American Cinematographer - September 1990 - 69

Creating the Undersea Sounds of Red October
by Frank Serafine
The challenge was to create sound ef¬
fects that would immerse audiences in
the eerie world of underwater nuclear
tension - for the film, The Hunt for Fled
October. Alan Howarth, John-Paul Fasal
and I had brought the "sounds" of space
to earth with the various Star Trek mov¬
ies and we were ready - but this time,
to dive.

Although we were free to use
anything and everything we thought
might work to create dramatic effects,
there remained the reality that these
sounds already exist in the real naval
world. Director John McTiernan stressed

that he wanted this film to be credible.
We received extensive guidance from Ron
Patton and Bob Smith who represent a
company called Sonalysts. Their work
varies from consultation and training for
nuclear power plants to sophisticated

military computer program design.
To get a solid reality-base and
clear goals for the various sonar, torpedo
and sub sounds, supervising sound edi¬
tors Cecelia Hall and George Watters II
went on a week long field trip to one of
the country's largest naval shipyards in
New London, Connecticut. They spent
two and a half days on a nuclear subma¬
rine the USSShark\N\Xh Captain Russell
Carr. Hall points out, "It was absolutely
thrilling. They blew ballast and torpedo,

HHH
one's

library, there didn't seem to be
anything inherently difficult about creat¬
ing it ourselves. Howarth and Hall made
an earlier attempt at some sonar pings
with sine

waves

to which McTiernan

tally. Finally one of the sonar ping's was
run through an Eventide 949 harmonizer
along with many closely spaced delays.
Having sampled that into the synclavier
and played it back with an interval just
found Russian (and, later,

responded, "No that's not it." Hall re¬

under a 5th

members, "we must have created 500

American) ping candidates from which

shaft water bursts for us. It was a great
information gathering trip!" Unlike freefor-all sci-fi dramas where you need not
walk the tightrope between authenticity
and drama, we had to produce effects
that would pass the test in both areas.
Hall recalls how she and Wat¬

different pings." Being already familiar
with the sound, Patton made some ex¬

exact sonar sounds we

ters recorded 45 reels of

Early on, this search led us to
Hall's swimming pool where we took
various versions of sonar and put them

quarter-inch tape

which "became very crucial to our ability
to do the show credibly. I was interested
first and foremost in making it dramatic
for the audience. What's unique about the
success of this project is we managed to
do both of these things, hopefully."
In the film's underwater arena
of nuclear hide-and-seek, where a ship

"sees with its ears," sonar was clearly a
priority. Interestingly, it was in October
that we began our "hunt for the right
ping." Although the sonar wasn't in any¬

amples with just an oscillator and a
reverb unit to show us what real sonar
sounded like. As with many, these came
close but McTiernan felt we had yet to hit
the target.

through an underwater speaker, amplified
them at one end of the pool and re-recorded them from the other end 42 feet

This use of "nature's reverb"
yielded the sonar sound for the little
DSRV (deep submergence rescue vehicle)
but, finding the right pings for the big
away.

we

Hall made her choice. When

we

and his cohorts

gathered sound
samples from a
surprising variety
of sources for
The Hunt for Red

October.

had the

needed, the pings
were sequenced to the picture so the rate
would increase

as torpedos and other
objects got closer. Accomplishing this
dramatically for some of the suspenseful
scenes was not simply a matter of speed¬
ing up the ping-tempo "as doom ap¬
proached". So again we turned to the
synclavier which is able to do the same

accelerando but with

a

manual control for

the subtle rate variation.
With the abundance of subma¬

rine shots taken from the external under¬

January. Howarth's synclavier proved
useful for recalling old EQ settings digi¬

perspective, it was vital to create
effects for the massive propeller motions
and the higher pitch bearings or "screws"
associated with shaft rotation. The low
end throb-sound, with lots of water
movement heard in the first bottom view

September 1990

American

Russian and American subs took until

Frank Serafine

water

Cinematographer

67
American Cinematographer - September 1990

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