00:00:00
in fact Bob cast that copy machine for sound he
auditioned lots of copying machines and he wanted
00:00:15
a copy machine that would have a kind of musical
rhythm to it in post-production in fact we tried
00:00:21
to augment the sound of that copy machine bob was
nice enough to listen to our attempts but he said
00:00:27
nope I like the original one that I cast and so
that's the one we use Bob wanted the Red Square
00:00:34
sequence to be as authentic as possible the
people who were on location when they shot the
00:00:39
scene did their best to collect sounds but as you
can imagine it was pretty tense trying to shoot in
00:00:45
Red Square and so they didn't get as many sounds
as we needed and so we had to go looking for the
00:00:51
sounds of the bells that you hear in Red Square
we brought in people who pretended to be tour
00:00:59
guides who you never really see in the scene but
you hear off-screen doing a tour via a megaphone
00:01:09
we tried to use as much of what's called
production sound as we could in terms of the
00:01:28
dialogue the production sound is the sound that is
recorded while the cameras rolling of the actors
00:01:33
speaking even these scenes on the airplane early
in the film most of them are production sound I'd
00:01:41
say 90% of the time the quality of the actors
performance during production is better than
00:01:46
what you get with ADR which stands for automated
dialogue replacement which is the actor coming in
00:01:53
in post-production and trying to speak in sync
with him or herself so this scene is very much
00:01:59
a dialogue scene and you typically decide when
you're doing the sound for a scene in a movie
00:02:05
what the principal driving factor is gonna be
and sometimes the what's driving a scene can
00:02:11
shift from dialogue to music to sound effects in
terms of the sound within a scene but this scene
00:02:18
is very much a dialogue scene and so we wanted
the dialogue to predominate and we didn't want
00:02:23
they sounded the airplane to grab your attention
and we didn't want you to be thinking about the
00:02:28
airplane particularly and so the sound is more
or less monotone for the whole scene Stan I'm
00:02:33
so sorry it wasn't around when Mary died I
should have been there for you and I wasn't
00:02:47
I'm so sorry Folie is the sound effect equal of
ADR Foley is a process invented by a guy named
00:02:56
Jack Foley or at least popularized by Jack Foley
in which you record certain kinds of sound effects
00:03:02
while you're watching the scene on a screen in
a studio for instance at the beginning of the
00:03:09
scene between Tom and Helen Hunt when they have
their day planners the first thing you hear is
00:03:16
the slap down of those day planners why not hear
a man that's partly a production sound effect
00:03:26
that was recorded when the cameras were rolling
and it's partly a Foley sound one of the things
00:03:33
that we try to do with the sound in a film is
to focus attention one of the things that you
00:03:38
can listen for when you're watching a film is
what sounds are played loudly and what sounds
00:03:45
are played quietly because it won't necessarily
follow exactly what you see on the screen but
00:03:53
just as a camera is able to shift its focus from
one point of view to another sound can shift focus
00:04:00
also one of the things that we do when we mix a
film is to decide as we go along what's important
00:04:09
what isn't important what should be loud what
should be quiet and we have control over all of
00:04:15
the different elements well usually the goal in
sound is to have people not notice anything in
00:04:22
particular because if you start thinking about
the sound then by definition you're not really
00:04:28
in the story anymore we filmmakers refer to it as
taking someone out of the film if you remind them
00:04:35
somehow with a filmmaking process that can be
especially a danger when you're putting sounds
00:04:41
into the surround channels in a film because
since the convention in films is to hear the
00:04:49
dialog coming from the center of the screen if you
put a line of dialogue or a very transient sound
00:04:57
you know something that comes and goes quickly
into one of the surround speakers many people
00:05:04
will turn their heads and say what was that
is there a bird in the movie theater and then
00:05:10
they think oh oh yeah the sound effects people
put that there well that's the last thing the
00:05:15
filmmaker wants to happen the filmmaker wants you
to be in the dream of the film and not be thinking
00:05:20
about how the film was made when you're watching
it so we have to be pretty careful about placing
00:05:25
sounds for that reason the mix for this film
including what's called pre mixing which means
00:05:32
putting sounds into certain categories and also
the final mix in which you're literally mixing
00:05:39
together the sound effects and the music and
the dialogue the way it's gonna sound in the
00:05:44
movie theater was about six weeks and that's six
weeks of roughly nine or ten hour days it was
00:05:55
a pretty straightforward and not particularly
difficult mix actually partly because of this
00:06:01
tent mixing process where we learn a lot about
what works and what doesn't work Apocalypse Now
00:06:10
was mixed for nine months for instance but
Apocalypse Now didn't have many tent mixes
00:06:24
I've learned by doing lots of scenes like this
that the main thing you want to accomplish is to
00:06:31
get rid of everything that you don't need one
of the myths about mixing the sound for a big
00:06:37
action sequence in a film is that you want
the biggest sound mixing console possible
00:06:42
so that you can plug as many sounds into it as
possible to mix them all together and in fact
00:06:47
that's really not what should happen at all
because in a scene like this crash sequence
00:06:51
we have hundreds and hundreds of sounds that
have been recorded and edited to go in this
00:06:56
and if you were to play them all at the same
time it would sound like you were standing in
00:07:03
the middle of Niagara Falls it would be what we
call pink noise just roar sort of meaningless roar
00:07:18
for instance when the big FedEx package
suddenly shifts position we need to hear
00:07:24
that sound mostly rather than the roar of
the airplane around it or the whistling of
00:07:30
the wind or the banging of the things in
the background what we do is either get
00:07:35
rid of or reduce in volume all those other
sounds so that we can concentrate on the
00:07:40
FedEx package scraping across the floor
and banging into the end of the airplane
00:08:01
when you have an underwater scene you usually
have a lot of latitude to play it as the point
00:08:08
of view of the character it's easy to assume
that everything that you're seeing and hearing
00:08:13
is what he's seeing and hearing we might hear
only bubbles at a certain moment another moment
00:08:19
we might be hearing mainly the creaking of the
metal and if you were to actually record the
00:08:25
sounds that you see there in fact they would be
very different from what we put in the film but
00:08:32
what we put in is valid because it's the
way Chuck is experiencing it's what he's
00:08:38
hearing and what he is feeling so we can use
sound in a very musical kind of dramatic way
00:08:59
the storm transition was a very important part
of the movie Bob designed it from the beginning
00:09:07
such that we probably weren't going to see a
lot of the transition instead we would hear it
00:09:13
almost as if it were a radio play and what we
had to suggest with sound is that what you see
00:09:21
and hear in the movie over about a thirty second
period had to suggest a maybe two or three hour
00:09:29
period of the storm going by and the rain and
him drifting along and finally we realize as
00:09:37
we hear the raft being punctured against these
rocks oh I see he's in a different place now
00:09:44
that's a difficult thing to do I started working
in sound in radio and produced some radio plays
00:09:52
and when I started working in film I tended
to be sort of disgruntled thinking why do we
00:09:57
always have to worry about the camera it's such
a hassle but now that I've worked in film for a
00:10:03
long time I find that when I occasionally do go
back and do something for the radio like a radio
00:10:08
play I'm thinking wow I wish I had the visuals
to lean on a little more because it's hard to
00:10:14
tell the story just with sound and so trying to
do that for castaway do the storm sequence almost
00:10:21
like a radio play was very much like that one of
the most difficult sound sequences to create and
00:10:28
believe it or not for the island was when Chuck
first arrives on the island and he wakes up in
00:10:35
the raft and things are very quiet but you
see and hear these waves lapping up onto the
00:10:41
beach those waves were very difficult to create
and make believable we weren't able to use the
00:10:48
production sound because there was pounding
surf off in the distance and we didn't want
00:10:52
to hear that we wanted it to be very quiet
to contrast with the loud sequence that had
00:10:57
come before and so we had to record each of these
waves individually and not only get the sound of
00:11:07
the impact of the wave but also get the waves that
just sort of slide up onto the beach without any
00:11:14
impact and that kind of fizzing sound when the
waves slide back down the coral sand beach it
00:11:23
was an enormous effort to try to not only collect
all of those sounds but to edit them together in
00:11:29
a way that you would really believe and it took
a lot of trial and error to get it just right
00:12:00
none of these sounds that you hear as Chuck
is trying to get through the surf were simply
00:12:07
recordings of surf we've tried to do that in the
past on similar films that had surf sequences and
00:12:15
the sound that you get is just noise so what you
have to do is manufacture each wave out of quite
00:12:23
a diverse group of elements to make it sound
like a wave but sound like an even bigger wave
00:12:29
than it looks like and keep it articulate and
wet and and identifiable anyway we have Foley
00:12:42
which did the sound of Chuck maneuvering
the oars moving through the water we have
00:12:49
him yelling things which was ADR we have the
sound of the raft creaking we have impacts
00:12:59
of the waves onto the raft and the raft kind
of thunderously hitting the water after each
00:13:07
wave has hit it the impacts are made from a
combination of explosions dynamite explosions
00:13:16
mortar explosions all kinds of explosions that
have nothing to do with waves and the sound of
00:13:22
people jumping into the water doing a kind
of cannonball and making that kind of sound
00:13:38
we wanted the ADR to sound like it was
production which would have been recorded
00:13:47
outside so we wanted to simulate the sound
of outdoor acoustics and one of the ways to
00:13:53
do that is to take a recording that's made in a
studio and then play it through speakers outside
00:14:00
and set up another microphone and rerecord it so
we decided to do that here at Skywalker Ranch we
00:14:07
had recordings that were very clean and dry as we
say without any natural reverberation on them that
00:14:14
were made in a studio of Tom Hanks yelling help
over here and we played those through a speaker
00:14:22
here at Skywalker Ranch we thought where maybe
nobody would hear them but people did hear them
00:14:28
and so the security department of the ranch
showed up and said you know what's happening
00:14:34
somebody in danger but nobody was in danger and
we shooed them away and continued our recording
00:14:49
the initial dialogue that we hear off screen of
Tom as we're as the cameras panning from left
00:15:00
to right is all ADR but when we get to Tom and
actually see him that's production sound and
00:15:08
that's a tricky thing to pull off it means that
in the ADR session when Tom came into a studio
00:15:14
in post-production to redo that dialogue
he also had to have something in his mouth
00:15:20
otherwise it wouldn't have sounded the same
so he had to come really close to simulating
00:15:26
exactly what he was doing when the camera was
rolling in order for you not to say hey how
00:15:31
come his voice changed completely right there
for no reason to think I used to avoid going
00:15:38
to the dentist like I'm fired I fired off every
single chance like gosh now oh I wouldn't give
00:15:48
to have a dentist right here in this cave
the fact our fewer dentist yeah dr. Wilson
00:16:13
wind and rain and water very hard sounds to record
wind is hard because it's hard to keep the sound
00:16:22
out of the microphone when you're recording wind
you're typically recording the sound of the air
00:16:27
moving across some other object like the leaves
of a tree or through telephone wires or around
00:16:35
the edge of a building and what you don't want to
hear is the wind blowing through the microphone
00:16:42
and so there are lots of tricks that you can use
one is called a windscreen which goes around the
00:16:48
microphone itself but in addition to that you
often have to hold up blankets or other objects
00:16:55
between the microphone and the wind so that the
microphone can pick up mainly the effect that
00:17:00
the wind is having on other objects and not the
wind blowing through it it's a big story point
00:17:06
that we need to hear this wind change fairly
abruptly at a certain point and that signals
00:17:12
him that okay now is the time to launch the
raft so we had to create one set of winds which
00:17:22
are the winds that are blowing from out to sea
on to shore and another set of winds that blow
00:17:29
from the shore out to sea so that you could tell
sonically ah that's there's the chain so you in
00:17:36
fact you see the change happening because you
see the leaves on the trees in the background
00:17:40
shifting directions when the change happens
but we also needed to hear the change happen
00:18:36
in the old days of radio plays they often used
big sheets of metal being shaken and maneuvered
00:18:46
to simulate the sound of thunder unfortunately
that's fairly identifiable it's what it is to
00:18:52
our modern ears so we can't get away with that
anymore so we almost always use actual thunder
00:18:58
the big trick with thunder is that it's it's
the holy grail of thunder to have a thunder
00:19:06
recording with no rain on it because most of the
thunder that we hear of course is accompanied by
00:19:12
rain but very often you want to be able to
hear thunder without hearing any rain and so
00:19:18
there are occasionally sound recordists happen
to get a crack of thunder with no rain and so
00:19:25
whenever we hear that somebody has one of those
we gobble it up like you know ravenous wolves
00:19:38
one of the challenging decisions that Bob made
early on was that he decided there should be no
00:19:49
sound of birds or insects or frogs on the island
initially I felt like wow I have a straight
00:19:59
jacket on that really limits the palate that I
have to work with because typically if you're
00:20:06
editing the sound for an outdoor sequence
it's you have birds at your disposal you
00:20:13
can decide whether they're happy sounding birds
or threatening sounding birds and likewise with
00:20:19
insects I was thinking maybe we would have kind
of dark sinister sounding cicadas or something
00:20:27
like that on the island when it was appropriate
to have that feeling my concern was well geez
00:20:33
we're gonna have to like remove birds if they
fly through the frame and it turned out there
00:20:37
are no birds we did have some flies though we
had to take flies out in the computer every once
00:20:42
in a while we couldn't have any animals on the
island because then he would have trapped them
00:20:46
and eating them but when Bob said you know I
don't think we should have any of that stuff
00:20:53
but it sent me into a minor panic because I knew
that all I would have to work with on the island
00:20:59
in terms of sound effects would be wind and
waves and the sound of Tom Hanks moving around
00:21:07
in the end it proved that that was probably
the best decision because if there had been
00:21:13
the sound of birds and insects and frogs
on the island I think just like with the
00:21:18
orchestra it would have made you feel in
a way like Chuck was not alone sometimes
00:21:24
the things that you think are gonna be the
easiest are the most difficult because you
00:21:28
don't really realize how complex they are
and to try to get the sound of all of those
00:21:33
palm fronds moving at just the right time and
rubbing against each other proved to be quite
00:21:39
a bit tougher than I thought it was going to
be and even after the initial editing we had
00:21:44
to go back and re-edit some more palm fronds
and re-record some more to make it believable
00:22:12
we probably have 15 or 20 different sound sources
I try to keep it as few as possible we try to
00:22:23
initially make some decisions about what works
and what doesn't work rather than arriving at
00:22:28
the final mix with hundreds of sounds for every
scene which is what some sound editors do and so
00:22:34
in this scene we had a mere 15 or 20 simultaneous
sound sources we have three or four search sounds
00:22:41
going on simultaneously for the distance surf we
have the sound of the wind and the palm trees we
00:22:49
have the sound of him rubbing the stick on the
other stick to try to start the fire we have
00:22:55
the sound of his breaths and grunts and efforts
all of that is ADR his other miscellaneous Foley
00:23:01
movement so it's 15 or 20 separate sound since we
knew we weren't going to be able to put Birds or
00:23:07
insects or frogs on the island one sound that
occurred to me that we could put in that would
00:23:14
give us a little bit bigger palate to work with
in terms of sound is the sound of the palm trees
00:23:20
creaking when the wind blows through them so we
recorded all kinds of sounds including the sound
00:23:29
of a cat carrier that one of the Foley people
had that happened to make great creaking sounds
00:23:37
when you twisted it it was a wicker cat carrier
we recorded pieces of wood being twisted that
00:23:45
made creaking sounds we also used the sound
of footsteps on a wooden floor we just went
00:23:51
looking for all kinds of creaking it makes the
place seem a little bit more lonely maybe even
00:24:00
a little bit sinister moments when we wanted it
to be sinister for Tom being all alone there and
00:24:07
there's something about the sound of creaking
that tells us maybe there's something to worry
00:24:13
about if this scene after Chuck's reception party
we wanted to play with the sounds of civilization
00:24:22
and kind of a sad or in full way you hear
a distant siren in the streets of Memphis
00:24:29
in addition to the rain we don't hear very much
except the sound of the refrigerator we hear a
00:24:38
little bit louder when the refrigerator door is
open two percent we cut in the sound of things
00:24:48
kind of rattling inside the refrigerator when
the door is open and then obviously the sound
00:24:52
of the refrigerator door closing all of that is
is faked sound if you will it's not production
00:24:59
sound this fire-starting sequence was quite a
challenge none of the sound that you hear in
00:25:07
the fire-starting sequence was recorded on the
island or while the cameras were rolling trying
00:25:13
to manipulate this stick was really hard to keep
it in sync with what you see on the screen because
00:25:19
it's very fast movement at during some parts of
it so the Foley people especially deserve a huge
00:25:28
amount of credit for making this fire-starting
sequences believable as it is in terms of the
00:25:34
sound the sound of the fire is tricky especially
for that first little puff of fire because
00:25:40
actually if you record that event happening you
don't really hear much sound and so it's one of
00:25:47
the little bits of artistic license that we
take with movies that we want to hear a sound
00:25:52
sound is actually a much bigger fire being
blown by the wind and we just took a piece
00:26:05
of that recording of the little puff of wind and
a bigger fire and made that sync with the onset
00:26:15
of this little flame as he's successful in blowing
the kindling people who do a lot of watching the
00:26:23
movies in home theaters love to hear sounds
in the surrounds and they love to hear sounds
00:26:29
panned over to the left and over to the right
because it really gives this equipment that
00:26:33
they bought for their homes a workout but panning
sounds and a scene like this where he's lying by
00:26:39
the fire eating the crab can be a dangerous thing
because the scene is mostly shot in what's called
00:26:44
reverses you see the fire in the foreground and
you see Tom Hanks in the background eating the
00:26:50
crab and then the next moment you're looking back
at Wilson who's at the other side of the camp fire
00:26:58
and so what happens is if you pan the fire all the
way over to the right when you're looking at Tom
00:27:04
Hanks then when you go to the reverse angle shot
suddenly the fire is all the way over on the left
00:27:09
there's something that can be really jarring
about that even though it's literally true
00:27:16
it's one of those things that can remind people
they're watching a movie because initially you
00:27:21
think why did the sound of the campfire jump from
the right side of the theater to the left side of
00:27:25
the theater and you have to stop and take oh I
see it's because we're in the reverse angle now
00:27:29
and that's not what the filmmaker wants you to
be thinking so in that scene we kept the sound
00:27:35
of the campfire more or less in the center of
the whole time because we didn't want it to be
00:27:39
jumping around the theater from shot to shot
the environment of the cave was fun to play
00:27:45
with because even though we didn't have insects
or frogs or birds to hear in the cave we could
00:27:53
hear drops of water we could hear water flowing
because there's supposed to be a little spring
00:27:58
in the cave and we hear water flowing through the
cave when it's raining we also hear the sound of
00:28:04
the surf outside the cave and we can take all of
those sounds that we recorded separately and then
00:28:12
put them into a digital reverberation program
that makes it sound like they're all inside of
00:28:18
a cave we didn't do any tooth banging recording
as part of this what the main thing that you hear
00:28:25
is the rock hitting on the skate and I think that
metallic sound really sets people's teeth on edge
00:28:33
so to speak because if you can really identify
with what that must have felt like it was quite
00:28:43
a challenge to figure out how to do this four-year
transition in a way it's probably the most sound
00:28:49
designee moment in castaway because we actually
have some sort of sound morphing going on what
00:28:58
I did was to take a kind of roaring fire sound
not so much crackling but just a low frequency
00:29:06
roaring and take water lapping which I process
so that it had no high frequencies in it at all
00:29:14
so it was also just a kind of low almost roaring
sound and crossfade between the fire roaring and
00:29:22
the water roaring and then gradually we allow
the higher frequencies of the water to pass
00:29:27
through so that over a period of 10 seconds or
so what sounds like roaring fire turns into water
00:30:01
when he's inside the cave and initially here's
the Porta Potty outside we added quite a bit
00:30:07
of artificial reverberation to that to make it
sound more like it was coming from a distance
00:30:12
we used a real porta potti we bought a used
porta potti which we arranged to get clean
00:30:20
cleaned as quick as possible and we recorded
it we twisted it and banged it with rocks
00:30:29
and rubbed it up against rocks and trees and
various other things trying to get this sound
00:30:35
of it scraping against the rocks outside the
cave and as usual played a variety of things
00:30:42
that we had done for Bob and to see what he
liked and what he didn't like and eventually
00:30:47
we found a set of sounds that really seemed to
work so then the trick to that was to try to
00:30:52
use sounds once we cut outside that would be
similar enough to the ones that we used when
00:30:58
you're inside the cave so that you say AHA that's
the same thing that's what was making that sound
00:31:06
believe it or not one of the biggest challenges
in castaway was to come up with the sound of
00:31:12
Chuck peeling the bark off of these sticks that he
had gathered to make the raft with you'd think it
00:31:23
would be a perfectly simple straightforward sound
to do and the sound that they recorded on the set
00:31:29
was ok but it had a huge amount of surf behind
it so we had to invent that in post-production
00:31:33
and we couldn't find any kind of limb or stick
around Skywalker Ranch at least that we could
00:31:41
peel the bark off of that way so we had to send
to Fiji for these hibiscus plants the very ones
00:31:48
that were used in the film and they had to
send them via FedEx by the way back to us
00:31:55
at Skywalker Ranch and we still have I think 20
or 30 of them around if anybody needs the sound
00:32:00
of hibiscus bark being pulled I think we're
the greatest resource in the world right now
00:32:24
when Chuck finally does make it through that
last wave we hear musical score coming in for
00:32:33
the first time in the film we had heard music
before in the film but it's what's called
00:32:38
source music that is it's things that people
are listening to on the radio or it's pieces
00:32:43
of pop music but here we are almost two-thirds
of the way through the film and it's the first
00:32:50
time we're hearing musical score that's very
unusual in a movie and Bob Zemeckis fought I
00:32:58
think from very early on that's what he wanted
to do and I think it makes a huge impact that
00:33:06
way because you haven't heard any music at all
for about an hour and a half and when you hear
00:33:13
music especially this lush score come in out
of nowhere in a sense it has a dramatic effect
00:33:25
that it would not have had if you had been
hearing music all the way through the island
00:33:47
almost all of the sound when Chuck is
swimming after Wilson had to be fabricated in
00:34:00
post-production because the production sound you
heard too much of the boats in the background etc
00:34:08
wasn't really usable for that reason we had the
Foley recordings in which people were pretending
00:34:16
to be swimming in the water we had recordings
in the library from people actually swimming
00:34:22
around we had Tom Hanks ADR where he was very
conscientious about trying to vocalize with a
00:34:31
mouth half full of water simulate what it would
have sounded like when he was actually there and
00:34:38
towards the end of the scene when he realizes he's
probably not gonna be able to get to Wilson and he
00:34:46
sort of gives up and decides to go back to the
raft we cheated all of the sounds even further
00:34:55
down made them even quieter than they were before
so that the entrance of the music would be clear
00:35:03
it's just a solo instrument entering as the
score begins and if we had had loud sounds
00:35:10
of him thrashing around in the waves and the wind
etc it would have obscured that piece of music we
00:35:16
wouldn't have been able to hear it and it would
have had would not have had the same impact and
00:35:20
so it's just an example of how we're constantly
playing with the sounds controlling the sounds
00:35:27
and deciding from moment to moment what should
be loud and what shouldn't be loud we actually
00:35:33
put a lot of thought into the sound design of
that scene believe it or not even though you
00:35:38
wouldn't think of it as a sound design scene
if you listen to the sound you'll notice that
00:35:44
the sound of the crowd in the background which is
initially very loud when he first walks into that
00:35:51
the FedEx lounge area goes away by the time they
start talking and certainly once you get really
00:35:58
into their conversation you hear that crowd
almost not at all and that's fairly unrealistic
00:36:06
because you probably would continue to hear them
talking because it's obviously hundreds if not
00:36:09
thousands of people wandering around out there
and the sounds of the Jets going over changes
00:36:16
quite a bit as well we tried to use the sound
of the Jets in a very musical way when Kelly's
00:36:25
husband is breaking the news to Tom that he is
in fact her husband there's a particular sound
00:36:33
of a jet taking off and kind of disappearing
into the distance that has this kind of low
00:36:41
mournful roar to it and we put that that jet in
that exact place very much on purpose because
00:36:49
it's essentially scouring that scene it's it's
reflecting what the Chuck character is feeling
00:37:05
Chuck
00:37:18
how about a Michelle
00:37:45
I'm I'm sorry I must be in the wrong
place so you're in the right place
00:37:50
you probably don't remember me I I actually did
00:37:53
root canal on you about five years
ago Jim Spaulding referred you yeah
00:38:06
I'm Kelly's husband
00:38:09
cherry love it Kelly wanted
00:38:15
Kelly wanted to be here
00:38:19
publicly this is very hard night for everyone
I can't even imagine how hard it is for you
00:38:31
Kelly yeah
00:38:35
she's had it rough first when she thought
she lost you and now dealing with all of
00:38:42
this it is it's confusing it's
very emotional for her she's
00:38:49
she's sorta lost
00:38:55
maybe you could just give her a little more time
00:39:03
anyway sorry
00:39:25
it was artificial rain that was
being used in most of these shots and
00:39:35
artificial rain is kind of notorious because
it tends to make some kind of unnatural sounds
00:39:44
in terms of the machines that are generating
the the rain I think this is a device called
00:39:48
a rain bird which is the thing typically used
to make artificial rain in a movie we wanted
00:39:55
to use the production sound the sound that
was recorded while the camera was rolling
00:39:59
in as much of this scene in Kelly's house as
possible just because the performance was so
00:40:07
good and dramatically it's a tough scene for
the actors to do anyway so we were stuck with
00:40:14
a certain amount of that production noise
of the artificial rain falling and so the
00:40:22
mix of this scene was a delicate balance of
trying to minimise that artificial rain sound
00:40:30
use actual rain sounds that we had recorded
and other rain sounds from our library that
00:40:36
is the sound of the rain of rain falling on
a roof and and running down gutters etc and
00:40:43
so it's a pretty delicate weaving of of the two
things of the production sound that has a little
00:40:51
bit of the unfortunate rain sound on it and our
effects rain let me get one thing straight here
00:41:09
we have a pro football team now but they're
in Nashville the scene inside the garage is a
00:41:20
combination of ADR and production sound and there
was a lot of rain obviously in that scene and so
00:41:29
what you hear is a combination of post-production
rain that we added to the scene and rain that was
00:41:37
recorded while the actors were talking down to the
Gulf so can I Drive your car sound designers do a
00:41:53
variety of things depending on what the movie is
on Bob Zemeckis films I am in charge of the sound
00:42:01
I report to him the way that works is that he
and I have a couple of conversations before the
00:42:08
shooting of the movie even starts typically I've
read the script and so often I'll have an idea to
00:42:15
suggest to him about how a scene might be shot
in a way to use sound in the best possible way
00:42:20
usually when we initially meet we're talking
more than anything else about styles what kind
00:42:26
of style should this film have in terms of sound
just as movies have visual styles they also have
00:42:32
sound styles so then he goes off and shoots the
movie and when they are finished shooting and
00:42:39
they begin editing the film then I and my team
start working to produce sounds to put into the
00:42:48
film our guidelines were that everything had to
be believable on the other hand everything has to
00:42:56
be as interesting and exciting as it can possibly
be to make the film as entertaining and dramatic
00:43:03
as possible one thing that Bob felt sure about
from the beginning was he wanted this film to
00:43:10
sound naturalistic that means real even though
there are adventure sequences in the movie it
00:43:17
wouldn't have been appropriate for it to sound
like an Indiana Jones film for instance so we
00:43:23
didn't have the latitude to exaggerate the sounds
in the way that you would if it were a film like
00:43:28
that or a film like The Matrix for instance we
often think of sound design as spaceship sounds
00:43:36
and space alien voices pushes and explosions and
gunshots but in fact the the deeper meaning of
00:43:45
sound design is just trying to tell a story with
sound and so the sound design in a movie like
00:43:53
castaway is really no less sound design than
the sound design that you hear in an Indiana
00:43:58
Jones film or The Matrix or what have you it's
about working with the director trying to find
00:44:06
ways to use sound in storytelling to help push
the story along to help explain what's happening
00:44:13
to help make connections between characters and
places and ideas in the story with sound in the
00:44:21
same kinds of ways that those connections are
made with visual images I'm not always thinking
00:44:27
about sound but I am a lot more than the average
person I'm like almost anybody else in that if I
00:44:34
like the movie if I think the movies good it's
easy for me to lose myself in it and not think
00:44:39
about how it was done but if I don't like the film
or if it hasn't really grabbed my imagination then
00:44:46
I do sit there thinking hmm I wonder how they
did that or I wonder why they did that or you
00:44:51
know I would have done it a different way or I
wish I knew how they did that because I'd like
00:44:56
to be able to do that myself when I walk down the
street and I hear a sound it's not at all unusual
00:45:01
for me to think I wonder what that would be like
if I played it backwards or or that sound would
00:45:08
be great to use in some entirely different way
and you store those things and maybe eventually
00:45:17
you go back to that Street and collect that
sound and and put it in a movie sound tends to
00:45:23
be an ignored part of moviemaking a lot of the
great filmmakers people like Lucas and Coppola
00:45:32
and Spielberg and Kurosawa and others have said
that sound you know in a really good film sound
00:45:38
is 50% of the experience and I think that that's
true if the film has really been designed to use
00:45:45
sound one of the first people who did design his
films for sound was Orson Welles and that's partly
00:45:54
because he came out of a radio background he had
written in and starred in and directed plays for
00:46:02
the radio before he did Citizen Kane in fact
Citizen Kane was his first film and they had
00:46:08
to give him a crash course and what a close-up
was etc so he could direct this film but he
00:46:12
knew an awful lot about how to use sound to tell
stories and so one of the things that I spend the
00:46:20
most time on when I'm working with directors is
to try to help them figure out how to use sound
00:46:26
in their films and Bob Zemeckis is somebody
who comes to that very naturally his natural
00:46:32
inclination is to use sound in a way cast away is
one of the films that's truly designed for sound
00:46:49
you
