When the IPAT Clinic was founded in 2014, one of our first clients was the filmmaking team behind the documentary Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound, the first-ever cinematic look at the role sound design plays in filmmaking. Featuring interviews from some of the most influential sound designers in cinematic history including Walter Murch and Ben Burtt, the film pulls back the veil on an incredibly important part of filmmaking that is largely unknown to the public. IPAT Clinic students worked tirelessly with director Midge Costin and producers Bobette Buster and Karen Johnson to develop this film, including by advising the filmmakers on how to make fair use responsibly and appropriately in the film.

After celebrated runs at film festivals including Tribeca Film Festival and Cannes Film Festival, and a torrent of rave reviews, the film premiered last weekend in Los Angeles and a team of IPAT students and faculty were thrilled to be in attendance. The screening was a smashing success, with a sustained ovation followed by a panel discussion featuring the legendary Walter Murch. Best of all, we learned a lot about filmmaking. “It had never occurred to me that every sound, from a dinosaur’s growl to the tinkling of forks and knives, must be carefully recorded if not created from scratch,” remarked Olu Agbelemose, who has served on the IPAT Clinic’s Filmmaker Services team since January. “Now, I’ll never forget it–and I’ll never watch a movie the same way again.”

Congratulations to our friends on the Making Waves team for this towering accomplishment!

 

 

Last Saturday, several students from UCI Law’s Intellectual Property, Arts, and Technology Clinic were privileged to attend longtime IPAT client International Documentary Association’s annual Docuday event at the Writers Guild Theater in Los Angeles. In attestation to the power of documentaries, students experienced an emotional rollercoaster with each film, whether it was crying through the documentary short End Game, laughing and admiring the accomplishments of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in RBG, recognizing the disheartening plight of migrants in Lifeboat, or hanging on the edge of their seats through the terrifying climb in Free Solo (the documentary feature that took home the Oscar last Sunday). It is the emotional and insightful power of documentary films that make them such an important free speech activity. Second-year law student and member of IPAT’s Filmmakers and Fair Use Team Oluwatobi Agbelemose stated that “attending Docuday was an amazing opportunity and a reminder of why the work our fair use team does is so important.” He commented that each documentary shown “created its own platform to shed light on something important to that filmmaking team” and that “it was all in alignment with the clinic’s mission to empower filmmakers seeking to make a social impact.”