Originally posted by bestbang4thebuck:
Mixing audio for feature film is not my forte, and maybe SH can comment on this from an industry point of view:
First, the audio engineer-artists want us to hear many things in the dock scene all at once, even when the guns were blazing. Some of those audio items are meant to be heard along with and behind the sound of the gunfire. I just watched this scene again and I was hearing, among other things, the mechanical nature of the units, the ammunition being fed to the guns, squiddies flying and, of course, yelling by the fighter/operators. Perhaps if the level/timbre/content of the gun sounds had been more aggressive, the ability of the audience to hear these other important sounds would have been lessened. The sound the production team created was formed based on aesthetic choices regarding content.
Secondly, it’s all imagination, and other than a desire for the sound to help convince the audience of what’s happening, the sound could be “explained” several ways. Imagine that in using the earlier versions of these large units commanders found their troops to sustain hearing loss quickly. They couldn’t put too much hearing protection on the troops because they wanted to troops to hear other things and it wouldn’t be cool in a movie! So the imaginary engineers had to design imaginary noise reduction into the imaginary guns. That’s why the guns sound the way they do!
Right buck.
I won’t argue about whatever is shown and heard is the way the creator wanted it to be. I’m just tossing my 2 cents and seeing if I’m with the majority or minority.
While firing, there were some dialogues but not always. I think the machinegun volume could’ve been lowered and raised depending on timing. I’ve seen action movies that do something like it. I’m just talking about the dynamics of the battle scene. It could’ve been little more IMO.
Those machineguns may have a built-in silencer (or partial silencer) or the type of gunpowder may be different or whatever. May be those walkers should’ve had a Plexiglas covering the operator which can offer extra protection against the sentinels and block out the gun noise and help to communicate better with others. Or may be there should’ve been headphone and a microphone for hearing protection and communication (remember what the soldiers were wearing in the movie Aliens?). Or may be those guns should’ve been firing laser like the sentinels do. Thank God it didn’t, otherwise we may not have much to talk about.
I believe there is a difference between realistic work versus cinematic work. In latter, the creator has something called “artist’s license”. George Lucas uses his to make the spaceship’s propulsion engine to be heard in the space (vacuum) which made the movie very entertaining despite breaking the laws of physics in reality. I wrote a semi-lengthy post in L.O.T.R. The Two Towers thread on this…