Ben Burtt

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Ben Burtt bigraphy, stories - Sound engineer

Ben Burtt : biography

July 12, 1948 –

Benjamin "Ben" Burtt, Jr. (born July 12, 1948) is an American sound designer who has worked on various films including: the Star Wars and Indiana Jones film series, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), and WALL-E (2008). He is also a film editor and director, screenwriter, and voice actor.

He is most notable for creating many of the iconic sound effects heard in the Star Wars film franchise, including the "voice" of R2-D2, the lightsaber hum, the sound of the blaster guns, and the heavy-breathing sound of Darth Vader.

Personal life

Burtt is a Christian.Arterburn, Stephen. The Power Book: Spiritual Insights for Achieving Excellence. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1996. "Tuesday Week 1."

Awards

Academy Awards

  • Best Sound Effects Editing in 1989 for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
  • Best Sound Effects Editing in 1982 for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
  • Special Achievement for Sound Effects Editing in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
  • Special Achievement for Sound Effects Editing in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)
  • Nominated for:
  • Best Sound Mixing and Best Sound Editing in 2008 for WALL-E
  • Best Sound Effects Editing in 1999 for Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
  • Best Documentary Short Subject in 1996 for directing Special Effects: Anything Can Happen
  • Best Sound in 1989 for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
  • Best Sound Effects Editing in 1988 for Willow
  • Best Sound and Best Sound Effects Editing in 1983 for Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

Honorary awards

Burtt was awarded the Doctor of Arts, honoris causa, by Allegheny College on May 9, 2004.

The Hollywood Post Alliance awarded him with The Charles S. Swartz Award for outstanding contributions to the field of post production.

Early life

Burtt was born in Jamesville, New York, and graduated with a major in physics from Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania.

Career

Early career

In 1970, he won the National Student Film Festival with a war film Yankee Squadron, reputedly after following exposure to classic aviation drama through making an amateur film at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome, a living aviation museum in Red Hook, New York, under guidance from its founder, Cole Palen.

For his work on the special-effects film Genesis, Burtt won a scholarship to the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California, where he earned a master’s degree in film production.

Sound designer

Burtt pioneered modern sound design, especially in the science-fiction- and fantasy-film genres. Before his work in the first Star Wars (now known as Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope) in 1977, science-fiction films tended to use electronic-sounding effects for futuristic devices. Burtt sought a more natural sound, blending in "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.

He is personally responsible for some of the sounds heard in films. In the Star Wars series, part of R2-D2’s beeps and whistles are Burtt’s vocalizations, also made using an ARP 2600 synthesizer, as are some of the squawks made by the tiny holographic monsters on the Millennium Falcon spacecraft. In Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005) he provides the voice for Lushros Dofine, captain of the Invisible Hand cruiser. The heavy-breathing of Darth Vader was created by recording his own breathing in an old Dacor scuba regulator.

Burtt also used a recording of his wife, who at the time was suffering from a minor cold and was sleeping in bed, for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. He created the "voice" of the title character and many other robots in Pixar’s film WALL-E (2008), about a lonely garbage-compacting robot. Additionally, he is responsible for the sound effects in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008).