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This topic comprises 3 pages: 1 2 3
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Topic: Star Trek: Check your volume, I guess
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Brad Miller
Administrator
Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99
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posted 06-20-2009 04:13 PM
Dialogue intelligibility is certainly a primary reason for complaints. Lets face it, few theaters put in proper baffle walls and acoustics along with proper tuning to ensure this. The biggest problem I find though is with the tuning. Most systems are not properly designed nor tuned to handle a proper response in the low end, or worse...the physical theater walls are not built to such a standard to permit it, so theaters compensate by just rolling off the bass. These theaters, even though obviously not playing at "7" / 85db do hurt to listen to anywhere near that level because there is no low end to balance the higher frequencies and the sound system just ends up "shrieky".
Common tuning problems that I find will generate complaints are over-EQing (trying to get that final line "perfect", what I call the "Bose" bass curve (meaning the system design actually sucks, but the tech tries to compensate by boosting the upper bass frequencies), and not paying particular attention to the rolloff frequencies near 4-8k (which will ignite people with tinnitus and sensitive hearing).
I've gone into troublesome auditoriums that were at least adequately designed in the construction and equipment stage with poor tuning where they were running consistently at between 4-5 on the fader and after re-tuning and implementing a trailer fader of some sort, left with them running 6.5-7 all the time for the feature.
The problem is that it can't just be blamed on the tuning. Room construction and quality equipment also come heavily into play and most theaters cinch on this, making playing the movie at "7" / 85db impossible. Those theaters that were well designed and tuned properly DO play at 7 all the time WITHOUT these silly notices that the studios send out. Those that cannot play at 7 without generating complaints will play it lower. This is why the studios are solving exactly nothing with this waste of paper and resources.
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John Hawkinson
Film God
Posts: 2273
From: Cambridge, MA, USA
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 06-20-2009 07:19 PM
Though the technical isn't quite right (more on that), I think the request is basically reasonable. If in fact The Proposal's sound mix is such that people miss some important dialogue because of audience reaction, turning it up just a little bit is a reasonable reaction. It's not as good as remixing the track to avoid the problem in the first place, but that's not going to happen.
For most people, 1/2 of a fader setting (1.7dB) is well beneath the threshold that they can distinguish. Basically they're asking theatres to raise the volume by the smallest possible amount. It shouldn't hurt anyone or feel too loud, but it might be just loud enough to reduce the problem somewhat, or at least placate the relevant production executives.
For details on how much a fader unit really is, please see the Dolby Fader Settings to measured dB SPL. Ken from Dolby provides the answer for the CP650 (which is 3 1/3 dB per unit above 4.0 on the fader), and Steve G. provides some comments on the pre-digital fader characteristics.
Jack, your joke about perfs is oddly pertinent. Scott and I both had experience talking to the production secretary for The Proposal when they were looking for places to screen their dailies in Boston. She was very concerned that we might not have "4-perf anamorphic" capability.
--jhawk
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John Hawkinson
Film God
Posts: 2273
From: Cambridge, MA, USA
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 06-21-2009 02:24 PM
For clarity, I don't want make the production folks sound unreasonable. It's totally appropriate for them to want to confirm that any theatre supports their format when they're hiring it, and 4-perf anamorphic is a fine way to describe cinemascope. It's certainly possible that they might have been shooting 3-perf (or even 2-perf!), and so it's probably quite important that it be clear. So it's not like asking labs to check their temperatures.
It's just funny because you'd be hard-pressed to find a theatre that didn't support it. It would be like asking your lab, "Do you support process ECP-2E?" which is the chemical process for virtually all 35mm release print films.
Part of the issue with trailers volume is that I think it is legitimate for the average dialog in a trailer to be louder than the average dialog in a film, because there are people talking and other ancillary noises that go on during trailers, which is fine, but someone who wants to be able to listen to dialogue during the trailers ought to be able to do so.
Unfortunately, this is a slippery slope, and one which it seems the studios slide right down a bit too fast.
--jhawk
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