Talking Book
As you might have noticed from the photo on the previous page, and in the tail-end of the above video, The Sounds of Star Wars has a rather unusual design. It’s a hardcover book that contains 304 glossy, heavily illustrated pages, but attached to the back cover on its right-hand side is a plastic case that’s as thick as the actual book and looks a bit like a boxy version of a lightsaber. But it’s actually a digital playback device, programmed to accompany the book. As Rinzler and Burtt explain the origins of each sound effect in the book’s text, a still photo from the movie in the book’s text is accompanied by a number, which can be dialed up in the audio player. Press play, and you’ll hear banthas and ‘speeders and TIEs — oh my! (And over 250 more sounds.)
Those who would like to incorporate Star Wars’ sound effects into their own YouTube productions should take note that the digital audio player has an 1/8th-inch miniplug headphone jack, and can thus be plugged into a digital audio recorder or your computer’s mic jack.
And Then Came the Prequels…
The book covers how Burtt and his associates captured the sound for all six of the Star Wars movies. Though paging through The Sounds of Star Wars, I was reminded that while sound and visual effects are important, they’re ultimately there to support the characters and the story. Once the book started to focus on the disastrous Star Wars prequels, I found myself fairly quickly losing interest. I know those films are a technical milestone. But as video maker Mike Stoklasa thoroughly demonstrated with his marathon video deconstructions, Lucas these days is more concerned with his digital effects than either creating characters that we can invest ourselves in, or telling meaningful stories about them. The sound and fury are both awesome, but in the hands of a now creatively exhausted Lucas, unwilling to bring in outside directors, as he did with his first two sequels, they signify nothing. (Or to put it another way, which would you prefer to watch over and over again: Casablanca, filmed in black and white and recorded in scratchy, hissy mono on the Warner Brothers backlot, or one of Lucas’s zillion-dollar digital Star Wars prequels?)
But we all have fond memories of seeing Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back for the first time (or the first 20 times), and witnessing a revolution in moviemaking. Those who’d like to relive those memories, and incorporate their sounds into your own efforts, know who you are. And you will love The Sounds of Star Wars. At least the first two-thirds of it.
Ed,
I Found that book at Toys R Us, like 3 1/2 years ago….my son was too young for Star Wars stuff at the time…spend 20 minutes in mild amusement, and didnt buy it.
The first one was great, groundbreaking, breathtaking, played at our “one screen” theater for a year straight. Saw it till my eyes bled.
The rest? I walked out on the Green Muppet, never turned back.
Maybe it was because I discovered cars and girls by the time Han was frozen in carbonite?
My favorite movie screen hero of all time was Steve Mcqueen in “The Great Escape”. And no, I dont have any barbed wire or watch towers in my home today.
It was a MOVIE, people.
Get. Over It.
You dissin’ Yoda?
Why I oughta…
What a great book. I’ll have to look into it.
Question – why does every article I read online about Star Wars, be it something about the films, or a story about some merchandise have to contain a negative comment about the prequels?
I know episodes 1-3 are a sore point for many fans (for the record I liked them) but come on man, you gotta let it go.
And now I will clear the floor so the prequel haters can pounce on me. Be sure to bring up Jar Jar at least once in your rant.
http://pajamasmedia.com/eddriscoll/2009/12/19/deconstructing-jar-jar/
Done and done.
As all the kids on the Interwebs are saying these days, I see what you did there.
When I was a kid my grandfather had a huge antenna tower, and we kids would put our ears against the guy-wires and tap on them because it sounded just like a blaster from Star Wars.
A couple years ago I was watching one of the Star Wars DVD features and was thrilled to see a soundman (probably Burtt) putting his microphone against a guy-wire and tapping on it to the sound of blaster fire.
After a recent re-watching of the original trilogy with my 5-y-o boys, I have to say it stands up pretty darn well. Like the first poster said, the first film was simply magical, and always will be, perhaps not entirely because I was at the perfect age for such an experience when it came out. I’ve always been enthralled by the sound-design and am pleased to hear how much of it stemmed from live, organic sounds.
Big Ben Burtt fan, got the book in the mail today based on your recommendation.
Loving it so far.
Use a Zoom recorder to get sounds of the world for myself. So many sounds, but have never heard anything like a Wilhelm scream in real life.
Nothing wrong with mixing DIY sound effects with a few movie cliches. That’s why I love the Cinesound collection — those sounds were all over 1960s British movies and TV series.