As my first
post, I’ll give a little review of my experience watching Pacific Rim this
weekend. First off, I was able to see it
at an IMAX theater. One thing they
advertise for IMAX is their “earth shattering sound.” They did not skimp on the shattering for
Pacific Rim. It was exactly what I would
expect to not only hear, but to feel if I were to witness 300 ft. tall robots
and monsters fighting. Every blow landed
throughout the movie felt like an earthquake underneath me from the bass
alone. I honestly couldn’t settle my
nerves until the next morning.
I imagine
putting myself in the seat of the guys adding the post-production sounds. A lot of it would seem so obvious: huge
explosions, deep bass, twisting metal.
What really impresses me is how they are able to create a soundscape
that takes you out of the theater and throws you down under the ocean for
example. For obvious reasons, such as
not being able to hear much with ears full of water, the underwater fighting
couldn’t be 100% accurate to how it would sound in real life. What they did was create a different type of “template”
type sound, in which a lot of the higher frequencies you would hear naturally out
of the water were taken out for the under water scenes. You know you’re underwater while listening to
those parts.
One more,
small thing that I liked is common with many movies. Ron Perlman’s character wore shoes with metal
armor or plating that would sort of “jingle” when he walked. That was his calling card. If you heard that, you knew he was
around. It reminds me just a little of
Darth Vader’s breathing apparatus. You
don’t have to see him to know he’s coming.
I enjoy seeing that and I imagine that would be a lot of pressure, but a
lot of fun to come up with iconic sounds such as that.
Those are
just a couple of things I noticed throughout the movie. I enjoyed it and I can honestly say I had fun
being there watching it. I strongly recommend
going to see it in theaters if you get a chance. Maybe if you read this beforehand, you’ll be
able to hear the things I noticed.
Joey,
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting the way you talk about certain sounds and their relationships with the character or different scenes. In the case of Stars Wars, I don't think they had any idea that their sounds would become iconic. The hard part with that was many of the sounds they used to depict space never existed, therefor they had to create many off them. Many sounds on a synthesizer have received their description characteristics because a few ingenious sound designers took a leap and hoped the audience would respond in a positive way. In this case you responded positively to Ron Perlman's shoes. Thanks for the movie review, I will have to check it out!
Kyle Schroeder
I enjoy your blog about how sound is created In cinema. I too have taken some Interest and find it fascinating how some effects can be created.
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