Before starting a project it is important to see how other people have started on their projects and have a look at their experience in order to apply some of their ideas and workflows into my own project. While looking at this idea I encountered an interview in which Steve talks about his experience while doing the film Alice in Wonderland. This interview has helped me immensely in realizing some of the thoughts professionals in the field go through in their projects.
The first question and response which caught my eyes was the question about his relationship with the producer. This is one of the most important factors to pay attention to before, during and after the job. Beyond your personal technical abilities, producers look for people who they can build a relationship with, someone who they can feel comfortable with and at ease. In this specific case, Steve had already worked with Tim Burton before in previous projects and already knew his style and what he was looking for, his likes and dislikes. Being able to work with Tim for many different films shows how much of a relationship Steve built with Tim from the first time working with him. Steve however mentions in his reply the fact that he knew how Tim worked and how he wanted his sound to be like while even at the very start of the production with only green screens behind the characters. This is something that intrigued me as I never thought of the idea of actually researching into the producers pervious works and analyse the sound for those films as an indicator or guide as to how they look at sound as to how predominant they like the sound to be, or how the simpler the better. For future reference, this is something which I will do before starting a job with a producer.
Another question which caught my attention was about the challenge facing in taking Alice through so many different changes of scenery bearing in mind the ambience and textures and how did he make the audience feel as if they were in wonderland. This is something that attracted me because it has always been a curiosity of mine as to how these different changes can be made without having such a sharp distracting change. From Steves experience with Tim, he knew that he wouldn’t be able to have sounds that jump out at you, however it was interesting to know that even in such a `wonderland` a lot of the sounds used were sounds which was realistic to the human ear with few strange sounds. I have always imagined, if given the opportunity to make such a film, to make every sound `strange` in order to portray the image, however, it is a lot more subtle to place sounds which people are used to fused with strange sounds so that people can relate to but also realize that it is a wonderland rather than a real forest or place. In my current project, I am to produce a fantasy world, a dream, and this interview will help me realize that I don’t have to focus too much on `strange` sounds but create an ambience where people can relate to however also realize that its not real, its fantasy.
"Alice in Wonderland" – Exclusive Interview with Sound Designer/Supervisor Steve Boeddeker