"The Devil Wears Prada 2" sound mix

[Mike Blakesley]

This movie has kind of a different sound mix. The pop songs in the movie (which are many) seem to be more "out front" and "sharp" than your typical movie, to the point where they almost have a somewhat strident quality to them. It sounds like a home stereo with the treble control turned up way too far, or a system with the high end EQ up higher than it should be.

It doesn't sound BAD to me, just a little bit different than the usual. When the dialog is set to my usual volume level, the songs tended to make me want to turn it down a bit, which literally never happens.

That said, the new songs in the movie are really good if you like that kind of music. The new one by Lady Gaga is particularly good.

[Ryan Gallagher]

Every now and then there is a narrative film or doc where music is such a key element that the centerpiece songs are mixed at more of a live concert level. It's quite a contrast from how you might normally hear music mixed relative to the rest of the film volume. Perhaps they mixed more in line with that style. However, I have no thoughts on the extra treble you point out.

There will always be "concert films", but another good example is if you've ever run the DCP of "Selena". The primary concert clips (especially the arena shows footage) are close to the "you are there" volume. lol

[Jim Cassedy]

Although I haven't really had time to pay much attention to the "D-W-P II" movie itself, I too noticed
when I went into the auditorium to check sound levels during the first several sold-out shows, that
the music mix was a bit more 'expressive' than most, but it sounded really good. At one of the first
shows, we had some guy make several complaints about seeing 'occasional blue flashes' in the
picture. I know this movie came with several warnings about having scenes with a lot of flashing
lights which may trigger people susceptible to having seizures, but I stood in the back of the
auditorium (cuz there were no empty seats!) and watched for the next 20min or so, and I didn't
notice anything out-of the ordinary. We're running PRADA in BARCO HDR, which would tend to
put more 'flash' in any scenes with flashing lights. Also those BARCO HDR projectors keep quite
detailed logs, and I went back through them and also did not spot any anomalies. I've been off for
the past several days, but I haven't heard about any more complaints about 'mystery flashes".
There's a couple of people on the auditorium staff who are also very good at making me aware
of any picture problems, and none of them have said anything about it either.

TODAY's FUN FOTO:
We had an early advance screening which included a character dress-up contest
PradaDressUp.jpg

[Mike Blakesley]

Is that a video wall? I don't see any shadows.

We watched the movie yesterday from the 4th row and I don't remember any major flashing, but there are a few "party" scenes which have a lot of places where that could definitely happen. We got interrupted halfway through the movie by some friends showing up, so we're planning to watch it again - I'll try to remember to watch out for that kind of thing.

[Marcel Birgelen]

That's not a video wall, but a pretty bright projector, which you might expect from a Barco HDR machine.

If you look closely, you see that there are shadows to the left and right and that there is a clear boundary between "light" and "dark" running alongside the legs of quite a few of those people. Their eyes might hurt pretty bad if they look into the projector...

[Chris Haller]

I watched the movie in one of our standard houses in 7.1 today and did notice that the music was pretty present, especially in the surrounds. There's a big sequence where Streep walks through a huge crowd into a show a the beginning that almost had me plotting to pull out my equipment and recalibrate the auditorium, but none of the other bigger sequences were problematic. I agree on the Gaga song being pretty good. Her appearance was pretty fun.

[Jim Cassedy]

Is that a video wall? I don't see any shadows.

As Marcel mentioned, it is not a video wall, but a projected image from a Barco LS-4kHDR
projector. The throw is about 90ft, and the Barco installers assured us that the laser light levels
at the stage were well outside the "hazard zone", although you still wouldn't want to stare
directly into the Barco lens. We have a pretty much a 'straight-on' throw to the center the screen,
and I was standing at a port just to the left of the BARCO when I took that picture, so from that
viewpoint, the people on the stage were pretty much 'masking' their own shadows. The film
projectors are a little lower than the Barco, so there's a very slight ( 2° ) upward tilt on them.

BONUS INFO: The theater in the photo, where I work, opened 110 years ago tonight!

[Ryan Gallagher]

As Marcel mentioned, it is not a video wall, but a projected image from a Barco LS-4kHDR
projector. The throw is about 90ft, and the Barco installers assured us that the laser light levels
at the stage were well outside the "hazard zone", although you still wouldn't want to stare
directly into the Barco lens. We have a pretty much a 'straight-on' throw to the center the screen,
and I was standing at a port just to the left of the BARCO when I took that picture, so from that
viewpoint, the people on the stage were pretty much 'masking' their own shadows. The film
projectors are a little lower than the Barco, so there's a very slight ( 2° ) upward tilt on them.

BONUS INFO: The theater in the photo, where I work, opened 110 years ago tonight!

That was not a great Q&A slide for a bunch of people on stage! One day studios might learn the best practices there. Never used to have such "cards" with 35mm so it's a new skill. But as they shoved a bunch of important info at the bottom, not much to do but admit defeat this time.

Happy Birthday to her indeed.

[Jim Cassedy]

That was not a great Q&A slide for a bunch of people on stage!
One day studios might learn the best practices there.

This was a studio provided 'walk-in' slide, so it was on screen, with nobody in front of it for
about 30min, but I 100% agree with your comment. With private clients or smaller distributors,
I can usually make suggestions and then edit or re-compose their slide as necessary. But it's
a lot harder to do with releases from big studios, as it often requires multiple layers of approval.
For example, if they intended to also use the image in that photo as a background for a Q&A,
with people on stage, I would have slightly 'shrunk' the image, and cheated it upwards, so
that it appeared just above the Q&A panel on stage, instead of projecting on them. I've done
this multiple times. . but as I said, it's tricky to do with the big studios, because "they know best".

Fortunately, there was no Q&A on this show, so the screen was only blocked during the character
costume contest, so there was plenty of time for guests to see the slide and the studio's QR code
during the ½-hour pre-show seating period. I did put the slide on screen again at the very end, but
by that time 98% of the people had exited the auditorium during the long end credit sequence.