THE EPIC SOUND BLOG

Our collection of bite-size, audio related stories from around the web.

Video interview: ‘Drive’ & ‘Contagion’ composer Cliff Martinez


January 26, 2012

Over at Tracksounds, Christopher Coleman posted this video interview with ‘Drive’ and ‘Contagion’ composer Cliff Martinez:
 

Cliff had just come back from an early morning screening and mentioned he was running on a few hours of sleep as his duties as a Jury Member of Sundance were starting to take its toll on Day 6 of the festival, however Cliff was pleased to sit down with me for this interview.
 
We discussed his work on DRIVE, CONTAGION, his working relationships with his directors and his experience as a Jury member at Sundance 2012.

 

 





  Posted by Asbjoern Andersen, Epic Sound - Contact

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The Sound and Music of ‘The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’


January 17, 2012

Another great feature from – this time on the sound for ‘The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’:
 

In this SoundWorks Collection exclusive we talk with Composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Sound Re-recording Mixer Michael Semanick, and Re-recording Mixer, Sound Designer, and Supervising Sound Editor Ren Klyce.
 
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a 2011 English-language drama/thriller film. It is the second film to be adapted from the Swedish novel of the same name by Stieg Larsson. The first was a 2009 Swedish-language/English dubbed film. The 2011 film was written by Steven Zaillian and directed by David Fincher. Daniel Craig stars as Mikael Blomkvist, and Rooney Mara stars as Lisbeth Salander. In essence, the film follows a man’s mission to find out what has happened to a girl who has been missing for 36 years, and may have been murdered.

 

 





  Posted by Asbjoern Andersen, Epic Sound - Contact

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John Williams: From ‘Jaws’ to ‘Star Wars’ to ‘War Horse’ and ‘Tintin’


January 4, 2012

There’s an excellent feature on John Williams over at The Wall Street Journal – do have a look:
 

Mr. Spielberg credits the composer for making him “a better director than I could have ever been without him.” Recalling the blockbuster that made them both household names, he describes the “esoteric” placeholder music he’d selected as a model for the “Jaws” score—and how Mr. Williams forced him to reconsider.
 
“He said, “Steven, it’s not an intellectual film. It’s a pirate movie,” the director says, adding, “John is like a great writer. He rewrites me musically every single time.”
After the success of “Jaws,” Mr. Spielberg nicknamed Mr. Williams “Max,” after Max Steiner, who wrote the first memorable original feature film score (for “King Kong”) and helped establish the orchestral language of the movies.

 
Read the full feature on John Williams here.
 
(via @YvetteJJackson)





  Posted by Asbjoern Andersen, Epic Sound - Contact

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Interview with sound designer Gary Rydstrom


December 21, 2011

Over at the Unidentified Sound Object blog, Matteo Milani and Federico Placidi have a fine interview up with Academy Award-winning sound designer Gary Rydstrom:
 

USO: What does it mean for you to associate a particular sound to a visual event (identifying it in a vast catalogue as big as the sound library of SkySound)? What are the mental or purely instinctive paths competing in making the choice?
 
GR: Something magical happens when a sound effect is added to picture – and it’s not predictable. After all my years of doing it, I still depend on experimenting, putting sounds against image and seeing what happens. First time I did this, as a film student, it amazed me how sound could “open up” a movie, how the combination of sound and visual could create something greater than the sum parts. Having a great sound library is essential, but the real secret is how one uses it.
 

 
Read the full interview with Gary Rydstrom here.





  Posted by Asbjoern Andersen, Epic Sound - Contact

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In-depth audio interview with composer Michael Giacchino


December 20, 2011

Another great, in-depth interview by Daniel Schweiger over at Film Music Magazine, this time with composer Michael Giacchino on the music for MI4 and more.

 

Spying is a dangerous business, one where your survival depends on stealth and disguise, a skill set employed at barely above a whisper. On that account, it’s likely that Michael Giacchino wouldn’t last long as a member of the Impossible Mission Force. After all, his music is just having too much damn fun saving the planet with seconds to spare.
For if he took on the terrorist 1% with pulse-pounding action in “Mission Impossible 3,” Giacchino’s newest IMF assignment for “Ghost Protocol” steps up the stylistic adrenalin to truly impossible runs of excitement and suspense. It’s an A-ticket adrenalin ride through retro spy rhythms, exotic musical locales and brassy action writing that seems like a superhero score waiting to happen.

 

Check it out below:

 

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  Posted by Asbjoern Andersen, Epic Sound - Contact

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The Sound and Music of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol


December 19, 2011

Another excellent sound feature from Michael Coleman – this time on the sound and music for ‘Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol’. Check it out:
 

 





  Posted by Asbjoern Andersen, Epic Sound - Contact

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10 Tips for Getting Started in Film Sound


December 7, 2011

Trying to get into the film sound business? Have a peek at Brian Ralston’s ten tips for breaking into film sound over at SCORECAST online:

 

1) You have to break into the business of tomorrow, not the business of today.
 
Basil Poledouris said that. Today’s working directors and producers already have established composer relationships they go back to over and over. You have to find the up and coming directors and producers of “tomorrow” and work with them now before they make it in Hollywood. When they eventually get their first studio gig, they will usually go back to the people they know and trust from when they were struggling themselves. Hopefully you will be one of those people on their team.

 
Read the remaining nine tips right here.





  Posted by Asbjoern Andersen, Epic Sound - Contact

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The Evolution of Movie Sound with Francis Ford Coppola


December 5, 2011

As early as the Apocalypse Now movie in 1979 when Francis Ford Coppola and sound designer Walter Murch pioneered a quadraphonic sound system for the film tour, Coppola has made sound and audio technology an important part of filmmaking, including building a dedicated mixing facility, American Zoetrope.
 
In 2010, under the direction of Coppola, Zoetrope was turned into one of the first post-production facilities to install a Meyer Sound EXP cinema loudspeaker system on its rerecording stage and has since upgraded the other rooms to EXP. Tetro and Twixt are two of his movies that were mixed on an EXP system.

 

In this video, Coppola chats about the evolving role of sound in his storytelling and his sound facility in Napa.

 

 





  Posted by Asbjoern Andersen, Epic Sound - Contact

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