Mix Analysis 13 Man on Wire

Man on Wire

year: 2008

Sound Editor: Claire Ellis

also worked on: For No Good Reason, The War You Don’t See

Sound Re-recording engineer: George Foulgham

Also worked on: Project Nim, The King’s Speech: Revealed

Scene 1

Philippe Petit begins by talking about the set up for the tightrope walk across the World Trade Center, it’s very ominous and foreboding

0:51-1:51

Time          SFX 1           SFX 2                  Music                  Ambiance             Dialogue

0:51                                                                                     Rain falling              Philippe

0:53                                          Serious music begins

1:04      Hammer hitting nail (low)

1:26       Radio broadcast in the background                   Rain sound lower

1:37                                                                                                         Speaking (in French)

1:40   Television broadcast

Scene 2 The group is talking about Philippe’s preparation and the time winding down on when they want to go onto the World Trade Center

50:50-51:50

Time             SFX 1               SFX 2                       Music                  Ambiance                    Dialogue

50:50                                                                                            Traffic sounds    Jean-Louis Speaking

51:00                                                                                                                           Philippe speaking

51:09                                                 Another, older video, is show in the background of the group

51:28                                                                                   Muffled dialogue from old video

51:50                                                                                                                         Dialogue still going

I picked Man on Wire to look at since it is a documentary and it’s a very interesting one at that. It follows the story of a French tightrope walker and acrobat Philippe Petit as he plans to set up a wire and walk across the World Trade Center in 1974. As a documentary, the audio is dialogue-heavy, with some occasional footage or music and ambiance to reflect what’s being shown and the tone of what’s going on. It’s simply mixed, the dialogue sounds like it’s coming from a room, and the music, ambiance, and sound effects are all behind the focal point: the story being told.