Gedo Senki (Tales from Earthsea)

11th May 2006

Number 87 - The Power of Sound that Even Changes Time

On the one hand we have completed the final cutting. On the other, we are forging ahead with the processes of adding music, sound effects and voices to rolls one to four, which we had already finished cutting.

Watching the film with all the sound (even if only provisionally) there, I was surprised at how completely different it looked to what I'd seen before. That is, it was not just that the world seemed deeper and richer. My perception of time had also changed.

To put it extremely, it felt like everything took half the time it had before. A scene that with no sound added was supposed to be walking leisurely, now felt like it was over in no time. For action scenes, though, the enjoyment was doubled. That was the feeling.

I suppose that the reason is once information starts coming in through the ears, the amount of information that can come into your head through the eyes drops to half. You normally don't notice this, but I know well how much you are pulled by the strength of the sound when watching images on film.

And it's surprising, and also frightening, how much your impressions change because of the power of sound. If you use that power well, the film goes in a better direction, but if used poorly, it will not become the film you imagined.

In any case there isn't that much time available to spend on sound related work. I am keeping my ears open to make sure everything does not fall apart at the very end.