Universal Pictures' Disclosure Day was directed by three-time Academy Award-winner Steven Spielberg and stars Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson and Colman Domingo. The thriller is based on the idea that information about aliens and UFOs that the government has been hiding for decades will be revealed simultaneously across the global, answering the long-time question from Earth's residents on whether or not we are alone in the universe.
Skywalker Sound provided a range of audio services for the film under the direction of veteran sound editor/re-recording mixer Gary Rydstrom. Gary (pictured) has received numerous accolades over the course of his career, including Academy Awards for his work on Titanic,
Saving Private Ryan,
Terminator 2: Judgment Day and
Jurassic Park. Here, he shares insight into his work on
Disclosure Day, his collaboration with director Steven Spielberg, and some of the film's highlights and challenges.
You wore many hats on Disclosure Day - sound editor, a supervising sound editor, co-re-recording mixer. Do you get to be creative, or are you overseeing a larger team of people because of the volume of work?
“I'm definitely overseeing a team, so I do the sound editing part. And I co-supervised with Brian Chumney this time - the last few Spielberg films with him - and then I mix with Andy Nelson, so I do both of those things. I'm hands-on for the stuff that I want to do. In this movie, there are a couple scenes that I cut myself because I thought [they’d be] fun. I pick the fun stuff for myself, but (we) had a whole a whole sound crew like we normally would, and a lot of the people who worked on many other Spielberg films, so I try to do both. I try to stay hands-on for sure!”
How far back does this begin for Skywalker Sound?
“I looked this up recently. I read the script almost exactly two years ago. Being Amblin and Spielberg, I had to fly to LA and read it in a locked room so that no one could see me. It was two years ago. That was not overly early for it, especially a Spielberg film, which has always been good at getting us involved early. But there were things we had to create that had to be played back on the set. So the main reason I started so early was essentially to come up with an alien language that Emily Blunt could pantomime to when it came time to shooting that scene on the set.”
Obviously, Skywalker - and even yourself - have a vast library that you can draw upon, but every film must have something unique. The alien language may be one of them. Do you want to talk about that and any other elements that were created specifically for this film?
“Well, the alien language was the first thing to do. In the script, Emily Blunt's character has to speak this unearthly language giving a weather report, so we knew he had to come up with that. It didn't indicate what that would be. The way that worked was that Emily Blunt and Steven Spielberg and I were there in a sound studio and we kind of (tried) to come up with (it). It turns out Emily Blunt is very gifted at making interesting sounds, and she ended up making a click-based language, which is a Spielberg idea because he thought that click sounded mathematical and getting across information but in a mathematical way. She was great at it. So we did that. And then my job was to cut that in and sweeten it - make it into what is in the movie. And then that became the basis for their other parts of the movie where we have to hear real aliens.
“So what she came up with Steven was the basis. Then I take animal and other kinds of sounds and create aliens speaking or aliens being interrogated. So that was the first design element for the movie, even though it's not in the movie a lot. It's only short, but that it took the most time, partly because it had to be done…so the real aliens could be animated to or performed to, and they had to also by approved by Spielberg. So before they were even shooting, I was back and forth with him all the time. ‘Here, what do you think of this?’ And he would give me notes.”
What are the elements that make up that sound?
“Well, the clicking, the Emily Blunt part is her. I found different animals. Kyrsten Mate, one of our editors, did a great recording her cat that turned out to make some interesting clicking and other weird sounds. But the way this works is you find a variety of animal sounds and other things, some mechanical things. But for the breathing, that doesn't sound human. I have a sound editor trick. I got a canister that made a vacuum to keep my coffee beans fresh. And then if you pull that back and forth - it makes this great mechanical breathing sound. If anyone wants to make an alien breathing sound at home, get a coffee canister! But mostly animals, a variety of animals. Even our own pets. And try to create a language for what these aliens might sound like. That's the fun part of the job.”
Are you at Skywalker all the time, or do you have home studio space that you're working in?
“Well, of course working remotely has become more common lately because of COVID and all that. This one, there was an edict, partly for security reasons, partly for creative reasons, that everyone came to the ranch. So the sound editing crew worked at Skywalker Ranch. The only one who didn't, for the most part, was me, because I recently moved up to Washington State. I have a little studio up here, so I got special dispensation from the Pope to do some of my work here. But when it came time to work with the editors and premix sound effects and Foley, all that happened at Skywalker Ranch. That's where the crew was based.”
What is the complexity of a home studio these days? Is it something as simple as a laptop or a desktop, Pro Tools or something else?
“Pro Tools is the heart of it. I do a lot of the stuff on Pro Tools. I've got a room at home that has a 5.1 audio system. But Sony has a system that I use now. It's a virtual mixing environment. So, I sat in our main mix stage at Skywalker Ranch and they put headphones on and me play tones in the room. They put microphones in my ear and read how I'm listening to the room, and how that works for me. Now I'm able to take even an Atmos mix, play it over headphones, and it sounds pretty much like I'm in a big room listening to an Atmos mix. That wasn't possible 10 years ago. So that's great.
“For the most part though, what I do up here is create sounds - make a library of sounds and do some cutting. It's okay that it’s not mix-room quality. I'm not panning and all that kind of stuff. When it comes time to mix, then I go to a room at Skywalker Sound and pre-mixed everything there. And then we went from there to Fox and final mix there.”
As far as sound editing, at what point are you working against picture? And how much of the on-set recordings are used versus being replaced to create a more cinematic experience?
“I started on it long before, partly because of the alien vocals, but other things too. I get excited about it. Based on the script, I could use these kind of sounds, so I started creating alien things that would work for alien technology, alien energy...The movie's very internal at times - how you dive in on someone and become almost one with them or control them in internal ways. So, I experimented with weird sounds. Also, I was expecting there'll be some spaceships coming in the movie. Not to disappoint anyone, but it doesn't have that kind of Close Encounters scene with spaceships. They're all on a monitor, and they're approached in a very different and emotional way in the movie. I’ve got a huge library of UFO spaceship sounds ready to go (if) we do the sequel! So that's even before the shooting. I start gathering and creating and recording a library of sounds that seem appropriate to the film.”
Are you getting ideas from the script or conversations with the filmmaker?
“Based on the script, and then talking to Spielberg about the tone and what is he going for long before we see it. And then the crew starts - the sound editing crew - when we get the cut of the movie. Spielberg is always a little bit careful about when he hands it off because he likes to give you something that's further along. We got the full cut of the movie. The crew gets together, we watch it, we make our own comments and notes, and then we start in earnest cutting to the film.”
Do you get the full cut from head to tail?
“We got a head to tail. When he was ready to release it to us, Brian Chumney and I went down to Amblin. We watched it in the theater at Amblin, which is always an amazing day to see the movie. It's nice to see it all together. So, we got the whole move together as a full piece and that's what we started with.”
Are there any temporary sound effects that have been put in there from an editor to give you guidance, or is it just raw production audio?
“Well, the production audio, Drew Kunin was the production mixer, and it's beautiful. The way he captured dialog, even in difficult scenes, was great. Sarah Broshar was the editor on this. She had a crew. More than on other Spielberg films, they cut a really good temp sound effects track, which is great for them to figure out pacing and how things are working. Really, it's an inspiration for us to go and do our version of a train scene or the car chase, alien technology, that kind of stuff. Sarah and Spielberg’s editorial approach generally is not to go overboard on cutting a temp track that feels like a finished movie, although this movie played pretty damn good when I first saw it. I hadn't done a lick of work on it (and it) played great. But they leave room for us to do what we do.”
Are you obligated to use any of the elements that are already in there, or do you have the liberty to replace anything you choose to?
“I think, especially for the Spielberg team, their expectation is that we don't have to use anything they've cut. We are free to change, add, make…and they're so excited. Sarah and her team would sit in when we were final mixing this and they had a great time watching the scene kind of come to life with sound. They want it to be new. They want it to be bigger and bolder.”
You mentioned the alien language. What other sounds or scenes would you point to as highlights?
“I always love openings of movies and openings of Spielberg movies are often very interesting. They suck you into the movie in an interesting way. This movie’s opening turns into a wrestling match, which I think no one saw coming, but the sounds leading up to it were kind of bizarre. It was a Spielberg idea. He wanted the audience to think these are the sounds of a science-fiction movie. But nope, they're the sounds of a wrestling match, so that was really fun to do.”
The perspective in that scene is interesting because it’s the competitor’s view.
“It's jarring, but it's also beautifully thematic, because when Spielberg and I talked early on, he would always mention the word ‘empathy’ as a central concept for this film. Later on, you connect with people. We're connecting with aliens. We're diving on people using this alien technology. The opening of the wrestling scene is a POV. The camera is the guy getting pummeled in the beginning of the wresting scene, so there's an empathy to that too. We feel what's it like to be in a ring. So that felt thematic. That opening was fun.
“The scene that I pulled for myself to cut - stole from the rest of the great sound editors - was there's a scene where Margaret is in a moving train car and the pianos are all resonating and banging around it. That was in the script. It was a great idea to support the psychology of Margaret's character having a nervous breakdown. I thought this was going to be a great scene to do with all the banging, you know, cacophony.
“Steven himself recorded stuff on the set because he was excited about the sound of that scene. I have recordings of the director of the movie taking time out from his schedule to have the pianos banged around and moved, and see what that sounds like, so he knew it would be important. That and the whole train chase scene was really fun to work on.”
Is Skywalker handling dialog, or is it only the sound effects side?
“No, we did the whole thing. Brian Chumney, the other supervisor, he handles the dialog - all the cutting of the dialog and the ADR and the loop group and all that kind of stuff. Then he works with Andy Nelson to pre-mix the dialog, that's part of us. Sometimes that does get split. Some crews split dialog and effects, but on the Spielberg films, we do the whole thing. And then we involve Fox on the mixing side.”
When it leaves Skywalker and goes to Fox, are the sound effects panned at that point, or is there final tweaking on the stage?
“It's panned because I'm premixing the sound effects at Skywalker, so part of the premix is panning. My goal, often with premix, which I never attain, is when I get to the final, to play the premixes straight across, and play them with the rest of the track and have it work. It never really happens. There's plenty of work that we do at the final. Kyrsten Mate, who's the lead sound effects editor on the show, she was down with us at a Pro Tools on the stage, so if we came up with an idea, or Steven very often comes up with an idea, to the point where we sometimes record something on the stage. He wanted the specific sound of this canister that held alien technology and had something in mind, so we put a mic on him and he had whatever props he could find on our sound stage, and he was getting the sound and we recorded it. And it goes through our portals and we cut it into the movie.”
Is it ultimately an Atmos release? Are they doing downmixes there too?
“These days when you finish a mix, you do the various formats. You do an M&E music and effects master, which we prepare. But that's mixed at Fox as well. So as much as possible, all these deliverables and stereo in the near field, the ones that go to the streamers these days, that all happens at Fox too. It happens as soon as we finish the main mix. Those things get finished up too, so there's a whole package. It's crazy how many formats we need to create these days. It was not that way 20 years ago, 30 years ago.”
And all the international versions.
“Yeah, so the M&E is important these days. There's a lot of work that goes into that to make it. It's always striking to watch a movie with the dialog sucked out, but you're hearing all the Foley and the movement, and it feels like a real thing, but you just can't hear anyone speak. It's so weird. These days, a movie like this, I don't know how many? Maybe 35 to 40 languages? Something like that. The international side of the market is pretty big.”
There’s talk about using AI for localization purposes - creating text from the dialogue and having it translated to any number of languages. That’s something that wasn’t happening 20 years ago too.
“Like a lot of people, I'm amazed what AI can do, and there's some things that'll help us with formats and mastering. But anything that involves acting and creativity and emotion? I don't know. I don't see it coming anytime soon.”
What's next for you?
“I'm getting a break. Well, I'm trying to slow down. And I jokingly say that I'm on ‘the Steven Spielberg retirement plan,’ which is, when he makes a movie, I'll work on it. And if he doesn't, maybe I won't be working. I take other projects. I'll say the one thing I'm doing now that I’m really happy about helping. I’m not in charge of it (but) I'm helping on [Space Balls: The New One].
“One of the first films that I ever did sound design for with Randy Thom back in the ‘80s was Spaceballs. I got to meet Mel Brooks. It was amazing! So when ‘Spaceballs 2’ got announced, both Randy Thom and I went, ‘We have to do something!’ We don't want do the whole thing. The ‘kids’ do the show. But we want to do something, because Mel Brooks and Spaceballs meant a lot to us. So those kind of shows, I will be happy to do. Meanwhile, I'm just waiting for whatever Steven does next.”