Ben Burtt (July 12, 1948)
Ben Burtt is an American sound designer, Film editor, director,
and screenwriter and voice artist well known for the movies; Star
Wars Indiana Jones, Wall-E, Invasion of the body snatchers, E.T.
the extra-terrestrial.Ben Burtt enjoyed recording music since he
was a kid and especially sounds from films and had a dream of
becoming a director. Ben Burtts career as a sound designer began in
1977 with director George Lucas for the original film Star Wars.
Ben Burtt has his unique technique when it comes to sounds
especially for sci-fi movies like Star Wars. He created the sound
for R2-D2 and is involved from the films earliest stages and
creating the sounds for each character and the spacecraft. Figure 1
( Ben Burtt)Back then recording sounds for Star wars he chose to
use the natural appliances such as the sound of a film projector to
make the sound of the lightsaber, the sound for the blaster effect
derived from hitting a guy wire of a radio tower with a hammer. In
an interview with Ben Burtt In my first discussion with George
Lucas about the film, he - and I concurred with him - that he
wanted an 'organic', as opposed to the electronic and artificial
soundtrack. Since we were going to design a visual world that had
rust and dents and dirt, we wanted a sound which had Squeaks and
motors that may not be the smooth-sounding or quite.(Burtt, 2002).
Ben Burtt has received many awards since the release of Star wars
for sound effects but also his success and hard work has earned an
Oscar award. Ben Burtt talks in detail to why he chose to do sound
differently and what kind of feel it should create. R2-D2s motors
cover every single move it does. They got buried most of the time,
but when they do surface it helps keep a consistent texture that
tells you that it really is a robot. (Burtt, 2002)Ben Burtt doesnt
just find the perfect sound that would go well with what the
director expects or has in mind and he does admit that some of the
sounds do surprise him and he would record it and edit them in the
studio. He likes to try out different genres and tries to stray
away from the sci-fi but after a while he started working on the
movie Wall-E a great blockbuster movie that has stolen every
viewers hearts and many thanks should go to Ben Burtt for being
able to find sounds that bring colour to those characters and the
environment.
Wall-E could definitely be Ben Burtts comeback movie and he
amazed the audience huge and proofed that he is still capable of
it. Ben Burtt was involved in the making of the movie 2-3 years ago
and tried to understand the characteristic of the robots. In a
video Interview he admitted that he found it a bit difficult to
create sounds for robots and bring them to live; he Figure 2
(Wall-E Premiere, 2008) had to be precise with the vocals for each
of them. The first 30 minutes of the movie doesnt consist any
dialogue but thats what the director wanted he wanted to
communicate with the audience through sound and want them to feel
the connection.
Ben Burtt is conscious of good sounds that will sound impeccable
when altered and he knows what will work and what wont. Ben Burtt
has a long year experience and knows what is expected from him from
the audience and his director; his skills are so remarkable that
the sounds tell their own story through the screen.
Bibliography
Burtt, B (2002) At: http://filmsound.org/starwars/ (Accessed
27/02/2015)Burtt, B At: http://benburttinterviews.blogspot.co.uk/
(Accessed 27/02/2015)
IllustrationFigure 1 (unknown) At:
http://www.aes.org/technical/heyser/images/Ben-Burtt.jpgFigure 2
(2008) At:
http://img.spokeo.com/public/900-600/ben_burtt_2008_07_16.jpg
(Accessed on 27/02/2015) (Accessed on 27/02/2015)
