133 - The Sound of Top Gun: Maverick

Director Joseph Kosinski and his sound team discuss their groundbreaking work on the hit sequel to the classic 80s film "Top Gun." Joining the discussion are re-recording mixers Chris Burdon and Mark Taylor, as well as supervising sound editors James Mather, Al Nelson, and Bjørn Schroeder. Since most of the movie's flight scenes were filmed practically (or "in-camera") without relying on too many visual effects in post-production, this created some unique challenges for the sound team.

“It was a great catching up with [production sound mixer] Mark Weingarten after he was done with the shoot. And I know that he had a lot of challenges in the beginning just to get those recorders into the cockpit because they had to go through a lot of different steps to ensure the safety. They had to make sure that they could still use the ejector seat just in case of an emergency. So this little recorder had to eject with them, they had to be separate from the cameras. I think it was really important to [director] Joe [Kosinski] and [producer] Tom [Cruise] and everyone in the crew that they could keep it simple and that they could basically trigger the recording before they took off and do all the recordings.”

— Bjørn Schroeder,  Supervising Sound Editor, "Top Gun: Maverick"

"The truth of flying in these airplanes is: They're not that interesting to listen to. When you're inside doing it, it looks spectacular and it feels incredible; and from the outside these jets are deafening and have so much character, depending on where it is relative to you and how fast it's moving. But from the inside, it's very much like riding on an airliner. It's that kind of constant hum. So a big challenge of this film was figuring out, 'okay, that's reality. So we've got this really realistic image that was captured, but how do we get the emotion that we wanna feel from the soundtrack in this?' And that is not easy. There was a lot of — obviously — work and effort from design through mixing to achieve that. And luckily we've got a whole panel full of experts here to take us through that."

— Joseph Kosinski,  Director, "Top Gun: Maverick"

With Awards Season fast approaching, this is certainly a film to look out for in the Best Sound category, and this episode offers a unique insight into just how much went into crafting such a thrilling and dynamic mix.

Check out "Top Gun: Maverick" today, available in Dolby Atmos® and Dolby Vision®, where available.

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