Avatar: The Way of Water – the official introduction:
As we continue our 2023 Awards coverage, today we are talking to the sound team behind another film on the Best Sound Academy Awards shortlist — “Avatar: The Way of Water.”
Joining us is four-time Academy Award winning re-recording mixer, supervising sound editor, and sound designer Christopher Boyes; supervising sound editor Dick Bernstein; re-recording mixer Michael Hedges; sound mixer Julian Howarth; and supervising sound editor Gwendolyn Yates Whittle.
As you’ll hear about in detail in this interview, every member of the sound and music teams needed to work very closely together, in a concerted effort, to make the sound of this film as clean and as clear as possible. Or as James Cameron would often put it, “clarity is king.” Easier said than done with a movie this complex.
“In the end, Avatar — visually — is such a complicated image. And I think the human brain can easily take that in and enjoy it. But we — delivering the sound of Avatar — have to work against that, because the human brain can look at all those beautiful visuals, but can’t necessarily process a thousand different sonic notions. Really, we wanna simplify it and get the sound to speak to the story that we’re trying to tell. And it’s not part of the story, it doesn’t belong in the track.”
Bonus: More on the sound of the Avatar franchise:
The music of Avatar: Way of Water:
Composing the score for Avatar: The Way of Water – with Simon Franglen:43>
Hear the score for Avatar: Way of Water:
Gwendolyn Yates Whittle: Bringing clarity to dialogue in Pandora:
Behind the sound of the original Avatar film:
The Dolby Institute Podcast and The Soundworks Collection are part of the Audio Podcast Alliance, featuring a hand-picked selection of the very best podcasts about sound. Check out the full list of Audio Podcast Alliance members below, and click a on podcast name to go directly to their latest episode:
