Background

The film world has been through quite a few changes over the past few years. New technology makes the production process easier and a lot cheaper. Many more people have the means to make films, new film cultures shoot up like mushrooms in unknown places, and different parts of the production process are able to work together more dynamically instead of following on from each other. The audiovisual media seems to have taken centre stage in our society. Because of this, the multimedia music - that is used in film, television, the internet, games or advertising - is becoming more important. Music and Film academies in the Netherlands are noticing a growth in student numbers. Once students finish their courses, they enter a big jungle, which is called the market. The biggest complaints are that there are no organised structures such as unions, that sound is often the last stage in the production process, meaning composers have very little time to create sound, and because of that often the first thing to be shortened butgetwise (source: Rens Machielse Head of Utrecht School of Music and Technology at Utrecht School of the Arts, senior lecturer composition for the media at HKU, expressed in September 2005).

Both film theory and film manifestations have always focused on the visual component. In 2005, the same year Unheard Film Festival came to life, composers and sound designers across the Netherlands (Muziek Instituut MultiMedia) as well as in Europe (FFACE) created a initiative to organise and give multimedia music professionals more exposure. Traditionally, a film festival is brought to life because of a certain genre, or to shine light on a certain dot on the map or to present a new release to the public. The Unheard Film Festival, however, came to exist as a seed of its generation, creating the need for a new attitude towards film. The technological developments also seem to have had a positive effect on the content. For example: film music is no longer left until the end of the production process because of budgetary constraints. Instead, music can be introduced to film-making at an earlier stage and act as inspiration for the rest of the film. During the editing process, music, sound and image can all be used together to construct one solid film experience. It became clear that young professionals needed new structure and change in the production process. Unheard Film wanted to respond to this demand and stimulate new reflection.


A new path

"Films are 50 percent visual and 50 percent sound. Sometimes sound even overplays the visual." (David Lynch)

World famous directors like David Lynch, Tarkovsky, Quentin Tarantino and Francis Ford Coppola, have created their own identity in the film world, often thanks to their unconventional view and use of sound. An influential sound designer and editor, Walter Murch, has developed interesting ideas on this subject since the sixties. He has worked on numerous occasions with Francis Ford Coppola and you could say he is partly responsible for the identity this director has achieved through his films. Walter Murch believes that the best results come when a director involves the sound designer throughout the whole process. The director takes responsibility for the image and the sound designer is obviously responsible for sound. The whole idea is that sound's role in the film-making process  is an important one. Film is the total experience of image and sound, colliding together to tell a tale. Sound design has become an institutionalised part of the programme at many film and music academies, but it still hasn't grown to its true potential. Herein lies a great challenge for the (Dutch) Film industry. Sound still has to conquer a place in the film world and be recognised for the gift it adds to film.

Unheard Film is inspired by new technology in the audiovisual industry, and Walter Murch's theory. Unheard Film sees the chance to lift the (Dutch) cinema to a new standard.