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Apple Shares Star Wars Day 'Behind the Mac' Film

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In celebration of Star Wars Day, Apple today shared a "Behind the Mac" film featuring Skywalker Sound, the sound effects division of Lucasfilm known for films like Star Wars and Indiana Jones.


Skywalker Sound uses 130 Mac Pro racks, 50 iMac, 50 MacBook Pro, and 50 Mac mini computers running Pro Tools, all of which remotely connect to a central machine room. The studio also uses a fleet of iPad, iPhone, and Apple TV devices to aid its production process. Staff at the ranch even emphasized the role of older equipment such as the Apple PowerBook.

Ben Burtt, the sound designer of the original Star Wars trilogy, the prequel trilogy, and the Indiana Jones franchise, said that his journey started with a Macintosh SE, and urged young people who want to work with sounds in movies to begin building a sound effects collection using "inexpensive applications that you can have access to now on your iPad or your MacBook, that you can actually do all kinds of cutting and sound-mixing at home."

Sound editor and sound designer Al Nelson said that iPhone recordings are "perfectly useable" in a professional context. Seven-time Oscar-winning sound designer Gary Rydstrom explained:
You can tell a lot of the story with sound in a way that is less expensive than visuals, usually, and sometimes more emotionally powerful. If you're interested in sound or filmmaking, you can record 4K+ video on your iPhone. There's no excuse. The stuff that's part of our day-to-day lives is the same stuff you need to record sound and make movies. That's the real revolution. Ultimately, it will democratize the whole process.
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See Apple's full press release for more information about how Skywalker Sound creates its iconic, cinematic soundscapes.

On Monday, May 9, 2022, Apple will host a unique online Today at Apple session with Skywalker Sound's Leff Lefferts and Apple Music's Eddie Francis, featuring footage from Skywalker Ranch and the opportunity to learn from an Apple Creative Pro how to make vocal effects for a character using their voice, everyday objects, and GarageBand. Participants can sign up at apple.co/skywalker-sound.

Article Link: Apple Shares Star Wars Day 'Behind the Mac' Film
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2022/05/04/apple-shares-star-wars-behind-the-mac-film/
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50 Mac Pro wow :) ... really looking to upgrade my sound design room with a next gen Mac Pro with Apple Sillicon ... my Mac Pro running my sound studio today needs a boost https://www.instagram.com/p/BWckFNNgAMv/

Screenshot 2022-05-04 at 12.58.53.png
 
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Reactions: dkamisato, NMBob and Apple Knowledge Navigator
Star Wars would've been a lot funnier. If instead of hearing the blaster fire. You just heard all the actors yelling "Bang, bang, bang!"

The sound engineers must hate it. When people watch a movie on mute or low volume and just read the subtitles.
 
One thing striking about this. Everyone using a Mac but no one using an Apple Display, Keyboard or Mouse.

I'm seeing almost everyone using a Dell and a few using LG ultrawides. No Pro Display XDR's and I presume this was shot before the Studio display came out so unlikely to have those either. But then no magic mice, no Apple Keyboards.

And the funny thing is, apart from seeing macOS on the displays you wouldn't know that Apple had anything to do with any of this stuff. Really shows how they need to do better with Pro's.

I use my Mac to develop software and I too do not use an Apple external display, keyboard or mouse. Their laptops are wonderful though.
 
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heystu said:
Well that was FREAKIN' AWESOME! Have so much respect and appreciation for sound designers after watching this video, especially liked the quote at the very end - "If you do your job right, no one will ever know..."
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Unlike fangirl in the beginning of the video who thinks it's funny to resuse sound effects she likes, which anyone will tell you is a bad idea and breaks audience immersion.
 
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Macative said:
Unlike fangirl in the beginning of the video who thinks it's funny to resuse sound effects she likes, which anyone will tell you is a bad idea and breaks audience immersion.
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Maybe This week of all weeks don’t make glib sexist remarks about a pro who’s at the top of her field? I love her enthusiasm, and I’ve watched both Mando and TLJ a ton and never noticed that sound until she pointed it out. It’s a sound Easter egg really, and pretty cool. Like the very famous scream that’s reused constantly. It doesn’t break the immersion, just adds another layer of flavor.
 
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Think creative said:
Maybe This week of all weeks don’t make glib sexist remarks about a pro who’s at the top of her field? I love her enthusiasm, and I’ve watched both Mando and TLJ a ton and never noticed that sound until she pointed it out. It’s a sound Easter egg really, and pretty cool. Like the very famous scream that’s reused constantly. It doesn’t break the immersion, just adds another layer of flavor.
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This. I would love to get as much out of my job as she does.

This video was great, and she was the shining star (sorry for all the shes, I can’t remember her name).

- D
 
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I wonder if they ever have the time to call up entirely inappropriate sound samples, put them into the mix and laugh their asses off at the result. I'd totally do that.

*insert fart noise as creature runs away*

/yes, I'm 5. ?
 
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Think creative said:
Maybe This week of all weeks don’t make glib sexist remarks about a pro who’s at the top of her field? I love her enthusiasm, and I’ve watched both Mando and TLJ a ton and never noticed that sound until she pointed it out. It’s a sound Easter egg really, and pretty cool. Like the very famous scream that’s reused constantly. It doesn’t break the immersion, just adds another layer of flavor.
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Good post! ‘Easter egg’ is totally how I thought of it too; as you say, reminiscent (in use) of the Wilhelm Scream.

Really disappointed how comments of the kind @Macative made dismiss the skill of professional women and belittle them. The woman in question is clearly a pro (look at where she works) and shows abundant passion for her craft.
 
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Macative said:
Unlike fangirl in the beginning of the video who thinks it's funny to resuse sound effects she likes, which anyone will tell you is a bad idea and breaks audience immersion.
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Don't be an incel. LOL. That "fangirl" is a pro and with passion for her job. Those sound effects "she likes and reuse" define Star Wars and have become iconic. They don't break audience immersion. They immerse audience.
 
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Quu said:
One thing striking about this. Everyone using a Mac but no one using an Apple Display, Keyboard or Mouse.

I'm seeing almost everyone using a Dell and a few using LG ultrawides. No Pro Display XDR's and I presume this was shot before the Studio display came out so unlikely to have those either. But then no magic mice, no Apple Keyboards.

And the funny thing is, apart from seeing macOS on the displays you wouldn't know that Apple had anything to do with any of this stuff. Really shows how they need to do better with Pro's.

I use my Mac to develop software and I too do not use an Apple external display, keyboard or mouse. Their laptops are wonderful though.
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the machine rooms are too far away from the edit and mix theatres @Skywalker so XDR displays can't be used
 
T-R-S said:
the machine rooms are too far away from the edit and mix theatres @Skywalker so XDR displays can't be used
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The funny thing is, that's also true for video editing in some cases. Place my friend works have rackmount editing stations in one room away from their editing booths for noise isolation, longer than the 3 meters of cable that would work with XDR displays.

They use fiberoptic thunderbolt docks placed in the booths which the monitors then hookup to locally. I'm not sure if any docks work with the XDR or not due to its 6K resolution.

I would hope Apple thought about that.
 
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