Creative Production: Sound: Ben Burtt Presentation

SCRIPT

EARLY LIFE to LUCAS

- Ben Burtt was born in Jamesville New York in 1948

- Graduated with a major in physics

- Very keen film maker and in 1970 won the national student film festival with his war film Yankee Squadron

- Went to the University with the intention of becoming a director

- Despite this, in an interview he said “I never grew up thinking I would be in the movie industry”

- “I wanted to be a scientist and studied for a degree in physics”

- “I began making movies with my fathers movie camera when he was 10 and he always tried to make his own soundtrack”

“I loved to listen to my favorite movies and shows with headphones on, and I got very interested in how sound was connected to the imagery of a movie”

It was not until 1968, when Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey came out, that Burtt realized that he could combine his interests (physics and film). The man who was later to make him Hollywood’s first real sound designer.

GEORGE LUCAS

• Burtt attended the University of Southern California film school to pursue a master’s degree in production. He received a student job, cataloguing the Columbia sound library, this was where he developed a keen interest in special effects, sound and editing. George Lucas had gone to that school a few years before Burtt, and in an interview with Time Out magazine, Burtt goes on to say “when George started ‘Star Wars’ he was looking for some young students to come on and create sounds. He called up the school and my name was handed to him, and I went and had an interview and the rest is history.”

First sound designer

In an interview with FilmSound, Burtt was questioned about his position of possibly being the first ‘Sound Designer’. He elaborated that

“The term sound designer has gotten usage in the last decade really since the Star Wars films began a new interest in creative soundtracks in motion pictures. I called myself a sound designer because I wasn't really functioning as a production recordist, or a sound editor, or just a sound mixer. I did some of the job that all three of those people might do. But I was able to follow through from the point of production of a film. That is I can go out and advise and make suggestions about things that could be recorded once I'd seen the script of the film.

STAR WARS

"Star Wars" opened in theaters on May 25, 1977, and the following year, Burtt's aural inventions were honored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He received a Special Achievement Award for sound effects, for the "creation of the alien, creature and robot voices."

Here are some examples of the sound designs he did for the Star Wars saga starting with the Laser blasts.

R2D2

For R2D2, initially Burtt wanted to record babies and somehow alter their sounds, but it was hard to persuade the babies to perform properly. [SEE QUOTE ON BOARD].

So out of necessity, he started making babylike noises himself then combining those sound with the electronic noises he had been making.

Burtt states “ I put myself into the mind of an infant and acted out a scene with a droid’s intentions. I’d whistle and coo, I would sign and groan, and at the same time I’d move the oscillators of the synthesizers.”

OTHER SOUND EFFECTS

Other poignant sounds Burtt created for Star Wars was Darth Vader’s breathing in which Burtt recorded his own breathing through an old Dacor scuba regulator. The Imperial walkers stomp was a edited recording of a machinist’s punch press and the character Chewbacca is constructed of animal noises, mainly walruses.

TECHNIQUES

-He says hes been collecting sounds for years and putting in sounds from the real world creates the illusion that these fantasies are credible

-Always gathering sounds, he carries a recorder with him wherever he goes

ACCOLADES

Star Wars launched Ben Burtt’s career as a prolific sound editor and sound designer at Lucasfilm, where he was on staff from 1975 until 1990. While there, he lent his sound design and effects expertise to films including "Star Wars: Episode V -- The Empire Strikes Back," "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," "The Dark Crystal," "Star Wars: Episode VI -- Return of the Jedi," "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," "Willow," "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" and "Always." During his 15-year tenure at Lucasfilm, Burtt earned eight Oscar nominations. He won for "Star Wars," "Raiders," "E.T." and "Last Crusade."

LEGACY

Burtt has a keen ear for the compelling sounds.

Normally, one only perceives a sound effect on a subconscious level. Every time you see some action on the screen, you expect there to be a complimentary sound, appropriate to the image and its emotional context. Burtt’s skills go far beyond this: his sounds often literally tell a story and they bring pleasure in themselves.

Ben Burtt is now working on the sound design for the upcoming film Star Wars: Episode VII