Cultural Intimacy in the Practice of Sound Post-production in Turkish Yeşilçam Cinema

Abstract

This article looks into the practice of sound post-production in the Turkish Yesilcam cinema during the 1960s and 1970s through the work of sound designers and sound engineers. There has been a reluctance to study these films as culturally valuable sonic artefacts because they have not been seen as of aesthetically high quality or products of meticulous design. During this so-called ‘high Yesilcam era’, budgets were scarce and production timetables tight. These films are nevertheless part of the sonic understanding of cinematic storytelling and are part of the mediated soundscape competences of listener-viewers. The aim is to understand sound design practices as cultural production of acoustic epistemologies in music, re-voiced dialogue and Foley, and how these epistemologies resonate with cultural intimacy. As additional research material the study uses interviews with sound engineer and director Necip Sarici (born 1934, present head of Lale Films) and his four-part documentary, Dublaj Tarihi/The History...