Close your eyes and face the bright of the sun. Let it burn into your eyelids a hot, vivid, red; let it sear its temporary mark onto your retinas until everything goes white-hot, just a few seconds will do, then turn away, and open your eyes.
What do sound recordists do? True to their title, they record sounds, but that is just one of the many things they must juggle on set, both in terms of their equipment and their various responsibilities. They are typically the most conspicuous crew members, carrying around the iconic boom microphone while fully equipped with gear, including heavy sound mixers, headphones, radio microphones, and skin tapes tucked away in their bag pockets.
Generally, we expect documentaries to be non-fictional narratives that present real-life events, people, and stories through a lens of objectivity and factual accuracy. They should be informative and educational, while still being entertaining without veering into fiction. But John Grierson, who coined the term “documentary,” defined it as “a creative treatment of actuality” in his review of Robert Flaherty’s 1926 feature, Moana.
Between main character Hirayama’s (Kōji Yakusho) less-than-talkative demeanour, and his obsession with cassette classics, music is clearly foregrounded in Wim Wenders’ latest film, Perfect Days (2023). It serves a crucial element in Hirayama’s characterisation, both as his mouthpiece and as a conduit for his memories and emotions. As something of a hardcore music-lover myself, who cherishes her Spotify playlists just as much as Hirayama does his cassette tapes, both the film and its main character resonated deeply with me.
Let’s talk about sound. Although it was not the first film to incorporate synchronised sound (that distinction belongs to The Dickson Experimental Sound Film from 1894, despite its flaws), The Jazz Singer (1927) marked the shift from silent films to ‘talkies’. Its immense popularity opened the cinematic landscape to
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