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HISTORICAL CONTEXT - FILMS OF 1989

REVISE STUDENT CONTEST

The Motion Picture Sound Editors (M.P.S.E.) is a professional association of TV and feature sound editors, animation editors, foley artists, mixers and re-recording mixers who try to promote high standards in soundtracks. Every year they award various categories of professional sound editors and one student film maker, with their Golden Reel statuette. There is no other contest for student film makers that is strictly dedicated to creative use of sound. In past years, unfortunately, the contest has not had large numbers of entries. Too many students had films half-completed when M.P.S.E. required submissions, or were working to complete film projects for the end of Spring semester. Anna Boorstin, M.P.S.E. Student Film Committee Chair, has restructured the contest by opening it up to entries year-round. She also pursued a long list of colleges that have never heard of the contest Anna told us, "Too many people come out of film school with the idea that sound is just a chore you turn over to someone else, when the film is finished editing. We want to show students that sound is an important part of the creative process, integral to the way a film works." M.P.S.E. doesn't care if a student has access to professional sound equipment. If they do, then they can imitate a professional track. But the editors who judge these are looking for creative use of sound, and that may be done with rudimentary techniques. Films are pre-screened when they arrive, and final nominees would be re-screened close to the Golden Reel awards dinner in March. Nominees are the guests of M.P.S.E. at the Golden Reels banquet, a very splashy Hollywood affair. If your school hasn't heard about this contest, write Anna Boorstin, c/o Motion Picture Sound Editors, PO Box 8306, Universal City, CA 91608-0306.

There is also the sound category of the Nissan FOCUS student film contest, sponsored by Dolby. Write FOCUS at 10 E 34thSt NewYork, NY, 10016. Let us know about similar competitions.

DOWN THE TRACKS...

What kind of movies are coming up in the Summer and Fall of 1989 that will have sound effects/dialogue tracks of interest to us? We can only speculate based on our ignorance and wild prejudices! Not every honor and post-nuke SF story will have enough budget for a first-class editorial and mix job. Some will be OK, some will disappoint. Some of these may never even be distributed! Let's see... Good sound?

Batman : Speculation abounds about Tim Burton/Michael Keaton encore after Beetlejuice. Not our job to guess whether style will resemble the new revisionist "graphic novels" or TV camp. Ether way, size of production budget and Burton's sound sense displayed on BJ and first Pee Wee imply a big sound trade Cyborg: probably not. Cannon films not lavish with sound bucks. Communion: pop close-encounter tale should sound good, but author is co-producing, and no reason to expect first-class post production, Crusoe: Director of The Black Stallion gave us a brilliant, classic sound track by Alan Splet. Lots of potential in Defoe's story, even without horsies! 84 Charlie Mopic: Unusual Viet pic shot in Super 16mm has full-scale sound work by Steve Robocop Flick, lookin' good. Leviathan: High expectations among sound people for this deep-sea SF show, from sound Eds Mike LeMare and David Yewdall, Terry Porter's mix crew. La Boheme I dunno... it's an opera... would you shoot an opera without first-class sound? K9: Every chance to sound good. Producer of Die Hard and sound editing supervised by Richard (see MSNL premier issue) Anderson. Millennium: Hoping this Kristofferson SF-er could have enough budget. Fox has released some dynamite soundtracks lately. Winter People: expect the best from sound supervisor Alan (Blue Velvet) Splet. Finished in '88. Wired: No fighter jets here, but Cecelia Hall and George Watters, who did the sound for Top Gun will explore sonic possibilities even {os: this "dialogue" story of John Belushi's short life. Final mix from John Reitz' s Lion's Gate Sound crew should be as tasty as their recent Tap . The Witches : You got magic and black arts, you got Jim Henson producing, and you got the very arty Nicolas Roeg directing. We might as well hope for mteresting sound. Indiana Jones III : No fair, but your humble editor worked on this, and says of course it sounds dynamite. Ben Burtt's "Sprocket Systems" team mostly the same as last year's Willow . The Return of the Musketeers: Looking forward to another Richard ( Help! ) Lester swashbuckler. Watch far his trademark ADR gags --- Verbal jibes peppered through action always give you something to pick up on 2nd viewing. Road House: When booze bottles break, expect a clean, unusual track from Steve ( Die Hard ) Flick, teamed with producer Joel ("I love it Make it louder!") Silver. Robotjox: SF-action premise is always promising for sound freaks... But learn this lesson: Many of these shows are churned out as cheapies, and the money's gone before it's sound time. We're also skeptical because this title sounds a bit, dare we say it ... derivative? Sons of Steel: LA Times quotes the film's press kit as touting "powerful sound track," but we read between the lines that it probably hasn't even been made yet! CAVEAT EMPTOR, gang. Spider-Man: Not shot yet. Potential good, but Cannon Films often finish quick and dirty. Star Trek V: This journal admits prejudice. Mark ( Gremlins ) Mangini and John ( Robocop ) Pospisil currently working on sound effects for Admiral Shatner. How could they do a better job than they did on Trek IV under Captain Nimoy's direction? See it in 70mm! Back to the Future II and III: Pair of Future sequels to be done in turn, according to Variety, ostensibly to increase production efficiency! If original's Bob Rutledge and Chuck Campbell are given the sound work to do, expect an "A+". The Nightbreed: British writer/director and unexpected casting of director David Cronenberg in star acting role imply nothing so much as intelligence. Our wild guess without further info is, sound could be done intelligently, too. Another big Fox track, mixed by Don ( Die Hard ) Bassman's crew? Hope so. Mountains of the Moon: Big-scale outdoor stuff implies sound content could be good, if not impeded somehow. Tri-Star was willing to spend what it took to make Tap sound great, so why not again? New Steven Spielberg (remake of A Guy Named Joe ): Look for Chuck Campbell and Lou Edeman ( ET, Empire of the Sun, Roger Rabbit to find the sonic center of every scene! Romero: Tasty sound moments in this politically aware picture about recent history. Mixed at Lucas' "Sprocket Systems." Foley by MSNL publisher Vanessa Ament. Young Toscanini: It's our classical music theory again... how could they not pay attention to sound? Well, you never know. Franco Zeffirelli is a director with stunning visual gifts, but some Italian directors have extremely low-tech ideas about sound. There are three movies with "Martians" somewhere in their titles slated for 1989. We didn't have enough info to guess about their post-production talent. The Abyss: Have nothing on the sound yet, but ILM pulling out all the stops on visual FX. Directed by James ( Alien ) Cameron. Lots o' sound possible. By the time you read this, you might have seen a few of these pix, some might have been trashed by studios. Some might have proven good predictions. Write when you've seen a few!

REVIEW:

"HE BUGGED ME"

(line from The Fly II )

From the opening sonic transition when a simple housefly buzzes itself into a booming Huey helicopter, we know we're in for a "Big Sound Job." But no kidding:

The Fly II is a stupid movie! (We know a character's thinking, "I'll just go to the darkest part of the basement to get killed") Chris Walas presents this sequel-of-a-remake in full Glop-O-Rama, and Leslie Shatz and his sound crew are up to the gory task: They serve up a meal as rich as the visual effects, and any quibbles with the sound are minor. No surprise in this kind of film, but some unimportant details are too loud, trying to "sell" the reality of a visual: When Brundle Junior's arm turns into rubber cement and mayonnaise, we don't need big volume FX to tell us it's yucky. Walas's gore is strong enough to play without outsized sound. Foley footsteps and prop FX, by Jerry Trent, Joan Rowe, and Mike Salvetta are fine. Because props blend with FX tracks, some creative gore sounds may be Foley. We never know where the contribution of either department begins or ends. There are rough moments, the annoying sound of manipulating a quarter in a sleight-of-hand trick, heard at jarring levels, and a few moves, a step here or there that stand out unnaturally. But most really enhances editors' cut sound FX. Big FX really help the story in other spots: When Junior attacks his captors, oversize fight FX symbolically define his power. We find Junior lying in a cocoon (like any teenager,) pupating. Shatz, Doug Murray, and editor Ralph Wikke give us a woozy, moaning series of muffled, low-frequency blurps and deep, dark body bubbles, to make the sleeping chrysalis seem to breathe ominously. When it hatches, as Pea Soup gushes out of snapping pods, FX are very sharp and powerful, but overwhelmed by obligatory music. Terrific vocal FX for rubber monsters: The moans of a grotesque humanoid, yelps and growls of a dog give agony and pathos to those latex-bound souls. And the star monster has a new voice: dry, deep, self-confident, result of subtle electronic manipulation of dialogue tracks. Labs always have chattering counters and switches, above basic thrumming. That sets a sonic stage with size and power! Creation of sonic events is what sells an SF story's "major appliances". Shatz and Co. give us a great door-open sequence for Teleport Pods, making an unusual mechanism and continuing with a nice ticking after transformation, as dry ice smoke rolls around the set. Has the feel of a radiator cooling. Also a nice motif when test subjects in the pods make a final bit of sound (dog yelp, kitten mew, and telephone dialing) going into the surround channels as they disappear in the blinding light. You feel they' re tossed into the ether, into infinity all around us. Also occurs with Jr. staring at an ultraviolet bug zapper, pondering the funniest potential suicide in movie history. Bugs zap into infinity, and sound is compelling. Haven't mentioned ADR or production dialogue because nothing stood out as awkward or unreal ... the highest compliment we can give editor Patrick Dodd and mixer Leslie Shatz. The Fly II is really a toy store of an FX track, great at a kid's level. So... a few details too loud or unrealistic, but within the context of an enormous and impressive soundtrack, to harp on details would be picking Fly specks!

-DS

A CELEBRATION OF TAP

Chris Flick at moviola finds something must be in sync! TriStar Pic involved complex web of Foley tapping by stars in post-production, live multi-mic production sound footage, and wireless "Taptronics."

RETAKES:

... MSNL #1 misspelled the name of Robocop's producer. We are under arrest... We have five seconds to comply... 5 4 3 2 1... Sorry, Jon Davison!

Post your ad here far other moviesound fans. We'll make as much space as you need. Tape/disc swaps, music soundtrack searches. Sound FX for sale? 20 cents/character. $10 minimum, please.

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EDITORIAL:

THE COLORIZAT1ON OF SOUND

What would we do without Ted Turner? We would have less to talk about in the biz, that is for certain. Few of us have missed a viewing of Gone With The Wind either on television with the barely tolerable commercial breaks, on video, or if the universe is with us, in a real theatre with good sound and polite neighbors. Recently, this reviewer was fortunate to revisit this old and beloved friend at the NUART theatre in Los Angeles with several hundred Scarlett and Rhett groupies. Some queries came to mind. Would the restoration of the color be vivid? Would the improved sound add to the spectacle? Well, Ashley, the truth is this is a mixed review. In some scenes the color was fabulous, in others, drab and inconsistent. Some of the scenes had mysterious ghostingof the characters and scenery. Casper and his buddies are not mentioned in the credits, so who can say whether this was a result of age or poor restoration? Soundwise, Turner and his sound mavens took a mono

dub from the thirties and tried to make it a stereo track from the eighties. Bad idea. Dialogue would jump from centerscreen to left or right and was both jarring and muddy. The added foley was artistic but a bit overdone. Ted, old buddy, let's do lunch and discuss the importance of maintaining integrity of an art form. A mono sound track that can be cleaned and restored with today's technology would have been rich and thrilling. As

it is, this sound track is unnatural and distracting. Mono sound and black and white photography are valuable art forms in themselves. So, let's keep our egos out of other's creative crafts.

-VTA

MOVIESOUND NEWSLETTER

PUBLISHER ........ VANESSA T. AMENT

EDITOR ........ DAVID E. STONE

SCOREBOARD

FOR YOUR INFLAMMATION!

Ever wonder why there's pop music in some movies that doesn't match the style of the score or the film? Contemporary economics have spawned the "Music Supervisor," who is neither composer nor editor, probably not even a musician! This person's job seems to be to hammer rock ' n' roll records into soundtracks... Sometimes to wildly invent ways to justify songs being in scenes where they have no business... Have a character slip a cassette into the slot in a close-up. It's worth MONEY! If a song becomes associated with a movie, then that scene can be shown in the video on MTV, thus giving free publicity to the movie. Just another way Modern Merchandising drives aesthetics away from film making. Now directors may have to fight to keep unwanted music out! On a recent project, a music supervisor had run out of places to impose a particularly screamy vocal. He found a scene with intimate dialogue in a pricey restaurant, where the director had wisely chosen to run some jazzy cocktail piano. It fit the restaurant, gave the scene some rhythm, and never intruded an the quiet dialogue. The pop vocal was tried with the scene, to the director's horror. Records don't go in that kind of restaurant, and you couldn't hear any dialogue above the screaming. Even quiet vocals don't work well with dialogue scenes!

Come on, Music Business: Leave our movies alone!

-- DS

NEXT ISSUE:

We'll have results of our first readers' survey on local theaters, a look at the sound work for Star Trek V , and an audio-only videodisc review.