LO2: Ben Burtt analysis

Ben Burtt is a American sound designer and film editor who has worked for various films such as Star Wars, Indiana Jones and WALL-E. Some of Burtt's famous work is from Star Wars where he created the voice of R2-D2, Lightsaber blasts and Darth Vaders heavy Breathing. He has won countless awards from his iconic work in  sound production.

WALL-E is a Disney Pixar film about a lonely  robot, Burtt is famous for producing the voice of WALL-E and other characters in that film. Aswell as providing character voices Burtt also designed the sound effects within WALL-E for example he used army tank to create sound for WALL-E treads although they had to manipulate this by slowing it down in order for it to sound like it came from WALL-E. In order to come up with character voices from the film Burtt had to do a lot of trial and error, this is important in sound production as you cant always get the right sound from the first object you use.

As a foley sound artist Ben Burtt used a mixture of recording consoles, mixing consoles, speakers and keyboards in order to create sounds, when recording WALL-E he had to go through a long process of trial and error in order to create the right sound. The first sounds created were more mechanical/electrical sounds (much like his previous work with R2D2) and there was no human voice, although this was changed to manipulating human voice to sound like a machine/robot. To create sound effects in the film mainly came from  household or mechanical items such as electrical toothbrush, a generator and kitchen utensils. within the film WALL-E had a cockroach friend, to create this noise Burtt used metal handcuffs (opening and closing) which was used for the clicking sound of the character. In the production of WALL-E over 2,400 sound files were created over a space of 2 years this is because he had to create every sound for every movement in the film.

To create the unique and varied sounds in the film Burtt used sounds such as machinery, cogs, plane motor,  mechanical equipment and engines, these were recorded and edited alongside the visual images of WALL-E.

WALL-E  is aimed at a wide audience, this is because it is a cartoon sci-fi film. Most sci-fi films as aimed at an audience aged between 15-30, this is because there is often a complex storyline which young children would not understand although as it as it is a cartoon, these are normally aimed at younger children as this is more entertaining (children have a shorter attention span so it is harder to keep them entertained). With the complex sound production and entertaining storyline this film is aimed at 10-30 year olds as it would attract a wide audience. I think the sound production created by Ben Burtt connects with such a wide audience as it makes the film seem real as he has used complex sound creation inorder for it to seem the most realistic