boundin'

Rewatched the extra on Wall-E dvd about sound design, amazing! And so did a bit research on Ben Burtt who made Wall-E alive!

Ben Burtt is the Academy Award winning sound designer behind the entire Star Wars and Indiana Jones, ET the man who brought R2-D2 to life with bleeps and boops and gave Indiana Jones’ whip that iconic crack.
He brings to life through the wonders of sound, the world of Pixar’s Wall-E. Much like R2-D2, Wall-E can’t exactly talk, unlike R2-D2, Wall-E was the main character of his movie. He gave Wall-E all the right beeps and blips to make him a lovable, engaging character!

There is big difference between sound design for live action film vs. animations. For animation, you get nothing for free. Wall-E is a multitude of the motors, Ben picked out different sound for each movement. As Wall-E doesn’t have much dialogue, he used all the little squeaks, beeps to really mean something, and being very careful about when to use it, as audience might think it means something. Ben emphasized on that its sound designer’s responsibility to make the right choice for the right sound at the right moment.

The sound Wall-E and Eva make, that’s their character and how people connect to them. Ben started by searching for their characters, if they are really alive, what they will be sound like, what will they be powered, what will be the actually physics of how they work. The idea always is to create the sense of a soul with the character with sound. In animation cases, sound effects are function as voices, and sound effects can be expressive! He always goes with what works emotionally, chooses what make it feel real and makes you believe it, not necessarily correct in the science.

Ben Burtt had been on Wall-E since very beginning. During those three years of giving those robots lives, he started Wall-E like R2-D2 kind of character. Until he heard that opening song, he said that there is something very charming and appealing about that song, the vocal has kind of innocent feeling, in a way that he sort of connected that with the Wall-E.
Wall-E and Eva occasionally talk; he says that it is hard to fool voices, creating the illusion of voices is the hardest task.  He worked out a circuit where he started with his own voice and broke that down in the computer and then re-synthesized it. He usually works alone with his recording gear and mixing consoles, speakers and a screen so that he can project images if he wants to. He recorded his own voice, and changes the performance to give it electronic new ounces, and then experiment on his keyboard which he put sound effects on.

Ben Burtt says: I’ve always found when you’re trying to create illusions with sound, especially in a science fiction or fantasy movie, that pulling sounds from the world around us is a great way to cement that illusion. And he is extremely creative when creating sound effects, he is always thinking, what the options, what has been done, what could be done that hasn’t, total geek about sound. He uses everything that comes into his life, even his wife’s pregnancy.
From the Wall-E DVD extra: it explains that Eva’s laser gun sound effect is from a stretched out metal slinky! The high frequency travels fast than the low frequency, makes that cool “Pew” sound. He also showed rain sticks, wind machine which is a canvas being scraped on the wood (or dragging a heavy object through on the carpet), and the thunderstorm machine which is basically a metal sheet which create wonderful low frequency rumbling sound.

More about Ben Burtt: He was a film sound buff as a child (he recorded and replayed the sound tracks of his favorite movies) Burtt enrolled at the university of Southern California's film school with the intention of becoming a director. He received a student job cataloguing the Columbia sound library, which had been donated to the University. A call by Star Wars producer Gary Kurtz to U.S.C. led to a successful interview for Burtt. He was given carte blanche to work out of his apartment near the U.S.C. campus in order to collect at a leisure pace those sounds that might be useful.  

Ben Burtt’s sound effects Cheat Sheet:
The cockroach named Hal in "WALL-E": Hal's voice was composed of sped-up raccoon noises, and the sound of his feet skittering along the floor was made by clicking handcuffs - recorded with the help of Burtt's police officer neighbor.

 The light saber in "Star Wars": the light sabers were a combination of two sounds: the feedback from a malfunctioning television set and the whirring of an idling film projector.

The TIE Fighter engine in "Star Wars": Burtt combined an elephant's roar (slowed down considerably) with the sound of a car driving fast on a rain-slicked road.
 Imperial Walkers: The sound of the Imperial Walkers was created by modifying the sound of a machinist's punch press. Added to this for complexity, were the sounds of bicycle chains being dropped on concrete.

R2-D2: 50 % of the droid´s voice is generated electronically; the rest is a combination and blending of water pipes, whistles, and vocalizations by Burtt.  
Chewbacca: Wookie sounds are constructed out of pieces of walruses and other animal sounds.
 Speeder Bike: Sound of an Speeder Bike was achieved by mixing together the recorded sounds of a P-5 Mustang ariplane, a P-38 Lockheed Interceptor, and then record them 

Luke Skywalker's landspeeder: The whoosh of Luke Skywalker's landspeeder was achieved by recording the roar the Los Angeles Harbor Freeway through a vacuum-cleaner pipe.

The whip in "Raiders of the Lost Ark": Burtt recorded an actual whip, which at one point Harrison Ford demonstrated on the side of the road in San Anselmo. The "whooshing" sound of the whip in the film is a Harrier jet.

Big fan of Claymation, loved Aardam’s shorts: Adam, Creature Comforts, and features like The Night Before Christmas, Caroline…I think although nowadays, most animated films are Computer Generated, and myself is doing most Computer animated shorts, Claymation still has its charm! I love seeing things on the big screen that I know they are not computer generated, seeing the fingerprints on the plasticine, there’s something magical about it, and I think the art form like hand draw, puppets, claymation are here to stay, and will never go away!

I first saw Adam Elliot’s Harvie Krumpet at 2003, a 22 minute Claymation, the biography of an ordinary man seemingly cursed with perpetual bad luck, which won the Oscar award. Adam mentioned in his interview that “Harvie Krumet has been in my head for over ten years”, that’s probably why Harvie is so well shaped with his characters and personalities and feels so real to me! His forever struggling with life and his constantly striving to understand what it all means can be definitely related to any of us! I feel Harvie’ pain and I am liberated by his enlightenment and engage with his passions. As I am watching his journey, I can’t help wondering about fate and our attitude to life that shapes our own live.

Geoffrey Rush’s narration was dead on, with the right amount of the pause between sentences; bring the Claymation to another level! He recorded the script before the animation to give animators a 'guide track'. Then he came back after the shoot, to lay down his final performance. The sound designers then added lot of new humor with spot fx, music and atmos tracks. Within the final sound mix of Harvie, there are over 2000 separate sound clips which thoroughly enhance the reality of Harvie's world. This is really great to know, and give me guidance about what to do with my own narrative animations.  

Read from Harvie Krumpet’s website that the short was shot on Super 16mm over 15 months from October 2001 to January 2003 and was finished to 35mm in May 2003. The film was shot in sequence to not only help keep the animators sane, but to also allow them to get to know HARVIE as he grew. The animation and sets became more detailed and dynamic, as the model and sets builders’ skills became more finely tuned. The wheelchair dream sequence was shot towards the end, as it demanded a huge 'infinity' set. The choreography of the wheelchairs was the most difficult and took many hours of concentration and rehearsal.

There are over 280 separate shots, the scenes were shot according to a very detailed storyboard of almost 300 individual panels, which covered an entire studio wall. And they rarely deviated from the script and storyboard and almost every shot is as originally envisaged.

After fell in love with Harvie Krumpet, I checked out Adam Elliot’s earlier work: the TRILOGY: Uncle, Cousin, and Brother. From the lovely narrative tone, similar style of characters, often to comical effect, with their flaw’s front and centre; his attention to detail is astounding; the character animation is rich with expression and personality, yet the focus is firmly on one’s inner-beauty, which win over our hearts with ease.

When Adam is asked what his next project after Mary and Max, he answered, “I need plenty of think time. I need to go and live life a bit and actually find the next person to write about. I need to get that fire in my belly, because I do write my scripts from anger. I really write my scripts from anger and I need to get angry about something else! (laughs) I’m running out of family and friends to write about too - I need to find someone else.” What a lovely answer! And I feel connected here, because I usually write from my own feelings, my frustrations, like my life as a foreigner here in a new culture. Hearing an established animator saying that out loud, I feel really encouraged to keep searching deep on my own feelings and write about them, animate about them!

Mary and Max is based on his pen friend in New York, Adam mentioned that he re-read his letters and worked out his speech patterns, worked out how people with Asperger’s structure their sentences; and thoroughly investigated. The film contrasts and critiques two distinctive cultures; suburban Australian and urban American, tells of the pen-pal relationship of young, lonely Melbourne girl by the name of Mary Dinkle (Toni Collette) and a 44 year-old obese, autistic New Yorker called Max Horovitz (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Mary and Max uses an abundance of humor to tackle a wide assortment of societal issues - from alcoholism to religion, suicide to Agrophobia, yet treated with great honesty and without judgments. 

Visually Adam used brown hues for Australia, and grey, black, white and reds to identify New York City, reminiscent of Sin City.  The predominantly colorless likes a metaphor of Mary and Max’s melancholy and isolation.

I think the magic of animation, or I may say the nature of animation is that with great storytelling, it can really reach audiences on all levels, kids appreciating it on one level, adults appreciating on another. I really admire those who use those forms to challenge those more serious societal issues.

Adam also talked about the challenges and the difference between writing shorts feature film. “Ah, it’ll be just like making five Harvie Krumpet’s in a row!” Then he laughed and said that he was completely wrong! A feature film has its own set of criteria, its own rhythm and pace. He was terrified at first ‘Oh god, I’m not going to come up with 80 pages of script!” But then suddenly, he had 100 pages and had to edit it back!

From Production side, Adam mentioned that he is really lucky to have Melanie Coombs, who really love his work and give him full support and got his wish list of voice talents like Eric Bana, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Toni Collette onboard for Mary and Max! All of them personified their characters with masterful sincerity, as Mary grows older and Max wider, the subtle changes in their tone is indicative of their characters latest struggle, of which there is many. With an Oscar on his belt really helped to get them read and loved the script. Adam wanted people to leave the cinemas and have a better understanding of what it’s like to have Asperger’s, what it’s like to be lonely and what it’s like to be perceived as weird or different and have a bit more empathy for their fellow man! I am looking forward to experience this in the big screen soon whenever it’s coming out to theatre at Chicago.

As an animation film maker, Adam Elliot says that he sacrifice a lot of friendships and birthdays and he doesn’t get to see your parents as much, becomes a slave to your own creativity. He works really hard! And I, who want to be an animator, a film maker, should be really ready to sacrifice some other hobbies, social life, to be slightly mad to work on some shorts myself! And hopefully can touch the hearts of some audience!

Watched TED TALK "Carl Honore: Slowing down in a world built for speed" today. 
Very interesting!
We live in a world stuck in fast fw, trying to do more and more with less time, the pace of changing has been breath-taking for the past couple decades, we are so afraid that if we slow down, we will quickly become irrelevant..
Like he says, that we often lose sight of the damage of this road runner form of living does to us, we r so marinated in the culture of the speed, we almost fail to notice the toll it takes to every aspect of our lives, our health, our diet, our work, our relationships, our communities..
Sometimes it takes a wake up call to alert us that we r hurrying through our lives instead of living them..

http://www.sitasingstheblues.com/
Showing at Chicago this Oct, BEAUTIFUL!

Had dinner with a bunch of friends last weekend, most of them r couples. Someone asked around them "hey, how do u guys met?" "oh, eharmony.." Seems everyone is very comfy with those answers, even a couple married 10 y ago as joking that oh, we met at eHarmony.. Isn't that interesting how much we suck into or rely on the virtual portals nowadays...
With all the geekie technoledge, we look for whatever, learn whatever online :) . We benefit from it, also overwhelmed by the mass info online. Notice it or not, some of us slowly lose our face to face communication skill, we hide ourselves in our own bubbles-- inside our ipod world and social_ing our virtual life via internet or texting messages via phone, real or not, we feel comfy and safe behind those gadgets...

Knowing some of my coworker/friends also on Eharmony, some works out, some doesn't, i guess it also takes a looooot of luck ;)
As for me, just wish we don't lose the ability to stay communicate outside of virtual world, still feel comfy when you talk to a real person face by face and still trust and enjoy those intimacy.