Christopher Nolan Explains Why It's Sometimes Hard to Hear Dialogue in His Films
Remember watching The Dark Knight Rises for the first time and having a hard time hearing what Bane was saying during the big opening sequence of the movie? There were so many complaints about the sound. This sound issue is something that we’ve consistently seen in movies directed by Christopher Nolan, including his most recent film Oppenheimer.
Sometimes you just have a super hard time trying to hear what the actors are saying. Well, during a recent interview with Insider, Nolan explained there’s a reason for that, and he places part of the blame on the IMAX cameras that he uses. Those gigantic IMAX cameras aren't fully soundproof and can be loud.
Then, there’s also the fact that he refuses to do additional dialogue recordings (ADR) in post-production to fix the issue. He says:
"I like to use the performance that was given in the moment rather than the actor revoice it later. Which is an artistic choice that some people disagree with, and that's their right."
ADR is a tool in the entertainment industry that filmmakers utilize to improve audio quality by recording dialogue in a quieter and more controlled environment after shooting the initial scenes. Not Nolan, though! So, he just works around the issue, and what we’re left with is unintelligible dialogue in certain scenes.
The director is selective about when he uses the cameras since they are louder. For example, he chose not to use them in the scene where Cillian Murphy's J. Robert Oppenheimer meets Gary Oldman's President Truman in the Oval Office because the dialogue in that scene was more important than the scope.
IMAX camera technology has improved over the years, and Nolan explains that there are new IMAX cameras being developed that will be quieter, saying:
"IMAX is building new cameras right now, which are going to be even quieter. But the real breakthrough is in software technology that allows you to filter out the camera noise. That has improved massively in the 15 or so years that I've been using these cameras. Which opens up for you to do more intimate scenes that you would not have been able to do in the past."
When previously talking about the sound issues in his films, Nolan described it as a "adventurous and creative" soundscape, and said it was an intentional part of the experience. Now, when I go see a Nolan film, I just accept the fact that there will be scenes that will be hard to understand.