Mumble-gate: Negotiating Theory and Practice in Television's Production Hierarchy

Abstract

This article examines the professional practices of those working in sound within modern television's production hierarchy. It argues that, due to a range of factors, sound professionals working in television identify their work as marginalised and their position within the production hierarchy as continually eroded. In recent years television sound has been propelled into public consciousness due to a number of high profile incidents of inaudible dialogue. Dubbed ‘mumble-gate’ by many within the industry, this issue reached its peak with 2014 BBC drama Jamaica Inn, which attracted 2,200 complaints (BBC News 2014). However, the working practices of those responsible for capturing and perfecting a programme's soundtrack, as well as details of the environment in which they work, remain elusive and misunderstood by many. Bringing together extensive new oral history research from multiple professional sound operators with the contextual accounts of wider production personnel this article uses the opportunity this current scrutiny presents to address the relationship between modern professional practice and what is heard by the audience at home. This article argues that the erosion of sound in the production hierarchy not only has implications for sound practice but arguably should impact on how we engage with sound theory in television. In an increasingly competitive freelance environment, rigid theorisations around sound's utilisation may be at odds with the experiences of those within the industry as they continue to negotiate their place in the hierarchy of modern television production.