mixing desk, got close to his chair in a low position so I would force him to look me in the eyes, and told him "forget about film theories and just tell me what you don't like in the scene, because we can stay here for the whole post schedule with me handing back to you the same encyclopedic knowledge".

Finally I got him to act as a leading director when he told me he thought the sound was too sophisticated and that it sounded like Spielberg's "Amistad"! I could not hold myself and had a big laugh while the producer looked at me like he could kill me. Maybe I should have considered that as a compliment or the highlight of my career, but I do not work for self indulgence. So after my spontaneous big laugh, I tried to keep the director within the logical boundaries he had finally reached. I muted some tracks and lowered down some faders, although I was sure those changes would get us nowhere because the scene was never too loud or lacking definition. That was never THE problem. I kept doing this for quite a while without any kind of feedback from the director, when the producer said that they would postpone a final decision for after a screening at a film school auditorium - because maybe the problem was the over-the top sound quality of my studio!

A few days later, I got a visit from them. They were in panic saying I had to change the whole sound design of that scene because in the auditorium the sounds "were coming from all over the walls around the audience and sounded like a Hollywood film". That was when I really started getting suspicious about their judgment as filmmakers - it was a two front channels mix, not a surround one! But I kept a professional attitude by saying that the auditorium where they evaluated the final mix was just a big room in a film school with a cheap screen, a loud stereo PA sound system and some highly reflective walls and ceiling. They should not make any aesthetic decision based on what they had listened there.

But they still wanted to change the sound design of the scene. When the director started again with his mumblings about Film History, I immediately stopped him to keep him focused. That was when he finally said what he had always in his mind: "I know it will sound strange for someone like me to say this, but your sound design is too good and I want that scene to sound like a Portuguese film". It was a no surprise statement for me: after all, in the first meeting I had sensed the “Mayday, mayday, we’re going down!” alarm. As a way to keep the sound post in the short budget they had, I immediately muted 20 tracks of creaking ropes, creaking wood, low frequency rumbles, stormy winds, boat sails, lions and tigers’ roars sweeteners, soloed a single stereo track of sea waves “bed” and panned it to mono. The storm scene now sounded as a one minute of continuous pink noise. That was when the director finally screamed “that’s it, that’s a wrap!” Finally, he had his Portuguese sou

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