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Mumble-gate: Negotiating Theory and Practice in Television's Production Hierarchy

Mumble-gate: Negotiating Theory and Practice in Television's Production Hierarchy This article examines the professional practices of those working in sound within modern television's production hierarchy. It argues that, due to a range of factors, sound professionals working in television identify their work as marginalised and their position within the production hierarchy as continually eroded. In recent years television sound has been propelled into public consciousness due to a number of high profile incidents of inaudible dialogue. Dubbed `' by many within the industry, this issue reached its peak with 2014 BBC drama Jamaica Inn, which attracted 2,200 complaints (BBC News 2014). However, the working practices of those responsible for capturing and perfecting a programme's soundtrack, as well as details of the environment in which they work, remain elusive and misunderstood by many. Bringing together extensive new oral history research from multiple professional sound operators with the contextual accounts of wider production personnel this article uses the opportunity this current scrutiny presents to address the relationship between modern professional practice and what is heard by the audience at home. This article argues that the erosion of sound in the production hierarchy The New Soundtrack 7.1 (2017): 47­65 DOI: 10.3366/sound.2017.0096 # Edinburgh University Press and www.euppublishing.com/sound KEYWORDS television hierarchy http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The New Soundtrack Edinburgh University Press

Mumble-gate: Negotiating Theory and Practice in Television's Production Hierarchy

Heath, Tim
The New Soundtrack , Volume 7 (1): 47 – Mar 1, 2017
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Publisher
Edinburgh University Press
Copyright
© Edinburgh University Press and Tim Heath
Subject
Articles; Film, Media and Cultural Studies
ISSN
2042-8855
eISSN
2042-8863
DOI
10.3366/sound.2017.0096
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

This article examines the professional practices of those working in sound within modern television's production hierarchy. It argues that, due to a range of factors, sound professionals working in television identify their work as marginalised and their position within the production hierarchy as continually eroded. In recent years television sound has been propelled into public consciousness due to a number of high profile incidents of inaudible dialogue. Dubbed `' by many within the industry, this issue reached its peak with 2014 BBC drama Jamaica Inn, which attracted 2,200 complaints (BBC News 2014). However, the working practices of those responsible for capturing and perfecting a programme's soundtrack, as well as details of the environment in which they work, remain elusive and misunderstood by many. Bringing together extensive new oral history research from multiple professional sound operators with the contextual accounts of wider production personnel this article uses the opportunity this current scrutiny presents to address the relationship between modern professional practice and what is heard by the audience at home. This article argues that the erosion of sound in the production hierarchy The New Soundtrack 7.1 (2017): 47­65 DOI: 10.3366/sound.2017.0096 # Edinburgh University Press and www.euppublishing.com/sound KEYWORDS television hierarchy

Journal

The New Soundtrack – Edinburgh University Press

Published: Mar 1, 2017

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