Home Theater Forum has interviewed Matthew Wood about his work on the Blu-ray edition of Star Wars.

We met with Matthew Wood from Skywalker Sound to find out more about the sound mix and what was done to ready it for Blu-ray.  He started working on the Blu-ray audio back in 2007.  Here are excerpts from that presentation.  It was very obvious that he has a lot of passion for these films.  Please note that the questions came from multiple participants, including myself:

I’ve [Matthew Wood] been involved in the restoration and remastering of Episodes IV, V and VI since about 1996 when we started the special editions and all the way through the DVD releases now.  I’ve actually brought all 6 movies that I got the print masters from Skywalker Sound so that we can listen to some scenes today. The cool thing about Blu-ray is the fact that when I play you these masters, it’s effectively as what’s on the disc, it’s the file copy that goes on the disc, we have an uncompressed master on the disc.

Continue reading…

Via: U.S.O

You’ve probably seen or heard talk about Skywalker Ranch, the amazing post-production building of Skywalker Sound, part of Lucasfilm and sound makers of the best sounds for films of all time. Sam from Skywalker Sound Blog made a post of a first part of a Skywalker Ranch Tour sharing some photos, videos and info. Don’t miss it!

Skywalker Sound is located in the serene rolling hills of Marin County, California, forty minutes north of San Francisco. Occupying the 155,000 square foot Technical Building, Skywalker Sound was built by a filmmaker for filmmakers, and is one of the largest, most versatile full-service post-production facilities in the world.

Skywalker Ranch is a 4000 acre working ranch that houses the headquarters for Lucasfilm and Skywalker Sound. Our clients utilize our spectacular guest complex, featuring one, two, and three bedroom suites and apartments in a warm and inviting bed and breakfast setting. Many of our guest rooms have fireplaces. Some have kitchens. Each room is uniquely decorated and is equipped with a home entertainment system, telephone, modem, fax port and high speed internet. The cozy Living Room, gracious Dining Room and Kitchen of “The Inn” are open to all guests for their use and relaxation.

Link: Skywalker Sound Tour (#1)

The Star Wars Special continues with our featured sound designer Ben Burtt. Let’s talk about the sound desgin of Episode I: Phantom Menace.

Ben Burtt left Lucasfilm in 1990 to pursue other interests as a freelancer: writing, directing, editing. He went back to Sound Designer’s chair again for the Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition.

“I was the only one who could remember where most of the stuff was, where the tapes were, what we had done,” he says with a smile.

“It was exciting to go back and get in touch with the picture again, the old friends who were there. R2-D2, and the lightsabers.”

Following the Special Edition project, Ben Burtt stayed on board for Episode I. Even though he could draw from an extensive library of sounds, including those used in the Star Wars and Indiana Jones trilogies, for the Episode I project Burtt went out to record new samples.

He also drew upon the large collection of sounds he has recorded during the last decade. In all his travels, from his back yard to the far reaches of an exotic country, Burtt has carried his recording equipment with him, capturing everything and anything on digital tape.

“You have to be constantly ready,” he says, “because good sounds often come to you by accident: lightning storms, strange vehicle noises, glaciers breaking apart…it can happen anywhere.” These recordings, most of them never used before, have provided Burtt with fresh raw material to mold into new Star Wars sounds.

While creating innovative atmospheres, Burtt takes great care to stay true to the original Star Wars ambiance.

“We’ve got lightsabers, we’ve got lasers, we’ve got so many signature effects which reoccur in this movie, and I think it’s only appropriate to touch on those because they’re familiar to the fans.”

One of Burtt’s goals are to establish a set of sounds which could stand the test of time.

“I think we’ve achieved that with Star Wars,” he says. “We’ve created a ‘world of sounds’ that’s coherent and can endure the passage of time…it’s been over 20 years, and Star Wars still has a distinct sound to it.”

Continue reading at Film Sound | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

And… I can’t pass this Article/Interview by Maria L. Chang talking with Ben Burtt about the sound of Star Wars. Very interesting!

HOW DO YOU CREATE SOUNDS FOR A FANTASTIC UNIVERSE?

A sneak moment from this summer’s blockbuster movie The Phantom Menace, the latest installation in the Star Wars saga: Jedi knight Obi-Wan Kenobi duels with the evil Darth Maul. Their sword-like lightsabers flash and sizzle as they clash. The warriors lunge at each other, yet their footfalls are barely audible on the metal floor.

Now imagine the same scene–but instead of the lethal buzz of lightsabers, you hear cracking wooden sticks. Instead of the thud of fighters’ leaps on metal, you hear thumps on a creaky wooden stage set. Sound like a big yawn?

Just as dazzling visual effects turn a sci-fi fantasy movie into near-reality, sound effects add the finishing notes. In the past few years, powerful computers, advanced software, and synthesizers (keyboard-like instruments that produce electronic sound signals) have elevated sound effects to new heights. After all, how believable is a computer-generated invading army of androids when you don’t hear a single stomp or whir?

MAY THE SOUND BE WITH YOU

Whether or not you’re aware of it, sound plays a key role in how you perceive reality. Picture a scene where a solitary car races down a stretch of empty highway. But what you hear is the churn of a motorcycle. Your brain instantly alerts you to the fact that what you hear doesn’t match what you see. In other words, your senses are in conflict–a phenomenon called cognitive dissonance. In a movie, this would immediately distract a viewer. Popcorn time?

Directors know that realistic sound is vital to hooking an audience. But what do laser cannons or a mobbed alien marketplace sound like? This was the challenge faced by The Phantom Menace’s sound designer Ben Burtt.

SOUND BYTES

Burtt and his crew created up to 1,300 new sound effects for The Phantom Menace. “Each sound is for a specific weapon or a particular robot’s head revolving around,” Burtt says.

You might think the best way to create extraterrestrial sounds would be to invent them on synthesizers and computers. But Burtt’s most essential tool is the common tape recorder. “The style of Star Wars has always been to use an organic soundtrack,” says Burtt. “That means we collect real sounds that exist out there in the real world. We’ll go out and record racing sports cars or a roaring aircraft.”

Burtt’s secret trick is to alter recorded sounds so they’re not recognizable. How? After recording the thrust of a speeding plane, for instance, Burtt rerecords the sound into a synthesizer, which converts the sound signal into a digital signal of 1s and 0s. A plane engine’s sound is normally high-pitched and whiny. Pitch is how high or deep a sound is and depends on the frequency (the number of complete vibrations of a wave in one second). The higher the frequency, the higher the pitch.

Using the synthesizer, Burtt lowers the frequency and deepens the engine’s pitch. “It still sounds powerful, like a vehicle roaring along, but you don’t recognize it as a World War II fighter plane,” he says. Add an explosion or thunder to the sound, and you’ve got a booming spaceship.

BACK TO BASICS

Say the spaceship accelerates across the screen to jump into hyperspace. Would it maintain a steady sound? Not really.

Think of a wailing fire truck speeding by. As the fire truck approaches, the siren’s frequency increases and its pitch rises. As it passes, the frequency decreases and the pitch drops. This phenomenon is known as the Doppler effect (see below). New computer software easily simulates the Doppler effect. Programs alter the pitch so you get the sensation of an object flying by at breakneck speed.

But there are more imaginative ways to create the same effect. Take the motion of Star Wars’ lightsaber, for instance. Believe it or not, its sound came from the motor of an old movie projector and a sputtering TV picture tube. Combining the two sounds produced the humming tone of a steady lightsaber. But to simulate a swinging lightsaber in a duel, Burtt played the original sound over a speaker, whipped a microphone past the speaker, and rerecorded the resulting whish. “You get a big Doppler shift in the sound, as if it’s a sword swinging through air,” Burtt says.

Creating all the sounds necessary for The Phantom Menace has taken Burtt and his crew about three years to complete. Was it worth it? The audience’s ovations will tell.

COMING SOON TO THEATERS: 3-D SOUND

Sound designers Ben Burtt and Gary Rydstrom labored for more than three years to create the fantastic sounds in The Phantom Menace. To ensure that the soundtrack doesn’t sound flat in theaters, LucasFilm THX and Dolby Laboratories created Dolby Digital-Surround EX, a new movie sound format (see right).

Surround EX, which will debut in theaters at the same time as The Phantom Menace, adds extra speakers and a rear sound channel on the back wall. (Current Surround Sound systems separate sound into left and right channels, so you hear sounds move from one side of the screen to the other.) “I wanted to develop a format that would place sounds exactly where you would hear them in the real world,” Rydstrom says. With Surround EX, audiences can actually hear a plane, for example, fly around them.

Will the new system make movies even louder? No, says Kurt Schwenk, director of THX. “Surround EX just allows more precise placement of the sound.”

Q&A

What exactly does a sound designer do?

I create a “library” of sounds for everything you see and don’t see in a film. I have to create sounds that are totally believable. And the sounds need to orchestrate well together. You fool the audience into thinking everything is real.

How did you get interested in sound effects?

When I was 6 in Syracuse, New York, my father gave me a tape recorder. My friends and I filmed little dramas and I’d create music and sound effects to go with the movie. It was just a hobby.

What did you want to be?

I really wanted to be an astronaut. I have a physics degree from Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania. But in college I made a few amateur films that won national awards. Then I studied film production in graduate school at the University of Southern California.

How did you get a job as a sound designer?

I got a job as a sound recordist because there weren’t too many people in the field. I made the sounds for the very first Star Wars film. LucasFilms asked me to come back for The Phantom Menace.

What’s one of the most unusual sounds we’ll hear on The Phantom Menace?

There’s an underwater monster with a big roar, which is the voice of my 18-month-old daughter. At one point she had a growl in her voice when she was crying. So I recorded that and then lowered the pitch way down in the computer.

Any advice for kids who’d like to work on movies?

Filmmaking is a combination of practically every subject you can study–art, writing, history, music, etc. To be original and creative, major in a subject other than filmmaking.

What do sound designers earn?

You can earn up to $100 an hour in a major film.

Ben Burtt, 50. Movie Sound Designer at Skywalker Ranch, California.

Star Wars Official Website

Star Wars – Phantom Menace at IMDB

The second part of the special about the sounds of Star Wars, created by Ben Burtt. Let’s take a look of the sounds of the characters in the film: Darth Vader, R2-D2, Chewbacca and the amazing Ewokese language.

Chewbacca

“You have bits and fragments of animal sounds which you have collected and put into lists: here is an affectionate sound and, here is a angry sound and, just like with R2-D2, they are clipped together and blended. With a Wookie, you might end up with five or six tracks, sometimes, to get the flow of the sentence” (Ben Burtt in Film Sound Today)

R2-D2

Burtt said that he would come up with equivalent lines in English for what R2-D2 would be ’saying’ and twiddle the filter and other knobs of a synth whilst reading the lines out loud, to try and articulate the words using the synth.

Burtt used the sounds of an ARP 2600 synthesizer and his own voice to produce R2-D2′s silicon salvos. The ARP in question was recreated virtually via Symbolic Sound’s lofty Kyma system for more recent Star Wars movies.

Darth Vader

“The concept for the sound of Darth Vader came about from the first film, and the script described him as some kind of a strange dark being who is in some kind of life support system. That he was breathing strange, that maybe you heard the sounds of mechanics or motors, he might be part robot, he might be part human, we really didn’t know. And so the original concept I had of Darth Vader was a very noise producing individual. He came into a scene he was breathing like some wheezing wind mill, you could hear his heart beating, you move his head you heard motors turning. He was almost like some robot in some sense and he made so much noise that we had to sort of cut back on that concept. In the first experiment the mixes we did in Star Wars he sounded like an operating room, like a, you know, emergency room, you know, moving around.”

Excitingly Burtt recreated this for us on the spot using a scuba oxygen tank. The intense breathing sound of Darth Vader is the microphone placed inside the respirator while breaths are taken through the respirator. Produces that distinctive electronic rushing of air.

Ewokese language

A language created by altering and layering Tibetan, Mongolian, and Nepali languages

“I broke the sounds down phonetically, and red-edited them together to make composite words and sentences. I would always use a fair amount of the actual languages, combined with purely made-up words. With a new language, the most important goal is to create emotional clarity. People spend all of their lives learning to identify voices. You became an expert at that, and somewhat impossible to electronically process the human characteristic, and retain the necessary emotion. To fool the audience into believing this is a real character as the basis of the sound, although you may sprinkle other things in there. It varies from character to character.” (Ben Burtt in Film Sound Today)

References: MusicRadar / Filmsound / Oliolioli

Star Wars – The Sounds [Part 1]

Video from Michael Coleman on Vimeo.

One of the most recent works of Ben Burtt: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, a 2008 adventure film, fourth in the Indiana Jones franchise, created by George Lucas and directed by Steven Spielberg.

“It started for me back in September [2007], when I went to L.A. and read the script in a secret room with a guard at the door,” he says with a chuckle during a break from mixing this summer’s Disney-Pixar spectacle, WALL-E. “They were still shooting at the time, and I hadn’t had a conversation with Steven yet. But I went through it, as I always would, making lists and noting questions and sort of deciding what are all the sounds I might need to make this movie? From the script, you can see there are going to be certain vehicles and certain weapons and locations, and you figure that for the Crystal Skulls themselves, you’ll need a lot of supernatural sounds like we did for the Ark or other things in the past. Then Richard [Hymns] and I were able to go down on four or five occasions and sit with Steven at the KEM flatbed in a traditional film editing room — as we would have done back on the earlier Indiana Jones films — go through the film and look at each scene and discuss what sounds were needed in greater detail, and get Steven’s ideas. Each time, I’d come back up here [to Skywalker Sound] armed with more specific marching orders as to what to do.”

“I knew from the beginning that we’d want to refer back again to some of the sounds we’d established in the earliest films because Indy still has a whip, he still has a gun, there are going to be fights and chases — though, of course, we wanted to do new things with those sounds, too. I always try to create a world of sound for each movie I work on. With this one, I knew we wanted to start by having the original library of sounds brought up to date because they really only existed on old quarter-inch tapes. Portions of them had been copied and digitized in a different manner over the years — some had gone to PCM and Betamax, or whatever we were using in the ’80s. But I didn’t trust those earlier generations, so I said, ‘Let’s go back and restore the whole collection.’” Burtt’s frequent sonic collaborator, Matt Wood, set up a work environment for Burtt’s 24-year-old son, Benny, to transfer the analog tapes to Pro Tools via a mint-condition Otari MX5050 and Apogee A/D converters. Everything was classified in a Sound Miner database so that the editors could easily get to any sound.

“My job was to design the sounds for Indy, and for all the work they did up here at Skywalker, I was able to follow through and give the editors all the spotting sheets and lay out the structure for the whole film — kind of like an architect would lay out the plans — and then I was able to sit with each editor in each premix and get what I wanted out of it. Then it was sent to L.A. for final mixing, so at that point my main contact was I had the ability to sit in on the mix over the Skylink box so I could go into a room and see and hear in real time what they were doing, and also had a video iChat link so I could talk to the editors on the stage, or with the mixers, or with Steven, and that worked really well. Obviously, it’s not quite as good as being there in person, but sometimes I’d go down to the mix on weekends, so in the end it was fine.”

You can coninue reading the full article about the movie at Mix Online; with notes of supervising sound editor Richard Hymns, and re-recording mixer / sound designer Chris Scarabosio.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull at IMDB

Indiana Jones Official Website