Dolby Cinema Levels

[TAFF]

Just thought I'd relay a conversation I had with a projectionist last week. We had a screening of a feature that we did for cast and crew and local BAFTA members. The film was being played back from a HDCAM SR deck. Everything was fine with our levels (Dolby 7). It sounded exactly the same as in our dubbing theatre. I quizzed him about the differing levels on films and asked him "why do you turn it down?" He commented that films are too loud these days and that a film like Mamma Mia which has a lot of music in it was normally played back on 5.5. "What!!!!" i cried to him. Do you know how hard we all work to produce these soundtracks . I was disgusted and the projectionist just seemed to laugh it off. I threatened to report him to Dolby (in a jovial way as the screening hadn't started yet and didn't want him to turn our film down).
So guys no matter how hard we work it all comes down to some moron in a projection booth that finally has the say on how our work is perceived and enjoyed by members of the public.

Paul McFadden
Supervising Sound Editor
Doctor Who
www.bangpostproduction.com

[Frank Kruse]

5.5 is actually pretty loud. I´ve talked to projectionists that said "We start at 3-4 and then we see what happens". It´s pretty sad.
On the other hand when I went to see the imax version of "dark knight" I was slammed to my seat by the SPL. Woofer all maxed out. Haven´t heard that high SPL since Nirvana´s "Bleach" tour many years ago ;-)

First I thought they payed it back extremely high but the dialog was at fairly normal moderate level so I guess they either mixed the film with pretty low dialog to force high playback levels or the theatre was simply misalligned.

It´s an endless story with cinema and SPL. Beaten to death actually.

frank.

[philper]

Anymore I just figure that whatever we do will have to work ok at any level in any channel/speaker config. Even films that I'm told are purely theatrical we do checks w/ on small speakers, and vice versa so far as we can. Encoding it and playing back thru a cel phone is not a ridiculous test these days even for a feature film.

Philip Perkins

[Frank Kruse]

Originally Posted by philper

Encoding it and playing back thru a cel phone is not a ridiculous test these days even for a feature film.

Philip Perkins

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKiIroiCvZ0

[TAFF]

We mixed the film at 6 anyway but is this the end of dynamic range for film? Is it going to become a glorified TV mix then?

I get your point about the mix should be compatible with various cinema levels . It must be a huge disappointment for Dolby, DTS and Sony that they spend all this time and effort to define a standard and then a projectionist has the final say on how it sounds. Anyway that's my rant for this month

Paul McFadden
Supervising Sound Editor
Doctor Who
www.bangpostproduction.com