Spectacle vs Resonance

I went to the movies yesterday to see "The Help". Beautifully interpreted from the book, I had been told. But it was sold-out.

"Tin-Tin", on the screen next door, however, was not.

I grew up with Tin-Tin, and loved the comic books. Beautifully imagined and beautifully drawn.

Now Stephen Spielberg takes the franchise, which he bought back in the 70s, into the 3rd Millennium.

He and Jackson have taken on a folklore that goes back many decades. For so many European children and teenagers growing up in the 50s and 60s, the Tin-Tin series were warm and wonderful fantasy, albeit in the believable adventure story sense - as opposed to the mad (but often inspiring) Super-Hero sense.

So how were these modern-day super-heroes of the film-making world going to 'realise' such popular-art icons, for the screen?

The answer? Beautifully. Sensitively. From the pictorial perspective - seductively, given the leap from the 'clear-line' technique of the original 2D visualisation to today's widescreen three-dimensional CGI.

Every shot came with chips!

So was there a problem for the die-hard fan like me!?

Yep.... and a big one.

And it is the common problem that exists everywhere and follows us through all the paths of story-telling in this hyper-commercial world of extremes within which we live.

It's all about the spectacle. Story, it would seem, repeatedly, has been reduced to a largely boring necessity upon which to hang 'breathtaking visions' and moments that are designed to make us gasp; when often the story simply required, say, a cocked eyebrow or a simple double-take. Everything now is so pumped-up, this larger-than-life obsession, especially now that SFX departments can create anything that our imaginations can dream up. continues unabated and, apparently unchallenged.

Yet, in truth, in the days following the consumption of a visual and aural feast such as these spectacles.... story is the only thing we can hang on to. It is the only thing with sense and meaning, that lingers with us. The rest is just bells and whistles.

So here we are, just one day later, and we get to see the original film we had intended to see - "The Help".

Such little history behind the director.... Tate Taylor. Apparently a child-hood friend of the first-time author, Kathryn Stockett. A first book that took 5 years to write and was turned down by more publishers than there are weeks in a year. Yet rarely have I seen a director's imprint be so gentle, a simple but expansive idea cosseted in his hands, sensitive and faithful to all the original ideas behind the book. Wow!

So what should this tell us, in this very modern world of ours? That 'story is king'? That, if we are to make a movie, we should be sure to start with a sure-fire entity like a number 1 book?!

No. Not at all.

Simply that, in art, one should never open one's mouth until one has something to say!

And if you are not the originator.... then be gracious, be respectful of those whose lives revolve around what the rest of us might live and breath!

"The Help" is a great story. One that would work in Roman times, Shakespearian times and in 21st century films too! "The Help" could be re-written as an opera. Any story that big, that universal, translates into any other popular art.

So I am a great reader, a great movie go-er and, first and foremost a great music-lover. Right here in my world this same predicament exists. The lust for pumped-up action in music is there on so many levels - it's scary!

But let me give the worst example first - simply because it is so ubiquitous that it is becoming mind-numbingly 'acceptable' (it would seem).

Rather than getting bogged down in the technical, here is an example that can be clearly heard.

The last album by Adele.

Let's be clear, the songs are good, really good, Adele's singing is fantastic. The album's sound though, is pumped up, exaggerated, unreal and ultimately very tiring to listen to.
I'm not referring to the arrangements or the musician's performances or the recording/production. I'm aggravated beyond belief by the mastering (and probably therefore, final mixing). You just cannot get beyond 3 tracks in succession without your ears feeling like they're being water-boarded. Ouch.

Why? Because of banks of compressors on the mix that ensure that every sound is as loud as the next. Exhausting. It's as if everyone's talking at once.

This destructive habit has been encouraged and made obligatory by mindless novices at record companies that get excited because their track sounds louder. Louder than anything else on radio.

No dynamics; no ebb and flow, no colour or shading - everything bright electric light white, no subtlety... no story.

Listen to one of the Lord-Alge brothers who's name has become synonymous with this 'flat-out' style of mixing explain to a 'lay' audience on the Internet how to get great mixes. Notice that of all the elements of a final mix, tone, texture, colour, width, depth, separation, cohesion, rhythm-vs-melody, clarity, selective equalisation etc etc.... he jumps straight in to his favourite compressors. Right there at the top of his list of things to discuss relevant to a great mix. He's not alone, of course, most top mixers have been obliged to become experts of this one single device. Why because it is at the heart of the 'make-everything-louder' syndrome.

If everything's 10/10 flat out - sooner or later, someone wants to be at eleven!

It's the same with the movies. Take a delightful 'flat' artwork illustration like the original Tin-Tin books and read the stories that unfold within both the words and the pictorial representation. Then experience the Spielberg/Jackson movie version. It's a bombardment - relatively. Non-stop action with almost no  thinking time, no space to linger and feel things. Hollywood throws out the same ethos through both sound and vision - everything maxxed out all the time.