I used to be able to understand 99% of the dialogue in Hollywood films. But over the past 10 years or so, I've noticed that percentage has dropped significantly — and it's not due to hearing loss on my end. It's gotten to the point where I find myself occasionally not being able to parse entire lines of dialogue when I see a movie in a theater, and when I watch things at home, I've defaulted to turning the subtitles on to make sure I don't miss anything crucial to the plot.
Knowing I'm not alone in having these experiences, I reached out to several professional sound editors, designers, and mixers, many of whom have won Oscars for their work on some of Hollywood's biggest films, to get to the bottom of what's going on. One person refused to talk to me, saying it would be "professional suicide" to address this topic on the record. Another agreed to talk, but only under the condition that they remain anonymous. But several others spoke openly about the topic, and it quickly became apparent that this is a familiar subject among the folks in the sound community, since they're the ones who often bear the brunt of complaints about dialogue intelligibility.
First 1/2 of my brain: Oh my gosh! I’m so excited for this! The actors seem like they understand the characters so much! They got Rick Riordan to help make it like the books, and there’s going to be 8 whole episodes!
Second 1/2 of my brain: Hold on.
First 1/2: Huh? What?
Second 1/2: Remember what happened last time Disney was in charge of adapting a book series that we discovered in school?
First 1/2: But we never saw the BFG, and The Witches was tragically taken down, but that’s the fault of HBO MAX.
Second 1/2: Not those.
First 1/2: We haven’t watched the CGI Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
Second 1/2: Not that either.
First 1/2: Well then what are you talking abou- oh.
Second 1/2: Yup.
First 1/2: I thought we repressed that.
Second 1/2: We did, but skepticism demands we look at all available evidence.
First 1/2: It-it won’t be like that, that had major editing problems and was confined to a 2-hour time frame. Something that bad can’t happen again… right?
Second 1/2: Well, they did light up the Empire State Building blue, that at least shows that they’re willing to put a lot of funding towards it. But given the mouse’s track record for canceling things that don’t work with their “Standards and Practices” I don’t know. I guess we should just be willing to forgive but don’t forget anything that they’ve done before.
First 1/2: Okay… I’m still excited though.
Second 1/2: Oh, me too!
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I would say you could be somewhere better than here, but I don’t have much room to talk
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