Making Waves - La magie du son au cinéma

I was disappointed. Instead of going into the depths of sound, the film mostly focuses on talking heads, including directors as well as sound pros. There's a short history of sound in films (not just speech), and a short segment about the categories of sound production. These were good but far too short and shallow. I felt like I'd seen a promo, hagiography even, for the sound professions instead of a doc. Those professions deserve a much deeper and more detailed documentary.

An in-depth exploration of the evolution of sound in cinema over the years, Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound offers an informative & interesting insight into the creative process of a filmmaking component that plays as integral & essential a role in storytelling as any and it also covers the various breakthroughs & advancements that made it an inseparable part of cinema.

Directed by Midge Costin, the documentary acquaints the viewers with the visceral & emotional power of sound in a film and how the aural elements enrich the imagery & elevate the cinematic experience by influencing our reaction & response almost subconsciously. It features interviews from legendary sound designers & filmmakers and also incorporates clips from films that raised the bar.

The film also provides an overview of the origins of sound in cinema, technological limitations in those early years, ups n downs throughout the decades, groundbreaking feats during the 1970s, and also details the different aspects of sound design (voices, SFX, ADR, editing, mixing, score) and how these separate pieces together work in tandem to deliver the aural experience that works best with the visuals.

Overall, Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound is an illuminating, entertaining & enthralling documentary that illustrates the collaborative effort that goes into making a motion picture and showcases how sound makes as important a contribution as camera in the filmmaking medium. After all, we experience films as much with our ears as we do with our eyes. An absolute delight & a definite must-see for every film lover.

If you're a fan of cinema and audio, Making Waves: The Art Of Cinematic Sound is a fascinating and informative documentary movie.

But I had a few issues with the film. 1. Even though Ioan Allen was interviewed, Making Waves neglected to mention other major contributions of Dolby Laboratories to surround sound in movies, like Dolby Stereo and Atmos.

2. They hardly mentioned anything about Jack Foley--you know, the man they named foley sound effects after.

3. Making Waves featured so many legends in the movie industry, so how can you talk about film scores and not interview John Williams!?!

4. And what about Lucasfilm THX, who helped elevate presentation quality standards for movies in cinema and home?

Granted, there's a lot to cover in the history of cinema sound, but the film overlooked some of the most significant contributions.

For a film nerd, this is fascinating. It is entertaining, intriguing and educational. For non-film nerds, this is probably a bore, though it may open some eyes and ears. Sound is the forgotten and overlooked aspect of filmmaking and for the vast majority of filmgoers it will sadly, for these very essential artists, always remain so. One note of concern for me. This is all about sound in film in this digital age of being able to control and alter nearly everything including voices and the same applies to audio recordings and the alteration of singers' voices to make then sound better, to improve their vocal quality. This was brought to mind by the appearance of Streisand and her "My Man" comments. She has one of the great voices of the modern era, but she hasn't made a recording in many years that doesn't sound over-manufactured. It's all very pretty, but much of it sounds artificial without any real feeling involved. It sounds dishonest. I use her as an example as I've followed her since the 60's and can hear the difference, but I'm sure this is much more true with far less talented singers than her, but who can tell?! This is something that I don't like about the manipulation of sound that we have nowadays, but this documentary is about film and it is what I said it was. A must for film nerds. The Star Wars and Saving Private Ryan examples were awesome, but so are some others. These are very important and creative people in the creation of making films.

I love music and I love music in movies, but besides music there are lots of people working on a movie that do nothing else but get the sound right of people talking, wind rushing throuhg the trees, robots squeeking and water streaming.

Amazing to see how BIG these sound studios are in which all these sound artist create the perfect sound that accompanies the images. Sound is emotion and I really value good sound in a movie.

This documentary features some of the biggest classics in American cinema, like "The Godfather", "Apocalypse Now", "Star Wars", but also some movies that might not seem so classic but still truly are because of the use of new techniques in sound editing, like "Toy Story", which was the first movie which was totally digitally edited.

Even Barbara Streisand of all people has played an important part in movie sound history because one of her seventies movies was the first to be recorded IN STEREO!

Lots and lots of interviews with sound editors, who show HOW they created sounds for the biggest movie classics in history. What a joy to watch! Recommended for the fans of the technical parts of a movie, but also for the casual viewer because it is a revelation to learn how they create these magical sounds in these classic movies that have mesmirized me to this very day!