Ben Burrt. Wired.com
Already this week, we discussed how dealing with the sound of the vacuum of space was dealt with in Gravity. Today we will look at the polar opposite end of that spectrum, and we will see what the vision was in the minds behind Star Wars.
Ben Burtt is the man credited with with designing some of the most icon sounds ever created for a sci-fi film (maybe any film? Who doesn't know Chewbacca or R2-D2?). He, and George Lucas, have both taken a lot of heat for the direction they took while building the soundscape of their galaxy. The idea of the vacuum was thrown out the window, and space was alive and rampant with sound. Personally, in a film that has such a large amount of scenes taking place in space (and always) action packed, I encourage and welcome the hyper realistic approach to space sound. Most of the masses expect the LFE to shake their organs when the Death Star implodes, they expect their ears to ring from the shrill sound of the laser blasters, and they want to feel the rumble of the star fighters racing around in space. I think this makes the film exciting, it's enjoyable.
Ben Burrt recording a bear. retrostarwars.com
Contrary to popular belief, the sounds of Star Wars are nearly entirely organic, rarely created with synthesizers and almost always created by using filed recordings. For example, Tie Fighters and Chewbacca wails were both created using animal sounds (in particular, the Tie Fighter was created using an "elephant bellow," while Chewbacca's iconic growl was created by using a variety of animal noises including the elephant and walruses).
Tie Fighter? abduzeedo.com
Ben Burtt still works for Lucas at Skywalker Sound and has been on projects including Red Tails, WALL-E, Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, plus the recent Star Wars movies. Be sure to check out filmsound.org and Skywalker Sound for more info.
Ben Burtt is a great sound designer. He has done a lot of really cool movies. He has great techniques that often times utilize field recordings that he has done. I want you to continue this space series and explore some of the sounds of WALL-E. That movie in particular of his was absolutely fascinating to listen to. As for Star Wars, the sound design was really cool because it was really outside of the box in terms of what audio had been in films up to that point. They were so creative with everything they put together for that film. I loved the laser sounds created using wire and a slinky. It's cool to look at some of the behind the scenes stuff for how they went about it. Ben is definitely one of my biggest inspirations for this genre of sound. Good review, and like I said.. you should continue this series and explore WALL-E.
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that, in taking either a synthetic or hyper-realistic approach in film, you can be equally accepted by the audience if the experience is immersive enough. For example, I cannot imagine Star Wars being realistically represented in the vacuum in space. That would be an incredibly boring and quiet film. In comparison, Gravity would not have been the same, suspenseful movie with explosions, lasers and little Ewok wub-wubs permeating through space.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, I found it interesting that a majority of the sound effects were not synthesized, but were digitally altered samples of real world sounds. I remember reading somewhere that the lightsaber sound effect was the combination of an electric feedback and a projector motor.