Sunday, July 20, 2008

R2-D2 voice finds new sound for 'Wall-E'

(AP) -- Sci-fi animation moviemaking in aisle four!

Burtt

Ben Burtt says he's inspired by the most ordinary activities and items.

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Ben Burtt, the two-time Oscar-winning sound engineer who designed the voices of R2-D2, E.T. and now the main character in "Wall-E," says his out-of-this-world audio often comes from the most mundane, Earth-bound activities -- like a trip to the grocery store.

When he needed the sound of shopping carts banging together for a scene in Pixar's robot love story, Burtt took his 10-year-old daughter to a Safeway, where they put their recorder in a cart and pretended to shop (banging into things in the parking lot for good measure).

But when it comes to making robots emotionally resonant, Burtt bases his ideas on the voice of humans. Very small humans.

"The bulk of the vocals, the expressive vocals, are really sounds that are more like a toddler makes ... kind of the universal language of intonation," Burtt said in an interview aired on AP Radio. " 'Oh,' 'Hm?,' 'Huh!,' you know? This sort of thing."

Sometimes, though, finding just the right sound is the product of a happy accident, said Burtt, who's won sound effects editing Oscars for 1989's "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" and 1982's "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial."


"Wall-E," a Walt Disney Pictures release, opened last weekend.



Source : http://www.cnn.com

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