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MillimeterA Loud Irony Enters the Mix: The Film Volume Issue
May 1, 1999 12:00 PM, Michael Goldman
An ironic digital cloud hovers over the feature film audio industry. Many producers, directors, and studio executives are demanding that engineers mix movie sound tracks louder than ever before, even as theater owners are turning the volume down.
In part, the move toward louder mixes was an inevitable result of the proliferation of digital audio technology for mixing and playing back feature film sound tracks. Powerful digital tools and quality playback systems for theaters now allow dramatic high-volume tracks to retain their sound integrity from mixing stage to theater. So filmmakers with a big, high-volume story to tell (or a weak story to hide) can get the kind of booming tracks they believe will thrill audiences in the theaters. Or so they think.
In the opinions of industry audio professionals that Millimeter spoke with, such thinking is seriously flawed. They suggest that clients hell-bent on cranking up the volume are harming the art of sound mixing, endangering the ears of industry professionals, and fooling themselves since few audiences will ever hear the sound tracks as loud as the filmmakers intended.
"What is happening is that many of these film sound tracks are coming to theaters so hot that theater officials have to turn down the volume," explains John Ross, a veteran film mixer and president of Digital Sound & Picture, Los Angeles. "So mixing film sound real hot ends up self-defeating because you end up with an unbalanced mix in the theater with dialogue sometimes inaudible."
Because of the issues surrounding film volume, many sound pros are currently taking part in an informal, but growing, debate over how to safely retain creative control over the mix.
No Limits or years, industry professionals accepted 85dB as the standard for sound pressure levels in theaters and on dubbing stages. That standard, always difficult to enforce, is virtually impossible to maintain in the digital era; it is routinely violated during audio production work on major feature films.
A big reason for this is that studios now have digital tools to make films essentially as loud as they like, and theaters have digital audio systems sophisticated enough to play that sound back without distortion at high levels. Many clients therefore ask mixers to craft sound tracks for certain movies to take full advantage of this capability and expose them to dangerous decibel levels for several hours each working day.
On top of that, other "new" noises are making their way into audio facilities, according to Mark Curry, chief recording engineer for Hollywood-based Music Forever, the audio production and recording company owned by film composer Anthony Marinelli. "Every studio has computers," says Curry. "All those machines have audible hard drives and fans and other things, unless you have wired them to a dedicated machine room. That creates lots of whines and buzzing from those machines. Sound effects are all played by Pro Tools these days, so even on the dubbing stage, they wheel computers right in. That has resulted in lots of ambient noise levels, more than ever before. That also causes filmmakers to ask you to play the tracks louder."
Defending the Ear While decibel levels on the sound stage continue to rise, volume in the theater has been an issue for some time. Concern for the ears of theatergoers began with film trailers (see sidebar) and now extends to features themselves, which makes theater chains extremely cautious about the volume levels coming out of their state-of-the-art, digital playback systems. As a result, theater managers are often turning volume down for trailers and keeping it low for the ensuing feature, which can wreck the playback of particular sound tracks.
Theaters may be addressing the issue of audience safety, but many film mixers and sound designers point out that no one is looking out for their ears. This can be particularly frustrating because audio professionals often find themselves risking their ears on the mixing stage for mixes that few theatergoers will ever hear.
"When we mix a major film, we do it in the best audio environment possible," says veteran sound designer Claude Letessier, who recently supervised sound design for The Thin Red Line. "We mixed Thin Red Line at the Zanuck stage at the Fox lot, which acoustically, is just about perfect. It's one of the three best rooms in the entire world. So when a director or a producer comes in there, he or she is hearing the mix in the most sophisticated place possible, and so they try to push the envelope and sometimes go overboard trying to make it more powerful. But what they forget is the fact that two-thirds of the people who ever see their film will be doing so in a mediocre theater with a less-sophisticated sound system. The owner of that theater is likely to turn the sound track down if it comes in too loud.
"That's why Stanley Kubrick mixed all his films in mono. He was mixing it so that it would sound good in the cheapest theater under the worst conditions. We have to find a way to convince filmmakers that they need to be subtle and worry about how the show will sound in Des Moines, not on some state-of-the-art, digital sound stage."
But many film projects-particularly those aimed at specific audiences, such as adolescent boys-continue to routinely push the sound barrier far beyond 85dB.
"A lot of these mixes go above 100dB, even up to 108 or 110," says Ted Hall, a senior mixer at POP Sound, Santa Monica. "We don't have a lot of that in our studio, because we tend to work on mid-range budget films and indie films, but many major features out there are doing this. That is definitely a big concern for people working in our industry because listening to those levels 10 to 12 hours a day will definitely hurt your ears."
Take Precautions As Letessier says, "When your hearing is gone, it's gone." That is why some experienced mixers suggest the selective use of professional earplugs and taking frequent breaks. Ironically, the march of digital technology has altered parts of the basic methodology of sound mixing to the point where traditional opportunities to take such breaks no longer exist.
"We've lost all those short breaks we used to get with the changeover from one film reel to another," points out Christopher Boyes, a sound designer and mixer at Skywalker Sound in San Rafael, California. "It's all digital now. You used to get five to 10 minutes of quiet while the reels were switched. Now, you instantly pop to any section of a film with the press of a button."
Boyes suggests that mixers and engineers ask for breaks whenever they need them, no matter who the client or what the deadline. It is a lesson that he recently learned from one of his colleagues. "[Skywalker sound designer/mixer] Gary Summers and I were doing a temp mix, and there was a changeover of a few seconds," says Boyes. "They were ready to start again, but Gary said, 'No, I'm not ready to mix just yet.' He asked for 10 more minutes to give his ears a break. We were behind schedule at that point, but he felt it was important. That issue definitely needs to be part of the discussion as our industry ponders these issues-mixers have to be allowed to take breaks whenthey need them. After all, you can't be a good mixer if you can't hear properly."
Several mixers and sound designers that Millimeter spoke with said there are already many professionals within their industry who cannot hear properly thanks to too many high decibels over too many years.
"There is no doubt that the hearing of many people in our business is suffering," says Randy Thom, a colleague of Boyes at Skywalker Sound. "People are losing their hearing every day. No one is going to admit to it or name names since this is how we make our living, but sure it is happening. To a degree, you can say it is just an occupational hazard, and everyone suffers hearing loss over time. But there is too much of it going on. That's why you see guys wearing earplugs during mixes. You never used to see that."
The earplugs they use are the same ones used by professional musicians. (The House Ear Institute of Los Angeles recommends professional musician's earplugs for audio mixing, particularly the ER15 or ER25 ear-canal molds manufactured by Westone Laboratories, Colorado Springs.) Thom says that since there are usually two to three individuals assigned to mix most major feature films, each responsible for separate sections of the mix, it has become increasingly common for people to wear earplugs when they are not working on their specific portion of the mix.
Experienced mixers also recommend avoiding the tendency to ignore meters and work strictly by instinct and experience. Failure to consider levels and sound pressure readings, combined with a failure to take breaks, can sometimes lead to what Letessier calls "a saturation point."
"You cease to be objective. You lose judgment if you don't refresh your ears," Letessier says. "You end up getting used to a certain high level, a certain mix, and that can be bad. You are on the dubbing stage all day, and it doesn't sound too loud, but people visit the stage for a minute and tell you they can't believe how loud it is. Then, you listen to the reel the next day and you realize that by mixing that loud for so long, you missed things that you have to now go and fix in the sound track."
Creative Volumes No one denies that the creative use of volume and careful manipulation of sound frequencies is crucial to modern filmmaking. Ross says that there are dozens of well-entrenched industry techniques in place to safely raise volume for creative effect.
"The problem is sustained volume, which is much different than short bursts of intensity," says Ross. "People can take 90dB for a couple of seconds with no pain or hearing damage. But when it is constant, that causes problems. When higher volume is needed for effect, there are lots of ways of doing that safely. For instance, you can make the effect relative from a mixing perspective. If something is supposed to sound louder than that which precedes it, you can create a soft section on the track just before it and then return to the level you were previously at or go just slightly higher and achieve the exact same result."
Two recent, high-profile films would seem to have been perfect candidates for excessive sound levels because they are war films. But Saving Private Ryan (which won two sound Oscars) and The Thin Red Line clearly demonstrate that the "abuse of sound," as Letessier puts it, is unnecessary, no matter what the film's subject matter. He points out that while war is, by its nature, loud, the sound tracks of both films clearly demonstrate that it is "the details, the impact on the characters of the sounds" that matter.
"I admired the sound work they did on Private Ryan a lot," says Letessier. "That is a movie that should have been loud, and, in certain sections, it was-like parts of the opening sequence. But it was done in a clever way in terms of using the volume to create impact. Sometimes, it got loud, but only for moments, and then it became quiet as they tried to show you what was happening to individual soldiers, what was going on in their minds. That was good creative use of volume."
Similarly, Letessier is proud of the work he and his colleagues did on Thin Red Line. The audio goal was to demonstrate "the little things, the small information" swirling within the hellstorm of Guadalcanal. "We wanted you to hear a little fly, the quiet of the jungle before the battle starts, the frightened breathing of a soldier, things like that," he explains.
Pressure, Pressure Still, Ross says there are "many pressures on mixers to turn the volume up on the stage." He attributes this, for the most part, to filmmakers' desires to make the best films that they can. He says it can be difficult to say no to an important director. "All you can do is try to explain to them the self-defeating aspect of their request to bring the volume up too high. The bottom line is, this [digital] technology is still pretty new, and filmmakers want to use it like any cool, new toy."
Filmmaking is, by its nature, a creative endeavor where standards should vary from project to project. Virtually no one wants any government agency to begin regulating the audio business, so a strong industry dialogue appears to be the most logical way to address this issue, mixers and designers say.
That dialogue, they hope, will lead to what Boyes calls "an era of simple common sense" by filmmakers and those audio professionals who work for them. "We need a real strong dialogue among ourselves," says Boyes. "We need to have some kind of even approach to dealing with clients to let them know that we agree that movies have gotten too loud. I think a real education process has to happen, and, if it does, it will be a real defining moment for film audio as we start the new century."
Years ago, OSHA set the following guidelines for the maximum durations of safe high-decibel exposure in the workplace. The regulations state that exposure to levels higher than 115dB is never safe even for short durations.
Sound Level Duration Per Day
90dB 8 hours
92dB 6 hours
95dB 4 hours
97dB 3 hours
100dB 2 hours
102dB 1.5 hours
105dB 1 hour
110dB .5 hour
115dB .25 hour or less
Source: House Ear Institute
In theaters, the issue of safe volume levels has focused mainly on film trailers, which filmmakers routinely mix louder than their films for promotional reasons. In March, the Trailer Audio Standards Association (TASA), a consortium of theater owners and studios, announced TASA Standard audio volume limits for trailers. TASA plans to phase those guidelines into place over the next year. After years of resisting lower sound levels for trailers, studios finally agreed. The studios hope that theater owners will stop lowering sound levels, a development that has been impacting the integrity of feature film mixes in recent years.
Still, film mixers say that volume limits in theaters alone are unlikely to stop filmmakers from cranking things up on the mixing stage.
"Many clients want everything pushed," says sound designer Claude Letessier. "When you tell them that the volume they are asking for will be played 5dB to 10dB lower in the movie theater, they don't always accept that. They have doubts that their sound track is mixed properly unless you play it loud for them."
At the same time, concern is spreading over how to best protect the hearing of industry professionals. Currently, there are no government regulations regarding noise levels in the audio workplace specifically. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) did set guidelines decades ago for safe levels of decibel exposure in the general workplace (see accompanying chart), but those guidelines make no distinction between a mixing stage and a jackhammer.
The House Ear Institute of Los Angeles-the organization whose research helped OSHA set its standards back in the 1940s-is currently researching the subject of audio safety in partnership with the Cinema Audio Society.
Dilys Jones, communications director for the House Institute, says mixers and engineers routinely experience "long duration exposure" to unsafe decibel levels during lengthy work days. "No one ever studied film industry people before to see how their hearing is being impacted," says Jones. "Now, as technology has gotten better and more people get into the industry, the problem is becoming more obvious. Since there are few guidelines about decibel levels, what safety equipment they should use, or how many breaks a day they should get, they are putting their hearing at risk. We are trying to create a discussion forum within the industry to raise awareness of this problem. We are working with recording mixers, engineers, composers, directors, and producers to educate them about the dangers of long-term exposure to high sound volumes."
Jones says it is unlikely that OSHA will create strict standards any time soon-few within the industry are likely to complain since they need to earn a living. She adds that researchers need to "better understand the differences between long-term exposure to different kinds of sounds-machinery as opposed to music exposure, for instance-before any kind of regulations are proposed."
Along those lines, Jones emphasizes what many industry people told Millimeter: Film professionals are best served by regulating themselves and by emphasizing audio safety in the workplace.
For information about the hearing conservation programs and research being conducted by the House Ear Institute, call (213) 483-4431 or see the Web site at www.hei.org.
