We asked a handful of composers if their music is being heard in theaters the way they intended.
John Van Tongeren (“Moll Flanders”)
“I think composers are giving a collective sigh of relief because now we know that what we write has more of a chance of being heard the way we want it to be heard in theaters. When the new digital sound systems are aligned properly, they sound good, and you don’t lose the signal the way you do with the other formats. But the caveat is a very small percentage of theaters have all the correct sound system components right now, although that number seems to be growing. I have no preference for the Sony or Dolby systems, but normally a composer has no input anyway on which system to go with.
“As far as what I do to ensure my music is heard the way I intended, I’ve had some bad experiences with theater digital systems where the music sounds brittle. But I think, on the whole, I’m not as disappointed with the final product as I used to be. It used to be I had to compensate for an inferior medium when writing. You knew it would not sound as good as it could, but now some of the extreme low and high sounds can actually peek through a little more. It’s nice to know that when the music is exposed, it sounds bigger and fuller, but the process of getting music onto film still involves a loss of sorts. Composers have been waiting for the time we can walk into a theater and hear our music sonically the way we remember mixing it, and I think that time is just about here.”
Mark Mancina (“Assassins”, “Fair Game”, “Money Train”, “Twister”)
“My studio is all digital. From going to tape to the transfers, to being on the stage with ProTools, everything is done digitally, so it seems like staying with digital in theaters is the way to go.
“My last three films were all done digitally and all sounded great. In fact, ‘Money Train’ was transferred 20-bit using a program called Sonic Solutions and it sounded fantastic. When composing, the only thing I’ve noticed is that with digital the frequency range is a little bit better, so I can get away with a little bit more. On ‘Twister’, sound effects are playing such a huge role that I’m actually scoring in between the action sequences, so it will be interesting to see how that all works. This director is smart enough to know that, with the new powerful theater sound systems, when music and sound effects are thrown together, they just sort of cancel each other out. What we’re trying to do is err on the side of music when we want to get the emotion side and err on the side of sound effects when we want to get across the horrific-ness of the twisters.
“As far as input, composers generally don’t have any choice as to where they dub. I think we did ‘Bad Boys’ and ‘Man of the House’ on the Sony system, which sounded great, and I believe ‘Moll Flanders’ is coming out on Sony Digital, but it’s an extremely low-budget film, so I’m not sure they’ll have the money. Of course, I always thought the original Dolby SR sounded the best. Unfortunately, it’s just not very cost effective.”
Elliot Goldenthal (“Interview with the Vampire”, “Batman Forever”, “Heat”)
“I think the new theater systems sound good, but for me they seem to sound different in every theater. I think the reason is very simple. It’s not that the equipment is failing; it’s working just fine. It’s the fact that every room has a different acoustical imperative and that the room changes from season to season depending on how much clothing people bring into it. In the summer you might hear everything, but in the winter, when people stick their coats on the backs of chairs, it sucks in a lot of the sound. There are so many variables that you can never really get a universality out of the theater sound systems.
“The evolution of this new digital technology has made our jobs as composers doubly difficult because now our work can be trampled on by the whim of a director who doesn’t trust his composer and replaces music with effects. When directors learn to stay light on the sound effects, then composers will finally be able to really determine if their music is sounding better on the new theater systems. Personally, I don’t prefer one system over another. No matter what the theaters do, the audience is still not going to hear my music the way I wrote it. I can’t bring myself to see my own movies in theaters because, by the time it gets through the dubbing stage, it’s completely distorted.”
Cynthia Miller (“Three Wishes”)
“These new systems seem to suit the sound effects guys more than they suit us composers. In ‘Three Wishes’ there’s a big fireworks sequence where a little boy flies. [Director] Martha Coolidge asked me to score the whole scene, but I couldn’t have anticipated that the fireworks were going to be deafening. These new theater systems make it sound like the fireworks are all around you.
“While, obviously, the new digital systems give us the opportunity to make sound purer and more amazing, I wouldn’t say they actually have a bearing on the way I score a film. Also, I think, if you get too fancy with sound design and rely too much on the new digital systems, then when your music plays in the regular movie houses, you’re going to lose stuff. And when you get to TV, you’re really going to lose a lot of what you planned. I’ve been to movies in theaters that can’t support the new systems and also to theaters where the sound system isn’t working right. It’s a horrible experience to sit through a movie with speakers at the back gushing out some distorted nonsense, but fortunately, I haven’t seen this happen in the U.S.
“Now we’re seeing two dubs made… one for use on the best theater sound systems available, and another for the lesser equipped houses. For example, on ‘Three Wishes’, very few of the movie houses in Los Angeles were actually able to play the sound and music the way [the sound designer] had designed them.”
John Debney (“Sudden Death”, “Cutthroat Island”, “Hocus Pocus”)
“I would say digital will ultimately be the best way to go, but the method through which the music is presented in the theater is, of course, a very big factor. I think a more overriding factor is what happens to my music in the dubbing process. Digital, especially Dolby, has really done wonders for the presentation of music, but it hasn’t changed the way I compose. I still compose the old fashioned way – with a pencil and score paper.
“On ‘Cutthroat Island’ we had a lot of discussion early on, so I knew my work was going to be heard on Dolby Digital. All that any composer can hope for is that, 1) people actually know there’s music in the film, and, 2) the sonic quality is the best it can be. Working in digital domain on ‘Cutthroat’ helped us in the area of editing. Now, when a director says you need to take a minute out of your cue, you are able to make the necessary cut in the most musical way, so the audience is hearing more of what I intended them to hear, I would say. With digital technology you can do music cuts that were impossible just a few years ago. Now you can cross fade from tracks in a quarter of a second and make seamless cuts. It’s revolutionized the way we make changes on the dubbing stage and opened up endless new creative possibilities in the editing room. I think it really does allow us to better maintain the artistic values we intended.”
Miles Goodman (“Footloose”, “What About Bob?”, “Housesitter”)
“It’s kind of a dirty little secret that digital doesn’t sound as good as analog, but it’s a sacrilege to say it. I also think it’s a somewhat shocking conflict of interest that some studios are making exhibitors put in the studio-developed digital sound systems.
“I think many composers will tell you that digital doesn’t produce great sound, it produces convenient sound. There’s no surface noise, it’s easy to work with and easy to edit, but it’s not yet musically sound. I’m currently writing the score for ‘Dunston Checks In’ and I don’t know if they’ve decided to go digital with the release prints, but I’m recording my compositions in analog. With ‘Sunset Park’ I’m actually recording in digital, not for better sound quality, but for better efficiency because we are recording with people who are based in a number of different locations.
“To a large extent, you’re hearing what the composer intended you to hear, but I think there is a negative effect on an audience of listening to digital sound – whether it’s music, dialogue or effects. Just like the eye cannot see the dots that make up the television picture, I believe the ear may not be able to distinguish, but I think the brain can recognize it, and I think digital sounds can alienate an audience.
“I’ve been in movie theaters with the new digital sound systems and seen movies that I think I otherwise might have enjoyed, but I felt like I was elbowed out of the movies by the sound. I came out of the theaters feeling wiped out. For the best listening experience, you should sit in the middle, slightly behind the center of the theater because this best duplicates where the mixer sits during the dubbing sessions. But when these new systems are working properly, it should sound good even in the farthest left seat of the first row. That’s our responsibility to the audience.”