RoboCop [1987]
Stephen Flick & John Pospisil did the sound design and effect for Paul Verhoeven's RoboCop and recieved a Special Achievement Oscar. As part of the nomination process for this award, Stephen Flick had to write the following letter to the academy:
Dear Board of Governors:
It was important to us to create a sound track that strongly supported the future world and characters of "RoboCop." It took many thousands of elements to make this soundtrack: natural specific and ambient sounds recorded in the field, synthesizer sounds for graphics and sweetening, digital sound processing to add dimension to robot voices and movements, plus normal Foley. We made repeated tests for every single signature sound in the film. Some sounds like the Robo gun worked the first time around, while others required significant development.
The most difficult sound effects challenge in "RoboCop" was to create believable and unique character sounds for Robo and ED-209. As is the case with any "signature" sound effect, we recorded, edited, and mixed numerous tests for each character. Although Robo is a cyborg cop and had to sound massive and dangerous, there also had to be contrast in his sound as he changed from comic book superhero and rediscovered his lost human self. In the beginning, Robo was a precise, finely tooled machine. After his near destruction by ED-209 and his own police force, he became loose and rattley. We tested over 30 different combinations of movement and footsteps for Robo alone. We tested extremely clean sounding pneumatic movements with jointed footsteps. Because the shootout in the cocaine factory is staged like a spaghetti western, we tested a variety of metal taps fitted to cowboy and heavy motorcycle boots.In another test we assembled an aluminum tube and solid plate that gave a resonate metal sound for his legs. For one reason or another, these efforts either were not "heroic" enough of they were too prominent and would be too distracting to have throughout the film. Finally, a large truck timing chain performed in Foley gave a metal linked tread sound that also was reminiscent of spurs worked. As Robo loosened, we changed our performance of the prop to reflect his disintegration. We also cut a synthesizer generated low frequency impact for every footstep.
It was important to us to create a sound track that strongly supported the future world and characters of "RoboCop." It took many thousands of elements to make this soundtrack: natural specific and ambient sounds recorded in the field, synthesizer sounds for graphics and sweetening, digital sound processing to add dimension to robot voices and movements, plus normal Foley. We made repeated tests for every single signature sound in the film. Some sounds like the Robo gun worked the first time around, while others required significant development.
The most difficult sound effects challenge in "RoboCop" was to create believable and unique character sounds for Robo and ED-209. As is the case with any "signature" sound effect, we recorded, edited, and mixed numerous tests for each character. Although Robo is a cyborg cop and had to sound massive and dangerous, there also had to be contrast in his sound as he changed from comic book superhero and rediscovered his lost human self. In the beginning, Robo was a precise, finely tooled machine. After his near destruction by ED-209 and his own police force, he became loose and rattley. We tested over 30 different combinations of movement and footsteps for Robo alone. We tested extremely clean sounding pneumatic movements with jointed footsteps. Because the shootout in the cocaine factory is staged like a spaghetti western, we tested a variety of metal taps fitted to cowboy and heavy motorcycle boots.In another test we assembled an aluminum tube and solid plate that gave a resonate metal sound for his legs. For one reason or another, these efforts either were not "heroic" enough of they were too prominent and would be too distracting to have throughout the film. Finally, a large truck timing chain performed in Foley gave a metal linked tread sound that also was reminiscent of spurs worked. As Robo loosened, we changed our performance of the prop to reflect his disintegration. We also cut a synthesizer generated low frequency impact for every footstep.
I think the RoboCop footsteps is a great piece of sound design and truly gives the desired effect for his character. Below is a video of some of the sounds used in RoboCop
RoboCop Sound FX [YouTube Link]
Blade Runner [1982]
For my soundscape, I researched other films which had the location of a futuristic city environment, Blade Runner being one of them. I noted down sound that I could hear and identify with the location. What I learnt from listening to the sounds from Blade Runner is that they use a vast majority of natural sounds with distorted industrial sounds to take it away from the comfort of reality. The soundscape was simple, with only a few layers of sounds where there, many of them being ground sounds. Here were the sounds I noticed from Blade Runner:
- Alarm systems
- People
- Rain hitting different surfaces
- Lightning
- Muttering
- Ominous hums and tones
- Wind
- Ventillation
- Weird engine sounds
- Car horns
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| Scott's Blade Runner (1982) |
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