G4TV visits Skywalker Ranch

Hello there 2011, we are back for some more. If I'm not wrong (the camera moves a bit hectically so I'm not 100% sure), the room that Matthew Wood shows, used to be the sound designer room mainly used by Gary Rydstrom and later on by Randy Thom.

There is little to be learned from this, but it is always neat to catch a fresh glimpse from the ranch and the great people that work there.

Skywalker Ranch Tour (#1)

Hello there. So, yesterday I was watching Fanboys (which was mixed at Skywalker Sound. Sound design by David Acord and Matthew Wood as supervising sound editor. Very neat movie indeed.) and I thought I should really blog about Skywalker Ranch.

Skywalker Ranch is the filmmaking paradise created by George Lucas. Contrary to popular belief Mr.Lucas doesn’t live in the Ranch (altough he probably stays there on occasion, he owns it after all). It is located in Marin County, near Nicassio, California.

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Naturally, the ranch is not open to the public and there are no paid tours or things like that.
Here is what it looks like to enter the ranch at night. The video is from the Haxan Films crew (creators of Blair Witch Project) who went to mix their latest film Seventh Moon. This actually looks a bit scary and BlairWitchProject-esque:

And now some pictures! The entrance to the ranch:
 
A map of the whole ranch:
The view from the Main House:
Skywalker Ranch’s own fire truck:
The Main House in the distance:
The Main House:
Ewok Lake:

Somewhere in the ranch:
The Technical Building, house of Skywalker Sound:
The Produce:
Skywalker animals:
A panoramic view of the Ewok Lake and it’s surroundings:

And that’s all for today I’m afraid. I have tons of more pictures that I’m going to be sharing in the coming weeks.

Sound Oscar Nominations

Today the 81st Academy Awards (Oscars) nominations were announced.
The sound categories are as follow:

Achievement in sound editing

• “The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.), Richard King
• “Iron Man” (Paramount and Marvel Entertainment), Frank Eulner and Christopher Boyes
• “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Tom Sayers
• “WALL-E” (Walt Disney), Ben Burtt and Matthew Wood
• “Wanted” (Universal),Wylie Stateman

Achievement in sound mixing

• “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce and Mark Weingarten
• “The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.), Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo and Ed Novick
• “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke and Resul Pookutty
• “WALL-E” (Walt Disney),Tom Myers, Michael Semanick and Ben Burtt
• “Wanted” (Universal), Chris Jenkins, Frank A. Montaño and Petr Forejt

The nominated films which had it’s sound post production services provided by Skywalker Sound are:

Which means big congratulations are in order for Frank Eulner (Supervising sound editor on Iron Man), Christopher Boyes (Sound designer on Iron Man), Ben Burtt (Sound designer, re-recording mixer and supervising sound editor on Wall-E), Matthew Wood (Supervising sound editor on Wall-E), David Parker (Re-recording mixer on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Michael Semanick (Re-recording mixer on both Wall-E and Benjamin Button), Ren Klyce (Re-recording mixer and supervising sound editor on Benjamin Button), Mark Weingarten (Sound mixer on Benjamin Button) and Tom Myers (Re-recording mixer on Wall-E).

Also, while the film itself wasn’t post-produced at Skywalker Sound, The Dark Knight does have great mixing by two usual suspects from the Technical Building. So, congratulations as well to Lora Hirschberg (Re-recording mixer on The Dark Knight) and Gary Rizzo (Re-recording mixer on The Dark Knight).

I personally love this about the Oscars, that this sound awards are part of the main show. And if you are sound film lover as me, you get to see your sound heroes live and kicking (if they win, that is).
Let’s cross our fingers for the talented folks of (and from) Skywalker Sound which always manage to deliver great work on their films.

The Oscars will be on this February 22nd.

Closing some tabs

Hi there,
So, I had some more news left I wanted to share. Once I'm done with that I hope to post something a bit more interesting (other than just news) and I'm also preparing a little something for this holidays.

Ok, let's get to the news and close some tabs.

We can never get enough of good ol' Ben right? Check out this fun little Q&A with the always wonderful Ben Burtt.

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 Matthew Wood (right) and David Acord (left) got interviewed by TheForce.net and the resulting podcast (or Force-Cast) is really funny. It's very insightful as well. Get it HERE.

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Well, that's all for now. A couple of things about this blog. I don't really have an agenda (besides posting news more or less as they appear), there are things I know I want to do, but beyond than that is a mystery. Dear reader, you are more than welcome to leave your requests in the comments. If you'd like me to post about a specific thing regarding Skywalker Sound, whether is a sound designer, or a film, or a technical thing, just let me know and I'll see what I can do.

The other thing. Blogger users, dear loyal readers, I invite you to "follow" this blog (so I can have extra motivation for posting). It's right down there on the white sidebar. Did you just clicked on it? Thanks! you are the best.

See you soon.

More Ben Burtt and awards

  There is a wonderful series of videos of a talk Ben Burtt did at Pixar. Collider was there and managed to get video footage of that amazing event. You DON'T wanna miss it. He seems like a rockstar in there, and he really rocked the house with a cool show, sharing a little bit of what he did for Wall-E and other films.
I'd love to be his friend, not only does he knows tons about sound design and sound for movies in general, but he also seems to be a very nice and funny man.
Go watch it NOW. (I don't really like the videoplayer they used, when I played sometimes it simply stopped).

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You can have a bit more of Ben over here:


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On November 6, the winners of the Hollywood Post Alliance awards were announced. This are awards given in categories all related to post-production. The one that interest us is the category for Outstanding Audio Post in Feature Film, as the award went to Ben Burtt (from Pixar. He seems to be a Pixar employee now, therefor not really working for Skywalker Sound for the time being. But since both companies always work toghether, I bet he'll never be far away from Skysound) and to Tom Myers, Michael Semanick and Matthew Wood (from Skywalker Sound).
The Skywalker Sound Blog (that's us) wishes to congratulate them for this achievement. Well done gentlemen!
You can check the rest of the categories over here.

That's all for now,
May the sound be with you.

Catching Up

Hi there, it's been a while. I've been a bit busy with work and many own projects, but I'll try to post more often. 

So, a bit of news and stuff I've been gathering lately:

Last August an album recorded at Skywalker Sound' Scoring Stage was released. Thinking About Bix by Dick Hyman.
A HDCD recorded by Keith O. "Prof" Johnson using custom-made mikes and equipment. I've listened to some of it at Amazon, and it sounds delightful. Musical-wise it's the kind of jazz I sometimes need.

Matthew Wood and David Acord, the gentlemen responsible for the mix of Star Wars: Clone Wars, were recently interviewed at CW31. Pretty great to see sound designers and re-recording mixers on tv!

Now to Ben Burtt being interviewed by The Christian Science Monitor about sound design as an art form.

Sennheiser/Neumann's Mike Pappas gave a recording seminar recently at the Scoring Stage. You can read all about it HERE.

The debut album of Court Mast, called Sausalito Summer, was also recorded at Skywalker Sound, and released on July 29. You can read about it HERE and preview it/download it HERE.

TimesOnline visited what they call "Star Wars HQ", which is actually Industrial, Light & Magic and Skywalker Sound. About our beloved place they say:
"Over the hills and far away... well, about a 45 minute drive across the Golden Gate Bridge, way up into Marin County, Lucas' reknowned Skywalker Sound is housed in the grounds of Skywalker Ranch. It's a beautiful spot. Made all the nicer by enjoying a glass of the locally produced organic wine. Okay, maybe two glasses. Fine, I'll have the bottle. The plantation-style building overlooks Ewok Lake (no, really) and there are AT-ATs patrolling the area. Ok, maybe no AT-AT's but there are other, more subtle security measures. Where are all the cameras? Well maybe they're hidden in some of the fake boulders placed at strategic points around the grounds. But those rocks look real! Yes, well the guy does have the best special effects team in the world at his disposal."

HDFilmtools had a very HD interview with Matthew Wood. Mostly about the job of a Supervising Sound Editor. You can also see the ProTools ICON console. Very neat. Watch it/download it HERE.

The last thing for today (there is more, but I'll post it later) is another album recorded at Skysound, which will be released tomorrow.

Speak Low by Boz Scaggs. More good jazz, awesomely recorded (I assume, since I haven't heard it yet). "The sense of intimacy you get there is quite remarkable," Scaggs says. "You think you can get closer to the music in a smaller room, but that's not always true. At Skywalker, the vastness brought us all together.... The quiets in that room are much quieter, and all of the dynamics are really vivid. It's a great room to sing in."
You can purchase it HERE.

That's all for today folks, I'll be coming back soon (I hope) with more things Skywalker Sound