Ben Burtt is the legendary sound designer of the STAR WARS and INDIANA JONEs films among many accomplishments (he also designed the sound for JJ’s STAR TREK movie in 2009, and is reprising such duties for THE FORCE AWAKENS, which opens this December).
While researching some of his extensive and impressive credentials (he was also an editor on the STAR WARS prequels, and a director on THE YOUNG INDIANA JONES CHRONICLES), I stumbled across this YouTube post by the Oscar organization (i.e. 'the Academy Award people.') The post is actually about a year old - but has precious few views for some reason. It never caught fire, and I thought it deserved better. So here we go…
In the short reel, Burtt demonstrates the creation of some of the “electronic tonalities” (i.e. soundscaping) engineered by Bebe and Louis Barron for FORBIDDEN PLANET back in 1956. Anyone who has had the privilege of watching FORBIDDEN PLANET either with a good sound system at home, or in a respectable theater, will immediately recall and understand how utterly critical sound design is to that picture. I’d even go so far as to call it haunting, disturbing, and indispensable.
How was it brought about? Let this modern master of sound demonstrate…
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Glen Oliver
“Merrick”
