Meet the Oscar-nominated sound designers behind Kylo's lightsaber
'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' received two Academy Award nominations for its sound production alone.
Skywalker Sound is home to Star Wars. The award-winning sound designers and mixers who inhabit the red-bricked walls of George Lucas' audio post-production facility have shaped the soundscapes for the saga so far. From the first movie in 1977 to The Force Awakens in 2015, the team of sound wizards has converted fictional ideas into believable sounds and indelible memories. Instead of pulling from a ready-made digital library, they tend to rely on organic sounds. Mundane objects and creatures are carefully manipulated into powerful spaceships and energized lightsabers.
This year, Star Wars: The Force Awakens had five Academy Award nominations, including two for the Skywalker Sound team. I caught up with co-supervising sound editor David Acord (nominated in the sound editing category) and re-recording mixer Christopher Scarabosio (sound mixing) to learn more about Kylo Ren's lightsaber and BB-8's motors.
