SOUND DESIGNER

BEN BURTT

Benjamin "Ben" Burtt, Jr. (born July 12, 1948) is an American sound designer, film editor, director, screenwriter, and voice actor. He has worked as sound designer on various films including: the Star Wars and Indiana Jones film series, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), E.T. the ExtraTerrestrial (1982), and WALL-E (2008).

BEN BURTT

Benjamin "Ben" Burtt, Jr. (born July 12, 1948) is an American sound designer, film editor, director, screenwriter, and voice actor. He has worked as sound designer on various films including: the Star Wars and Indiana Jones film series, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), and WALL-E (2008).

BEN BURTT
In an interview he was asked about his involvement within Wall-E. Within this interview you can find out how he produced and made equipment to produce the sounds that he needed for Wall-E. Q: How important is it to go back to the original sources of the sounds? I would imagine there is high tech equipment now that can be used to recreate those sounds. BEN BURTT: Well, people think in this age of computers and digitization that we can now do anything, the way we see how visual effects have leaped to a much higher quantum level and it isnt quite the same with sound. Sound is a really different creative dimension. The digital technology allows us to manipulate things and you can work quicker and you can practically do the sound for a movie on your laptop computer with a few additional pieces of equipment, whereas 25 years ago it required a huge studio with all kinds of engineers and many people. So, its a very personal tool now to do sound because it is digital. The films that I worked on so much youre always trying to create this illusion that in a fantasy world things are real, and the style Ive always followed is to go out into the real world, get real sounds, and impose them into this fantasy world to convince people that these fantasy objects are credible. That has been successful to go out and gather real sounds. I also love the history of sound effects and there is a great opportunity working for Pixar and Disney because youre in touch there with a legacy of sound effects creativity that goes back into the 1930s. They used to build all kinds of machines. There is a machine that does flying insects, there is a machine that does a talking clock spring. Theyve got an archive of these machines out there in Burbank and I love that and I look at what a sound effects man does and I love the table top props and things like that. Its the style.

At: http://www.moviesonline.ca/movienews_14930.html (Accessed on 03.03.2014)

BEN BURTT
Most of his career he had gone out to the real world to collect sounds for the movies that he needed to work on but he also created many devices to produce sounds for Wall-E; for example the laser gun for Eva was created by a hanging slinky and hitting the end of it with a metal rod.

More information can be found on his work on Wall-E at:

>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSf8Er2gV_Q >http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eySh8FOUphM

BEN BURTT

Other film he has worked on:

BEN BURTT
Academy Awards
>Best Sound Effects Editing in 1989 for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade >Best Sound Effects Editing in 1982 for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial >Special Achievement or Sound Effects Editing in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) >Special Achievement for Sound Effects Editing in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977) Nominated for: >Best Sound Mixing and Best Sound Editing in 2008 for WALL-E >Best Sound Effects Editing in 1999 for Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace >Best Documentary Short Subject in 1996 for directing Special Effects: Anything Can Happen >Best Sound in 1989 for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade >Best Sound Effects Editing in 1988 for Willow >Best Sound and Best Sound Effects Editing in 1983 for Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi]

Honorary awards
Burtt was awarded the Doctor of Arts, honoris causa, by Allegheny College on May 9, 2004. The Hollywood Post Alliance awarded him with The Charles S. Swartz Award for outstanding contributions to the field of post production.