In the end, the director of the film has final say as to the balances of the various sound effects elements, the music and the dialog. The mixing engineers establish a mix that is their intrepretation of how the film should sound based on their years of experience in doing it, but the director has the final say.

That being said, I have found directors surprisingly bad judges of what constitutes a good sound mix. Perhaps they are too close to the film, perhaps they are too visually orieted, or perhaps they are under other pressures. After all, aside from the ability to get someone to pay them to direct a film, directors don't automatically posess finely tuned skills in all areas any more than any other person would. They may be great storytellers and able to convey this in visual terms, but this does not mean they know good sound and can appreciate it when they hear it. Very, very few directors are audiophiles!

The smart ones are able to put aside their egos and rely on the judgement of the specialists (sound designers, mixers, editors) in their field. However, I have more than once seen an otherwise great sound job compromised by directorial decisions.

I was just tossing my two cents in with a smile!

Some of us know all too well exactly what SH said about the way some people in charge use or misuse their authority to benefit or detriment of the final product. This applies to many areas of a production. The best people-in-charge find people of excellence to be on the team, many with expertise in a certain field that exceeds the expertise of the person-in-charge, and then the person-in-charge trusts and values the contribution of each team member. If an individual team member’s creative decision would clash with something else in the project, then it certainly should be up to the person-in-charge to have a view to the overall project and make sure that, as a whole, the project is both excellent and seamless in the way it meets the project goals. Some people-in-charge feel that, in the end, their opinion of a certain item, based on less expertise, should rule the day.

I hear you, SH.

I get your point buck. It’s kinda hard to tell unless you put one of these
You’ve posted lots of helpful information in the saloon and I appreciate it, seriously. Please keep it coming.

I have worked for a company which can be a living proof of this, so I can say I understand what you and soundhound are saying. There is a factor that comes into play when dealing with teamwork and production. It’s human ego. More often than not, it compromises the quality potential of the product (I’m not referring to Matrix).

BTW, I quit that place.


[This message has been edited by Spiker (edited April 12, 2004).]

[This message has been edited by Spiker (edited April 12, 2004).]