August 1, 2023

Sound Design for "Top Gun: Maverick by Dolby Atmos - The 95th BEST SOUND Sound Effects Award in 2022


               Mick Sawaguchi 

                   Fellow M. AES/ips

UNAMAS-Label

    Surround Terakoya School

 


Introduction

This sequel to Top Gun, directed by the late Tony Scott in 1986, inherited the sound design of the original to emphasize the dynamic flight of the Jet, while 2022 further enhancing the realism of the cockpit with multi-camera and audio recordings. The sound team has also created a new soundtrack for the Synaptic soundtrack. Author will analyze the hyper realism and Dolby Atmos mix, which the sound team calls Synaptic sound.

1 Production Staff

Director: Joseph Kosinski

Sound Design: James Mather 

Al Nelson 

Bjorn Ole Schroeder 


Final Mix: Chris Burdon 

Scott R. Lewis 

Lloyd Mattock 

Mark Taylor

Christopher Boyes

At Twickenham London

Music: 

Harold Faltermeyer

Hans Zimmer.

Lady Gaga

Scoring Mixer: Al Clay

Scoring Mixer: Stephen Lipson

Rec at VSL Synchron Stage Vienna


Foley Artist: Ronni Brown  

Shelley Roden 

Jana Vance 

John Rosch

Production Sound: Mark Weingarten

Sound Recordist: Al Nelson

Ben Burtt

2 Story and Main Characters

Despite his brilliant war record, Navy Colonel Pete "Maverick" Mitchell has refused to be promoted and is now a test pilot for the Dark Star, a supersonic test aircraft. His boss, Rear Admiral Chester Kane, who is now focused on developing pilotless fighter planes, visits the base and tries to kill the project. Maverick's solo flight achieved Mach-10, but the Dark Star aircraft was destroyed, and Maverick was banned from flying after he escaped and returned home. He was ordered to the "Top Gun" instructor position at North Island Naval Air Station, returning after more than 30 years.



 

His mission is a demanding one: to train 12 Top Guns in three weeks on an operation to destroy a uranium enrichment plant that is being secretly built in violation of NATO treaties. Among them is Rooster, the son of his best friend Goose, who was once killed in an accident.



Maverick selects an old F/A-18E/F as his aircraft for training, but after only three weeks of training, the commander orders him to resign as instructor because he is unable to achieve his goals. However, he flies the F/A-18E without permission and successfully demonstrates the operation, gaining the trust of the pilots and flying as a formation leader. On the day of the special mission, Maverick and his team take off from the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt and successfully destroy the plant, but Maverick and Rooster are shot down by anti-aircraft missiles from a SAM, which they cover up for each other.

The two reunite in the forest, steal an F-14 that remains intact at the enemy base, take off, and shoot down an enemy 5th generation fighter that comes to intercept them. Maverick's plane is in a desperate situation when Hangman's plane rushes in and shoots down the enemy fighter, and the two return safely to the carrier.


3 Distinctive sound design for each beginning and ending


3-1 introduction  00h00'00"-00H32'40"


⚫️ Opening shipboard scene


 

The opening scene consists of the 5.1CH main theme, sound effects related to the departure and passage sound JET for the height, and announcements on board the ship.

⚫️ Test Plane Dark Star's Challenge

 


This is the scene where the test plane Dark Star entered the hypersonic region, aiming for Mach 10, although it reached Mach 9. The height channel localizes the in-flight sound of the test plane.



3-2 transition 00H32'40"-1H00'28"


⚫️ 12 trainees and Maverick's Dogfight

 


The in-flight sound has high frequency components localized in the front and low frequency components in the rear side, with the hard center emphasized by the pilot's breath. The height channel has a jet stream rotating 360 degrees like a merry-go-round.



⚫️ Practical Training Checker Flag Cutting


The trainees then begin intense training on a terrain that simulates a nuclear facility. This is a checkered flag cut of 8 cuts totaling 5'25'', alternating short cuts between the training of one trainee at a time and the on-base class room where the cause of failure is explained. Each cut is preceded by an intense bumper sound to impress the viewer, and the design succeeds in creating a strong impression of the tempo of the video. The use of height channels is also very aggressive, especially the 360-degree rotation of the low end of the music, reminiscent of the 2013 Gravity design.



3-3 main body 1H00'28'-1H24'57"


⚫️ Tough Practical Training and Maverick Demo Flights

 


The attack is a week earlier and even tougher training continues, the F-18 design is the basic design below, similar to the 2019 award-winning Ford vs Ferrari interior scene, the F-18s are designed to be used as a demonstration aircraft for the Ford F-18s, and the F-18s are designed to be used as a demonstration aircraft for the Ford F-18s.


 

3-4 conclusion 1h24'57'-02h10'14"

Again, the thrilling Jet aircraft attack and chase with SAM missiles is accompanied by music, but the design of the Jet is essentially the same.


3-5 Use of Height Channels

In this film, there are 36 scenes in which the Height Channel is used in the 2 hours and 10 minutes, which is by far the largest number of uses of the channel among the award-winning films from 2016, probably due to the fact that the theme handled in this film is aerial combat. In terms of purpose of use.


⚫️ The ambience design that enhances the realism is only three locations: hangar, Jet engine idling, and Iceman's funeral gun


⚫️ The main focus is Jet fighter related with scoring music and sound effects converging


3-6 Soft level of sound scenes with contrasting dynamics


Scenes after full bit dynamics are usually set at almost non-mon equivalent level settings to refresh the ears but also in this film,


⚫️ Maverick visiting a café in town for a drink of water after the fall of the test plane Dark Star

 


⚫️ Rooster and Maverick in the class room after the training plane crash

 


⚫️ Commander's office after a successful attack simulation practiced by Maverick

 


⚫️ The two in the snowfield where the Rooster crashed


4 Scoring Music

The main composer is Berlin-based Harold Faltermeyer, who also composed the music for the previous Top Gun album in 1986, with the addition of Hans Zimmer, and the closing song "Hold My Hand" features Lady Gaga on vocals. The overall music producer is London-based Lorne Balfe, who has worked with Hans Zimmer for many years.




The total duration of the music is 1h34min40sec until the end of the closing credits, which accounts for 72% of the total music used in the film, which is a very large percentage.

The music reflects the recent trend of mixing orchestral music with computer-generated music, and the main feature of this so-called hybrid music is the active use of height channels.

Here are some design examples.

1 Height channel localization of strings

Even in strings, height channels are used, in contrast to the 5.1CH emphasis in Hollywood-style strings. I imagine that the mixing was probably done with the Atmos mix in mind.

 The photo is a shot from the mix room on the 2nd floor, and I think the very high place is for height.


 

2 Independent localization of Gt riffs to left and right of height

This is a very unique and impressive use of placement: the 5.1CH has a surround placement of the band, with the Gt riffs on the heights playing differently on the left and right sides, respectively.


3 Riffs are moved with feedback delay.



Feedback delay is applied to the riffs used in the height channel to create a moving expression.


4 Complex localization of strings, rhythm system and PERC.

This is an example of very intricate localization in the height channel, and an example of aggressive localization in the height channel as is usually done in the bass channel.

 

5 360-degree rotation of low-frequency instruments as Boom components, seasickness.

 

The recording was made at Synchron Stage Vienna in Vienna, Austria.







The Vienna Symphonic Library, a company that produces and releases sampled sound sources, purchased a hall built in the 1940s adjacent to a movie studio in 2013 and turned it into a music studio with state-of-the-art acoustics and facilities. With the ability to record full orchestras of up to 120 players, the facility has become one of Europe's premier film music production centers, comparable to Abbey Road and Air Lyndhurst in the UK.

 

5 Material Recording-Final Mix

The concept of sound is,

⚫️ Hyper-realistic

⚫️ The emphasis is on impact. The sound concept was based on the approach of Chris Lebanz and Cecelia Hall, who were in charge of the sound for the previous work.

The flight sound of the Jet was not as dramatic as it would have sounded with just the material recording, so animal voices and other sounds were mixed in to create a sound with life and vitality.

⚫️ Emphasizing Breath in the Cockpit

Mark Wein, Production Mixer, said that in order to realistically record cockpit dialogue, especially breaths under pressure, a custom pilot's uniform tailored by the Navy was fitted with a contact microphone. The controller that allows the user to start and stop all of the in-flight equipment at once along with the video was used to record the sounds of the equipment.

The key material for Jet was recorded during a week aboard a Navy aircraft carrier.


The final mix was done at Twickenham Studios, a long-established studio in London, England, using Dolby Atmos for STAGE-01 and IMAX Mix for STAGE-02. IMAX Mix is performed at Twickenham Studios, a long-established studio in London, England.

IMAX theater sound used to be a 6.1ch system, but recently, reflecting Immersive sound, it has become a total 12.1ch system with 2 side channels and 4 ceiling channels added.

 


In Conclusion

Although the Academy Award was only for the sound effects, I think that the visual design, with its excellent sense of visuals and the latest technology, should also be noted.

Claudio Miranda also worked as DP on the previous film in 1986. 

I think that the sky tones are wonderfully rendered with magic hour touches, making use of shadows and deep shadows in many places.

 




The F-18 Jet was filming from three locations: inside the aircraft, outside the aircraft, and on the ground.




 

Especially for the shooting inside the cockpit of the F-18, they separated the SONY cameras and installed six heads only specially, creating a system that allows the viewer to choose which shot is best in the edit. This was made possible by Tom Cruise's passion and the cooperation of the U.S. Navy, which made it possible.

 





 For out-of-flight filming, a dedicated filming jet called the Cine Jet was utilized to capture the mobility and power of the film. I think the environment where such state-of-the-art equipment is available as an infrastructure is truly a proof of being a major motion picture country.

                                           

 

The works that leave a lasting impression on me as beautiful images are V. Storaro's shading in "Assassination Forest," directed by B. Bertolucci in 1970, for which he was in charge of DP, and N. Almendros' work in "Days of Heaven," directed by T. Malick in 1978, for which he was in charge of DP. The beauty of the images, shot only during the evening magic hour, which lasts only 20 minutes each day, is wonderfully toned.