The Loud Debate Over Trailers

There’s another “Big Sound” this summer: the annoyingly loud action-adventure films and trailers playing in neighborhood theaters.

It’s all part of the sound wars that started a couple of years ago when the industry adopted three competing digital formats (Dolby digital, Digital Theater Sound and Sony Dynamic Digital Sound)--virtually blowing the lid off what we hear in theaters.

To make matters worse, even the trailer industry has joined the fray in the last year, raising the decibel level higher since incorporating both stereo and digital for the first time.

Filmgoers, naturally, are caught in the middle, with complaints and threatened lawsuits against theaters rapidly increasing. (There’s even an old THX promo playing with “Batman & Robin” that pokes fun of the issue using characters from “The Simpsons.”)

So now a few frustrated members of the sound community have gotten together with the National Assn. of Theater Owners and film distributors to try to “restore sanity” by persuading the creative community to lower the decibel level.

“The situation is out of perspective because the trailers are too loud,” says Ioan Allen, vice president of Dolby Labs, who has implemented a new method of measuring the sustained decibel levels of trailers and films that he will present next month to a NATO technical committee.

“For instance, a roll of gunshots go from surprise to annoyance,” Allen says. “We can then match the levels with a hierarchy of films. Now the mixers can go to directors and say, ‘This is too loud--it’s in the red.’ Whether a director will do anything about it is another story.

“I’m meeting with some of the trailer companies, who want to have a truce. Once we get them to lower their sound a bit, then we can address some of the features--the ‘ride movies’--that play too loud.”

Yet the sound wars are fierce: Studios are vying for event film dominance, theaters are trying to keep pace by implementing the digital formats and trailer companies are caught up in their own loudness competition.

And because trailers for action-adventures are frequently louder than the films they’re advertising, the trailer community has become the scapegoat.

“This is advertising and it’s all part of the creative process to sell tickets,” says Steve Panama, executive vice president of Kaleidoscope Films, the preeminent trailer production company. “We want the same sound quality as features and now we’ve got it. We’ve invested in this technology because audiences want it. Let’s face it, you have to deliver the goods.

“Is it louder? Yes. But how loud it is, is a part of theater management policy. It’s an exhibition issue for us, not a creative issue. If it’s a big action-adventure, it’s obviously going to be louder than a regular drama.”

The problem for theaters is that when forced to lower the sound of trailers, the films may play so low that the dialogue can’t be heard. This is because most large chains rely on automated equipment incapable of adjusting the volume between trailers and films.

Even those chains that employ projectionists have difficulty coping with “insanely loud” trailers.

“We’re one of the precious few theaters that still have full-time projectionists, but we don’t have the luxury to attend to sound full time,” complains Paul Rayton, senior projectionist of General Cinema’s Hollywood Galaxy 6.

“Right now I have loud trailers accompanying ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding,’ ” Rayton adds. “If I turn down the volume [for the trailers], then the feature volume must be turned up at an appropriate level. And if this is happening on multiple screens, I’m running back and forth in a neurotic state.”

Rayton confirms that trailers aren’t the only loudness culprits. There are also those bothersome cast and crew and press screenings when the volume is “jacked up” at the request of producers and directors. Even “Evita” allegedly played too loudly during a couple of its screenings.

NATO, however, believes it may have a solution: “Our No. 1 complaint right now is loudness for trailers,” says J. Wayne Anderson, chairman of the NATO technical committee that is studying the problem. “No. 2 is loudness for features. Our committee will be meeting Aug. 2 at Dolby Labs to devise a recommended decibel level for trailers using Ioan’s measuring system. In all honesty, if you can control the trailers, features will take care of itself.

“When you have a new toy, you want to play it to the max. We do not want to take away from the creative community this artistic ability. We only want to use this as a recommendation and then turn it over to the MPAA [Motion Picture Assn. of America] and let them police it. Then they can go into the mixing stages and say that if it doesn’t meet [the standards], the exhibitors won’t play it. It’s tough, but we have to try.”

Distribution executives, caught between creative and marketing powers, are as frustrated as anyone: “I wish these sound guys could get together with the trailer companies and standardize the sound level for trailers,” laments Barry Reardon, Warner Bros. president of distribution. “It’s either too loud or too soft. There has to be something they can do.”

But industry insiders caution that it’s not easy determining what’s too loud.

“What is good for you is not good for me,” says Fox Domestic Film Group chairman Tom Sherak. “The bottom line is, it’s up to the patronage of the theater. All the studio can do is make the best presentation. Then it’s up to the theater to make the proper adjustment so we don’t blow people right out of the theater.”

Since THX and Dolby have been responsible for many of the latest technological achievements in film sound, some blame them for starting the sound wars. After all, it all began with that infamous tag: “The audience is listening . . . “

“I cringe sometimes at the abuse going on because we helped provide some of the tools,” says Tom Holman, the inventor of THX. “At the same time, digital has broken barriers and lifted barriers. ‘Shine’ is a perfect example. In the scene when he [David Helfgott] has his breakdown playing the piano concerto, the decibel level reaches aloud crescendo. But this is not sustained throughout.”

Holman, who has taken his own measurements, believes films have been getting louder for 20 years. “What’s happened,” he says, “is that digital now allows you to hear the level of the actual mix, and more theaters are better equipped today to provide a louder sound.”

While many in the industry are unwilling to admit that filmgoers are in jeopardy of suffering ear damage from excessive loudness, editor and sound designer Walter Murch is not. The multiple Oscar-winner this year for “The English Patient” not only warns that anything above 90 decibels is potentially damaging but that contemporary films routinely have sound effects and music tracks rising 25-30 decibels higher than dialogue.

“In mixing a film, I hold the loudest sounds to 16-20 decibels over the dialogue,” Murch says. “It’s interesting that in the ‘30s and ‘40s, the average over the dialogue was six decibels.”

Many prominent members of the sound community, on the other hand, are quick to point out that some of their colleagues may be at risk from the excessive loudness.

“I watch the mixers do something I’ve never seen before--they’re stepping outside of the mixing rooms,” says Bill Varney, vice president of sound operations for Universal, as well as a two-time Oscar winner for “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “The Empire Strikes Back.”

“They have to get out of their environment to rest their ears. I know mixers who have suffered ear damage. If we, the industry, don’t police this now, the government will step in and regulate us. I don’t want to see that.”

But sound mixers aren’t complaining to the Occupational Safety Health Administration in sufficient numbers to warrant a more sweeping investigation, according to Cal OSHA spokesman Troy Swauger.

Allen claims he knows why: “The reason the mixers aren’t complaining is because many of them have been issued ear pads by the film companies who want to avoid lawsuits,” he says. “We think that after 10 years, there’d be evidence of damage to the mixer who does trailers for more than four or five hours a day.”

Two prominent craftsmen, sound designer Gary Rydstrom (Oscar-winner for “Jurassic Park” and “Terminator 2”) and supervising sound editor Bruce Stambler (Oscar-winner for “The Ghost and the Darkness”), agree the situation has gone too far.

“There’s a lot of competition with action films, but it’s a mistake when filmmakers and mixers think loud is exciting,” Rydstrom says. “Dynamics equals exciting, I think it’s our fault if they get too loud too often. Filmmakers have this new toy, but they need to learn how to use it more selectively. I try to pick and choose those moments that are most effective.”

Meanwhile, Stambler, who most recently worked on “Batman & Robin,” draws a distinction between loudness and pain: “Loud doesn’t hurt you but painful does, and I have a problem with that. ‘The Fugitive,’ which I did, was loud but not painful. ‘Speed’ was loud and painful, I think. The problem is that the same people are listening to the soundtrack over and over again in the dubbing environment and they lose the context.

“By context, I mean how it will sound to someone walking into the theater. But features are getting better. There are still a few that go over the top. It’s a learning curve for all of us.”