Thedirector of audiography (DA), within Indian-stylefilmmaking,[1] known elsewhere as asound director, is the head of the sound department and the person responsible for planning theaudiography and managing the audiographers of a film.
The title is not used professionally in most parts of the world. The role and title "director of audiography" derives fromIndian-style filmmaking, where it is an established title credit.[2][3][4][5] The DA works to carry out the director's vision, identifies the tasks necessary to realize this vision, budgets for those tasks, and coordinates all the work from pre-production to post-production whilst keeping an eye on overall sound quality.
Since the onset of the "talkies", a creative and professional conflict has emerged from the ongoing tension between the visual and aural dimensions of the film. Production sound crews often complain about the lack of consideration given to sound in film productions.[6][7] Having a DA in pre-production helps to exert a powerful presence to defend the dimension of sound in film.
In the early days of the Hollywoodstudio system, every studio had a sound director (SD)[8] or a recording director (RD), who headed the sound department and took sole credit for the work done by a large crew of sound technicians.[9][10] Hollywood sound editor David Yewdall bemoans the loss of the SD inHollywood[11] and recalls the story of film producer Ross Hunter, working on the filmAirport, who neglected to take the advice of sound editor Joe Sikorski to record aircraft sound effects on location; an SD would have immediately appreciated the financial implications ofnot taking such advice.[12]
Following the demise of the studio system and the loss of the sound director, part of this role was delegated to the post-production supervisor,supervising sound editor,sound designer orproduction sound mixer - each role allegedly having less influence, responsibility, and scope than the former SD. Where no DA is hired - as is the case when making films in theWest - there has been some debate on the most appropriate role to head the sound department; a supervising sound editor is seen as a technical manager - comparable to anart director - whereas a sound designer is viewed as a creative visionary, analogous to aproduction designer.[13][14] In practice, the industry sees both roles as equivalent.[15]
The DA should not be confused with a production supervisor or post-production supervisor - both are administrative roles in the production department. In contrast, the DA is a technical role blending leadership, management and administrative skills with creative audiography ranging over pre-production, production and post-production - constrained only by the Director's vision and the production's schedule and budget. In many ways, the DoA role is a natural extension of the more limited post-production role of supervising sound editor.
The term director of sound (DoS) has also been proposed as an alternative title to that of DA.[16]
