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MillimeterHoly Foley, Batman!
Aug 1, 1997 12:00 PM, Mel Lambert
Sound Design Shapes Impact of Latest Action Episode Director Joel Schumacher designed Batman & Robin as a "living comic book." The film, he says, "is intended to be a larger-than-life Pop Opera. And sound contributes hugely to creating and maintaining that exaggerated feeling of moving beyond reality."
Composer Elliot Goldenthal provided a driving score made up from baroque and pop elements, while the complex task of sound editorial was handled by Burbank-based Soundstorm, a firm that also worked with Schumacher and producer Peter Macgregor-Scott on the previous offering, Batman Forever, released in 1995.
Handling co-supervising sound editor duties on both productions were Soundstorm's long-time colleagues John Leveque and Bruce Stambler, who oversaw the complex task of selecting and editing the literally thousands of dialogue, ADR, and Foley sound elements used in the film.
The Stambler/Leveque team has been involved with a gamut of innovative soundtracks, including Under Siege, The Fugitive, and Clear & Present Danger. Stambler received a 1996 Oscar for best sound effects editing on The Ghost and the Darkness.
"Sound effects on a film like Batman & Robin have to be as exciting as the visuals," Schumacher offers. "There are extensive sets and costumes that need to be detailed with sound. Sound effects have become as essential to the storytelling process as the pictures; they help to amplify the reality we create on the screen."
Producer Peter Macgregor-Scott agrees. Each character and gadget needs its own distinctive "sound signature," he explains.
Citing his admiration for sound designer and film editor Walter Murch (Apocalypse Now, The English Patient), Schumacher considers that the contributions made by Soundstorm's John Leveque and Bruce Stambler "are a major aspect of the film. Their high degree of [sonic] detailing adds a heightened sense of realism to the action."
In addition to developing unique sounds for the film's heroes, the editorial team faced the challenge of coming up with a palette of sounds for the new villains, including Arnold Schwarzenegger as "Mr. Freeze" and Uma Thurman as the deadly "Poison Ivy." Mr. Freeze, in particular, required a number of different noises that would convey the sense of cold and villainy that the character personified. "We needed a lot of freezer-ray sounds," Schumacher recalls, "as well as sounds of ice and general cold within his lair."
As co-supervising sound editor Bruce Stambler recalls, to construct the sound design team's palette for Mr. Freeze, a Foley Stage at Warner-Hollywood was used to record frozen and semi-frozen material, including ice blocks and a cylinder of liquid nitrogen. "We recorded a series of venting and exhaust sounds with the nitrogen," Stambler explains, "for use as a basis for the freeze gun that Arnold uses to immobilize his enemies." The sounds were also used as composites for a more impressive, full-size ray gun that Freeze utilizes on Gotham City.
"When Mr. Freeze turns Gotham City into a winter wonderland," Schumacher continues, "we needed a variety of unique sounds that would emphasize the majesty of the scene-spreading ice sheets, ice valleys, ice crevasses and other sounds that would leave the audience in no doubt that the city was being locked in a huge block of ice."
To record a series of footfalls, plus general sounds of snow and ice being impacted and compressed, Stambler and Leveque traveled to Big Bear Lake, high in the mountains east of Los Angeles, to make a series of outdoor ambiances and close-up recordings. And for the skating sequences that open the film, the sound designers rented an ice rink in nearby Pasadena, where they recorded a trained skater and well as members of a local ice hockey team.
According to Stambler, the process of designing sound for Batman & Robin started with an initial meeting with picture editor Dennis Virkler.
"It isn't a dialogue-heavy film," Stambler stresses. "Because most of the action material had been shot without sound, there was very little audio for Dennis to use when he did his first cut. Dennis [got] us involved early because he is under such pressure to show a first cut to the director, producer, and the film company; he can be more productive if he has a rough soundtrack to work with." As a result, Stambler and Leveque developed a guide track so Leveque could have something to cut against, "something that would help give some sense of rhythm."
Leveque and Stambler say that they favor the use of "natural sounds" that they record specifically for a movie. "The use of realistic, organic-like sounds makes the soundtrack more emotional," Leveque considers, "which helps to hold the audience's attention. For high-action movies like Batman & Robin, we prefer to start with real-world sounds, and then weave them together to heighten their emotional impact."
"But we also need to make sure that we create breathing spaces between the loud, dramatic scenes," Stambler adds, "so that the audience can catch its breath and not be overwhelmed by the soundtrack. Sometimes it's a case of 'less is more.' While developing loud, extremely complex sounds for Batman & Robin, we also used the same sensitivity to back off the sound levels during certain scenes."
To create the unique, multi-layered sound of the Batmobile, the team visited the Rocket Dyne Space Shuttle facility in Canoga Park, California, where they recorded the intense blast of an Atlas rocket engine.
"The core of our Batmobile sound is an 800 HP Buick Grand National with a wonderful turbocharger whine," recalls car buff Stambler. "We used 60 different sounds to build the complex, multi-layered sound for the Batmobile." A race track near Los Angeles was also rented for a couple of days to record various sounds of a powerful Ducati motorcycle and a rare Porsche 917 12-cylinder racer.
Continue the discussion on “Crosstalk” the Millimeter Forum.
