Mixing for Film: Thoughts and/or Tips?

One advice among a few I could have for you... Take into account the way images emphasise the impact of the sound and vice-versa. You ain't mixing sounds, you are mixing impressions.

Make sure your surround mix system level is calibrated properly. This is the first rule of theatrical (and all post-production) mixing. It's not too hard to do and will keep your end product from sticking out like a sore thumb. Check out the sticky threads on the Gearslutz post-production forum for some practical advice on this....

Cheers airon, thx for the tips. I take it there is a "theater standard" level, hence the calibration. If it sounds loud/quiet on your monitors, it's gonna sound loud/quiet in the theater... Ahhh, interesting, always wondered about that. And I was looking for an excuse to buy an SPL meter... :D Now, when creating your mix, what's the rule of thumb of cross-effecting your "stems"? I imagine that EQing the soundtrack to improve dialog clarity makes sense, but would you ever, say, duck the soundtrack to the dialog, or even to the effects?

How about using other soundtracks (from audio CDs or DVD Video) for reference? To check the levels of the dialog vs music for example. Or the dynamic range of the music in general on different types of scenes. Is this something that can be done, or are they mastered very differently than the theater releases?

Didn't read it yet but thought it wouldn't hurt to post it here...