"40 Years of Sound for Film" Overview

In the excitement of the Academy Awards, I stumbled upon an event they decided to host this year. The Academy’s Science and Technology Council hosted “40 Years of Sound for Film” March 6^th. Luckily, Oscars.org archived the event hosted by sound mixers, Tom Fleischman and Chris Newman. You may have heard Fleischman’s work in films like this year’s Oscar-winning film, Hugo, Marley & Me, Goodfellas, and The Departed. Newman is known for his audio work on film greats like The Godfather, The Silence of the Lambs, and The Exorcist.

The two professionals offer some great advice as they walk you through the process of how audio is made, chosen, and put into films. They call the initial sound recordings the foundation for the rest of the audio. Newman says, “It starts with me getting crew and my myself to decide where to put the microphones, what’s going to work best, what’s going to work best for the particular director, particular actor, particular location.” A lot of people don’t consider all the factors necessary to get a specific sound right for a certain shot or film. Sometimes you may feel it would make most sense for a sound to be a particular way, but the director wants it to be completely different. At that point you may have to sacrifice your creative input for the sake of direction.

Tormey's Legal Advice

This week I had the pleasure of speaking to entertainment attorney, John J. Tormey, III in New York. Tormey specializes in intellectual property, copyright and trademark, liabilities within the music, film, and television industries. He not only makes sure these liabilities are avoided for his clients, but also offers them legal advice if they are searching for professional services in their line of work.

Industry Liabilities

My focus this month is returning back to entertainment law pertaining to music editing. After reading about different ways to protect your intellectual property to ensure your creations aren’t stolen, I found some articles online that show what could go wrong that I’d like to share with you.

The first is about a small firm that met the reality of trying to confront the big names in the business. “Sounding Off: Tiny Firm Accuses Disney, Warner, Other Studios of Patent Infringement on Film Soundtracks,” by Apodaca tells of Drexler Technology, Corp. and how they believed two patents of theirs were being infringed upon by “Disney, Warner Bros., Sony Pictures Entertainment, 20^th Century-Fox Film Corp., Paramount Pictures Corp. and Savy Pictures Entertainment Inc.” These patents were for digital sound technology and data storage. As is turns out, the infringement happens to be the widely used, Sony Dynamic Digital Sound (SDDS) technology. In the end, a few companies offered to get the patent rights from them, but were declined. They also did not pursue any further after being ignored due to lack of funds.

Artist and Product Management Skills for the Sound Supervisor

In continuing my findings on how audio post for film and television uses some skill sets one would use in product or artist management, the position of sound supervisor popped in my head immediately. Admittedly, I haven’t wrote about this position in a while as my fascination with music editing grew, but I assure you many of the same skills can transfer to music editing and other audio post jobs just as well. Although through my studies, the main artist in question regarding artist management is usually a recording singer or actor or some sort, I believe anyone creative is considered an artist. In the case of audio post, think of the composers, the field recorders out there recording crickets, or the sound designers blending bears with wolves and lions to create a new animal.

How Artist Management Skills Aid Music Editors' Products

This month I'm studying more about artist and product management. A music editor may have to work with artists and composers if they're working on films, but not in a managerial position. While I can pull some information from certain aspects of artist management to improve my communication and workflow when dealing with these types of people to make sure we collaborate and create something that sounds amazing, it's the end product I would be worried with. Of course there are manager characteristics a music editor would have to have to have some control over the sound department.

Becky Howard's Emotional Negotiations

This week I had the opportunity of interviewing a professional in the entertainment industry, Becky Howard. She is an agent and manager working with numerous actors and recording artists. With 15 years under her belt, she’s managed to move up from being an intern at a recording studio. Due to confidentiality and legal contracts, the names of her clients can’t be divulged, unfortunately. I spoke with her this week about how she deals with negative emotions that come up while negotiating. Unfortunately for this blog post, this successful woman is a busy woman and was called away after only a few questions and casual conversation.

Investing in Music

I came across a blog post through CNN Money this week by investor, Brad Svrluga entitled, "Investing in the music business, where 'you can't make money'." Svrluga writes about investing opportunities and analyses which to pass on and which to take up. In this particular blog post, he writes about why he thinks the music industry is one that shouldn't be ignored when considering which opportunities to put your money into.

Most people are aware of the music industry's reputation for being a rather risky one with many outside, and inside, factors constantly changing it. Consider technology. With more and more advances, the consumer's music medium changes. We've seen cylinders, records, tape, digital CDs, and audio file downloads. Along with that, genres change, artists are more eclectic, and we see things like the controversial auto-tune. With each new idea, change, "advancement", etc. we are constantly thinking, "Will this last? Will this be the new norm?"

Any businessperson can tell you taking risks is a good thing. Obviously, you want to know as much as possibly to make a sound decision. With something like technology and the music industry, it changes all the time. Because investors aren't too fond of throwing their money out to random opportunities in the hopes that one will be successful (and frankly, who is?), they often pass up the music industry as an option.