"Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound" A masterpiece documentary directed by the sound editor himself Interview with director Midge Costin [Director's Interview Vol.85]

On the rise of outstanding female sound designers

Q: There are several women in the sound industry who appear and testify in the film. Is the rise of excellent sound designers and sound editors like these girls a trend in the industry?　

Kostin: Today, and even in the past 20 to 40 years, there are some very talented and talented women working in the world of film sound. But in the past, there were fewer women, and even now I believe that the absolute number is very small.

As the first woman to win an Academy Award in film sound, Kaye Rose is a pioneer in the industry. Cecilia Hall, who co-supervised the sound for `` Top Gun '' (1986), says that Kaye and Victoria Sampson were the only two women active in the 1970s. After that, more women started to play an active role, but instead of all of them working as sound editors, they were mainly assigned tasks such as dialog editing. I guess people thought that editing dialogue was like sewing things together like a quilt.

And the men were editing sound effects such as explosions, gunfire, and vehicles for blockbuster action and adventure movies. However, there were exceptions to this, including Cecilia and a few others, and I was one of them in the 90s. Terry Ecton also edited gunshot sounds in Saving Saving Private Ryan (1998), and edited many creature sounds in the Star Wars series based on Ben Burtt's originals.

And perhaps the most exciting female sound designer of our time is Irene Lee. Originally from Singapore, she has been working in Hollywood for 20 years and has starred in films such as La La Land (2016), Deadpool (2016), The Maze Runner (14), and 1600. His works include "Kiro " (14) and " First Man " (18). A four-time Academy Award nominee, he is also a re-recording mixer, sound designer, and sound editor.

With this film, I wanted women and minorities to feel that they too can do this work. Therefore, it was important for me to show the success of various people and their diversity, and to express that the audio industry is open to all kinds of people.

Q: Regarding the sound of ``Top Gun,'' there is an episode in which the roar of a beast was used as the sound of flight. Did you know that Japan's `` Kaidan '' (65) is a famous piece of ``musique concrète'' in which real sounds are modulated and processed? Toru Takemitsu was in charge of the music and sound for the film, and his efforts were praised for winning a special award at the Cannes Film Festival.

Kostin: I haven't seen Kaidan, but I know about Toru Takemitsu and his musical achievements. Takemitsu worked on `` Ran '' (1985), directed by my favorite director Akira Kurosawa.

Initially, we had planned for ``Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound'' to be about international sound, including Japanese films, but we were unable to do so due to our limited budget. Therefore, this work can be said to be a film from a very American perspective. However, each country and region around the world has its own great innovators and creative minds in the field of film sound. I would love to know how film sound in those countries and regions evolved.

There are still many things that could not be depicted in this work. The history of anime, the history of stereo and multitrack, the battle for invention in the early days of sound systems, detailed stories of many people, and more. We conducted 90 interviews and 200 hours of filming. I hope that someday I can make these treasure-like materials available for people to see.

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