So we were able to put together with a combination of technology and editorial care from our dialogue department. “We mined a whole bunch of samples and material that we had from her for Force Awakens and Last Jedi.
It ends with Luke Skywalker telling her to get up, and then she has both sabers in her hand from Luke and Leia.”Īs Carrie Fisher passed away in late 2016, before production began on The Rise of Skywalker, Wood notes that scenes with Leia involved “respectful” use of previously unused footage - both picture and sound. Everyone just has such a great love for Star Wars, and it was so fun to see all the different eras of Star Wars represented in that moment. I had to fly all around the world to go get them all. “It was wonderful to have all the actors come back and be able to revisit their characters. “We got Ewan McGregor and Liam Neeson and Sam Jackson,” says Wood. Burtt, now 71, remains at Skywalker Sound, pitching in for the climactic scene during which Rey looks out into a starfield and hears the voices of Star Wars‘ past.Įvery voice in this sequence, with the obvious exception of the late Alec Guinness, was newly recorded. We use some other animal screaming sounds - no animals were harmed during the recordings of that - and some other motor sounds we used to give it more power.”Īll sounds from the previous films are available in a “very sacred” restricted library from which the team found and reused archival elements. “In Rise of Skywalker, for the movement where Rey flips over Kylo’s TIE fighter and that whole approach, we use new elephant scream sounds. For example, Acord explains that Burtt’s TIE fighter audio incorporates an elephant scream and a race car on wet pavement. “That’s the trick, if you’re going to make a new TIE fighter sound, to examine Ben’s recipes for what a TIE fighter sound is and make that the thing, but with your own ingredients, to extend that metaphor.”Ĭreating the sounds of Star Wars involves a lot of imagination and experimentation. “It’s just trying to create that Ben Burtt sound, if that’s at all possible,” says supervising sound editor/designer Acord. So for The Rise of Skywalker, sound editing Oscar nominees David Acord and Matthew Wood of Skywalker Sound were conscientious about staying within the sonic world created by their predecessor. “And also when it goes away, cause it makes that nice noise when it goes down.”Īpparently, McGregor was making the sounds so much that the post-production crew had to edit in enhanced lightsaber sounds to cover up his voice.From the swoosh of a lightsaber to the beeps of R2-D2, the world of Star Wars is brought alive not just by groundbreaking special effects but also the innovative sounds that capture a galaxy far, far away - which started with the work four decades ago of legendary Star Wars sound designer Ben Burtt. “To begin with, it was quite difficult not to make the sound ,” McGregor said in a BBC interview. Unfortunately for the production team, McGregor, an avid Star Wars fan, was unable to refrain from making lightsaber sounds while filming The Phantom Menace. Because of this, Ewan McGregor, who played a young Obi-Wan Kenobi, was required to engage in a bunch of dazzling lightsaber battles. George Lucas previously explained that lightsaber duels in the prequel films are much more impressive because the Jedi were in their prime. In fact, the intense lightsaber duels and action scenes in the prequel trilogy trump the sequences in the original trilogy by a long shot. The writing, dialogue, and characters featured in the prequel films contrasts starkly from that of their predecessors, but not everything got worse.
The Star Wars prequel trilogy has historically not been too popular amongst die-hard fans.
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