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Sound designer Justin Davey produced two films in 2016 that were opposite but both were well received. One was the intense science fiction film "Space Traveler", and the other was Jeff Nichols' cross racial marriage drama "Loving".
In general, I work with director Morten Tyldum and video editor Maryann Brandon. We will make some new sounds for the film. A new science fiction sound can immerse the audience in the sound experience of the luxurious and elegant "Avalon" spaceship. The final sound production of "The Space Traveler" completely broke his imagination, and used unimaginable sound design methods.
Space Traveler
The following is an interview with Justin Davey, the sound designer of Space Traveler
What attracts you most in "Space Traveler"?
The first call I received was made by Maryann Brandon, the video editor of Space Traveler. Maryann and I, as well as J J. Abrams has worked together on several films, such as Star Trek and Star Wars, many of which are Star Wars films. Maryann knows that I like making science fiction movies, such as Star Wars. After receiving her phone call, I met with her and Morten (Morten Tyldum is the director of Space Traveler), and watched the sample film with them. I was shocked by the film, not only by the skills used in the film itself, but also by Morten himself. He is a newcomer to me, and I was shocked by his film production art, This film exceeds the Hollywood film standard of big budget and big production. I am not only interested in the idea of the film and the story itself, but also attracted by the artistic beauty of the film.
What is Tyldum's idea of the sound of this movie?
What we are going to do is how to design a movie with perfect sound. I think you can also feel his pursuit of perfection in visual effects in the film. The spaceship they stayed in is a spaceship hundreds of years later. Although spaceships are made of high-tech materials, their design also gives passengers a very luxurious, elegant and comfortable experience. He believes that the sound must be beautiful and pleasant as well as the beautiful picture seen visually. Every sound has been repeatedly studied, rather than produced in an assembly line. We can see this contrast in other film productions.
Space Traveler
When we started making sound design, what was the sound of science fiction?
Morten and I are loyal fans of Stanley Kubrick. I have always liked Stanley Kubrick's method of designing sound, and the same is true for movies. In movies, he often uses very few movie soundtracks (the sound is usually not very confused), so we really want to try this. Maybe we won't take the actual sound as a reference point, but in terms of the use of sound, we should try to keep it simple. We hope that everything sounds effortless, as if it really exists. A real sense of reality. In contrast to movies such as Star Wars, the sound is to make the movie more interesting, and the movie Spacetraveler is to make the audience feel really on a ship. We hope this ship can really become a role.
There are some exaggerated sound elements in Star Wars, although they are science fiction sounds. In the film "Space Traveler", sounds are very unique, but in a sense, they are also very realistic. We hope it sounds both novel and very reasonable and realistic.
When it comes to Star Wars, Ben Burtt, a highly creative sound designer, always comes to mind. Does your movie sound like "Ben Burtt"?
In this movie, we subvert our usual way of finding sound for science fiction movies, and we have gained a lot of fun from it. For example, if we want to find a motor sound, we will try not to record a real motor sound. Whenever possible, we will create a new sound - although it still sounds like the sound of a motor working, perhaps the underlying process is completely different, so we try to find a new sound source to create those sounds, sometimes some simple glass bottles roll back and forth on the table to obtain a sound similar to glass movement, Or scrape metal sheets or cardboard along different surfaces to get moving sound. We had a lot of fun recording squeaks like small chairs. We slowed down the sounds and turned them into robot sounds.
Space Traveler
You can try to find as many voice expressions as possible. We hope that everything has a voice to express it. Even the most basic things, such as a motor and a door, have a sound. The language of movie sound is related to each other to some extent, so when you spend your time in the spaceship, it sounds like different music clips you have walked through. All daily life has sound. Maybe it's just the squeak of a door, which can be regarded as a cute little note, or a section of air. We record the sound of air in different ways: by compressing the air, we can get different tones through large and small pipes, so we can create the sound of spaceship movement. Everything has its own tone.
I think this is very important. When you want to make such a movie, you should stay away from using the sound effects of the sound effects library, because I think the audience will have a potential impact after seeing the movie. If the sound they hear, maybe it is the sound they have heard on TV or other movies before, if everything sounds normal, I think it should really be doubted. The film "Spaceman" should give people the real feeling that this spaceship is real. The more we can make the sound of the spaceship sound special, the more people yearn for the spaceship.
When thinking about the sound of the whole ship, what is the internal sound of the ship? What is the sound of this ship in space?
Of course, we all know that there is no sound in space, because there is no air. Our film makes a little more sound than Star Wars, but we don't have any sound in space like the film Gravity. What we are trying to do is limit the high-frequency sound, so you will hear some water flow when you are outside the ship.
This is very necessary. For this special story, this spaceship should feel like a refuge. Besides this spaceship, you have no place to go. In addition, there are several scenes outside the spaceship in this film. In fact, this spaceship is very beautiful. But on the whole, it is important for them to understand that this ship is the only place where they can live. But at the same time, the spaceship has become a problem for them.
Space Traveler
We need to make sure that this spaceship feels huge. It feels like a big machine outside, but it is not felt inside the ship. It is always pleasant and comfortable inside. Then when you are outside the ship, you will clearly realize that you have no place to go when you travel in such a huge spaceship in space. Finding the voice to express these ideas is an interesting challenge.
In addition, the way the spaceship passes through space is also very unique. It is a spiral movement. I want to use sound to express this movement, so that the audience can feel this spiral movement passing through space. It is like a huge space propeller. This spaceship is made of metal, it has a shiny metal appearance, so I wonder what kind of sound should be used to express these feelings?
I found that if you take a large piece of metal, and then take a rubber or mallet or something through it, and then continuously beat the metal to make the metal sound. It's like playing drums. You can make a sound out of a metal piece in this way.
I will use these sounds to create the sound of the motion scene in various ways, just like a car slowly coming to us, which we call "Doppler" motion. The horn of a car came from a distance, passed you and left. We all knew what it was.
Space Traveler
I like the quality of these sparkling metal sounds. I made a "Doppler" movement for these sounds, so the whole space is like a huge piece of metal floating.
You have been engaged in this industry for so many years. When you need voice, will some voice flash in your mind?
As a sound artist, you are used to listening all the time, even unconsciously. So you will start to pay attention to some small sounds in your daily life. I often record these small sounds, even use my own mobile phone to record these small sounds. Some sounds will attract my ears. I will say: "This sound will be a good material" or "This sound may be used in the future". As a sound artist, you never know where your inspiration comes from, because the world is full of sounds. When it comes to finding voice, it must be from emotion to find what kind of voice you need, rather than reason telling you that you should want it.
The movie Loving, which you cooperated with the sound editor Jeff Nichols, is a quiet movie. What method did you use?
Loving adopts a different way of voice expression. This film gives people the impression that it is a very simple sound experience. When we mixed the sound for this movie, Jeff and I always wondered how we could make this movie feel more real? Most of the time, we just try to make this movie as simple as possible. But this is very important for this movie.
