Sound Check

Hello,

I was able to attend the premier of Second Skin at SXSW in the Austin Convention Center.

It was difficult to focus on the film during the premier because the sound was painful to endure and poorly mixed.

At the beginning of the film, the dialog was inaudible over the soundtrack. This only occurred when the dialog and soundtrack played at the same time; and seemed to clear up about 10 minutes into the interviews.

Additionally the dialog tracks sporadically "jumped" between channels (center-to-right-back-to-center). This was noticeable at the beginning & middle of the film.

I sat in the right section of the theater which sustained the most direct exposure to the over-amped score. Dialog was localize to only the center channel, making it (at times) inaudible for the audience seated at the sides. I suspect that the balance may have been better in the center of the theater.

For most of the last hour the people around me and I simply covered our ears. Personally I feared the next time Michael Brady would raise the soundtrack's volume. Most often the sound followed a formula. The soundtrack's volume would violently rise to interrupt an interview after a key statement. It was so formulaic, that you could anticipate most interruptions; but not all. I was definitely caught off guard a few times.

Overall with the painful interruptions by the musical score, overshadowed dialog, and the audio anomalies; I was constantly distracted from the film's content.

Thank you for premiering the film at SXSW, and I wish you better success in the future.

KE