I really good example of sound mixing with intentionally hard to hear audio is the opening scene of the Social Network in the pub.
IIRC Fincher intentionally had the music and bar noise loud to increase frustration in the audience to mirror the tension of the discussion between the two people on screen. He wanted to establish that Zuckerberg was this mile a minute talker whose mind buzzes from idea to idea and so the scene was intentionally made to feel a bit claustrophobic, fast moving and hard to follow.
But the rest of that movie the audio is mixed perfectly. Nolan seems to do that all the damn time though and in movies as confusing as his, it is super annoying.
|