AudioMedia - December 2008 - (Page 26) STROTHER BULLINS talks to Supervising Sound Editor and Music Mixer Ren Klyce about his work on what is arguably the most curious film of the year. D irector David Fincher – Director of such successful, notable films as Se7en, Fight Club, and Panic Room – has completed his latest major project, an intriguing film called The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The script, written by Eric Roth, was adapted from a short story of the same name written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and published via magazine in 1922. The story is set in New Orleans at the end of World War I, where a boy named Benjamin Button is “born under unusual circumstances” – as an aged man, already speaking, and becomes younger as time progresses. The film stars Brad Pitt as Button and Cate Blanchett as his love interest, Daisy. For the film, Fincher once again worked with his longtime friend and sound collaborator Ren Klyce, who served as both Supervising Sound Editor and Music Mixer on the project. The duo goes way back. “I started working with David when we were both hired at the early age of 18 to work with a colleague/filmmaker – also a colleague of George Lucas – by the name of John Korty,” explains Klyce in a jovial, reminiscent voice. “I got a job working for him in the animation department; David got a job working for him in animation/visual effects. We were the young- Throughout The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, Klyce often took the road less travelled in modern film sound production: subtlety. Klyce shares with Fincher an appreciation of carefully conceived sound design, appropriate silence, and restraint from the over manipulation of audience emotions with music. “ E v e r y f i l m m a k e r, w h e n t h e y a r e c r e ating their films, is obviously trying to express some form of narrative,” offers K lyce. “It’s a tough thing to do because you’re trying to create something yet, at the same time, not be in the way of the story. That’s the challenging and tricky part of filmmaking: to make it feel effortless. David’s approach is that he really wants the audience to feel not assaulted by his doings, his technique, and his craft. Again, the irony is that there is a lot of work that goes into his technique and craft to make it appear as if there’s not a lot of work going into the craft. In other words, his approach as of late – as we’re all transformational in terms of our work – is a great interest in subtlety and nuance. He wants the audience to pick up Subtlet y I n S ound BENJAMIN BUTTON est crewmembers and gravitated toward each other. That forged our friendship.” Fast-forward to the present, over 25 years later, and Fincher has directed what will surely be called his most ambitious film to date, which hits major theatres worldwide on Christmas Day 2008. Here, Klyce tells the story of the audio behind this curiously compelling film. on the little details and get a sense of character and story without it being crammed down their throats with blatant dialogue, blatant photography, over the top music, and big sound. There are a lot of great films that are made in that spirit, but David’s point of view, approach, and artistry allows all the beauty of all the crafts to join together. I believe it comes from a place of modesty.” The picture is largely a period piece set in 1918 New Orleans, which meant that sounds had to authentically reflect the environment. “The film starts and ends inside of a modern-day hospital in 2003 following Hurricane Katrina. It’s the story of a woman and she’s having her daughter read a diary to her: the story of Benjamin Button. So the film goes back and forth between present day and 1918. Considering the images, David wanted the soundtrack to play largely based on his picture editing. For instance, when we were in the present day hospital, he wanted it to be this terribly bleak and depressing place, but not as in a horror film. There was a moment that we wanted to play it up – nearly spooky and eerie with reverb on voices with the tone ever so ominous, etc. So you do that, experiment, and it’s obvious within a few seconds that it’s the wrong way to go because it paints it poorly. Again, it is about subtlety – subtle noise, subtle effects.” The Curious Case of Some rules are just made to be broken. In the case of audio for Benjamin Button, Fincher originally did not > Break ing The Rules With Music 26 AUDIO MEDIA DECEMBER 2008
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