Sound mixers in the field. PHOTO CREDIT: Adnan Sekumba
Over the years, different judges at film festivals have always had something to say about the quality of sound in local films.
Barely balanced, mixed or even mastered, the sound would many times be the shame of what would be a good story when it simply fails to sync with a film screening or at times having the wrong sound allocated to scenes they are not meant to be.
Of course, over the years, people have tried to solve such issues with rigorous workshops, trainings and partnerships with foreign production houses.
Last year, when the Multichoice Talent Factory was unveiled to train young African filmmakers, sound was still was one of the sectors that was greatly earmarked.
This year with the help of Dolby Laboratories, a select number of filmmakers in the department of sound were taken through a single day workshop that explored sound mixing, recording, editing and other disciplines in the sound department.
The training that took place at the Multichoice offices in Kololo at the end of January was attended by some of the best sound men that the local industry offers like Walusimbi Paul, Adnan Senkumba and Quad Records’ Andrew Ahura among others.
According to Ahura, many Ugandan film makers have not paid attention to the sound department for a long time simply because they believe it is not as important.
“Many believe that once they have the picture and story, the sound doesn’t matter that much,” he says adding that this has however started to change.
Ahura runs Quad Records, the studio that mastered sound for Veronica’s Wish and 94 Terror among many of their other acclaimed projects, they won Best Sound at the Uganda Film Festival that were organized by the Uganda communication Commission at the end of 2018.
Ssenkumba noted that the training gave him more skills and pointed him to the right direction as far as aspirations are concerned, of course some of the things we would like to do are very expensive but we can achieve it.
Mathew nabwiso, an actor and producer too noted that through the training, he saw what the sound team goes through and why they should be taken more serious.
According to a source at the pay TV, this is the first of the series of film workshops they will be holding with different industry stake holders.
