Legend of the Guardians: Sound producer Katrina Peers
The sound associate producer forLegend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole, Katrina Peers, told Encore how the team provided each animated owl with its own distinctive wing flaps and calls – using a hint of the actors’ voices!
How complex is the sound mix in this film?
The sound mix was a challenging one for the team. First and foremost, there’s a lot of dialogue and clarity is paramount. When you add to that base sound FX of owls calling, flying, walking and in battle, then layer in various atmospherics and then a full orchestral score complete with choirs, the bandwidth is absolutely chockers!
Finding the balance of all these elements was tricky at times, but ultimately it all comes down to what supported the story at any given moment.
For example, the moment when Boron the King appears from behind the wave in the storm sequence is the first time Soren realises the Guardians are real. He’s been through an epic journey to find them and it almost ends disastrously, but right at that moment he is saved by the owls he has only ever heard of in his father’s bedtime stories. In reality, it’s raining and stormy, the waves are crashing about and the wind is howling, but what supports the story at that moment in time are the angelic choir voices singing the Guardians theme. Reality is dulled right down to support that magical moment.
On the opposite end of the scale, is the moment the Guardians and Pure Ones engage in battle. The build up to the confrontation is all FX and owl calls combined with rousing orchestral music, but at the moment of impact, the orchestral music is pulled away and we have very specific battle FX to support the choreography of the camera. The decision to do this gives great clarity and also gives the audience a moment to recalibrate and track the battle moving forward.
What are the most important sound effects in this film, and are there any particular FX created specifically for it?
Right from the start, our sound supervisor Wayne Pashley and director Zack Snyder discussed the rules of the owl world we were creating. It was important for them to track each owl with their own individual walk, wing flaps and calls, and in most cases each specific species of owl call was integrated with our cast voices resulting in a unique blend of owl calls with just a hint of the actors voice so the audience could subliminally link back to each character.
The sound design of the fleck field and the fleck field trap device was also carefully considered. Right up front, Wayne and Zack didn’t want the fleck field to sound electric, and wanted a more organic sound in keeping with the naturalistic style of the film. This allowed the sound team to explore a huge variety of low level, magnetic sounds and they recorded all of them –layers and layers of tracks. They mixed all of them together and came up with what you hear in the film.
It was also important that the sound of the trap itself was consistently tracked throughout the film. Establishing the sounds of its mechanics up front supports the story later in the film when the Guardians are trapped, as we don’t actually see the fleck trap working on screen.
What style of music has been used and what’s the reason behind it?
When David Hirschfelder and Zack got together to talk about the film, the one thing that wasn’t discussed is the fact it was an animated film. The story is an epic adventure film; a hero’s journey. Zack basically said to David that he should go just for it and that’s what he did!
The Guardians theme and its various interpretations track; Soren’s journey throughout the film, you’re right there with him feeling his joy, sadness, hopes and dreams. There’s such a diverse range of emotional cues in the story ranging from warm happy family, to darkness, pursuit, quirky, discovery, battle, the list goes on. David has truly captured these moments beyond anything we could have imagined.
Is there any non-instrumental music?
Yes. Adam Young of Owl City wrote an original song for the film; it plays over a montage scene where Soren and his friends have just been through a pretty tough journey, and it’s a moment for them, and the audience, to take a breath and really enjoy life at the tree and its beauty. It works really well.
We also have two excerpts from two separate tracks by Lisa Gerrard and Dead Can Dance. Lisa’s voice is so unique and mesmerising. We initially used these tracks as temp music in edit to define the two moments where Soren uses his gizzard and absolutely fell in love them.
