Day 25: Lines

One of the things that I feel to be truly unique about life as sound mixer on film shoots is the verbatim familiarity with the dialogue that you come to acquire.

It will be interesting when I sit and watch all of the films that I mixed sound for to see if I can recite the scripts in their entirety. Think about it. You have your headphones on. You're focused on getting good levels. Rehearsal after rehearsal and take after take you figure out just the right way to ride the gain (The knobs on the mixer that control the level on each individual mic that you have in play), in order to make each line sweet and the film not sound like...well I'll be honest...a student film.

One of the things that I feel to be truly unique about life as sound mixer on film shoots is the verbatim familiarity with the dialogue that you come to acquire.

Though I have little interest in becoming a professional sound guy, I've come to take a lot of pride in my work. While I had a fledgling knowledge of directing and writing before making the trek to New York, I had absolutely no knowledge of sound recording. I guess my tuition dollars are being well spent as I've gotten pretty good at in the past couple months. It's one of those pleasant surprises that life sometimes throws at you. Would never have thought I'd address myself as a sound guy. Then again, I never would have thought I'd address myself period.

One of the things that I feel to be truly unique about life as sound mixer on film shoots is the verbatim familiarity with the dialogue that you come to have.

Here I'm talking like I'm almost done. Many more days to come. Many more scripts to memorize. Oh yea, if you're wondering whether mixing the same lines over and over ever gets tiring, I'll leave that to you to guess. I will say that when you get to around take 10, the patience does run a little thin. BUT, by then you'll have figured out how to mix the scene so well that it almost don't matter. Take 10 will probably be the best take for sound. And then you mark it in your sound report that it was so that the director sees how skilled you are. And then you give yourself a pat on the back. And then you hit craft services.

One of the things that I feel to be truly unique about life as sound mixer on film shoots is the verbatim familiarity with the dialogue that you come to have.

Ryan the Sound Guy