Soundscape: Sound Designer Profile

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 Ben Burtt

Ben Burtt is a voice actor, screenwriter, director, film editor, but importantly, a sound designer. I thought given his range of skills and many years working within different parts of the film industry, he would be perfect to do my sound designer profile on.

He has worked on many huge franchises including the Star Wars and Indian Jones franchises, as well as landmark films including ET and Wall-E. He is the man who popularized the famous Wilhelm scream, which has had a massive impact on pop culture even today. Further famous sound created for the Star Wars universe include R2D2's robotic voice, The humming for the lightsabres, The sounds the Ewoks make, Darth Vader's famous breathing and the blaster sounds for the guns. Instead of using electronic sounds found in sci-fi films at the time, Burtt wanted to provide his version with a more natural sound. This lead him to record sounds such as the blasters by hitting a guy wire on a radio tower with a hammer.  

He is also responsible for creating the voice of ET. He has continued his work since then to the more recent Wall-E where he produced the sound of Wall-E (the main character) voice. 

It was really interesting learning about Ben Burtt's career and inspiring to see how much he has change the film industry as a whole. I was shocked to learn that something as simple as leaving a few frames before an explosion, firstly done by him in Star Wars Attack Of The Clones, is still used today in a lot of films. I like the way he tries to keep his sounds natural as It grounds the audience, making the film feel more authentic. I hope to be able to use his ideas of sound design in my project. 



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