New month means a new special on DS. I’m very glad to announce the visit of one of my favorite sound designers out there: David Farmer. He will be sharing a lot of interesting stuff, including articles, interviews, videos, and more! I hope you enjoy it.
Bio
David Farmer grew up in the little town of Gladys, Virginia. He was always interested in music growing up, and played drums, guitar, and bass in his youth. Drums actually come the most natural to him, but he wanted to write songs in their entirety, so picked up the guitar. He would record a drum part to a cassette, then play guitar along with that cassette while recording the composite mix to another cassette. Rinse & repeat with other instruments until the song is done. This is far from how songs are actually made (using multi-track recording), but was all he had access to. More than just music, he found he was actually interested in sound itself, which led him to my career in sound effects for feature films.
Condensing the next phase of his life, he wound up in Burbank CA working on films, such as Mortal Kombat, The Mask, Dumb & Dumber, etc…. After that, he started working on films out of Skywalker Ranch, including The Arrival, Armageddon, Con Air, Space Cowboys, and so on. He wound up as the Sound Designer for Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. Clearly this was a dream job for someone in this field.
Awards & Nominations
- Golden Reel Nomination for Best Sound Editing in Computer Entertainment – World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
- Golden Reel Nomination for Best Sound Editing in Feature Film (Foreign) – King Kong
- Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing in Computer Entertainment – Goldeneye: Rogue Agent
- BAFTA Nomination for Best Sound/Golden Reel Nomination for Best Sound Editing – The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
- BAFTA Nomination for Best Sound/Golden Reel Nomination for Best Sound Editing – The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
- BAFTA Nomination for Best Sound/Golden Reel Nomination for Best Sound Editing – The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Selected Work
- A nightmare on Elm Street (2010) – Sound designer
- God of War III (2010) – Sound designer
- Invictus (2009) – Sound designer
- God of War II (2007) – Sound designer
- King Kong (2005) – Sound designer
- Need for Speed: Underground 2 (2004) – Sound editor
- The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) – Sound designer
- Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne (2003) – Sound designer
- The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) – Sound designer
- The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) – Sound designer
- Space Cowboys (2000) – Sound Designer
- Fallout 2: A Post-Nuclear Role-Playing Game (1998) – Sound Designer
- Mortal Kombat (1995) – Sound Designer
Wow. I did the exact same thing recording my guitar to one cassette, playing it back and mixing another pass with guitar on a fresh cassette, take that out and record on the original cassette (2 cassettes was all I had).
I’ve probably seen the LOTR behind-the-scenes for sound 10 times – all three of them. I study your work with a microscope.
Thanks for being featured this month and you can count on a long list of questions from me!
– Ryan
I’m stoked for this too. Like Ryan I’ve seen those behind the scenes dozen’s of times, and still watch them often. Seeing how much you enjoy creating sounds is inspiring.
Looking forward to reading all you have to say.
Thanks
World of warcraft sound designer…this is the game i´ve been more addicted ever ;) me and 11 million of guys over the world¡.
Your different works are incredible… Sweet september.
Thanks Miguel and Thx David¡
Hi guys! I’m flattered by the interest!
I just wanted to say, I can’t take credit for the WOW content design. Almost all of my contributions to WOW have been in the trailers/cinematics so far. I did do a handful of in-game material for the upcoming expansion, but I’m not comfortable taking credit for work I didn’t do. So when you read “Sound Designer of World of Warcraft”, when it pertains to me – it’s simply too broad.
I’m looking forward to September! This will be a lot of fun!
Cheers!
Hey! I just wanted to say how excited I am for this month. David Farmer, you are one of the reason I have actually gotten into sound design and post production audio for film. Like Ryan said, Ive watched the Lord Of The Rings extras too many times to count, haha. I am a very big fan! I look forward to any and all that you have to share with us. Thanks!