Let me ask. When you visit a local theater, especially an IMAX or a Dolby Atmos theater, have you ever questioned whether real-life sounds are truly this loud? For example, think of a dialogue scene between two actors in an outdoor setting, where the only other commotion you should hear is other people walking, rustling, and talking. Do you notice that the scene tends to give you the feeling you're in a very loud bar, or on a rowdy school bus? Have you noticed that dialogue seems to shout at you mainly from a front/center speaker in the theater?
Photo by Marius GIRE on Unsplash
Does it have to be quite so loud? Well, certainly, if a gunshot goes off in the movie, it should be quite deafening! In America, this can be thought of as maximum impact––"the money-maker". Movie goers expect the performance to be loud to the brink of a meltdown. But even symphonic crescendos, such as that, right before a scream in a horror movie, can be quite teething and nothing to seek when you're watching a movie in bed with the kids upstairs asleep.
Movie theaters are often fitted with speaker systems you'd likely see at a rock concert, but much higher quality, and perfectly tuned and calibrated for the theater. At least, that's the intent. Theater companies want viewers to "live" the movie, not just witness the actions on a screen 100 feet away. So, the movies tend to be quite loud, since the speakers may also be quite far away from where the audience sits, and they can't afford to surround every seat with its own personal system (at least, not yet).
But this isn't the full truth. Movies don't exactly sound like you're at a concert. I often will watch movies in my mastering room because, I want to hear it exactly as it was mastered. Watching Dune and Dune II are perfect examples. If you saw either flick in theaters, your impression might have been that they were loud and impactful. However, in my room, I can hear dialogue between two characters just as they might sound in real life. This is my level calibration.
Here's the problem I have: Dialogue is one thing, but a crash, gunshot, or boom is another. Those incidents don't seem to produce the same impact as I'd expect. A gunshot should be deafening (It is in real life. Have you stood next to a pistol as it was fired off? Can't hear much for a few seconds, can you?).
What gives?
In brutal honesty, there's a battle between realistic and dynamic. Unfortunately, most speaker systems can't replicate the sound of say, a rocket, which, in itself, is deafening. And if you tried replicating the perspective levels of loud actions to realistically mimic real life, next to dialogue, the voices couldn't be heard.
Why not? Well, think about it. Place yourself in a large, packed 400-capacity movie theater. You're sitting in the back row. Can you hear what rowdy teenagers on the front row are saying? Nope! Unless they're disruptively loud in a dead quiet theater, you might only hear their loudest, obnoxious behavior. Therefore, at a realistic level, how could you understand what any actors on the screen are saying, when they're talking at a dinner table? This is why stage actors seem to yell their lines toward the audience.
But I can hear the realistically replicated dialogue in my mastering room. Sure, but it's a much smaller space, and I'm only nine feet away from my speakers. Although my speakers cannot truly replicate a large boom as if a bomb exploded (no practical system can), the dialogue is not yelling at me.
It begs the question.
Are movie theaters faithful to the movie production? Probably not. Even Dolby Atmos is quite ineffective in a chamber with speakers that must be cranked to 11 to be heard. Only in a room where very large speakers can be driven merely to a suitable level, but where they have the capability to produce any effect necessary, can you even begin to appreciate the true nature of movie production.
It's unfortunate but theaters can't all be intimate rooms for tiny groups, nor can they afford to produce personal speaker systems for each viewer. They must make their money and must accommodate large audiences. After all, I'm sure movie theater companies aren't raking in the billions as those who produce the films. Some releases actually can lose money. Ask Fred Durst and John Travolta.
Is Dolby Atmos great in theaters? In my opinion, they're really not much better than an IMAX room with general Surround sound, although there are some marginal improvements due to how the movie can be mixed. Perhaps this is a nod to how well Surround has served theaters up until now, but Dolby seems to only truly give you that added depth of certain sounds that move around the room, and unfortunately, unless you're seated in the center of the room, they're not as convincing, since the speakers are statically mounted, and viewers can be anywhere in the room.
Trinnov or bust.
I have no doubt that great technologies, perhaps such as Trinnov, or the like are in play for Dolby Atmos theaters to bring them closer to perfection, and for good reason. But where room-correction and such provides a more calibrated environment, the sheer volume of sound in the room tends to overshadow that technology. So, what's the solution? Can we somehow create a theater where the sound is exquisite, meanwhile accommodate a wide audience? The answer is: Probably not in my lifetime. Dolby is cleverly good. Room correction is cleverly good. Movies are mixes and produced in a way that is cleverly good. But the damn room leaves a lot to be desired. I can say with complete honesty, I have never EVER heard a commercial movie theater I thought was right. Not a single one.
Still, the movie rooms we have today are millenniums better than the massive 800-seat stereo rooms where I watched Back To The Future in 1985. Those rooms were atrocious to say the least, and that's putting it nicely. So, while you can't have your cake and eat it too, I can only prepare you for what to expect.
Obviously, you know a movie is only that...a movie. So, go see Alien: Romulus as I did with the expectation that you will enjoy it, but don't focus on how unconvincingly and overwhelmingly loud the experience is. Wear earplugs if you must, but thankfully, your ears shouldn't ring afterward even without. At least the production teams were extra careful there.
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