out post sound blog

I am becoming more and more disillusioned with the big multiplexes and their attitude to sound. In Brighton we have a Cineworld in the Marina and Odeon in the centre of the city. Yet, neither of them seem to be able to consistently provide audio that is problem free and more to the point don’t have staff that are able to recognise these blatantly obvious problems!

Lets start with Cineworld. A while ago I attended a performance of ‘Toy Story 3’ where the trailers didn’t sound right. Something that, in my experience, often happens but immediately puts me on my guard. The problem was that the front left and right channels were out and the surrounds were blaring!

So, the film starts and unsurprisingly it sounds exactly the same. Now at this point I am thinking I am sure Pixar haven’t started a new method of mixing movies but, wanting to give the benefit of the doubt, I waited for a few minutes listening and watching. Unfortunately, I could bear it no longer and left the screen upsetting several small children as I squeezed past them.

On arrival back in the foyer I ask to see the general manager who admits to me almost straight away that yes indeed there is a problem with the sound in that screen. I try to explain to him that the film should not be shown, that the audience are loosing a massive amount of audio information with the L/R channels out of action. His response was, well we turned the surrounds up to compensate! After explaining that this would actually not achieve the required results he said: “What are we supposed to do? Not show the film?” to which I answered yes or at the very least the cinema should clearly post a notice notifying viewers of the problem so that they can make an educated decision as to wether or not they still want to view. I was issued a refund and also given two comps, unfortunately this was on top of the four I had been issued the previous month because a 3D showing of Shrek was unwatchable due to a projector problem!

At this point I decided to avoid Cineworld.

So, of late I have been attending the Odeon until I went to see ‘Attack The Block’. Again sitting through the trailers my ears were basically bleeding as the only speaker that was functioning was the centre. Of course, to compensate the projectionist had just turned it up! Great, so all I can hear is dialogue now and a film in glorious mono.

So, again I speak to the guy on duty who speaks to the projectionist on the walkie talkie. The projectionist denies there is a problem because he can hear it! I explain that hearing it is not really the issue and of course the projectionist is listening to it on a mono speaker in the projection room.

The duty manager is called and she tries to tell me that not all films are mixed in stereo/surround? What? I know this might have been the case 20 years ago but you can’t tell me that this Sci-Fi movie is mixed in mono? After arguing the toss, she agrees to issue me with a refund if I go down to the box office. On arrival I explain I am here for the refund from screening of ‘Attack the Block’ whereby the box office staff say something along the lines of: “Oh yes, there has been a problem with the sound in that screen!” The box office staff knew. The duty manager didn’t seem to and more to the point, nobody actually seemed to care.

With the amount of time, skill and dedication that goes into providing an immersive sound track multiplex cinemas should be providing better training to their staff to understand what a modern film should sound like. I find it appalling that cinemas are allowing films to be shown with faulty playback systems and not informing or even admitting to audience members that this is the case. It is expensive enough to go to see a movie these days but when only 1/6th of the audio is being reproduced it is inexcusable.  If only 1/6th of the picture was being shown I am sure audiences would soon complain.

Sort it out multiplexes... it really is out of order!