Sound Design Assignment

For my analysis of the sound design for a film, I chose Interstellar directed by Christopher Nolan. When I first saw this film in IMAX I was blown away by the sheer intensity of the sounds in this film. My seat rumbled and my ears were blasted with sounds of space travel. Hans Zimmer score is truly a marvel but what about the other aspects of this sound design are worth noting. Interstellar is an interesting case because the sound mixing/design came under scrutiny after the initial viewings. Many complained that the sounds and score would blare too loudly during moments of key dialogue. It became a heavily debated topic with some including Nolan himself and Richard King (sound designer) defending its unconventional techniques. In fact they even put a notice on the studio website that this was intentional and that they mixed it so it would be optimal for an immersive movie theater experience. Some movie theaters had to put disclaimers that dialogue issues were not their fault and that it was something they could not fix due to complaints from movie goers (Wik). For me personally, I did notice this problem in one scene only. During Dr. Brand's death scene he is revealing the true nature of their expedition to Jessica Chastain's character, during this the music swells up to the point where you can barely hear this reveal as it drowned out by the intensity of the score. Zimmer's score is really something to be commended , but its grandiose and epic swells make it hard to hear dialogue in a few other scenes too. Not all is bad though, in fact I think the sound design is truly incredible. One scene that really stands out is when the crew first enters the wormhole. Zimmer's primary instrument was a 1920s organ that provides some very eerie and beautiful sounds during this pivotal moment in the movie. The initial take off scene where our main protagonists leave Earth was an impressive moment in regards to sound. The blast off quite literally shook the entire theater and was clearly mixed to be as loud as possible. The astronauts dialogue can be drained about a little bit, but in this scene it makes sense as we are focusing on the fact that our characters are embarking on their journey to save Earth. All in all I found the sound design to be incredible for Interstellar despite the criticisms. Hans Zimmer score and Richard King's work should be commended.


Work Cited
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstellar_(film)

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/behind-screen/christopher-nolan-breaks-silence-interstellar-749465