Robert Altman's Innovative Sound Techniques

Beginning of article

How this inventive producer/director has evolved a style of overlapping dialogue tracks, improvisation and a constant audio undertone to create an effect like that of a painter coating his canvas with layers of color

Robert Altman is a friendly but irascible man who saves his straight answers for his actors and crew. An interviewer rarely has a chance of getting on the inside. Concerning the actual use of his sound system, all information is technically factual. With regard to the director's style, the opinions are purely my own.

Altman has directed or produced more than twenty feature films in his career and his awareness of the sound track has always been an integral …