AudioMedia - June 2008 - (Page 32)

STROTHER BULLINS talks to Sound Designer/ Co-supervising Sound Editor Ben Burtt about his role in the latest adventures of Dr. Henry Walton ‘Indiana’ Jones, Jr. T his month, the term ‘summer blockbuster’ is defined worldwide by the feature film trifecta of George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Harrison Ford. Yes, Indiana Jones is back, and it’s a good bet that his film will be the most notable action/adventure of the 2008 movie season. In the 2008 installment of this lucrative, Ford-led series – Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull – Dr. Henry Walton ‘Indiana’ Jones, Jr. stumbles into another adventure when, in 1957, he crosses paths with a convoy of Soviet soldiers infiltrating Area 51 in the state of Nevada. From there, it’s off to Peruvian jungles, rivers, waterfalls, and ancient temples – settings and scenes that are all perfect accompaniments to the largest of movie theatre popcorn tubs… with butter, please. Last year, Burtt was allowed to read a script for Crystal Skull, which gave him a jumpstart on gathering and recording sound design materials. “That way I could start to make my ‘shopping list,’” he explains. “I could write down all the places they go, the weapons, the vehicles, environments, and, of course, the crystal skulls themselves. From the start, I could assume that there had to be some special sound associated with the artifacts, as they have a mystical role in the story. Once I analysed the script, I did two things: record new, fresh sounds, and go to the library of things I’ve already made for Indiana Jones, revisiting places I thought there could be similar material that we covered in the past, as there could be ideas there G etting Star ted INDIANA JONES A N D T H E K I N G D O M O F T H E C RYS TA L S K U L L Rejoining the ‘Indy’ team, Sound Designer and Co-supervising Sound Editor Ben Burtt found his work fun and rewarding, yet no small task. “It’s very tough making sequels to films people love,” he begins. “Expectations run so high. I’ve really enjoyed working on this film, as I love Indiana Jones as a genre. This film doesn’t reflect the advent of video games in any way; it’s not a hyperkinetic world of cameras that can go anywhere. It’s a traditional film with a belief that everything you see was filmed with a camera that was really somewhere… likely on a tripod.” that I could develop new sounds from.” Burtt notes that there were approximately 700 new sounds created for the project, a significant amount for an Indiana Jones film, he insists. “Usually there’s 500 effects, 600 tops, made for each movie. Of course, those effects are sounds attached to everything from strange doors to environments, to vehicles, to the sound the skulls make and where they are. Obviously where there’s an action or chase scene, you want to have what I’d call the most exaggerated, ‘comic book’ style sound attached to things… face punches are like cannons, right? Everything is magnified. The sounds in an Indiana Jones film are always magnified and that’s the way it’s been since the beginning.” According to Burtt, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull largely ignores the fast cutting trend of most modern action films. Instead, the film is essentially a period piece, and through Spielberg’s careful direction and desires, it has been timeless since its inception. “As we know, the modern action film has become quite fast in terms of cutting pace – many angles, lots of cuts,” offers Burtt. “With that, every time there’s a cut in picture, there’s probably a change in sound; a new sound is added, an old sound is modified, or something. When shots are shorter, the real challenge is making things read in a pleasing way other than coming straight at you. The nice thing about Crystal Skull is that Steven Spielberg shot, edited, and directed the film in a very traditional fashion. Most action takes place in the frame without a lot of cutting; stunts are done physically – people fall and jump in one shot, not in five angles. It gives the sound person a chance to design sounds that have a beginning, middle, and end, rather than being assaulting on the senses.” Thus, Burtt insists that Crystal Skull even seems to be “a lost film. It’s like, ‘wow, that must’ve been made 30 years ago!’ It’s a very faithful recreation of the visual and movement feel of Raiders of the Lost Ark. It doesn’t mean that the sound is any easier; it does mean that the sounds can be, in a sense, showcased because they’ve been given a place to live.” A Traditional Fashion After catching a clue via script, Burtt sat down with Steven Spielberg for a spotting session. “We run the film on the editing machine,” explains Burtt of the process. “He’ll stop and give his comments about what he wants to hear, what things are important, and what his vision is for any particular sequence. For Crystal Skull, quite often he would say, ‘We’ve done something like this before, so you know what to do,’ or ‘I love the old stuff!’ – that kind of thing.” For Burtt’s sound design work, ‘the old stuff’ came in quite handy for placing amongst newly recorded elements. “We had about 2,500 sound files that were part of the original film series, and where necessary, we’d go back and use some of that material. Plus, as I started to realise as I was going back through my old tapes, lots of times I would make many different versions of something. There would be unused outtakes in the same style of sounds, and some of them were applicable to the new movie, so I was fortunate there.” Having also worked on another notable blockbuster action series, Star Wars, Burtt was used to carefully utilising a particular aural vocabulary. “When Star Wars was revisited, I faced a little bit of the same issue: it too has a unique library, a certain style, and obviously a set of > Spotting With Spielberg 32 AUDIO MEDIA JUNE 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of AudioMedia - June 2008

AudioMedia - June 2008 Contents Recording Post Broadcast AES Review What's Up UK? Geofocus: Australia For the Record Special Report: Videosonics Newstalk: DPA New Microphones Novation SL Compact Allen & Heath IDR-8 Eastwest Quantum Leap SD2 & Goliath Final Cut: Indiana Jones Merging ADR Module Koolworld SSL Duende Good Product Sampler: Microphones Video Guide AMSR Meyer Sound The Blue Planet Live! Royer Labs Mics R-121 & R-122

AudioMedia - June 2008

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