Ben Burtt Interview: The Challenge of The Empire Strikes Back

After working on the original Star Wars, sound designer Ben Burtt was tasked with a new set of challenges for its sequel, The Empire Strikes Back.

Star Wars was the beginning of Burtt's career, and he knew very little about sound and film at the time. With the experience he gained working on it, however, he felt that he could do more with The Empire Strikes Back. "Stylistically," Burtt says, "I wasn't attempting to do something really different, but I was attempting to do the same thing on a grander scale." The Empire Strikes Back was bigger, with new characters, vehicles, and locations, and Burtt didn't want to just rehash what he did previously. Everything needed different and new sounds.

A lot of those who worked on Star Wars were fans of science fiction, including Burtt, and they didn't anticipate its success. So when it came to working on The Empire Strikes Back, Burtt felt pressure to top the first film. As a result, more time was spent gathering organic sounds, mixing in stereo, and creating a deeper aural experience.

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[StarWars]

Following up the success of Star Wars is a challenge of massive proportions.

[flowherder]

I'ts sad that the videos about sound are always so quiet :-(

[AndrewBarracloughComposer]

Don't tell me you guys at Star Wars don't have audio gain feature in your software! 

[GimpyFriday]

C'mon channel owners! A video all about sound and you can't even get the volume levels right? Normalize this thing!

[lightsidemaster]

Don't you get it?! The sound is quiet in order for us to become furious. They want us to turn to the dark side. Don't stray from the light!

[albertorkenbjorken]

put them on youtube i refuse to fork over money to netflix just to watch clone wars