Audible Worlds

I thought it might be fun to run down things we enjoyed in the new movie "Gravity" starring George Clooney and Sandra Bullock. Be warned there are potential spoilers in the thread and I encourage people to use the "Spoiler" BBcode flag to censor the really big plot points.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/76123849[/vimeo]

For me, I was a huge fan of all of the rolled off, muffled sound work when outside the shuttles. At times I thought it sounded like basic EQ, others maybe contact mics, and sometimes even hydrophone/underwater stuff. I'm sure it could have been a bit of everything. There were a ton of moments where the music and sound design blended extremely well together as well. And how about that surround mix during the opening shot? Loved it! Overall I thought the mix was "stellar". Muhaha.

What did you guys think? I was a little bummed to see the sound team get shafted during the first few big credit roles when the movie was over. Costume design was called out right away and I think there was maybe 3-4 different costumes. Not new for sound to be missing out on the love though.

Started this post before I had a chance to watch the SoundWorks video. Nice to see they touched on some of the points I really enjoyed. I wish some of the content creators would take the time to record video of their recording sessions for SoundWorks. Would be great to see some of that process in action.

What a great film to reference for scenes that lack silence and how it can make sound design more dramatic though. [spoiler]Entering the first shuttle and securing the airlock as well as the ambient bed once Ryan finally lands on earth are great examples.[/spoiler]

Here are a couple great articles from The Verge and Wired on "Gravity".

http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/10/4822 ... ip-lievsay
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2013/10/ ... -composer/

I loved the sound design of "Gravity." I' still mulling it over, and I want to see the film a time or two more while I sort out my ideas, but I think it goes well past the basic "sound doesn't travel in a vacuum" idea that everyone is talking about. I think it's much more solidly thematic than that. But man, such an amazing job with the surround dialog, the contact-mic effects, and the music over the closing credits was fantastic!