Music and Sound for The Moving Image
Sound for Moving Image Wall-E Blog Write-Up
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWgP0_Wy3TXc4v1jaeCc0ng?feature=watch
Introduction
My chosen project was the 2008 multi award winning Wall-E cartoon from by Pixar Animation Studios and directed by Andrew Stanton. Ben Burtt the iconic sound designer was involved in the movie, designer the voice of Robot Wall-E amongst others.
I gave Wall-E and the Cockroach voices using a mixture of sounds from the Logic Pro 9 Loops bank and edited and processed them until they sounded like the version of Wall-E and cockroach I had in my mind.
Some of the other sounds used were recorded on location in my house and garden, using various garden tools and pieces of metal, also a dustbin and lid were used. The dialogue replacement was my own voice using an American accent and different pitch for the two characters. A lot of apple loops were used to create the FXs and a lot of cutting and pasting and additional processing then took place to 'design' the sounds to make them suitable for the cartoon. The location recording was carried out using an Olympus L5 Linear PCM Recorder and the tracks were imported into Logic Pro 9.
Processing of the various SFs were carried out with compressors, reverb, echo, pitchshifter, distortion, fuzz-wah, denoiser, scanner vibrato (for the cockroach) and channel EQ, All the original sounds were placed to mono using direction mix so they could be panned appropriately in the scenes.
The Movie Soundtrack
An audio track Livin' in the Sunlight, Lovin' in the Moonlight sung by Tiny Tim was used for the opening sequence. This was chosen because it is a bright and cheerful song that provided a counterpoint to the situation which was one of uncontrollable waste and filth. Also, Tiny Tim was an obsessive cleanliness fanatic, reputedly taking a shower after every wee, which increased the cynicism in my view. Tiny Tim's song was compressed using FET Vocal 01 and Space Designer reverb - used to make the sound seem as if it was being heard in a large open space. Several other plug ins were tried such as distortion, overdrive and AVerb until the required effect was achieved. Automation was used to bring in and fade out the track to synchronise it with the cartoon scenes.
The sounds of Wall-E's faulty track drive was sounds I made using a garden fork and various bits of metal and a metal air filter rattling around a lawnmower handle. All these sounds were heavily processed using compression, distortion, noise gating to remove some of the wind noise and EQ as part of that wind reduction.
I used recordings of a dustbin lid scraped against the bin and a pan tiled floor to create the sounds for Wall-E in scene 15 and 17 where Wall-E extracts a dustbin lid form crushed rubbish and uses it as a mirror before putting it in his container. I also used these recordings for Wall-E's container in scene 20. Compression was used to emphasise and shape these sounds.
The switch in scene 17 was an FX sample, compressed using Opto Tight to add the right amount of impact and gain.
There are varying levels of noise throughout Wall-E's and the cockroach's journey but also quiet sections where the emotional quality was emphasised more by quietness and as the titles come up the synthesized music starts with only low background noise. The synthesized music is made up of four tracks made in a separate file using the EXS 24 synth, input with an M-Audio Keystation 61es Midi, utilizing the Modulation and Pitch Bend facilities to add additional texture. A Steineway Piano was emulated with the synths to structure a mellow, echoey soundtrack with minor keys adding sadness to what is after all, a tragic and desperate scene of devastation brought about by a throw away society who has deserted the planet to live in idleness in space while their rubbish was cleared away by robots. Compression, echo and Space Designer Reverb were used to increase the impact and accentuate the , slightly haunting piano to make a sound appropriate to a large open outside area. A range of Compression setting were used on the FET Keyboard setting, in order to model the sound I wanted.
The theme fades out after the opening scene, after the advertisements start to appear and returns for the end sections.
The dialogue replacement sections for the main advertisements were recorded using my own voice pitched higher for Shelby Forthright in the final section of the large screen advertisement, to contrast with the voice over of the main advertisement. The voices was heavily processed, using Spread, DeEsser to reduce sibilance, Fuzz-Wah - to achieve the tannoy effect, EQ, Space Designer and Compression FET Vocal 01 to give impact, presence, and a reverberant large open area effect. At the end of the dialogue by Shelby, an FX was used for the launch of the space ship. This effect was further processed using Compression, Expander and Space Designer to design a sound that was realistic to the scene.
A total of twenty eight tracks were created. Tracks were extensively automated for volume reduction and gain, also panning to let other sounds through and to position the sound in the film scene.
Compression was added to the output channel to raise the general volume and to add further impact. Limiting was applied of -2dB.
Conclusion
The sound design drew extensively upon field recordings together with home recorded dialogue replacement. These were supplemented with apple loops but the sounds were designed using a battery of effects, automation and panning. The film score was composed and performed by myself and the other soundtrack sampled from an existing piece of music.
Studying the work of great sound designers such as Burtt who worked on Star Wars and ET and Walter Murch of Jaws fame shows the huge arsenal of sound effect props they use to get a unique and memorable sound and it is only when one tries to make sounds that fit a scene that you realise what an art it is, time consuming, frustrating and great fun.
The sound track drew more on Brain Eno's ambient works, such as Music For Airports than anyone else, although there is more than a passing nod to Thomas Newman of Finding Nemo fame who wrote the Wall-E soundtrack. The soundtrack I composed is deliberately somewhat random albeit structured and uses the minor key more like Thomas Newman and less like Music For Airports. Interestingly enough Peter Gabriel wrote one of the songs so there's a similarity in style to Eno. The purpose of the soundtrack for me was an overall slight sadness at the position mankind had reached and the tender sympathetic way in which Wall-E goes about the job of clearing up our mess and keeping himself going from the same scrap heap. Maybe Wall-E is a her - do rebots have genders?!
Some Foley recording was done at home but had to be resampled and made to fit the cartoon scenes so on that basis was not longer Foley but sound design. Hats of to the Foley artists, it must take years of training to get Foley right!