Director of audiography

Under the context of Indian-style filmmaking, the Director of audiography (DA), who is sometimes referred to as a sound director in other filmmaking contexts, is the head of the sound department and the one who is responsible for designing the audiography and directing the audiographers of a film.

The majority of countries throughout the globe do not make professional use of the title. The practise of creating movies in the Bollywood style in India, where the function of "director of audiography" is a well-established title credit, is the source of both the role and the term. The duties of the DA include working to realise the vision of the director, determining the tasks that must be completed in order to realise this vision, developing budgets for those tasks, and coordinating all of the work that must be done from pre-production to post-production while maintaining an awareness of the overall sound quality.

With the advent of "talkies," there has been a continual tension between the visual and auditory aspects of motion pictures, which has resulted in a struggle that is both artistic and professional in nature. It is common practise among production sound personnel to express dissatisfaction with the lack of attention paid to sound in film projects. While pre-production work is being done on a film, having a DA on staff is a significant presence that helps defend the importance of sound.

In the early days of the Hollywood studio system, every studio had a sound director (SD) or a recording director (RD), who oversaw the sound department and received all of the credit for the work that was completed by a large group of sound technicians. These individuals were known as sound directors or recording directors. David Yewdall, a sound editor in Hollywood, laments the loss of the SD in Hollywood. He tells the story of film producer Ross Hunter, who was working on the film Airport, and how he failed to take the advice of sound editor Joe Sikorski to record aircraft sound effects on location.

After the end of the studio system and the departure of the sound director, a portion of the sound director's responsibilities were given to the post-production supervisor, the supervising sound editor, the sound designer, or the production sound mixer. It is commonly believed that these new positions have less influence, responsibility, and scope than the previous SD position did. A supervising sound editor is seen as a technical manager, comparable to an art director, whereas a sound designer is seen as a creative visionary, analogous to a production designer. In situations where no DA is hired, as is the case when making films in the West, there has been some debate on the most appropriate role to head the sound department. In actuality, the sector views the two positions as being on par with one another.

It is important to differentiate between the duties of a DA and those of a production supervisor or post-production supervisor, as the former two are administrative positions inside the production department. In contrast, the DA is a technical function that combines creative audiography with leadership, management, and administrative abilities. This role spans pre-production, production, and post-production and is limited only by the Director's vision as well as the film's schedule and budget. DoA is a logical extension of the more restricted post-production function of supervising sound editor, and in many respects, the DoA role is an extension of that role.

As a potential replacement for the role of DA, the name "director of sound" (DoS) has also been discussed as an option.