Once upon a time, in the Academy of Motion Pictures Screening Room in New York City, the sound designer of Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Wall-E and others, spoke about his process. With Indiana Jones, he knew that Lucas and Spielberg wanted a character that was larger than life. The sound needed to be just as big. For the revolver used by Indiana Jones, Burtt knew the real deal sound of a revolver just wouldn’t be enough. Burtt remembered when he was a kid, watching Gunga Din, hearing the enormous, thundering sound of the Winchester rifles wielded by Cary Grant and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. But the sound archives for RKO had long been destroyed.
But Burtt didn’t give up. He got ahold of the exact model Winchester that was used in the movie, but when he tested it, the sound was still just too small. So he drove to the California’s Alabama Hills, just outside of Los Angeles, where Gunga Din was filmed. There, in a canyon, he fired the Winchester rifle. The sound was enormous, resonant, rich, and deep. That became the sound of the tiny little revolver Indiana Jones used in Raiders of Lost Ark.
And and that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to sound design.
The scream of a TIE fighter. The Pew-Pew! of a blaster. Behind the Mac: Skywalker Sound spotlights the team of creators who collaborate to make the magic we hear onscreen. From field recording and Foley to sound design and mixing, these artists reveal their process, showing us how they use Mac to bring to life sounds from the Star Wars universe and beyond.
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