MasterClass: Werner Herzog Teaches Filmmaking

There's one scene that really drew my attention to sound.

It was the very, very first film I made.

We were a group of 8 or 10 young men.

And we said we'd help each other when you are doing your film.

I'll help you with driving the car

and I'll help you with editing-- we changed things.

Of these 10-- 8 films, only 3 films were actually finished.

2 of these finished films were never shown in public

because I had sound problems.

Sound, and it occurred to me that this is important.

And sometimes when I watch a film, in the first minute

you know there's very, very great attention in detail

about sound, and you know you better watch that one.

Very often when I'm rehearsing with actors

or when I'm filming with them, sometimes I

don't even look at them because I just listen

and I know this is great now, just listening.

And, of course, it doesn't have to do with sound recording.

But sometimes I take more time in organizing sound

than organizing camera and lights.

I had to learn it because of necessity

because there was no money to have anyone paid for doing

the sound .

You can easily do it because equipment today is not

very expensive.

You see you can have a fairly small sound recording device

and you just have to get a good microphone and operate with it

and listen.

Listen, what does it do when you move it around

and you listen to ambiences.

Spend a whole night out in a forest and listen to the sounds

and record the moments that are really wonderful,

and listen to how the birds wake up in the morning.

And you start to feel a day coming.

It is good that you, as a filmmaker, as a director,

know how to handle sound.

You should know it and you should test mics

and you should hear what's going on.

One film where sound was particularly

complicated and problematic was a very early, controversial

film of mine, Even Dwarves Started Small.

It was a cast, all cast of little people.

And, of course, voices in much higher pitch than ours who

cannot , them you cannot post sync them,

so the direct sound had to be perfect,

or at least presentable in a theater.

On this island, in the Canary Islands,

Lanzarote, all lava fields, there

was constant, day and night, stiff gales and wind.

And, of course, a microphone picks it up

and creates problems.

Mics rumble, and I believe I spend more time organizing

and setting up the sound than setting up the camera

and looking at locations.

Recently in Bolivia I shot at an old hacienda, which

was built in the 1560s or so.

And it was a wonderful location.

And I was there with a cinematographer.

First alone, then with a cinematographer.

And I said-- and they all loved it-- and I

said but there is a problem.

There is a problem.

And they said what, what, what?

The problem was sound.

The had wooden floors, very ancient wooden floors.