The New York Times: The Sound of ‘Inception’

The New York Times has published an interview with Supervising Sound Editor/Sound Designer Richard King and Re-Recording Mixer Gary Ryzzo and Sound Mixer Ed Novick, talking about their work on “Inception”.

As the Bagger discovered last season, it’s almost impossible for even the Academy’s experts to predict who will win the Oscars for sound design and mixing. But over the weekend, the sound team from “Inception” won Baftas from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts , and the group — sound designer Richard King, recording mixer Ed Novick and re-recording mixer Gary Rizzo, along with his partner Lora Hirschberg — have been talked up all season long for their work on Christopher Nolan’s film, for which they are all nominated for Oscars. Creating a soundtrack for his multilevel dreamscape thriller involved technical and creative challenges born of multiple locations and complicated storytelling.

“A notion that Chris had was the idea that a sound occurring in reality, for instance a gunshot, in the next level down might be a peal of thunder, and in the next level down, might be an earthquake,” Mr. King explained. “He wanted there to be some kind of connection, and sound seemed to be the way to do it.”

The Bagger spoke to the group by phone recently. Mr. Rizzo told us to identify him by his “helium-oriented voice” – “as a dialogue mixer.” He added: “I tend to pay attention to the different timbers of voices, it’s one of the things I enjoy about the job.” And Mr. Novick volunteered that he can diagnose an actor’s head cold before anyone else via his trusty microphone. Mr. King revealed that he views sound as a sort of trademark; when he creates identifiable noises for a particular movie, he doesn’t reuse them. We spoke about Mr. Nolan’s emotional approach to his work, his unique resistance to looping dialogue and his Oscar snub.

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Via @soundesignblog