Perception is everything

A few years ago, I was working on the sound design for a television movie. It was the first time I was doing any serious sound effects work, and I was really excited about the whole deal. This film had been a last minute job, and the sound supervisor and myself found ourselves working through New Year's Eve to meet the January 2nd deadline to start mixing at Todd AO in Hollywood. I remember taking a break at 11 p.m. on December 31st, going home, having dinner and a glass of celebratory champagne at midnight, and going back to work at 1 a.m.

The director and the producer for this movie are fantastic people, very positive, fun and energetic. The only problem is that, at the time, the director was a bit green – this was his first feature. And, again, my first as a sound designer as well. We sat down and did a week's worth of great work together, trying out different ambiences and moods for the emotionally-charged scenes. So, after working until 6 a.m. on January 2nd, we all went home, had a shower, and headed to the re-recording stage at Vine and Hollywood.

After we loaded all the gear into the stage and set it up, the mixer did a pass of the first reel with the faders up to get an idea of what the project was about. At this point, the director went pale and said, "But that's not what I heard in back in the sound effects suite, the levels are all wrong!" It turns out he thought that I was actually mixing the film as I added sound effects during that week before. And, I, being inexperienced, failed to properly explain that what I was doing was a rough premix with the temp dialog track so that he could get a feel for how the sound effects would jell with the rest of the soundtrack.

In the end, everything turned out all right, but I made a mistake that could have been disastrous, had the director been less understanding when we explained what had happened. What I'm trying to convey with this story is that, no matter how seasoned the production team is, it is extremely important to always explain what you're doing as you're doing it. This serves two purposes, as experience has taught me: first, it covers your ass, especially if there is a third person in the room with you – it's your insurance policy should something go wrong later. The second purpose, and just as important, is to make your clients feel that they are dealing with a pro, someone they can trust. If you have a positive and friendly attitude, you can describe what you're doing without the director feeling uncomfortable. He will actually feel grateful that you care enough about his project to be thorough and proactive.

Lack of communication can lead to creating rifts in the perception of what the process is. There aren't many things that make a producer more jittery than this – the feeling that someone on the team doesn't know what they are doing, or that they are mavericks who don't care much about teamwork. So, keep the director and the producers up to speed, and not only your part in the project will be completed succesfully, but you will very possibly get a call for the next one.