Directors are funny...

I just had to share this... and yes it's true.

"Once upon a time".... the director was talking about what kind of sounds he liked, and specifically pointed out a few scenes from "No country for old men". He said "Why don't you just use the sounds from that movie."

Which we thought was kinda funny... But then he followed it up with "Cos there's not really any music in that movie."... And that's when we realized he wasn't joking...Of course we did NOT do that.

But I know that the guys who did 'No Country' are part of this group...[Sound Design List] so I just had to share. It's just seems completely insane that a director would even suggest that
-B


Of course, one of the pathetic aspects of your Director's idiotic remarks is that he didn't realize that those sounds might have made such a positive impression on him partly BECAUSE there was no music in No Country. If he had more than a couple of functioning brain cells it might have occurred to him to include a few sequences with no music in HIS film.

I wouldn't say it's a funny story. To me it's depressing.

-Randy


Yeah, I know...
It was guys like this that got me out of doing film work for quite a while. It's really quite exasperating... and, yes, depressing.

Unfortunately this is one of those 'formula' movies. The story is weak, and the producers are relying heavily on the few 'names' in the movie to sell it. And I guarantee this movie will be wallpapered with music.

To try and explain to him why the sound of No Country was so compelling, feels like an insurmountable task. I just really don't think he'd understand. But beyond that, the fact that he'd seriously suggest stealing music right off another soundtrack is just crazy.

Thanks for your candor, Randy. It's refreshing to hear. And I still think this director is 'funny'. But not 'ha-ha' funny... more like when a piece of fish goes bad... and kinda tastes funny. :-)
-B


I was meeting with a potential client to discuss his , (very low budget) film's sound needs. He kept mentioning wanting lots of foley. He said , "I want lots of foley in this film. Do you have foley? In this scene when the guy gets shot. See! Right there. There is no gunshot. We need a gunshot. You know , foley."
-D


Just two days ago I was trying to make a point to a director that 'WAV files are fine!' He kept insisting that there would be generation loss and I should check 'the highs, mids and bass' for any difference in sound quality.

I know its tech talk, but some of them are SO sure of what they know that they wouldn't listen to any thing else.

I recently worked on a couple of 'small' games where I was asked to save time and 'copy' sounds from other games. I refused. It's very distressing.
-V


That resonates a lot with the classic frustrated director and the famous bad filmed car-chase scene.

I want the music to be very loud all the time. and the cars... the cars should be like vroooummmmm... iiiiichhh... etc...now gear shift.... now the children. and i want to have a lot of directions in the headset... horn here... and here.. ant traffic...and .... and..

Not to mention that the scene was weak, too long and with too many filler shots.

Directors are not funny. Many of them are not really prepared to do their job and they learn from school or grapevine that everybody else can be blamed for their lack of "directorial" traits. These people talk with others (out of context, of course) and that's how ideas like "I can't get good sound anywhere" propagate and I believe this is one of the things that eroded our authority.

oh well... we should all love each other in the end and try to be good
in bad times.
-A


A (very inexperienced) director once said to me during a mix: "sound mixing is quite boring. Can we listen to some music while you do that?"

I said nothing for about 10 seconds.

"that was a pretty stupid question wasn't it?"

"yes" I replied.
-R