By any estimation Star Wars is a cinematic landmark.
Through its 40 years of history – yes fellow 1977 viewers of the first movie we are, in fact, that old – George Lucas’s franchise, now ensconsed in and being given new life by Disney who have dramatically stepped production of new films, has been innovative in many ways, setting the standard high for many of the films, not just sci-fi, that followed in its wake.
One area in which Star Wars has completely redefined the way films are made is sound production, with the people behind the films forced to come up with clever and enterprising ways to devise the sounds for objects and situations that simply don’t exist in real life.
As Kaptain Kristian explains in his new, as always deeply-informative video essay, Star Wars – Designing a Universe of Sound, the team behind the franchise have been so innovative that they have completely changed the way that sound designers, as the people who bring the aural landscape for films are now known thanks to the efforts of Star Wars‘ cutting edge sound guru Benjamin Burt operate.
Through Burt’s exemplary efforts, a droid with no dialogue has been given a bigger-than-life personality and light sabers have gone from bright but silent weapons to impressively sound-engineered items of combat that dazzle visually and aurally, giving life to an amazing and ever-impressive galaxy of storytelling.
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