Katie Holden Interview

Museum of the Moving Image

I was very impressed by the Museum of the Moving Image and disappointed that I could not stay longer. Our tour guide was knowledgeable, and even though large group tours often feel restricting, I felt engaged and entertained. One of the interesting demonstrations the tour guide gave was on sound mixing in feature film. Using a scene from titanic, the guide played various versions of the clips with different sound types – solely dialogue, solely background noise, with and without music and sound effects, etc. This presentation was very effective at showing the importance of sound and the reliance that the drama, accuracy and quality films have. Each version showed to seemed dramatically different, and the sound all felt misplaced and odd when not layered over one another with varying degrees of amplitude. Another fascinating fact we learned about the sound process is how sounds are formulated for the screen. It wasn’t surprising that many sounds are recreated using various objects, and that sounds are embellished for film. However, it was surprising to hear the use of animal sounds integrated with other noises to instill primal emotions. When one goes to a film, one basically submits themselves and their emotions to the filmmakers, so it’s intriguing to understand some of the techniques used beyond the narrative to elicit different sensations. It obvious how much the advent of sound changed film, but the combined sensory experience of the movies is part of what makes it such a unique experience. Although silent films have a beauty of their own, they don’t feel like quite the same art form as the “Talkie.” Perhaps some other type of sensory experience (hopefully nothing related to smell-o-vision) will reinvent films for future audiences as well.