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UNAMAS-Label・Surround Terakoya
Introduction
While Dunkirk won the 2017 Academy Award for Sound Editing, its design—composed entirely of music—It did not capture my interest. Therefore, I will analyze the sound design of Blade Runner 2049, the 35-year-later remake of the 1982 masterpiece Blade Runner, as it is an outstanding nominee 2017.
Canadian director Denis Villeneuve, who won the Best Sound Editing award in 2016 for Arrival, once again breaks the mold of science fiction films. Rather than relying on CGI and green screens, he prioritized filming on realistic sets, brilliantly realizing his concept of integrating music and sound design.
１ Production staff
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Sound Design: Mark Mangini
Ted Green. Dave Whitehead
Final Mix: Ron Bartlet. Dug Hemphill
At Sony William Holden Theater by Dolby Atmos
Music: Benjamin Wallfisch. Hans Zimmer. Howard Scarr
Music Final Mix: Alan Meyerson
Foley Artist: Andy Malcolm. Goro Koyama
Production Sound: Mac Ruth
Sound Recordist: Eric Potter
2. Story and Main Characters
In 2049, Earth is devastated by climate change and nuclear pollution, and the wealthy have migrated to an extraterrestrial planet called OFF WORLD. The protagonist, K, is a second-generation replicant working as a “Blade Runner” for the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).
He finds a box buried under a strange dead tree after eliminating Sapper Morton, an old replicant, at a synthetic protein farm where Morton lives.
Inside the box are human remains and photos of a woman and child. Investigation reveals that the bones belong to a female replicant who died during a cesarean section.
K's superior, Joshi, fears that this could lead to war between humans and replicants, and orders K to find and eliminate the replicant child.
K visits the headquarters of Wallace, a replicant manufacturer, and discovers from the DNA archives that the deceased woman was a replicant from quite some time ago. Wallace, the company's CEO, desires to grant replicants reproductive capabilities to expand the colonies. He intends to achieve this reproductive function using the replicant bones K brought and their offspring, and instructs his secretary Luv to carry out the plan.
Returning to Morton's farm, K sees the date 6-10-21 carved into a tree trunk and concludes from his childhood memories that he is not a replicant. He searches the DNA records and discovers data on twins, finding that the girl is dead but the boy is listed as alive. K investigates the children at the orphanage in San Diego and finds a wooden horse carved with the date 6-10-20 engraved on the back from his memories.
To verify the authenticity of this memory, K visits the laboratory of Dr. Anna Sterling, a memory designer. There, he learns his orphanage memories are genuine and becomes convinced he is the son of the woman whose bones he found. As his investigation progresses, he detects a life signal in the ruins of Las Vegas. Visiting the site, he encounters Deckard, a former Blade Runner.
He tells her the woman's name is Rachel, and that he erased the birth records to protect the child, entrusting it to a replicant. Luv tracks him to Deckard's hideout in Las Vegas, kidnaps him, and brings him back to headquarters.
Wounded in the Las Vegas battle, K is told by Fraiser, leader of the replicant liberation movement, that he is not Rachel's child. Dr. Anna Sterling, the memory designer, is her daughter, and the memory of the wooden horse belongs to her. Fraiser then asks K to eliminate Deckard to keep the secret.
Luv takes Deckard to headquarters and offers him a clone of Rachel in exchange for revealing what he knows, but Deckard refuses.
While Luv transports Deckard for interrogation offworld, K intercepts them and recaptures Deckard. Severely wounded in the fight, K takes Deckard to Dr. Sterling's laboratory, where he prepares to die quietly while gazing up at the snow-filled sky. Meanwhile, Deckard enters the building and meets his daughter for the first time.
3. Distinctive Sound Design for Each Phase: Introduction-Transition-Main Body-Conclusion
3-1 Introduction: 00'00“–23'31”
● Opening
The use of music at 3'08" to draw in the audience is truly excellent.
Typically, the story introduction in films uses a quieter, lower-level approach to focus the audience's hearing, gradually increasing the volume. This film, however, uses music at full volume, like a TV show. After the situation is explained and the main title appears from an eye close-up, the music shifts from the previous 4-channel setup to an immersive soundscape utilizing the height channels. A Spinner carrying Blade Runner K flies from the basic channel Ls-Rs toward the front center. The visuals also make full use of expression, transitioning from the big close-up to a wide shot of the polluted LA of 2049.
● Sapper Morton's representation of indoor space
Although dialogue is the main focus here, the faint sound of garlic cooking bubbling away in the kitchen and the dialogue echoing in the enclosed space resonate up to the height channel, effectively conveying the size of the space. The basic channel only adds reverb to the dialogue, but the height channel adds reverb to dialogue with a slightly lowered pitch, creating a three-dimensional effect through the difference between the two.
● K and Sapper Morton's Confrontation
K has come here to eliminate the old replicants. Their confrontation unfolds in a 56-second scene, where Foley sounds like punches, knives, and footsteps are placed in the height channels and front left-right channels, creating a sense of realism that spreads across the big screen. (With a 7.1-channel mix, there is a horizontal sound field in the center of the screen, but by utilizing the height channels, it is possible to express a sound field that spreads across the entire screen.)
● The Three-Dimensional Ambience of LA's Bi-Bi Bar
This stands out as an exceptional example of designing a remarkable immersive space using only ambient sounds.
It three-dimensionally portrays the city through diverse elements: voices from around the world, passing cars, footsteps, vending machine mechanical sounds, and especially from the height channels, various advertisements echoing through the streets, all enveloped by the sound of rain. This scene reappears frequently throughout, serving as a superb example of how immersive audio can express vibrant urban noise.
3-2 Transition 23'31“—58'36”
● Rain 7.1CH Recording
Rain is a crucial sound in this work, but reportedly good surround sound material had been hard to come by until now. Mark Mangini had been waiting for an opportunity to record rain in surround sound and had prepared the equipment. By chance, he encountered rain that started falling in the middle of the night and was able to record it. This recording is used in various scenes.
It appears in scenes such as LAPD K's boss Josh, K's flight to Wallace Corporation, and scenes of the city of LA.
3-3 Main Body 58'36“—1h40'34”
● Spinner heading to the San Diego waste disposal site
This is the design for the interior sounds of the Spinner carrying K as it flies through the rain.
The main elements are the sound of rain hitting the windshield and the vibration from the vehicle's movement. To capture this atmosphere, the design team reportedly placed a subwoofer in the rear of Mark Mangini's wife's Honda SUV, played the LFE signal, and recorded it using surround microphones.
3-4 Conclusion 1h40'3“–2h32'51”
● Deckard and K in the Las Vegas Ruins
After detecting a life signal, K enters the house where Deckard is hiding within the ruins of Las Vegas. The two fight, then calmly discuss Rachel and the child's whereabouts. This is a long take lasting 15'30", but Mark Mangini stated in an interview that it was a very rewarding scene to design because the director requested no music be used. It was created primarily with a base CH, layering numerous elements to build a three-dimensional sense of depth and atmospheric ambience, expressed through ME using wind chimes and guitar samples.
● The billboard woman calling out to K
This is the scene where K, who was abducted by Wallace Corporation and suffered severe injuries himself, returns to his apartment. From a billboard tower in the city, a woman's sweet voice calls out, “Tough day? Want to play with me?” As the shot transitions from the LA cityscape to a close-up of the billboard woman kneeling before K, the voice—previously heard off-screen across the full height channel—becomes a distinct, clear voice heard only on the front left and front right speakers of the height channel. This is another example where the full screen and height channel expressions are effectively utilized.
End Credits: 2h32’51”-2h43’27”
4. Scoring Music
The score began with Johann Jóhannsson, who composed the music for the previous film Arrival, collaborating with Ted Green. However, following his unexpected death, the score became an homage to Vangelis, who composed the music for the original 1982 Blade Runner. It was based on the sound of the YAMAHA CS-8 analog synthesizer, with Benjamin Wallfisch and Hans Zimmer taking over the scoring duties.
Director Denis desired a chaotic soundscape where music and sound became one. The source recordings included vocals, ethnic instruments, violin, and bass guitar, produced at Remote Control Productions—Hans Zimmer's home studio. Masterful scoring artist Alan Meyerson finalized the various stem materials. Rather than finishing each stem in surround, they were kept as 2-channel mix stems. Their positioning was finalized during the final mix to seamlessly integrate with the sound design for each scene. For example, using only the front L-R height channels, or the Ls-Rs height 4-channels and bass channels, creates a mix where immersive audio is achieved holistically.
Musically, it employs a chaotic sound where it's difficult to clearly distinguish between the scoring music and the sound design (Blur the Music and Sound). This approach, differing from traditional full-orchestra scoring, is a new technique actively embraced by director Denis. Many composers employing this ambient-style music approach are not traditional scoring composers but rather active in other genres. Trent Reznor, who composed the music for the 1999 award-winning film ‘The Matrix’, can be considered a pioneer in this field.
5. Foley. Sound Effects. Law Material sound and MIX
Sound Design Supervisor Mark Mangini, who stated that the entire team staff performed the music, prepared thousands of materials and gave the entire work an organic sound. This process is also featured on YouTube, so be sure to check it out.
British-born composer Ted Green handled specific sound design elements, creating sounds for the Spinner car, the DNA recorder, and diverse indoor and outdoor ambience.
The director believes that video editors and sound staff should participate from the very start of production. If they only handle post-production after filming wraps, it doesn't truly function as a team. He brought Ted and video editor Joe Walker to the Budapest filming studio, where they worked on sound design in the sound pre-production room while observing the actual filming. Below are some notable sound design examples for your reference.
● Spinner Car Interior Sounds
The source material includes the vocalizations of native Australian cattle, air sounds produced by spinning wooden boards and cables, and vibration sounds recorded using a 7-channel setup inside Mark Mangini's wife's Honda SUV, where speakers were placed to capture low-frequency vibrations.
● Blaster Rifle
Recorded the Barrett rifle—known for producing the loudest firing sound among sniper rifles—in the field. Combined only its reverberation with kick drum samples from the Roland TR-909 sampling keyboard. This example demonstrates achieving maximum impact with a very simple composition.
● The Sound of Falling Snow
Mark Mangini filled a bathtub with shaving foam and dropped small objects into it to record this sound. He notes that designing quiet ambient sounds like this is more challenging than designing gunshots or explosions.
● Rainfall
Mark Mangini crafted a custom rain cover and recorded it using a Holophone 7.1 microphone.
● Quiet Indoor Ambience
Ted mentions that the ambient sounds in his living room and his friend's studio are so quiet with very low background noise that he recorded the ambient air sounds there in 7.1 surround sound and used them as source material.
● Street Noise
The noise of LA's decaying streets envelops the scene in a three-dimensional cacophony. This design truly showcases the maximum benefit of Immersive Audio.
Multinational voices, passing cars, footsteps, vending machines, rain, and ambient sounds blend seamlessly to create a magnificent three-dimensional space. The various advertising sounds reverberating off buildings were recorded using the Worldize technique, where sounds are played through speakers in the studio.
● The Final Battle at the Coastal Breakwater
Sound Recordist Eric Potter recorded a variety of wave sounds, while separate 4-channel recordings captured emphasized sounds like splashing waves. These were then synthesized together.
He noted that recording in 4-channel created a feeling for the audience of being engulfed by the waves. This scene features a superb mix where sound effects and music blend in and out with exquisite timing.
⚫️ How to Use Various Plugins Employed in Final Mix
As mentioned in the interview, They designed using plugins applied to organic material, so here are a few examples.
● DSpatial
This is a surround reverb plugin for Pro Tools developed by a Spanish company. It can configure up to 48 channels of convolution reverb. While most plugins only support up to 8 channels, this 48-channel capability makes it excellent software for IMMERSIVE Audio.
● LoAir
Recorded source material inevitably consists of steady sounds without variation, so this tool is used to add a realistic rumbling effect that creates a sense of movement.
● Mondomodo
This is a plugin that creates a Faeser effect, used to create the movement of the Spinner car.
Conclusion
This film is an Organically integrated world created by the music and sound design teams working together towards fusion. Since Dolby Atmos, an immersive audio format, was introduced to film sound in 2012, the know-how of how to utilize immersive audio in film design has been established, and this can be felt in this film.
The sound team, led by Mark Mangini, went on to work with director Denis Villeneuve again on Dune-Part-01 in 2021, winning the Best Sound award at the 91st Academy Awards too .
