All Things Ben Burtt on Wall-E

The recently released Pixar's Wall-E has caused a unique phenomenon. I don't know of other occasion in which a sound designer was interviewed as much as Ben Burtt was regarding Wall-E.

Here are all the interviews I collected:
* CanMag
* Movies Online
* SFGate
* Los Angeles Times
* Syracuse.com

And now the multimedia interviews. First a podcast from Studio 360 which is one of the best interviews with Ben:

A Space Journey In Sound:

And a /Film 4-minute Wall-E making of Featurette which has a segment on sound.

I saw Wall-E today and the sound design is the best by far of any movie I have seen this year. Also the story is quite awesome, heartfelt and smart.

On the sound design aspect, I love how Ben Burtt used a wacom tablet to change pitch on sounds in a very creative way.

Chris Boyes on Iron Man

Ok, so I had no feedback but I think that's mainly due to the fact that I haven't promoted the blog in the slightest.

Let's just jump to the content of the blog right away.
Recently the Iron Man film was released, in a very successful fashion. I haven't seen it yet, but I'm looking forward to.
Not only because of all the nice things I've been hearing about it, but also because the nice people at Skywalker Sound handled the sound post-production of the movie.
Chris Boyes (of King Kong, The Lord of The Rings) was in charge of the sound design and mixing of Iron Man.
Mix Magazine sat with him and recorded a nice interview about his job on this film.
Unfortunately he was in a protools room, instead of a lovely mixing room in front a huge console. But I think that is due to the fact that since Episode 3, Skywalker Sound changed it's way of working to have a more Protools-driven and basic set-up all the way to the end (they mainly use the big consoles at the final mix stage).
I've heard they even have an Icon, although I haven't seen any picture of it at Skysound yet.

Anyway, despite this tiny detail of wanting to see their great equipment, it is a very nice interview. Chris Boyes is a very good sound designer, so check it out.

Coming Soon

So, this is somewhat strange. I really don't have much spare time to work hardly on this, but for some reason I felt compelled to do it.
I really love Skywalker Sound, it's the reason why I fell in love with sound design and film post-production. I have a ton of information and pictures about it, and have been thinking on making a fan website for quite a few years now. Finally I decided that a blog would be the easiest way of trying to share all this things I had.

For those who are wondering, Skywalker Sound is a sound post-production studio for films located at George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch in Nicasio, California. The history of Skysound is really attached to the history of sound design, so this might be of interest to those who are into it.

My intention is the following. To talk in detail about what Skywalker Sound is, what it does, and how it does it. I would certainly like to post any news that come out. Maybe even try to interview some of the wonderful people that work there.
The idea is to make this a good read for those interested in professional sound for movies.
So, in order for me to know if I would be doing all this things for anyone out there, or just for me, I'd like that all of you who are interested in the development of this blog to drop a line in the comments (and if you want to make suggestions, go ahead as well).

I hope you like the design, and we'll see how this crazy project works out.
May the force be with you,
- Sam