Although most people are familiar with the fact that Thomas Edison invented the phonograph, most are also unaware that he was also instrumental in the creation of the motion picture in his quest to visually enhance the phonograph’s auditory experience. Unfortunately, the technology of the first quarter of the 20th century was not able to sync picture and sound, but the fact remains that the visual and auditory components of a film were tied together from the birth of cinema, and sound has always played a huge yet under-appreciated role in one’s movie-going experience. Making Waves, the documentary debut of acclaimed sound editor and USC professor Midge Costin, is a simultaneously entertaining as well as highly educational film that highlights the often-overlooked work of sound design, and attempts to place sound back in its proper place as the equal counterpart of picture.
Making Waves is organized into three sections: first, an introduction to sound and its power to emotionally enhance a film; secondly, an hour-long overview of the history of sound design, which includes clips from a variety of important films, as well as interviews with famous directors and sound editors; and finally, a slightly more didactic yet still enthralling discussion of the different components of sound design. It is a concise, polished, and impassioned film that champions the difficult and under-appreciated work of sound editors, and contains just enough detail to be entertaining for both a general audience and for cinephiles. The first section of the film demonstrates that sound has the unique ability to heighten the audience’s emotional response to a film. Modern audiences pay little attention to the sounds of a film because the effect of sound design is often subliminal, when in reality, sound can induce raw emotion in an audience more powerfully than can picture.
The longest and most entertaining of Making Waves’s three sections analyzes clips of films that are important to the history of sound design, as well as interviews with many recognizable names such as Barbara Streisand, Steven Spielberg, Robert Redford, Sofia Coppola, and Christopher Nolan. The historical overview opens with the assertion that silent films were rarely ever completely silent, as they were often accompanied by live orchestras, dialogue from voice actors, and sound effects from offstage. While Don Juan (1926) was the first film to sync sound and picture, The Jazz Singer of the following year is often credited as the first true “talkie.” Audio technology then advanced rapidly and studios scrambled to catch up, and sound effects became codified, with each studio having their own repertoire of stock sound effects, until 1933’s King Kong, which played recordings of lion and tiger roars backwards in order to create believable monster sounds. Once Making Waves reaches the 1970s, the film moves away from cinematic macrohistory and instead begins to focus on specific individuals who were important to sound design: Water Murch, who had a cinematic partnership with Francis Ford Coppola; Ben Burtt, who won an Academy Award for his work on Star Wars; and Gary Rydstrom, who worked on Toy Story and other animated films. Making Waves also makes a valiant effort to include women and people of color in its discussion of sound design, including directors Ryan Coogler and Ang Lee, as well as sound editors Pat Jackson (Apocalypse Now, The English Patient) and Cece Hall (Top Gun).
The final section of Making Waves provides insight into the three different aspects of sound design: sound effects, dialogue, and music. It likens the interplay of these three components to a “circle of talent,” like an orchestra, and spends perhaps 20 or 30 minutes giving a concise and informative overview of the many different types of sound editors. This reinforces the idea that a great film is not just created by a director and their actors, but through a huge collective effort of tens or hundreds of people, all with various, rarely acknowledged tasks. Making Waves dignifies and highlights the Oscar categories that we skip over in anticipation of the major awards, and demonstrates how, just like picture, sound is an art form that has the ability to conjure emotion and meaning. The film challenges its audience to pay attention to an aspect of cinema that is often taken for granted, and one will hopefully walk out of the theater with a different approach towards film and the ability to appreciate it through fresh ears.
4/5 STARS