I think Bumblebee wound up being the most emotive character. I have a friend who says that when Bumblebee lost his legs in the first film, and cried out for Sam’s help, it made her cry. Most of it was our own voices, Mike Hopkins and my voices processed. Every robot needed its own sound personality: Optimus was based on air, Bumble Bee on buzzing, Jazz on jazzy rhythms, Ratchet on ratchets, Ironhide on heavy iron and weaponry, Blackout on rhythmic chopping rotors, Starscream on screaming turbines and so on.īumblebee’s entire vocal performance was based on sound effects that our team created from scratch, so in effect we vocally “acted” for him. Ethan and I sat down with a pad of paper and brainstormed all the different characters and what “signature” we could give each one. So in the beginning we defined philosophies for each robot. The goal was to create sounds we’d never heard before. We also wanted to avoid existing robot clichés and think outside the box stylistically. Our sounds needed to convey each robot’s “soul”, a sonic reflection of its spirit. Could you tell us about the use of sound to enhance each characterĮA: The biggest part of the job was to create unique sounds for each of the robot characters. Washer Dryer used for "Devastator"ĭS: I think one of your best challenges was to give different life to each big robot with sound, retaining the idea of they’re a same species. When we finally got the animation, the animators had exactly animated to our F22 jet sound temped in to the blank visual. We put in a temp sound effect for Starscream flying by, before it had been animated and all we could see was a plate of Hoover Dam with a camera pan. On the first film, I noticed how the animators gave attention to our track. Fortunately, they sent us artwork, and we’d ship them sounds, so there was some back and forth. But for our crew here in Los Angeles, it was a little tougher to have direct contact with those fellows.
Bay Films had a high-speed video uplink set up to ILM in San Francisco. They would get our tracks, and hopefully some ideas. In the case of the second movie, we were already well into editing before principle photography had wrapped, because of a strike-induced compressed schedule.ĭS: And what about the relationship with the Visual FX team? Any strategic alliance there to have a better union between sound and visual effects?ĮA: Ethan knew the ILM guys from his days working at Skywalker Sound up north. So we try to get as much done early as possible.
I don’t blame him the picture works a lot better when the sound is good. He told a story about Spielberg telling him it was “30%”, and Michael countered, “Well, we have room to negotiate”.Īs soon as Michael’s picture cut starts to come together, he wants to hear sound. Our hope was to find that iconic quality in the new movie.ĭS: How was the work with Michael Bay? What’s the importance he gives to the sound of Transformers films?ĮA: Michael has said many times that sound is 50% the movie-going-experience. The original was a really simple, iconic sound that everybody remembers and loves. Ethan Van der Ryn worked on this sound before I ever came on the show, and it gets referenced throughout the movie.Īlso, we knew we had to pay homage to the classic original transformation sound. This “shriek” is the only clue that investigators have to the origins of the attack.
The script describes a terrifying alien “shriek” as the bad robot uplinks to the network. “Transformers” opens with the Soccent Airbase sequence, where a Decepticon combat helicopter named “Blackout” hacks into a secret military computer network. Fortunately, from the very first scene there were sound moments built in for us to exploit. But I hoped that there could be more to the sound track than just “big and loud” Bay-hem. We talk about everything, from the initial aspects to the creation of the robots sounds, the mix, and more.ĭesigning Sound: Let’s start with the beginning… what were your initial thoughts about the sound design on Transformers when reading the script for the first time?Įrik Aadahl: When I first read the script, I remember thinking how huge it seemed. Here’s the last interview I had with Erik, this time talking about the sound design on the two Transformers films. Unfortunately, the Erik Aadahl Special is coming to the end.
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