Yuri Esposito @ 70th Venice Film Festival

by Matteo Milani - U.S.O. Project, 2013

Yuri Esposito is a film that I recently supervised (as sound designer and ambient music designer) which got its world premiere during the 70th Venice Film Festival, with the support of Biennale College – Cinema. "Yuri Esposito" is a man whose slowness pervades every action in his life and comes to constitute its essence, but his perennial lethargy is challenged by a surprise paternity. It's directed by Alessio Fava - I previously worked with him on the ironic science fiction short film “Project Genesis” set in a future in which the machines give life to human beings (you can watch it here).

 

Press quotes: 

"The slow Yuri is a descendant of such minimalist screen clowns as Buster Keaton and Pierre Etaix; and Fava’s assured directorial sense touches on the signal difference between Hollywood movies and art films: pace. The slow Yuri is an art film in the bustle of a multiplex world". - Richard and Mary Corliss @ TIME.com

"The Italian film, “Yuri Esposito” — really stands out as a commercial entity. At yesterday’s panel, Stephanie Zacharek of the Village Voice praised it, and Richard Corliss of Time Magazine said it was one of the four or five best films in the entire festival. I like it very much as well (...) It’s funny, sad, a character study, a fable . . . and a very good movie". - Mick LaSalle @ SFGate.com

"That quite fragile balance between comedy and drama lead to a true sentimental and somehow bittersweet film. The linear narration, despite the initial idea, doesn’t boast of creativity but it is worked nicely and fulfills all the initial expectations for a charming film". - 24 fois la vérité par seconde24 

[read more reviews and articles - via Biennale College]

Listen to my original tracks composed for "Yuri Esposito":

An interview with Mel Wesson

by Matteo Milani - U.S.O. Project, 2013

Mel Wesson received a multi platinum award for his contributions to The Verve's 'Urban Hymns' album and the anthemic single 'Bitter Sweet Symphony'. It was this album Hans Zimmer was listening to in the New Year of 2000 when he spotted Mel's credit and invited him to work on the score for Mission Impossible 2.
Since that time Mel has created his own niche within the movie score genre as 'Ambient Music Designer'. This area of atmospheric sound has weaved its way through many of Hans' scores including Ridley Scott's 'Hannibal' and 'Black Hawk Down', Christopher Nolan's 'Batman' trilogy and most recently Ron Howard's 'Rush', amongst the others.

[photo courtesy of Mel Wesson]

Matteo Milani: Mel, how you got involved in working on motion pictures?

Mel Wesson: Aside from a few piano lessons as a child I had no real formal music training, I learnt most about my approach to music at Art College...  I learn't about keeping an open mind, freedom of expression, things that have stayed with me all my life. I spent my  youth playing with bands, touring and recording. I started getting offers of session work, one thing led to another... I'd known Hans Zimmer since my late teens and he got me involved in a few projects with his mentor Stanley Myers, as well as some of his own early musical projects. Hans and I drifted apart for a few years when he moved to LA and I got more involved in working with recording artists but eventually Hans called out of the blue and asked me to get involved in the score of 'Mission Impossible 2'. That was the start of a new chapter for me.

MM: Would you like to describe your collaboration between composers James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer?

MW: They're both very different, Hans prefers everything to be in a constant state of flux, whereas James has a more structured approach. I seem to have an approach that works with them both, I'm pretty flexible but I do like make progress through a picture so often I'll leap ahead of wherever  they are in the in movie and  then feed ideas back at them. James often likes to arrive at a cue and find something in place, it might be a soundscape consisting of many cues, or perhaps a rhythmic idea, maybe even a map. Hans tends to assimilate my ideas in his own way, a lot of time things come together at the mix as opposed to the more traditional point of composition, that works for him as he never considers a cue finished until it's in the theatre!

MM: Please explain your role as 'Ambient Music Designer' when working with the composer and other members of the sound editorial.

MW: Well, I really should know the answer to that one but I'm still working on it! The AMD role came about through a few conversations with Hans on 'Hannibal'. People read things into that title, but it's really just a phrase we cooked up to give me a credit on that movie and it stuck! The important thing is I just didn't want to go down the orchestral route (despite what people may think I DO write conventional music occasionally! ) and Hans gave me the opportunity to experiment with sound in a way that crosses the boundaries of music and sound design. A lot of my work is to do with atmospheres, creating a presence, emotions, sometimes through rhythm too. I create bespoke sounds but that's only a part of what I do. I use those sounds to work with picture, that's the real challenge here. The word 'Ambient' can cover a lot of ground in the same way the word 'Orchestral' covers an amount of options... Back to the question, occasionally a composer will have something specific in mind, but a lot of the time I'm left to my own devices and we see what occurs... I enjoy the freedom, it would be rather pointless for everybody if I didn't play  a creative role.

MM: How do you deal with the everlasting collision between sound effect and music?

MW: It's all noise... some noises work together, some don't. I try not to distinguish too much between violins and helicopters, everything has it's place... On Ron Howard's 'Rush' for example there's the most amazing sounding race cars... they're the sound of the movie, the heart and soul the story, yet they'll carve through any music... which is fine by me, I'd far sooner listen to them then an orchestra! Most recently I've been playing with the band 'Node', with producers Flood and Ed Buller, plus electronic artist Dave Bessell. What we do is all about sound, it's all live too, no overdubs, no mix process. The music we're creating crosses a lot of boundaries, there really is no conflict between sound and music in that environment and no one would draw a line between what we do and music. For me it's the ideal band to play with, I'm very excited about our album. 

[photo courtesy of Mel Wesson]

MM: The sounds you've done for 'Inception: the App' are these totally synthesised or is there any usage of reprocessed actual sounds?

MW: Nearly all of my work on Inception, the score and therefore the App was based of reprocessed sounds, mostly from one sample session, but you'd struggle to recognise the source of the sounds in about 90% of the case. It was a session of natural instruments resonating through a piano soundboard, so we had an amazing amount of harmonics to work with plus the room itself. Then I took my ideas back to Air Lyndhurst and replayed them into the hall and re-recorded them again... we got some amazing material of out that session. There was some live recording in the app too.... like rain on my studio window that became part of the environment. There's been a Dark Knight App since that one too, the same team, but based more around a more interactive way of playing with the score in the real world.

MM: For 'Inception: the Soundscape', you’re credited as composer. It’s your first art installation work. Do you have any additional anecdotes to share?

MW: That was played on the walk between Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, (the US Inception Premiere) and the after show venue where we played a live concert. It was a walkway constructed a few hundred metres long and a really interesting project. I used a lot of ambience from the film, plus some sounds I got from sound designer Richard King, things like the train coming down the centre of the road, waves on the beach etc. It was a lot of fun, I'd love to do more... but really more long term exhibition based... and yes, I'm open to offers! Venice Biennale anyone?

MM: Tell us about the software and hardware production tools in your arsenal...

MW: My studio's based around Logic Pro, for now at least.... I love working in Logic but it's way overdue an update so I'm looking at alternatives. So... within the computer world I have a few favourite toys, MetaSynth has served me well in the past, Reaktor is probably still my favourite plugin, it's just so forward thinking, flexible, origional and most importantly it sounds good... that's  everything you want from a plugin. I use a lot of sounds manipulation devices, things from Izotope, Audio Damage, etc. I like the Waldorf plugins too, the Wave 3 is very good, but the most exciting thing I've seen in a long time is the PPG Wave Generator, it's an iPad app, again it's sounds great and it's innovative. I sometimes process sounds through my modular or the Synthi but I don't use a lot of outboard FX, although I've started using a Kemper Profiling Amp. Obviously that's designed with guitars in mind but there's no rules. I use a lot of vintage synths too, partly because nothing sounds as good and partly because the interface makes you think differently. I'm fortunate to have a large analog modular system that's part Moog 3C, part PPG300, other 'Go to' synths include a  Synthi A, PPG Wave 2. It's not just about the sound though, it's how these devices make you think. I just bought a guitar too, I don't really play, but again I come up with things I'd never think of on a keyboard or computer. 

[photo courtesy of Mel Wesson]

MM: What are your preferred titles you worked on and what kind of sounds you designed?

MW: Well all my sounds are organised within folders so there's the 'BatFlaps', for Batman Trilogy,  there was 'Rage' for the Joker, 'Ice Brass' for Inception. 'Gotham Metal', "BanePane'... it's a long list.  Of course we had  'MetaPiggies' on Hannibal!


MM: Can you reveal us a 'making of' of a very special sound effect(s) or a sound sequence for 'Green Lantern'?

MW: Ah Green Lantern... we had a vast library of sounds, unusually for me all of my work was created with synthesisers,  We had there's the Green Energy sounds for the good guys and the sound of Yellow Light which was the sound of fear... We did record the extraordinary voice of Grant Gershon and I processed his voice to create various sounds and textures. We had so much fun on that movie, although it was pretty much universally slated which was a shame as the team was great as was the experience. 

MM: How do you deliver your sound elements to the mixing stage?

MW: I master everything in quad, but really all I do is give options, the real work in surround takes place on the dubstage. They have far more to deal with in terms of effects and dialog beyond the music and that team are experts in bringing it all together. My work is all part of the score, it's a common misunderstanding that I deliver stand alone sounds but for me the sounds are only a part of the process. Once I have my pallette I start to use those sounds to compose with, so the work is delivered as mixes and stems, the same as any other cue would be. That said Chris Nolan is very keen to have my material as wide as possible as what we called 'Melements', he likes to swap things around on the dub and experiment. For me it's always an exciting time and I love the way the process is constantly evolving.


MM: What projects are you currently working on?

MW: Well.... I'm a rarity in this industry in that I actively dislike have more than one project ongoing  at the same time... in an ideal world at least!  This year got off to a crazy start. I've been working a couple of old friends, Trevor Morris on 'Olympus Has Fallen' and Ramin Djwadi on 'Pacific Rim', these have been more electronic arrangements and ideas as opposed to ambient work. I've also worked on 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty' with Teddy Shapiro, plus a few bits for Henry Jackman on 'Captain Phillips' and Chris Bacon's score for 'Bates Motel'. The important thing is at times like that everybody respects everyone else's projects and space... it's not like I have a team around me, I can't and won't delegate which makes things diffiicult at times. A nice Margaux helps though...

[melwesson.com]
[Mel Wesson - IMDb]

Hologram Room - vol.1 [USO001]

24-bit/48kHz Royalty-free Sound Design Collection

Hologram Room - vol.1 by usoproject

Hologram Room is the first bundle of the abstract Sound Design Collection produced by sound designers and composers Matteo Milani and Federico Placidi (aka U.S.O. Project).

These two gigabytes of “ready to use” original sound elements are designed to help you sweetening and enhancing your sound production. The whole library is organized in eight main folders: Active Drones, Alarms, Blips, Buttons, Communications, Ignitions, Telemetries, Transitions. It provides a selection of out of this world drones and ambiences, futuristic sound effects and electronic tools.

We have been spending hours composing, editing, mixing these categories in Symbolic Sound Corporation Kyma and Avid Pro Tools. All of the audio files have been embedded with metadata for detailed and accurate searches in your asset management software.

A note about the mastering: the library has not been peak normalized, but loudness normalized, based on the recommendation by the European Broadcast Union. What does it mean? During the audition of your samples, they will have the same loudness level when played through monitors.

This work has been made possible by the aid of LevelOne, a program developed by Grimm Audio.

EBU TECHNICAL provides all kinds of information about the EBU R128 loudness recommendation. The official R128 documents and guidelines can be found online, as well as introduction papers and videos.

Here is what you get in "Hologram Room - vol.1":

• Folders:
• Active Drones (81 items)
• Alarms (26 items)
• Blips (52 items)
• Buttons (62 items)
• Communications (18 items)
• Ignitions (34 items)
• Telemetries (35 items)
• Transitions (123 items)
• Tab-delimited file (.txt)
• Excel spreadsheet (.xls)
• License Agreement (.pdf)
• Artwork (.jpg)

Audio Format: Broadcast Wave Files (.wav)
Sample Rate: 48 kHz
Bit Depth: 24-bit
Size: 1.87 GB
Download size is 1.23 GB (compressed .rar archive)

Available on www.unidentifiedsoundobject.com

The wait is over: #StarWars Saga coming to Blu-ray :-)

Lucasfilm announced that the complete Star Wars Saga will be released on Blu-ray in September 2011.

We already pre-ordered Star Wars: The Complete Saga at Amazon.com (with a substantial discount)!

• Star Wars: The Complete Saga on Blu-ray (9-disc Set includes all six films)
• Star Wars: Prequel Blu-ray Trilogy (3-disc set includes Episodes I-III)
• Star Wars: Original Blu-ray Trilogy (3-disc set includes Episodes IV-VI)

[read the full Lucasfilm press release on StarWars.com]
[watch the video promoting the release]

Lee Unkrich on editing animated film

by Matteo Milani - U.S.O. Project, March 2010

[click the image to visit the TS3 page - via iTunes Movie Trailer]

Lee Unkrich is a longtime member of the creative team at Pixar, where he started in 1994 as a film editor. Unkrich graduated from the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts in 1990. Before joining Pixar, Unkrich worked for several years in television as an editor and director.  He came to Pixar on a temporary assignment during the development of Toy Story and he later moved into directing, as co-director of Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., and Finding Nemo.  His upcoming work Toy Story 3 will be released on June 18, 2010.

On Monday, Sept. 7, 2009 the 66th Venice Festival hosted a Pixar Animation Master Class on storytelling. Here's an excerpt of the speech by Unkrich during the special panel on animation.

[George Lucas presents the Golden Lion to John Lasseter]

"What is the difference between editing live action and editing animation? During live action you shoot first and then edit together after you shoot. But in animation, we edit first, then create the footage. Or more accurately we edit, before, during and after the film is shot. The best analogy I could come up is that editing an animated film is like building a sand castle. one grain at a time. Thousands of bits to be assembled. We have to focus on innumerable details, frame by frame, moment by moment, as well as keeping an eye on the big picture and how the movie is playing as a whole.

At the end the editor’s responsibility is the same in live action and animation. He manages the narrative structure and flow of the film as well as orchestrates the sound and visuals to create an engaging experience for the audience.

Editing animated film begins with a first tiny piece and that piece is a drawing, a storyboard, that first drawing is followed by a second, a third… one hundred thousands storyboards. The storyboards are edited together in a story reel. It’s a working document, an extension of the writing process, it’s a way how to judge how the film is flowing. A story reel done well provides the audience with a nearly completed experience that its only going to get better when the film is animated.

The editors first task is to sequel all those hundreds of thousands of storyboard together. To give the appropriate timing in the different moments of the film." - Lee Unkrich

[Lee Unkrich editing Toy Story 3 on Avid Media Composer]

[Photo credit: Lee Unkrich - via Twitpic]

"Eventually the real roles of the film will be cast with real actors. The temporary dialogue  (performed by people we work with at Pixar) is then replaced by the performances of real actors. In addition to editing vocal performances we will also edit sound effects and we do this around the scene in a sonic environment and give it more texture and believability. It takes a lot of time to do all the sound work, but I think it is very very important to help to keep the audience wrapped up in a spell like the feel to watch a real film. We also take music from existing movie soundtracks and we’ll edit that music against the scene.

So even if the music in the finished film will be different than what we have put in, the tap music should support the desired pace and emotional tone of what we are going for. The wrong piece of tap music can ruin hundreds of hours of meticulous editing, but the writing of music can elevate even the simplest crudest story reel to poetry. When all combined together with dialogue and sound effects hopefully we'll have a good sense of how the scene is playing. If all goes well the scene will end up in a finished film." - Lee Unkrich

 

[Lee Unkrich @ Abbey Road Studios]

[Scoring with Randy Newman and the Toy Story 3 Orchestra]

"Animation is actually combination. Is the voice actor plus the animator. They create the character. In early exploration in animation we sometimes take lines of dialogue from movies with actors we are interested in. The choice of the actor really does affect the personality of the character. So in the voice casting is so important to get an actor who can be, first of all we always get actors that are themselves. Not care how big the star they are , the important thing is how good an actor they are to get the action.

The other thing we look for is improvisation, we want the actor to make the part their own. There is no better improvisation actor than Tom Hanks. In animation a very little detail is worked out and thought trough in advance so the thing you don’t often get is spontaneity. So the place where we can get spontaneity is the recording session." - John Lasseter

"I’d like to drill in a little more detail into one aspect of cutting which is particularly close to me and that’s dialogue editing. It is a vital part of editing especially in animated film, but in the end it is usually completely transparent to the audience. The vocal performances are reported for over several years and the actors are very rarely in recording studios together. That’s why the editor has got to all these different performances and edit them together to create the illusion of spontaneity and real action." - Lee Unkrich

[Lee Unkrich and Tom Hanks at Woody sessions on TS3]

"Many of the lines are the price of many little pieces of several different takes. Some of them recorder at multiple recording sessions. One of the luxuries in editing for animation is that we have a degree of control over how to shape the actor’s performances that is really nearly impossible in live action. So for a single performance can comply with different multiple takes from months apart.

It is like I am cooking, I am trading the finest and freshest ingredients from all the performances of the actors and reducing them to a richest demi-glace. How does an editor know which pieces are the best pieces? Well, in the end the most important tool in the editor’s arsenal is his or her intuition. There is no better game than if the film feels right. It is not as easy to explain your intuition or defend it to anyone but a great editor a film maker in general needs to listen to their intuition and learn to trust their intuition. Editing is not about deciding when to cut but often when not to cut. Sometimes the most powerful moments come from the editor just sitting back and allowing to see it to play." - Lee Unkrich

[Tom Myers on mixing TS3 at Skywalker Sound]

At ShoWest 2010, Dolby announced it is working with Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios to deliver a new audio format, Dolby Surround 7.1. Disney and Pixar have stated that Dolby Surround 7.1 will be launched in select theatres with the release of Toy Story 3 in 3D this June.

Dolby Surround 7.1 provides content creators four surround zones to better orchestrate audio channels in a movie theatre environment. The four surround zones incorporate the traditional Left Surround and Right Surround with new Back Surround Left and Back Surround Right zones. The addition of the two Back Surround zones enhances directionality in panning 360 degrees around the theatre.  Dolby Surround 7.1 format comprises 8 channels of audio and has the following channel layout: Left, Center, Right, Low-Frequency Effects (LFE), Left Surround, Right Surround, Back Surround Left (new), and Back Surround Right (new).

[twitter.com/leeunkrich]

[Lee Unkrich profile in San Francisco Chronicle]

[Visiting Pixar: Inside the Studio - via The Pixar Blog]

[follow @upcomingpixar, @pixartalk, @DisneyPixar on Twitter]

All material used on these pages is copyrighted by its respective copyright holder. Disney/Pixar images are ©Disney/Pixar.

The tale of Lucasfilm & Skywalker Ranch (by Philip Bloom)

Skywalker Ranch from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

Filmed at Skywalker Ranch on the Canon 5DmkII conformed to 24p and the Canon 7D shooting native 24p.

Timelapse done using stills.

Music is Venus by Gustav Holst.

Read more about this excellent, stunning work via philipbloom.co.uk. Pure magic!

An interview with Paul Frommer, Alien Language Creator for Avatar

by Matteo Milani, U.S.O. Project - Unidentified Sound Object, November 2009

U.S.O. Project meets Paul Frommer, linguist and developer for the long-awaited film Avatar with James Cameron of the whole language and culture for the fictional indigenous race of Pandora called Na’vi.

Fictional languages are by far the largest group of artistic languages. Fictional languages are intended to be the languages of a fictional world, and are often designd with the intent of giving more depth and an appearance of plausibility to the fictional worlds with which they are associated, and to have their characters communicate in a fashion which is both alien and dislocated.

[Paul R. Frommer - marshallapps.usc.edu]

Matteo Milani: Can you describe your background activities and your previous experiences at USC before working with James Cameron?

Paul Frommer: My undergraduate degree, from the University of Rochester in New York, is in Mathematics. Soon after graduating, I spent two years in Terengganu, Malaysia as a United States Peace Corps volunteer, where I taught English as a Second Language and also mathematics, the latter in the Malay language. Although I had studied foreign languages prior to that (Hebrew, French, Latin, German), it was during my time in Malaysia that I really fell in love with languages. I decided to do my graduate work in linguistics and entered the doctoral program at USC.

While I was a graduate student, I had the opportunity to teach for a year in Iran, which was a wonderful experience. Returning to USC, I completed my dissertation on a topic in Persian grammar. Then, after several more years of teaching, I switched careers and entered the business world, becoming a strategic planner and business writer for a Los Angeles corporation.

My return to academia led me in a new direction: business communication. I joined USC’s Marshall School of Business as a full-time faculty member in 1996, teaching in the department now known as the Center for Management Communication. I became chair of that department in 2005 and served in that capacity until 2008.


MM: Traveling back to 2005, how and when did you meet the director?

PF: During the summer of 2005, Lightstorm Entertainment, James Cameron’s production company, sent an e-mail to the USC linguistics department inquiring about a linguist who might be able to develop an alien language for a new movie. That e-mail was forwarded to me, and I jumped on it. I expressed my strong interest in the project and sent Cameron a copy of the linguistics workbook I had co-authored — Looking at Languages: A Workbook in Elementary Linguistics. A week or two later I was called in for an interview. I spent a very stimulating 90 minutes with Cameron in his offices in Santa Monica, where we discussed his vision for the movie and the language. At the end, I was thrilled when he shook my hand and said, “Welcome aboard.”

MM: What were his initial requests?

PF: Well, he wanted a complete language, with a consistent sound system (phonology), word-building rules (morphology), rules for putting words together into phrases and sentences (syntax), and a vocabulary (lexicon) sufficient for the needs of the script. He also wanted the language to be pleasant sounding and appealing to the audience.

"We created the language of the Na’vi starting about the time that I was doing the shooting draft of the script [...] Dr. Paul Frommer, who was with USC (University of Southern California) at the time, spent about a year creating the language. The trick was we had the language before we actually cast most of the parts. So the casting director, Margery Simkin, had to learn a bit of Na’vi so that she could get the auditioning actors to repeat the sounds of the language. If they couldn’t make the sounds, they couldn’t have the part.     
The studio asked me the same question. They asked, “Do they have to have tails?” We’re very happy with the way the Na’vi worked out because what we found is the tail and the ears show the characters’ emotional state. A cat owner knows that you can tell a cat’s mood by what its tail is doing. Just as we created a verbal language, we created a vocabulary for the tail and the ears."

[James Cameron - via inquirer.net]

"I've discovered over the years that a voice needs to sync with body movements as precisely as it does with lip movement, in order for the sound to most effectively bond with the character."
[Ben Burtt - an excerpt from Galactic Phrase Book & Travel Guide: Beeps, Bleats, Boskas, and Other Common Intergalactic Verbiage]

MM: Can you reveal the process of creating the Na'vi language? What are the major difficulties in creating a phonetic system with its own style, consistency, and unique character?

PF: I didn’t quite start from zero, since Cameron had devised 30 or 40 words of his own for the original script—some character names, place names, names of animals, etc. That gave me a bit of a sense of what kinds of sounds he had in mind.

The next step was to develop the phonetics and phonology—the sounds that would and would not appear in the language, along with the rules for combining sounds into syllables and words and the pronunciation rules that might in certain circumstances change one sound into another. The major constraint, of course, was that although Na’vi is an alien language, it has to be spoken by human actors, and so the sounds it included had to be ones that the actors would be able to reproduce.

To create some interest, I included a group of sounds not often found in western languages—“ejectives,” which are popping-like sounds that I notated as kx, px, and tx. I also needed to determine what other elements in the language would be “distinctive”—that is, would be able to differentiate words: for example, stress (the eventual answer was yes), vowel length (no) and tone (no). I presented Cameron with three different “sound palettes” or possibilities for the overall sonic impression of the language—he chose one, and we were off!

The next step was to decide on the morphology and syntax. For those, I was on my own. Since this was an alien language spoken on another world, I wanted to include structures and processes that were relatively rare in human languages but that could be acquired by humans, since according to the plot of the movie, a number of humans had learned to speak the language. The verbal morphology, for example, is achieved exclusively through infixes, which are less common than prefixes and suffixes. And the nouns have a system of case marking, known as a tripartite system, that’s possible but quite rare in human languages.

"Overall, the creation of alien languages has been the hardest task. A language, or more accurately, the sensation of language, has to satisfy the audience's most critical faculties. We are all experts at identifying the nuances of intonation. Whether we understand a given language or not, we certainly process the sound fully and attribute meaning--perhaps inaccurate--to the emotional and informational content of the speech. Our minds are trained to recognize and process dialogue. The task, therefore, of creating a language is all the more difficult because of the strength of the audience's perception."
[Ben Burtt - an excerpt from Galactic Phrase Book & Travel Guide: Beeps, Bleats, Boskas, and Other Common Intergalactic Verbiage]

MM: How did you make the Na'vi dialogue sound "real"? How difficult was it to make the dialogue believable?

PF: Well, that was really more a matter for the actors—and it was quite a challenge. They had to learn their lines in a language no one had ever heard before, including learning to make unusual sounds and sound combinations, and then they had to act convincingly in that language! That involved not only memorizing the sentences but mastering the stress and intonation, so that they could place emphasis in the right place. It wasn’t easy, but they did a remarkable job.

I met with all seven of the Na’vi-speaking actors off-set before their scenes were shot to help them with the pronunciation, and I also supplied recordings in the form of mp3 files so that they could listen to and absorb the dialog.


MM: Is there a “gold standard” for constructed language that served as an inspiration to you?

PF: In terms of “alien” languages, that would have to be Klingon, the language developed by linguist Marc Okrand for the Star Trek series. It’s a very impressive piece of work—a rough-sounding language with a complex and difficult phonology and grammar that now has a devoted base of followers. There are Klingon clubs all over the world where people meet to speak the language, and there’s even a translation of Hamlet into Klingon! If Na’vi ever came close to that kind of following, I’d be delighted.

MM: Do the Na’vi have their own alien writing system?

PF: No, the Na’vi don’t have a writing system, so that was one thing I didn’t have to bother with. But of course I needed to devise a consistent orthography, based on the Roman alphabet, to write down the language for descriptive purposes and transcribe the words and sentences for the actors.

MM: Did you develop a vocabulary?

PF: Yes, I developed it on an as-needed basis. That is, the words I came up with first were those that appeared in the script. This past May, when I translated dialog for the Avatar video game, I faced new situations that required words I didn’t yet have, so that was an opportunity to expand the lexicon further.

"Part of my research was to identify interesting real languages to use as a basis for alien ones. The advantage of using a real language is that it possesses built-in credibility. A real language has all the style, consistency, and unique character that only centuries of cultural evolution can bring. I found that if I relied on my familiarity with English, my imagined "alien" language would just be a reworking of the all-too-familiar phonemes of everyday general American speech. I had to break those boundaries, to search for language sounds that were uncommon and even unpronounceable by most of the general audience."
[Ben Burtt - an excerpt from Galactic Phrase Book & Travel Guide: Beeps, Bleats, Boskas, and Other Common Intergalactic Verbiage]

MM: An "a posteriori" language is any constructed language whose vocabulary is based on existing languages, either as a variation of one language or as a mixture of various languages, unlike "a priori" constructed languages (e.g. Klingon). How did you first search for some exotic languages that would act as inspiration?

PF: I didn’t base Na’vi on any particular human language. In terms of its sound, I thought that the original words Jim Cameron had come up with had a bit of a Polynesian flavor, and I included those sounds in the language. But I added a lot beyond that, so that I don’t believe that Na’vi sounds like any specific existing language.

As I mentioned, there’s nothing in Na’vi that couldn’t be found in some human language—and that’s important, since humans have learned to speak it. However, the particular combination of elements in Na’vi—its sound system, morphology, and syntax—is unique.

Avatar producer Jon Landau to discuss making James Cameron's vision a reality.

And a linguist invented the Na'vi language—did you pick up any?
I have enough trouble with English! I could say a few words in Na'vi, but not much. Na'vi is a hard language. When I knew we had to create a language for the movie, I thought, okay, you go hire someone and say, 'This is the word we have to say.' And they'd come up with the word. I was wrong. Paul Frommer, our linguist, took six months just to define the structure of language, which I thought was fascinating. And after that, he'd start coming up with the sentences that we needed.
Does it have parallels to any language on earth?
I think it's relatively unique. We didn't want someone to hear it and go, 'Wow, that's Watusi!” Or Maori, or French.
[via boxoffice.com]

MM: The upcoming score by James Horner will feature vocals in the Na'vi language. Would you like to describe your experience with the singers during those recordings?

PF: That was a lot of fun! James Cameron had written the lyrics for six songs, four of which I translated into Na’vi. (It was interesting to try to write poetry in the language!) Then at various times I met with music director James Horner, his associates, and the singers who had to sing in Na’vi to help them pronounce the words of the songs. For some of the recording sessions, the music was fluid and developed on the spot, which I found a wonderfully creative process. For one session, though, there was already pre-composed music written out on a musical staff. I’m a pianist and I have a musical background, so I was able to read the music with the singer and help him fit the words to the melody.

Thanks, Paul. Congratulations and continue the good work! 

 
read more:
[USC professor creates an entire alien language for 'Avatar' - via LA Times HeroComplex]
[USC professor gives Avatar aliens a voice - via dailytrojan.com]
[The language of Avatar revealed - via bbc.co.uk]
[Do You Speak Na'vi? Giving Voice To 'Avatar' Aliens - via npr.org]
[Language Design for Sound Designers - via Darren Blondin]

www.avatar.com
twitter.com/officialavatar 

Soundworks Collection: Exclusive Video Profiles of the Sound World

With the success of the Sound for Film Profiles Series, Bay Area Director Michael Coleman has launched a new website called SoundWorksCollection with an Oscar sound recognition focus. Every two weeks until Oscar night in March 2010, the Soundworks Collection website will release a new sound for film profile. The SoundWorks Collection takes you behind the scenes and straight to the dub stage for a look into audio post-production feature films, video game sound design, and original soundtrack scoring. This exclusive and intimate video series focuses on individuals and teams behind-the-scenes bringing to life some of the worlds most exciting projects.

The SoundWorks Collection is produced by Colemanfilm Media Group in a partnership with MIX Magazine, several audio focused college schools and programs, and the support of the online sound community worldwide.

Here are the Soundworks Collection Categories:

FEATURE FILM VIDEO PROFILE

Who will bring home the sound Oscar this year? The SoundWorks Collection focuses on Hollywood’s feature film releases throughout the year. Watch how the sound crew worked their audio magic as they put the finishing touches on your favorite film and prepared the film for the big screen.

To launch the series Michael has posted the "Watchmen" Sound for Film Profile:



STUDIO TOUR VIDEO PROFILE

Ever wonder what it is like to walk into a world class studio or soundstage? Now you can see the technology and gear that the pros use every day to create their tracks. Get an exclusive tour into some of your favorite studios and see what toys the top dogs are using.

GAME AUDIO VIDEO PROFILE

Game soundtracks are no longer about the beeps and bloops of our childhood past. Explore your favorite game titles sound design from the world’s most innovative sound teams. Playing video games isn’t just about what you see on the screen, it’s about what you hear around you…and in the surrounds.

ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACKS VIDEO PROFILE

Ever wonder who is responsible for making you tear up uncontrollably during your favorite movie scene? It’s likely the brilliant mind of the composer who created that memorable score. Explore the process into today’s leading composers and see what they hear inside their head.

The goal for the SoundWorks Collection is simple; we are dedicated to profiling the greatest and upcoming sound minds from around the world and highlight their contributions.

[SoundWorks Collection on Twitter]
[SoundWorks Collection on Facebook]

Saving Private Ryan - Music & Sound

Saving Private Ryan - Music & Sound (part 1 - Music)


Gary Rydstrom (an excerpt from Surround Sound, Second Edition):

Since we hear all around us, while seeing only to the front, sounds have long been used to alert us to danger. In Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan, the battle scenes are shot from the shaky, glancing, and claustrophobic point of view of a soldier on the ground. There are no sweeping vistas, only the chaos of fighting as it is experienced. The sound for this movie, therefore, had to set the full stage of battle, while putting us squarely in the middle of it. I can honestly say that this film could not have been made in the same way if it were not for the possibilities of theatrical surround sound. If sound could not have expressed the scale, orientation, and emotion of a soldier's experience, the camera would have had to show more. Yet it is a point of the movie to show how disorienting the visual experience was. Sound becomes a key storyteller.

Saving Private Ryan - Music & Sound (part 2 - Sound)

The sound memories of veterans are very vivid. We started our work at Skywalker Sound on Saving Private Ryan by recording a vast array of World War II era weapons and vehicles. In order to honor the experiences of the men who fought at Omaha beach and beyond, we wanted to be as accurate as possible. I heard stories such as how the German MG42 machine gun was instantly identifiable by its rapid rate of fire (1,100 rounds a minute, compared to 500 for comparable Allied guns); the soldiers called the MG42 "Hitler's Zipper" in reference to the frightening sound it made as the shots blurred into a steady "zuzz". The American M1 rifle shot eight rounds and then made a unique "ping" as it ejected its empty clip. Bullets made a whiney buzz as they passed close by. The German tanks had no ball bearings and squealed like metal monsters. These and many other sound details make up the aural memories of the soldiers.

Our task was to build the isolated recordings of guns, bullets, artillery, boats, tanks, explosions, and debris into a full out war. Since it isn't handy or wise to record a real war from the center of it, the orchestrated cacophony of war had to be built piece by piece. But, of course, this is what gives us control of a sound track, the careful choosing of what sounds make up the whole. Even within the chaos of a war movie, I believe that articulating the sound effects is vital; too often loudness and density in a track obscure any concept of what is going on. We paid attention to the relative frequencies of effects, and their rhythmic, sequential placement, but also we planned how to use the 6 channels of our mix to spatially separate and further articulate our sounds.

There are many reasons why a sound is placed spatially. Obviously. if a sound source is on screen we pan it to the appropriate speaker, but the vast majority of the sounds in the Saving Private Ryan battles are unseen. This gave us a frightening freedom in building the war around us.

[read more: Sound and Music in 'Saving Private Ryan' - via USC Sound Conscious]

Related Post: An interview with Tomlinson Holman 

"Tetro" Sound for Film Profile

"Tetro" Sound for Film Profile from Michael Coleman on Vimeo.

Here is another great 'Sound for Film Profile' by Micheal Coleman with Re-recording mixer Pete Horner on Francis Ford Coppola's Tetro.

[colemanfilm.com]
[mixonline.com]

J.J. Abrams on 'Star Trek' Sound Design

(An excerpt from DIRECTOR'S CHAIR: J.J. ABRAMS - 'STAR TREK' - via Post Magazine)

PM: How important are sound and music to you?

ABRAMS: "They're always 51 percent of what makes a film work. As important as everything else is, when the sound and music don't work, it never works as a whole, and when they're great, it often looks great. It's weird — even if the visuals aren't terrific, the sound saves the day. Most films I love, if you pull out the sound and music, they're just anemic. So it's critical for setting the right tone, and Michael Giacchino, with whom I've worked since Alias, wrote a beautiful score.

"We mixed at Fox, and that was the most difficult part of post, because, for whatever reason, the first mix just didn't really work. So we brought in Ben Burtt to help out with some of the sound effects, because it just didn't sound like Trek. So he created all of these iconic sound effects that we hadn't been using at all, and identified the ones that were aurally the equivalent of what I was trying to do visually, and he ended up basically making the film into a Star Trek movie. Even those first sounds you hear, those sonar pings, weren't originally in the film. And he did a brilliant thing — he cleared out areas of sound.

"Think about your favorite movies of all time, and they might have had 16 or 24 tracks. Now we have 196 tracks, but it doesn't make it better and often makes it worse. Ben came in and said, 'Get rid of it all, pull it all back, use just these three sounds.' And suddenly it was, 'Holy shit! It's impactful now, not just a wall of sound.' So he de-Phil Spectored the film and gave us more clarity. But then we found we'd gone too far in that direction, and taken out 16 minutes of music and pared it all back. So now it felt too slight, so we did a third mix, which was partly possible because we'd delayed the release date by six months. That was massively important. We actually ended up putting back a lot of the score and then we took certain cues written for scenes and switched them out. We must have moved and added and adjusted nearly 24 cues. It was a huge amount of last-minute fine tuning, but it brought the music back to the fore in a lot of scenes, brought sound effects back more and used them as a support as opposed to a central element."

[read the full interview]

Tetro: Featurette - Music

In this latest 'Behind the Scenes' video for the film Tetro, composer Osvaldo Golijov discusses what it is like developing the original score for a movie with Francis Ford Coppola, and how the movie itself helped create the music.

[via traileraddict.com]

Standing on the shoulders of Kubrick

The legacy of 2001, by Gary Leva

Stanley Kubrick’s groundbreaking 2001: A Space Odyssey opened the door to all the films and filmmakers who followed it. Through interviews with directors such as George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Sydney Pollack - as well as special effects professionals and cultural historians (Ben Burtt) - this documentary examines the legacy of Kubrick’s masterpiece and its influence on science fiction films, special effects and world cinema.

Part 1

Part 2


[levafilmworks.com]

Angels & Demons: Sneak Peek

Featuring commentary by Director Ron Howard and Composer Hans Zimmer.

[via Apple]

Sound for Picture: "Watchmen"

Sound for "Watchmen" is featured in Mix Magazine March 2009 (by Blair Jackson).
Some excerpts from the article:

It was an immense sound job, as well, and for that end of things Zack Snyder tapped much of the same team he'd worked with on 300 and also his 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead, including supervising sound editor Scott Hecker, sound designer Eric Norris, FX re-recording mixer Frank Montaño, and dialog and music re-recording mixer Chris Jenkins. (Montaño and Jenkins were nominated for a 2009 Oscar for their mixing work on action thriller Wanted). The music score was by Tyler Bates, another veteran of Snyder's earlier films.

[PHOTOS: Tyler Bates scores Watchmen]
[AUDIO: On The Score With Tyler Bates - “Watchmen”]

“The whole main title [sequence] is a subversion of recent American history.” Jenkins adds. “All the iconic images that you knew growing up from the '30s and '40s are subverted, and then music is subverted, sounds are subverted, and all of a sudden you're establishing right away you're going to break all the rules, that it's okay to break rules as far as sound goes. So whether it's with music or sound design or dialog, you have this huge license — 12 or 15 minutes into the movie, all bets are off.”

The team did four temp mixes — the first three for studio executives, the last for a regular audience — and along the way they managed to get the film into good enough shape that the final mix wasn't nearly as taxing as it sometimes is. Of course, there was the usual situation of having to adjust sounds along the way as visual effects came in, but mostly director Snyder liked the direction the sound was heading throughout the process and his comments were minimal. With Bates' music, too, the sketches he offered and the temp music that was selected made it so there were no rude surprises when the final score came in.

[read more - via mixonline.com]
[scoringsessions.com]
[filmmusicmag.com]

John Williams On Scoring George Lucas Films

[via AFI - American Film Institute]

World Soundtrack Awards 2008

And the winners are ..

FILM COMPOSER OF THE YEAR
presented in respect of the body of work in the year 2008

JAMES NEWTON HOWARD: CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR, MICHAEL CLAYTON, I AM LEGEND


BEST ORIGINAL SCORE OF THE YEAR 2008

ATONEMENT BY DARIO MARIANELLI


BEST ORIGINAL SONG WRITTEN DIRECTLY FOR FILM 2008

'DOWN TO EARTH' FROM WALL-E
Music by Thomas Newman and Peter Gabriel, lyrics by Peter Gabriel, performed by Peter Gabriel


DISCOVERY OF THE YEAR 2008

MARC STREITENFELD: AMERICAN GANGSTER


LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD 2008

ANGELO BADALAMENTI


PUBLIC CHOICE AWARD

TUUR FLORIZOONE: MOSCOW, BELGIUM


SABAM AWARD FOR BEST BELGIAN YOUNG COMPOSER

CEDRIC MURRATH

[via filmmuziek.be]
[filmfestival.be]

Skywalker Sound "secrets"

CNET News.com reporter Kara Tsuboi spent a day at Skywalker Sound, putting her ear to the ground to learn some sound secrets.


You can't imagine how many splashes there are in the world...
[Randy Thom]

[take me to the video - CNET]

John Williams on the score for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

The two most interesting facts about John Williams:

1. He never goes to the movies.
2. He rarely listens to classical music.

These are not, one might assume, the habits of a successful film composer. And yet Williams is indisputably the most successful film composer of all time, having penned the instantly hummable scores to the Indiana Jones trilogy, among other blockbusters.

Last week, Williams spoke about his career by phone from New York City, where he was conducting the New York Philharmonic.

[read the full interview via theotherpaper]

Music of Indiana Jones - Part 1



Music of Indiana Jones - Part 2



And don't miss:

Film Composer John Williams (1980 Rare BBC) Part 1 of 6
Film Composer John Williams (1980 Rare BBC) Part 2 of 6
Film Composer John Williams (1980 Rare BBC) Part 3 of 6
Film Composer John Williams (1980 Rare BBC) Part 4 of 6
Film Composer John Williams (1980 Rare BBC) Part 5 of 6
Film Composer John Williams (1980 Rare BBC) Part 6 of 6

30th Anniversary of Star Wars: 8-CD Box Set

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the first Star Wars movie, Sony Classical is releasing a one-time deluxe edition of Williams' lush, timeless themes on Tuesday, November 6, 2007. The Music of Star Wars: 30th Anniversary Collector's Edition is housed in an elegant numbered box set featuring new cover art depicting the main Star Wars characters. The box contains eight CDs.

[read more - via soundtrack.net]

[Music of Star Wars: 30TH Anniversary Collectors Edition]