This is topic "Small Time Crooks" Sound? in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
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Posted by Nic Margherio (Member # 273) on 05-19-2000, 12:44 AM:
Did anyone recieve the standard Woody Allen letter regarding sound presentation for "Small Time Crooks?" - you know, the one that says the print is SR-encoded but should only play back in the center speaker? I didn't get one but I did notice that the soundtrack was mixed only for the center channel. The other thing that I could not figure out is why it carried an SRD and DTS track. (Has anyone played it back in either of these formats? I'd be interested to know if it only played back through the center channel.) I thought that Dreamworks' "policy" was to release all their movies with all three digital formats. Why no SDDS? Why did Woody allow SRD and DTS? Throw me a frickin' bone here.
Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 05-19-2000, 12:55 AM:
Woody Allen has always released his prints in mono. He uses the stereo track and SR and Digital because they are the current soundtracks. He prefers his sound to come out of the center channel for artistic reasons. He once included in his projectionist letter that he used SR for the noise reduction but to turn off all the other amplifiers.Woody Allen is an accomplished musician. He plays the clarinet in a local NY jazz band. You would think that he knows a lot about sound. By his letters I think he knows a lot about projection. He just prefers mono. Go figure.
I have always appreciated his notes to the projectionist. Even if I am confused by the man.
Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 05-19-2000, 05:05 AM:
Ok, I'll be the one to say it...Woody Allen is a freak! With today's technologies all he will allow is mono sound. Geesch, what more can I say. Perhaps some will argue some artistic nonsense and back good ol' Woody, but the man really should consider utilizing the sound technology that is available to improve on his filmmaking as far as I'm concerned. He should be doing stage plays.To answer your question, yes the digital tracks hold nothing more than the center channel. Why this took 2 DTS discs I have no idea. Certainly ONE channel of audio could've been burned onto one cd...but perhaps there is a technical thing I do not know about regarding DTS encoding. As to SDDS, he probably didn't want the digital cutting in and out, which is respectable.
I seriously hope everyone presenting this flick in digital took the time to load up the most impressive sound demo logo they have to run right before the whole sound system collapses to mono.
Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 05-19-2000, 08:21 AM:
Actually I remeber that Mr Allen started using mono because he felt that he couldn't count on the surround level in theatres not being goosed up to high and being distracting (not an uncommon thing to occur)
But at least he releases on film not DLP
Posted by John Walsh (Member # 168) on 05-19-2000, 10:55 AM:
After seeing several of the poor equipment installations around here, I think running in mono might be the right idea after all.
Posted by Dwayne Caldwell (Member # 417) on 05-19-2000, 10:44 PM:
I guess Woody Allen's too old fashion to resort to today's sound reproduction standards. I do appreciate his notes to the projectionist though. I remember when Bullets Over Broadway was released, he made mention of the fact that there was a few seconds of black on the beginning of one of the reels and explained the reasoning for this and for the projectionist to expect it. I which the directors that shoot a few of their P.O.V. scenes upside down would warn the projectionist and spare us the brief heartattack when we just happen to look out the port glass at the wrong time. The chances are rare, but it'd be nice to be told anyway. ------------------
The man with the magic hands.
Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 05-19-2000, 11:25 PM:
Didn't Woody let his hair down (?) with "Everyone Says I Love You" and throw some stereo into the musical numbers?
Posted by Joseph Pandolfi (Member # 223) on 05-21-2000, 11:02 AM:
Modern Times are really catching up to Woody Allen. "Digital" tracks, How about that "Tequila" by The Champs 60 seconds before credits ended. I thought the non-sync kicked in too early. 
Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 05-21-2000, 12:29 PM:
Nic Margherio asked:
>Has anyone played it back in either of these formats?
>I'd be interested to know if it only played back through the center channel.Yes. I previewed the film twice and I played SR-D the first time (there was no disk with that print) and DTS the second time. It's center channel only. The DTS track I had was a single disk.
Woody Allen feels that the story and the acting are the most important elements in his films so not only does he use mono sound but also keeps his titles a very simple white on black.
As for digital the reason is the same as for using SR: high fidelity. Some of you may not realize that on a cinema processor when you punch mono not only is the noise reduction disabled and the stereo matrix switched to simply sum Left-Total and Right-Total into the Center channel but a very severe high frequency roll off known as the Academy filter is introduced. Mono films have a pre-emphasis that takes this into account but it still greatly limits the fidelity.
This is because the mono standard is based on 1930's technology and was one of the reasons that before Dolby came along people were certain that optical sound was simply incapable of high quality. Dolby threw that out to allow the full range to come through, added EQ, and compensated for the added hiss with their noise reduction. This resulted in the Dolby Mono (optical) process that predates Dolby Stereo. You select this format easily with a CP-50, 100, and 200 but not directly on later processors, hence Woody Allen movies being labeled for Dolby Stereo or Dolby Stereo SR playback even though they are Dolby Mono. They play fine in stereo mode though you can avoid leakage through the wrong channels by shutting down those amps.
Even on a CP-500 where you can custom program formats you can program one with SR NR *on* but if tell the matrix you want mono that is where the Academy roll off is invoked. So if you want to create a custom format for Dolby SR Mono what you would do would be leave the matrix in Pro Logic mode but go to the patchbay-like output matrix (where outputs of the processing section are sent on their way to the B chain EQ and fader) and lift the connections from everything except C. Or C & Sub. (Actually just copy format 05 Dolby SR and go right to the output matrix and change that and you're done.)
Getting back to Woody Allen, using digital not only enables maximum fidelity with no worries of leakage through the wrong channels but the added benefit of making splices inaudible, too.