A re-occuring theme seems to be many filmmakers' preoccupation with the visual side of filmmaking at the expense of knowledge/care when it comes to the audio side of things. The result is that many films which succeed in getting through the most difficult step, the selection process, end up either not being screened or possibly worse, end up being screened with fairly disastrous consequences.
Most film festivals require entrance submissions on DVD (and sometimes other consumer formats). This is fine and easy for virtually all low/no budget filmmakers. However, once accepted, the bigger film festivals will require a projection (or exhibition) copy of your film and the specifications for this projection copy are far more tricky to comply with and particularly when it comes to the audio specs, poorly understood by many filmmakers. An area which causes many problems is specs which appear to allow the submission of stereo sound.
As I discussed and explained in this Stereo Warning thread, stereo sound is far and away the most popular format for TV broadcast, youtube (and other internet distribution) and for the music business but it is not, nor has it ever been, a film audio format. The mistake made by many is not appreciating that the term "stereo" frequently has a very different meaning in the film industry to any of the other industries!
This confusion stems from the fact that the term "stereophonic" (or stereo for short) is widely misused. It is commonly used to mean 2 channel (left, right) sound but is actually defined as a method of sound reproduction which creates an illusion of audible perspective. Therefore, even 5.1 surround sound can legitimately be called "stereophonic" or stereo. The confusion is made worse by the fact that from the mid 70s to the mid 90s "Dolby Stereo" was the most common film audio format. Dolby Stereo (and it's consumer equivalent, Dolby ProLogic) is recorded to two channels and is compatible with all 2.0 stereo systems but is in fact a 4 channel format (Left, Centre, Right, Surround). During re-recording, a Dolby encoder takes the 4 channels and encodes them into two channels, these two channels are referred to as Left total and Right total (LtRt) to differentiate them from the Left only, Right only (LoRo) which is standard 2.0 stereo. On playback in a cinema, this LtRt mix passes through a Dolby decoder which recreates the original 4 channel LCRS mix.
It's actually quite difficult (until it's decoded) to tell the difference between an LtRt mix and a LoRo mix and some festivals may not bother checking. If you submit your film with an LoRo stereo mix when an LtRt mix is required, your film maybe rejected for screening. Those festivals which don't check will screen your film and the Dolby decoder will attempt to decode your LoRo mix. The result of this decoding process on an LoRo mix is unpredictable but commonly, parts of the music mix, certain stereo sound effects and even sometimes the dialogue itself can play from the wrong speaker or jump to a different speaker. Unfortunately, the speaker it's most likely to jump to is the surround speaker. Obviously, having parts of your sound mix (possibly the dialogue itself) suddenly jump from say the centre speaker to the surround speaker in mid sentence is going to pretty much destroy your screening.
In short, you should never use 2.0 stereo for any screening in a cinema, even if the specifications appear to imply that stereo is an accepted audio format. However, small, regional film festivals usually have very limited funds/resources, maybe using a temporary venue rather than a cinema for screening and may only have a 2.0 stereo system. So, you need to check and be sure you clearly understand what the festival is after, especially if they specify stereo as the audio format!
G
Most film festivals require entrance submissions on DVD (and sometimes other consumer formats). This is fine and easy for virtually all low/no budget filmmakers. However, once accepted, the bigger film festivals will require a projection (or exhibition) copy of your film and the specifications for this projection copy are far more tricky to comply with and particularly when it comes to the audio specs, poorly understood by many filmmakers. An area which causes many problems is specs which appear to allow the submission of stereo sound.
As I discussed and explained in this Stereo Warning thread, stereo sound is far and away the most popular format for TV broadcast, youtube (and other internet distribution) and for the music business but it is not, nor has it ever been, a film audio format. The mistake made by many is not appreciating that the term "stereo" frequently has a very different meaning in the film industry to any of the other industries!
This confusion stems from the fact that the term "stereophonic" (or stereo for short) is widely misused. It is commonly used to mean 2 channel (left, right) sound but is actually defined as a method of sound reproduction which creates an illusion of audible perspective. Therefore, even 5.1 surround sound can legitimately be called "stereophonic" or stereo. The confusion is made worse by the fact that from the mid 70s to the mid 90s "Dolby Stereo" was the most common film audio format. Dolby Stereo (and it's consumer equivalent, Dolby ProLogic) is recorded to two channels and is compatible with all 2.0 stereo systems but is in fact a 4 channel format (Left, Centre, Right, Surround). During re-recording, a Dolby encoder takes the 4 channels and encodes them into two channels, these two channels are referred to as Left total and Right total (LtRt) to differentiate them from the Left only, Right only (LoRo) which is standard 2.0 stereo. On playback in a cinema, this LtRt mix passes through a Dolby decoder which recreates the original 4 channel LCRS mix.
It's actually quite difficult (until it's decoded) to tell the difference between an LtRt mix and a LoRo mix and some festivals may not bother checking. If you submit your film with an LoRo stereo mix when an LtRt mix is required, your film maybe rejected for screening. Those festivals which don't check will screen your film and the Dolby decoder will attempt to decode your LoRo mix. The result of this decoding process on an LoRo mix is unpredictable but commonly, parts of the music mix, certain stereo sound effects and even sometimes the dialogue itself can play from the wrong speaker or jump to a different speaker. Unfortunately, the speaker it's most likely to jump to is the surround speaker. Obviously, having parts of your sound mix (possibly the dialogue itself) suddenly jump from say the centre speaker to the surround speaker in mid sentence is going to pretty much destroy your screening.
In short, you should never use 2.0 stereo for any screening in a cinema, even if the specifications appear to imply that stereo is an accepted audio format. However, small, regional film festivals usually have very limited funds/resources, maybe using a temporary venue rather than a cinema for screening and may only have a 2.0 stereo system. So, you need to check and be sure you clearly understand what the festival is after, especially if they specify stereo as the audio format!
G
