I just had to share a rant about this…
So Steven Spielberg gets some questions over at Soundworks, but I love how he rounds out the interview, when asked his thoughts on the MPSE organisation and the sound craftpeople he responds:
” (they)…are a great bunch of guys and girls and I’m very relaxed around them because, making a movie is really tense, you’ve got a schedule and there’s responsibility and you’ve got to get it all shot, but post production for me, that’s like a vacation, because y’know we don’t have the same pressure… So I think there’s more of a relaxed repore between the director and the sound editors and the music editors because we’re kindof …you never coast but we are on the downhill of a long ordeal and I think we all feel that together and we get to see the result together…”
I’m sorry? WTF? I’m pretty sure that there’s a bunch of sound editors and mixers reading this wondering when the last time was they felt like they were on “the downhill” and almost cruising towards the finishing line in a relaxed frame of mind!
Last I heard most folks are dealing with picture edit taking longer than expected, less time to do a good job, oh and then there’s that revision 4 of the final locked picture that you need to reconform to…
Picture recuts, shrinking bundgets (or sound budgets becoming VFX budgets), equipment maintenance when you’re being paid less each year than the year prior, and people like Spielberg wanting “holographic sound” – who’s going to pay for the sound stages to upgrade their gear to make that holophonic soundtrack Steven??
Here Here… I can’t believe he said that!! Clearly he’s not present for the process.