AudioMedia - June 2008 - (Page 33)

PRESENTED BY: The Sound of Entertainment™ www.dolby.com/professional > sounds in which I wanted to maintain continuity, not only by using some of the original material, but in making new sounds that I would connect in some things. I suppose it is a little bit like a composer, like [Crystal Skull Composer] John Williams, for instance. He revives his themes for Star Wars and Indiana Jones. He adds ‘new’ where necessary, but you have that already well-established theme for the character, and it’s how audiences already identify with the character, so why not? In a similar way, this stays true with sounds and sound effects. Audiences may not be quite as aware of it [for sound design] as they are with music, but nonetheless, they identify with the types of sounds that were created for the original films.” lot of freedom to create new things that people have never heard before because there’s nothing to compare it with. Indy exists in the real world, on Earth, in period locations. The trick for Indy is to create the sounds with the right emotional colouration; they seem real, credible, and are made up of real things – not synthesised sounds, or sounds that are too abstract. In Indy, you’re not working in outer space, but with trucks, other vehicles, jungle birds, avalanches, and landslides.” Burtt will be the first to tell you that he’s not an audio gear hound. Matter of fact, he’s been using the same two microphones for decades. [And just think: how many sounds have we heard that were captured with these two specific diaphragms!] Clearly, what works for Burtt truly works. “I’ve settled on one standard kit,” he humbly offers. “I’ve been using the same Sanken M-S stereo microphone (CMS-10MS) for years, probably just because it’s always just worked for me. Most everything I need is attainable with that mic; I also go to an old Sennheiser MKH 816 shotgun mic. I record onto a Sound Devices [digital location recorder] using pretty much the same microphone all the time. Being in the field, it’s a matter of using the equipment and getting the mic in the right place to get what I want.” Burtt continues on the subject of audio technology. “I’m not much of an engineer or an audiophile,” he says plainly. “I try to make a connection between what the listener is going to see and hear in the movie, and try to pick the right sounds for the right moment that go with the picture. It’s just based on my own intuition rather than any technology. So I didn’t really apply any fancy technology to do the sound recording in this film.” Time -Tested Standards In culling appropriate audio for Crystal Skull from the Indy archives, Burtt re-entered the world of analogue tape. “We went back to gather all the sounds that we ever created for the Indy films, most of which only existed on quarter-inch tape,” he offers. “Luckily, those were stored for all these years and had notes and descriptions with them. One of my first tasks was digitising that entire library to bring the sounds into Pro Tools and have the searchable database so we could find anything we want.” For the fight sequences in Crystal Skull, Burtt found plenty to work with from the old tapes. “And of course, we have a lot of fights in the film,” quips Burtt. “Fistfights, crashes, fires, and falls.” Then, the new locations – the Area 51 warehouse, the Peruvian temple where the crystal skulls reside, and all sorts of dangerous places in between – Burtt was able to stretch as far and as wide as he wanted in creating new sounds… but still, to a certain limit. “Sound design for Indy is a different trick as compared to Star Wars,” explains Burtt. “The world of sounds in science fiction gives you a S or ting Through Tape AUDIO MEDIA JUNE 2008 33 http://www.dolby.com/professional

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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