What makes the sounds of Mad Max stand out from competition? I believe that it's fair to say it's the dedication to personify every sound that we hear throughout the entire movie; to make a fictitious atmosphere sound believable. Even if it was the smallest detail, the Sound Editors had one goal, and it was for the audience, as unrealistically as it looked, to be affected and to believe that what they heard truly happened in real time. The entire movie is dominated by intense vehicle sounds and war machines. There were a lot of visuals that needed to be accompanied by powerful sounds.
Sound Editor and Designer Mark Mangini recently talked to The Frame about how he had some pretty interesting ideas while brainstorming on how to make the War Rig Furiosa drives sound unique and interesting, but at the same time believable. He stated that Immortan Joe, reminded him a lot of Captain Ahab chasing the whale in Moby Dick (the War Rig being the whale). This 1800's classic by Herman Melville was Mangini's inspiration to create the sounds for Mad Max.
Underneath those truck and engine sounds captured by Sound Recordist Ben Osmo, you can hear the cries of a big beast, a whale. They used animal sounds to give life to the Rig, to give it a personality. They wanted the War Rig to be a living beast itself.
"We wanted to personify it as this giant, growling, breathing, roaring beast. It had to be grounded in reality, but we wanted it to be more than that, so we designed whale sounds to play underneath all those truck sounds to embody the real sounds and to personify it."
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| Sound Recordist Ben Osmo on set. |
He goes deeper into the allegory by mentioning that harpoons come into scene at various points, making the metaphor even more perfect. Every time the harpoon hits the War Rig the noise it makes makes it sound like it has been hurt, like it has a soul in contrast to hearing plain metal impacts. To continue along with their idea, they used the sounds of whale blowholes whenever the harpoon would pierce the War Rig and milk would come out. This creative combination alongside many others definitely made a difference, making this film stand out sound wise.
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Left to Right: Mark Mangini and David White accepting the Oscar for Best Sound Editing on February 28th, 2016 for Mad Max: Fury Road"Every single sound, no matter how subtle or simple — from the simplest little footstep sound to a humpback whale — is considered, composed [and] orchestrated to have an affect on the audience. So I really need to find a way to step as far back from the artifice of what I'm doing. And sometimes that begins with finding the most real sounds I can so that it's the most believable to you as the audience." |