Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound reveals the hidden power of sound in cinema –and our lives. Through film clips, interviews and verité footage, the film captures the history, impact and creative process of this overlooked art form through the insights and stories of legendary directors such as George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, David Lynch, Barbra Streisand, Ang Lee, Christopher Nolan, Sofia Coppola and Ryan Coogler, and the sound men and women with whom they collaborate. Few have “ears to hear” or comprehend the emotional storytelling impact sound plays in so-called visual media. Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas have both declared that “sound is 50% of the movie” with Spielberg saying “our ears lead our eyes to where the story lives.” In Making Waves, we see and hear from the key players of sound design –including multi-Oscar winners Walter Murch (Apocalypse Now), Ben Burtt (Star Wars) and Gary Rydstrom (Saving Private Ryan) –who, in pursuing their art and desire to push the medium, are the very people who will go down in the history of cinema as developing sound into the immersive storytelling force it is today. Audiences will discover many unsung collaborators for the key creative artists they are, in a domain that has for too long been characterized as “technical”.

Producer and director Midge Costin is the Kay Rose Chair in the Art of Sound Editing, endowed by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. Her film credits span 25 years and include Oscar-nominated Crimson Tide and Armageddon, as well as John Waters’ Cry-Baby, David Wolper’s Imagine, Amy Heckerling’s Look Who’s Talking Too, Kenneth Branagh’sDead Again, and Michael Bay’s The Rock. Midge worked her way up editing sound on action-adventure films at a time when very few women were cutting FX in Hollywood. As a passionate teacher and advocate for the creative use of sound in the cinematic arts, she has travelled internationally to lecture on sound design and her experiences as a sound editor in Hollywood. She is a past Board member of the MPSE, and is a long-standing member of the Editors Guild. Midge directed the documentary short, Almost Home, which had a PBS premiere in 1990. She received her B.A. from Smith College in Art History, and her Masters in Cinema Production from USC. Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound is her documentary feature debut.