A Reel Pain

A CBS 2 News Special Assignment

CBS 2 News' Lonni Leavitt reports some movie fans say it's giving their ears a "reel pain."

Special Assignment: Reel Pain aired Friday, October 30, 1998 at 11 p.m.

Go to the movies these days and there's not only a battle on the screen, you get a full throttle attack on your ears.

It's not your imagination. Today's movies are louder, thanks to hiss-free and distortion-free digital sound, said CBS 2 News' Lonni Leavitt.

But what is this ear-shattering noise doing to our health?

Each time we buy a ticket, is it costing us some of our hearing as well?

"I think the special effects are very loud," nine-year-old Anastasia Bagwell told Lonni Leavitt. "So loud, they hurt my ears."

UCLA professor Bill Meecham is an expert on sound and it's effect on the body. He says studies show excessive noise can cause high blood pressure, hypertension and a gradual loss of hearing.

"If you go over and over to a very loud movie theater, you come out and you won't hear as well," Dr. Meecham told Leavitt. "It comes back, but after a while it doesn't fully come back. You lose a part of your hearing."

How loud are today's movies? First, you have to understand sound.

It's measured in decibels or DBs. For example, a motorcycle typically runs at 95 DBs. A helicopter reaches levels of 105 decibels.

Yet, when we took sound meters undercover into Kurt Russell's new movie, "Soldier", we got readings as high as 107 decibels, said Leavitt.

The action movie "Armageddon" has been clocked as high as 110 decibels.

Experts say your hearing is damaged if the 110 DB level is continous, lasting for more than a half hour. But in movies, sound is up and down, changing as fast as each scene.

"But what happens when you have sudden burst of noise? It's reasonable to believe that is harmful too," said Meecham.

Lon Bender would know. He's considered one of the top sound designers in the business. Having worked on "Braveheart", "Glory", "Mulan" and the soon to be released, "The Siege."

"There are certain films that have had long periods where decibel level is close to 120 decibels for more than a few minutes at a time, which is very, very loud," Bender told Leavitt.

Ironically, Bender falls into the category of those most at risk. According to hearing experts, it's the people who are making the movies.

That's because sound editors, when mixing a scene, play it over and over and over -- at levels loud enough to make your teeth shake, said Leavitt.

Bender has a reputation for telling movie producers and directors to keep their sound levels in check.

"If we need to get something louder, let's lower other things around it," said Bender.

Director Michael Bay has a reputation for putting out some of the loudest movies on the market. He did "Armageddon", "Bad Boys" and "The Rock."

"You know it's funny when you hear all these reputations you have," Bay told Leavitt. "I don't think that at all. I think there are loud movies everywhere."

"I think the envelope does sometimes gets pushed too much. I'm not going to make a shuttle rocket launch too low. I'm going to make it so you feel it in your seat and in your gut," he said.

Bay says he makes them that way because majority of the movie theaters are playing them too low.

"You can see your movie at 100 different theaters and the sound is different in every single theater," said Bay.

Remember the shuttle launch from "Armageddon?" It's been clocked at 11 DBs. Yet at one theater, the I-Team found it barely peaking at 92 decibels. So, why are some theatres playing them loud and others barely playing them?

Blame it on the trailers -- the previews for upcoming movies, said Leavitt.

Often times the trailers run 20 decibels louder than the movie, as they try to grab your attention and suck you in.

But what's really happening is that so many people are complaining that the trailers are too loud, movie theaters are turning all the sound down. So, the movie you came to see, isn't being played at the level its makers' intended, Leavitt said. Which in turn means, moviemakers like Michael Bay, make them even louder to compensate.

"There needs to be one level to set everything to so you don't have a 15-year-old making a decision to turn it up or turn it down," said Bay.

According to Leavitt, help could soon be on the way. Dolby labs have developed a meter that measures a film or trailer over a given time period for its annoyance factor or whether it's too loud.

So far the use of the meter is voluntary. So, when choosing your entertainment, the experts say, choose wisely.

"If done frequently, it's probably going to be harmful," said Meechum. "So keep it in mind. (Use)common sense."

More information:

• House Ear Institute is dedicated to developing knowledge about hearing and related disorders and to sharing that knowledge with others so that people's lives may be improved.
• House Ear Clinic specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of ear diseases, hearing loss and disorders related to facial nerve, acoustic tumors and the balance system.