We don't often get to see the sound designers of a major Hollywood film execute their craft, but those are exactly the people SoundWorks Collection features in their videos. Over the summer we shared two of their recent videos, the sound design of Prometheus and The Dark Knight Rises, and now they've produced a fantastic behind the scenes look at the sound work for Ben Affleck's new film Argo.
First, here's the trailer if you haven't seen it:
It's always impressive to see the sound people go about their duties, because it's usually one of the most under-appreciated aspects of any film. Great sound design can often enhance the visuals, and even though most people think of epic Hollywood films when they think of good sound design, smaller, more reality-based films can also benefit greatly from the added touch of these talented folks.
The realistic and serious nature of Argo definitely lends itself to being recorded in a live environment, as opposed to in a studio. Part of that choice, though, comes down to the wishes of the creative team and also the subject matter of the film itself. I've found in my own work that I like doing additional sound on a real location, just as they've done above, because for me it takes a lot less time to make the sound blend in and feel natural. Good sound typically goes unnoticed, but that's usually the idea -- if you don't notice something in a film, it often means it's doing its job.
What do you guys think? Have you done anything like the Argo team has done above?
Where does our food come from, and what challenges do the people who grow and raise the food face? TV personality Jeremy Clarkson sought to answer those questions in the show Clarkson's Farm, which debuted in 2021.
This British documentary series that follows Jeremy Clarkson's journey as he attempts to run his 1,000-acre farm in the Cotswolds. The show's brutally realistic portrayal of farming challenges and its success in raising awareness of the British farming industry, and farming across the world.
Let's dive into its importance.
Why is Clarkson's Farm Important?
Clarkson's Farm shines a light on the often overlooked challenges of farming, presenting the difficulties farmers face due to weather, sustainability, and bureaucracy in a humorous yet realistic manner.
It pulls no punches, and gets you to understand and empathize with the real human beings who put the food on your plates. In many ways, each episode you watch on the farm contains life and death stakes that carry a vested interest for the audience.
If we continue to make life miserable for farmers, we'll soon inherit a world without food.
Now in its third season, I cannot think of a series that makes you actually feel as much as life on this farm. Every episode has its laughs, but the honest reality of the people who are bringing food to the world are underpaid, overworked, and facing a changing climate that's made life even harder.
You leave with an urgency to find ways to help and to buy locally.
The show also humanizes the industry, fostering appreciation for the hard work of people who help Clarkson run the farm, like Kaleb, Gerald, and Charlie.
Just seeing the people who make mass food production possible changes our detached attitude from piling produce in your cart at the grocery store.
So why else am I saying this is the most important show on TV?
As human beings, with an endless news cycle and a a lot of doom and gloom, we often lose sight of the very meaning on life. And I think that meaning lies within the each hour of life on the farm.
The meaning of life to me is death.
As you watch the passing of the seasons, you see the endless cycle that we call life on this planet. Things grow, they get harvested, and they feed the ecosystem and people.
For me, our time on this earth is the same. We're born, we experience the season of our lives, and hopefully our impact fosters the nourishment of others and leaves this place better than the way we found it.
If that's the goal, then a show about how we can do a small part to make life better, is important and necessary.
Let's face it, life can be unkind, cruel, and seem pointless. It is easy to become nihilistic when terrible things happen all over the globe.
Making the world a better place sounds like an insurmountable goal, but acting on a small scale, within our community, and helping the people around us, feels like something we can do every day in our lives and still be happy.
We're not all cultivating food, but we are cultivating a life worth living. A life that makes death much less sad, because at the end we've helped make the world a more fertile and inviting place through the good work we did during our seasons on earth.
That's what happens on this farm, and it's a lesson I think we all need to take into account.
And it's why I believe it's the most important show on television.Of course, aside from all this, the show has sparked vital conversations about food production, environmental practices, and supporting farmers. Additionally, it simply provides quality entertainment, which can be hard to come by in the present world.
And that in and of itself is incredibly important for giving us lived worth living.