Ben Burtt
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| Ben Burtt | |
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| Born | July 12, 1948 Jamesville, New York |
Ben Burtt (born July 12, 1948), 4 times Academy Award winner, is the archetypal sound designer and sound editor for many famous and noteworthy films, as well as directing an Oscar-nominated documentary.
Burtt's most memorable work includes creating the "voice" of robot R2-D2 in the Star Wars films, as well as various sound effects like the lightsaber, the heavy breathing sound of Darth Vader (by recording his own breathing in an old Dacor scuba regulator), and the speederbike chase sounds from Return of the Jedi. He also worked on the sound effects in the 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Recently, Ben Burtt is creating the sound effects and most of the robot "voices" (including the title character) in the upcoming Pixar film WALL-E
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[edit] Awards
He has been awarded two Oscars in the Best Sound Editing category for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (the 1982 award) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) as well as two Special Achievement Awards for his sound editing in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977) and Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). He has also been nominated for many other Oscars: for both Best Sound and Best Sound Effects Editing in 1983 for Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, Best Sound Effects Editing in 1988 for Willow, Best Sound in 1989 for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Best Documentary Short Subject in 1996 for directing Special Effects: Anything Can Happen and Best Sound Effects Editing again in 1999 for Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.
[edit] Career
Burtt earned a college degree in Physics from Allegheny College. In 1970, he won the National Student Film Festival with a war movie called Yankee Squadron. For his work on the special effects film Genesis he won a scholarship to the University of Southern California, where he earned a Master's Degree in Film Production.
Burtt pioneered modern sound design, especially in the science fiction and fantasy genres. Before his work in Star Wars, science fiction movies tended to use electronic-sounding effects for futuristic devices. Burtt sought a more natural sound, blending and "found sounds" to create the effects. The lightsaber hum, for instance, was derived from a film projector idling combined with feedback from a broken television set, and the blaster effect started with the sound acquired from hitting a guy wire on a radio tower with a wrench. Burtt has also used a recording of his wife, who at the time was suffering from a minor cold and was sleeping in bed, for the film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
Burtt has a reputation for including a sound effect dubbed "The Wilhelm scream" in many of the movies he's worked on. Taken from a character named "Wilhelm" in the film The Charge at Feather River, the sound can be heard in countless films: for instance, in Star Wars when a stormtrooper falls into a chasm and in Raiders of the Lost Ark when a Nazi soldier falls from a moving car.
Few people realize that Burtt makes appearances in two of the Star Wars films as an extra. He appeared as Colonel Dyer in Return of the Jedi (the Imperial officer who yells "Freeze" before Han Solo knocks him off a balcony) and in The Phantom Menace as Ebenn Q3 Baobab (appears in the background near the end when Padme Amidala congratulates Palpatine). Due to his influence, John Williams musical score was often put in the background to the movie's sound effects as opposed to the original trilogy. He is also personally responsible for some of the sounds heard in the movies: part of R2-D2's beeps and whistles are Burtt's vocalizations, as are some of the squawks made by the tiny holographic monsters on the Millennium Falcon, and in Revenge of the Sith he provides the voice for Invisible Hand captain Lushros Dofine. Burtt is set to create the "voice" of the title character in Pixar's 2008 film WALL-E, about a lonely garbage pickup robot. He is also responsible for the sound effects in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It is felt by some movie critics that it is due to his growing influence with George Lucas that the musical score in Lucas' movies have become less prominent in exchange for the featuring of sound effects.
Burtt was awarded the Doctor of Arts, honoris causa, by Allegheny College on May 9, 2004.
[edit] Homage
A tongue-in-cheek homage to Ben Burtt appears in the 1997 Activision PC game Zork: Grand Inquisitor - the spell 'Beburtt' which 'creates the illusion of inclement weather' plays dramatic thunderclap and rainfall sounds when cast.
