VOTD: Learn More About The Sound Of Pixar's 'Inside Out'
While there's plenty of sound design, editing and recording that has to be done for live-action movies, the job seems a little more difficult when it comes to feature-length animated films. Every single sound you hear has to be manufactured for the film. And that job gets exponentially harder when you have to give sound to a location you've thought about, but have never been to, like the inside of an 11-year old girl's mind.
That's the challenge that faced director Pete Docter and producer Jonas Rivera and supervising sound editor Shannon Mills from Skywalker Sound with Pixar's latest film Inside Out. And now SoundWorks Collection dives into how the sounds of the movie were created, and as you would expect, it's very fascinating. Learn about the sound of Inside Out after the jump!
Here's The Sound of Inside Out from SoundWorks Collection:
As Docter says, "Sound, like lighting, is not something that you're usually conscious of, but you're completely affected by. " and when it comes to an animated movie, that's even more accurate. And as they say in this featurette, they had to start with a blank slate, creating sounds for a place that no one has ever been before.
The featurette shows glass balls being used to create the sounds of the memory orbs, and it's explained how filling them with different levels of water would give them variations on that sound for different kinds of memories, whether they were new and strong, or old and more fragile.
In addition, the dialogue recording is always something impressive, especially when you find out that most of it was recorded without the other actors around. Amy Poehler, Bill Hader, Phyllis Smith, Mindy Kaling and Lewis Black mostly recorded their dialogue independently of each other, which makes the seamless feeling of their interaction all the more spectacular.
Even more fascinating is the fact that they sometimes start working on sound creation before any animation is in place. And because of that, sometimes the sound actually informs the visuals that come later on. This is something that Pixar sort of pioneered, which may explain why the quality of their animation combined with voicework and sound creation is so astounding.
And if you're anxious to dive into more of Pixar's Inside Out, don't forget to check out our post looking at the easter eggs you can see referencing Pixar's other films throughout the movie.