Ben Burtt

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ben Burtt (born July 12, 1948 in Syracuse, New York) is the archetypal sound designer (a term he invented) and sound editor for many famous and noteworthy films, as well as directing an Oscar-nominated documentary. He has been awarded two Oscars in the Best Sound Editing category for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (the 1982 award) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) as well as two Special Achievement Awards for his sound editing in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977) and Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). He has also been nominated for many other Oscars: for both Best Sound and Best Sound Effects Editing in 1983 for Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, Best Sound Effects Editing in 1988 for Willow, Best Sound in 1989 for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Best Documentary Short Subject in 1996 for directing Special Effects: Anything Can Happen and Best Sound Effects Editing again in 1999 for Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Burtt's most memorable work includes the "voice" of robot R2-D2 in the Star Wars films, as well as various sound effects like the lightsaber and the speederbike chase sounds from Return of the Jedi. He also worked on the sound effects in the 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Burtt earned a college degree in Physics from Allegheny College. In 1970, he won the National Student Film Festival with a war movie called Yankee Squadron. For his work on the special effects film Genesis he won a scholarship to the University of Southern California, where he earned a Master's Degree in Film Production.

Burtt pioneered modern sound design, especially in the science fiction and fantasy genres. Before his work in Star Wars, science fiction movies tended to use electronic-sounding effects for futuristic devices. Burtt sought a more natural sound, blending and "found sounds" to create the effects. The lightsaber hum, for instance, was derived from a film projector idling combined with feedback from a broken television set, and the blaster effect started with the sound acquired from hitting a guy wire on a radio tower with a wrench. Burtt has also used a recording of his wife, who at the time was suffering from a minor cold and was sleeping in bed, for the film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.

Burtt has a reputation for including a sound effect dubbed "The Wilhelm scream" in many of the movies he's worked on. Taken from a character named "Wilhelm" in the film The Charge at Feather River, the sound can be heard in countless films: for instance, in Star Wars when a stormtrooper falls into a chasm and in Raiders of the Lost Ark when a Nazi soldier falls from a moving car.

Few people realize that Burtt makes appearances in two of the Star Wars films as an extra. He appeared as Colonel Dyer in Return of the Jedi (the Imperial officer who yells "Freeze" before Han Solo throws him off a balcony) and in The Phantom Menace as Ebenn Q3 Baobab (appears in the background near the end when Padme Amidala congratulates Palpatine). He is also personally responsible for some of the sounds heard in the movies: part of R2-D2's beeps and whistles are Burtt's vocalizations, as are some of the squawks made by the tiny holographic monsters on the Millennium Falcon, and in Revenge of the Sith he provides the voice for Invisible Hand captain Lushros Dofine.