Behind-the-Scenes at Skywalker Ranch 
Sunday, June 19, 2016 1:30pm-2:20pm
Matthew Wood, David Acord

You may not immediately recognize the names David Acord and Matthew Wood, but if you check the credits for the Star Wars prequels, the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series, the Star Wars Rebels animated series, as well and the credits for Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens, you'll realize that you've heard their sounds and their voices...a lot. They have worked at Skywalker Ranch doing sound design and voice acting on almost all of the "modern" Star Wars media. They graciously spent most of the panel answering questions from the audience, and while I'm sure most of the questions posed during the panel they've heard many times before and since, there were a few surprises.

The first audience member wanted to know about the sound in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones when Obi Wan was pursuing Jango Fett and Jango was releasing seismic charges. A murmur from the crowd let me know that this was a favorite sound of many of the audience members. Instead of going into an in-depth discussion of advanced audio synthesis and editing, Wood told a funny story about it. Some time after that sound had been submitted for the final mix and they had moved onto other projects, Wood got a panicked phone call from an editor saying that the sound at the beginning of the explosion was missing. Wood had to reassure them that the silence at the start of the explosion preceding the "BRAAAAAM" was intentional and that there was nothing missing.

The next audience member wanted to know, "why are the prequels so bad?" This caused an awkward hush to fall over the crowd. Matthew Wood diplomatically took this one. He started by pointing out that good and bad are relative, and that he personally loves the prequels. He has fond memories of all of the time and hard work that he and his crew put in on them, and in his eyes they are great. He then went on to point out that, especially today with the anonymity that the internet/social media provide, it's easy to just hate something. It is easy to just dismiss something as bad, as opposed to taking the time to think about why something is good. Also, even if a majority of people can find at least one reason or another to love something, the voice of hate is usually the loudest, but that doesn't mean that it is right. His answer was met with a round of thunderous applause.

To lighten the mood, they talked about some of their voice-over work. When there is a voice actor needed for a small part, the opportunity will be open to those who already work for Lucasfilm/Disney. When the part of General Greivous was posted, Wood auditioned under the name "Alan Smithee" (which some of you will know is the name directors will use if they don't want their real name attached to a project). At first  he almost didn't get the job because no one knew who "A.S." was (they used initials to keep the auditions confidential), but luckily he heard about it and remembered that he had auditioned under the pseudonym. One of David Acord's most famous voice-over jobs was for the baton-wielding Stormtrooper FN-2199 (who was known as "TR-8R" before the character's real name was released). When Finn is first using the lightsaber, we hear the stormtrooper yell a single word before throwing his blaster and shield, in exchange for his baton. They laughed about how people kept coming up to their booth to have David yell his famous line. Matthew suggested that he do it once for the entire room so that he might save his voice by not having to do it for each of us individually later. David laughed and obliged us by taking a deep breath and shouting,"Traitor!" Again, the room erupted in applause. 

Another audience member asked them what the process was like whenever they work on a new film. First there is a spotting session where a group will watch the film together. This group will include people such as the director, editor, sound engineer, composer, etc. They then have a meeting to discuss where the dialogue is most important, where special effects will be used, where music should go, etc. The sound effects team will experiment with creating different sounds and send them to the director. The director will tell them which ones might work and which ones won't, and then they go back and try again, and repeat that process. Eventually the editors will add the sounds where they belong and then start to mix and blend them all together into a cohesive whole, keeping in mind which one of those is telling the story at any given moment: the dialogue, the effects, the music, or some combination of them. An interesting fact that might not occur to many people is that the costumes can have an effect on the audio. If there is a mask or a lot of facial prosthetics (or even if the clothes make a lot of noise), that can interfere with recording the dialogue. This means that the dialogue will have to be rerecorded in post-production in the studio.

This can sometimes effect the performance, because the actor might be more preoccupied with matching their words to the movement of their mouth onscreen, and therefore not be as focused on delivering their most engrossing performance, and being in a sound booth by yourself, as opposed to being present with the other actors, all in costume and in character can also effect said performance. Another important part of postproduction is the foley stage, where they add many of the "organic" sound effects. It's a few people in a room full of random junk, watching the film and adding all of the little natural sounds that you probably don't notice, but would miss if they weren't there. If someone is walking on a wooden floor, they take shoes and tap them on wood, if someone is walking in the woods, they will crumble leaves, etc. This is done mostly because the microphones that record dialogue are meant to only record dialogue and hopefully no ambient sounds. The ambient sounds can't just be recorded at the time of shooting, because once the footage is edited, all of the background ambience would sound all chopped up. This is why they record it later, in the studio, when're they can have total control.

One audience member asked if there was anything controversial about any of the audio in The Force Awakens. They said that Admiral Akbar's voice was a point of discussion. Tim Rose originally did the voice of Admiral Akbar in Return of the Jedi, and they had him reprise the role for The Force Awakens. Since over 30 years had passed in between films, Tim's voice had obviously changed, so the Akbar in The Force Awakens sounds much different than the one in Return of the Jedi. They were concerned that the audience might think that it was actually a different actor because he sounded different, and they considered altering his voice to make it sound more like the original. In the end, they decided that the character had also aged 30 years, so it was okay and natural that he wouldn't sound exactly the same, so they left Tim's recording unaltered.

Let’s be real here, Rocky Mountain Con is one of my favorite cons of the year, mostly because it is a time to visit with my fellow con goers, along with many of my favorite artists that I did not get to visit with during the rest of the season. It is hard to watch the con season to come to a close with Rocky Mountain Con here in Colorado, mostly because it means that I will not run into most of these people until the following spring or summer when all of the cons are in full swing, yet, it is fun to stop and talk with everyone and get the ‘see ya later’s’ done for the season and allow everyone a much deserved down time for a couple months. And it is far from being depressing, as I have found another round of great take home artwork that I cannot wait to get framed and put up on the walls. So without further ado, here are some more great prized pieces that are now part of my collection.

​Skylar Patridge – I cannot lie here, I could not wait to talk with Skylar again, especially after getting my Batman commission in the mail. I have been following her work and when Inktober came around, I got to see a little bit more into where her passion lies and it was more than fantastic. Even though I needed a special Joker to go along with my favorite artist collection, I was surprised to see that she had a couple of her Inktober pieces in print status, so I needed to make sure to pick up the 'Wraith' piece that has captured my attention on more than one occasion.

​Joe Oliver – I am never surprised to see Joe at a con, actually I am more excited to see him at one as he is a joy to chat with and our love for horror movies always makes the conversations fun. Joe is infamous for carrying around his ‘box of art’, which is full of originals that are looking for a good home. I love digging through this box because you never know what you are going to find since there are always things being added to it and I was happy to find yet another Joker piece just waiting for me.  

Steven Pulawa – One of the nicest people you will ever know, Steven is always willing to give you a story about his artwork, or even the life you choose. I make sure to keep an eye on Steven’s work since everything that he draws has his own special flair added to it and when I saw a Hellboy piece get posted that was a joint work with Joe Oliver, I could not pass it up. Digging through his book of originals, I was lucky enough to find it, and like most art that catches my eye, I have to own it. With Steven’s hard work to tighten it up and bring the piece back from a forgotten folder, I hope to see him do this again, because this turned into a piece of work for the ages.

Alex Miller – I always tell my friends to keep an eye on the local talent and when asked for someone that is very versatile, I like to throw Alex’s name in the hat.  Being able to cross between any genre, she is a great talent that is going to be fun to watch for years to come. Prior to RMC, I had yet to pick up any of her artwork, but this was the con to change all that and with one new Hellboy in my collection, I was shocked to see that she had just finished another one for me to take home shortly before I got there. It was a match made in heaven and it is going to look great on my wall. (Come to find out that this was her first Hellboy, and it really came out great!)

​Frankie Serna – I am always happy to see Frankie at a con, one of the main reasons is, he is always smiling and say what you will, but it is contagious as hell. I always love stopping by his booth because he spans different genres along with styles and he had a newer piece that caught my eye. I don’t have a Joker from Frankie yet, but that has been partially taken care of since now I am a proud owner of a Batman/Harley/Joker piece that shows the best of all of their worlds.  I must admit that this piece caught my eye, not only because of the Joker being a part of it, but there is something in the eyes of Harley that makes me feel like she is staring into my soul and while that freaked me out a little at first, it was really the reason for getting it.

​Phil Spaulding – Being on my list of artists I had to talk to this year, Phil topped the list, mostly because I was keeping an eye on his Inktober progress and was blown away by his horror characters. Yet, not all of the drawings were of the characters that haunted our dreams from the movies, one was a master of suspense that all horror fans should love. The Alfred Hitchcock piece took me back to watching a couple old movies and the television show where he just came out of the shadows and stood alone on the screen with just the tiniest of smirks on his face, mostly because he knew what you were going to see would freak you out for many nights to follow.  This was captured perfectly in Phil’s sketch and I knew right then and there I had to have it.

​Joe Becker - One of the other artists I like to follow is Joe, mostly because he has found a good way to do what he likes and that is where Captain Deadpool came from. It made me laugh when I saw it and now, it has joined my growing Deadpool collection. But when searching through his box of originals, I found something that caught my eye that I had never seen before. Spider-Man being, for the lack of a better term, violated by Venom.  I don’t know what it is about this piece that really got my attention, but just seeing Spider-Man human and helpless makes me remember that no matter how strong someone is, they are not immune from life itself.  Deep thoughts, I know, but I think it is a deep piece that I will look to when being down to liven my mood.

​Izik Bell – Is it called stumbling across another great artist when you are told to check out his work?  I don’t think so and thanks to Joe Oliver for telling me to do so. Kind of fresh to being in Colorado, Izik moved in a little over a year ago and has blown all of his new fans away. With work this rich in detail, the important things are not missed and you can tell that his characters have a soul. I was drawn to a Batman v Superman piece right away, because you can see the pain and rage in both of them. Then I could not get away from the Ghost Rider and Lobo flying down the boulevard. The speed, the flames and the hair (flames in Ghost Rider’s case) just reminds me that life is too short, so you just need to ride instead of feeling bad for yourself. I cannot wait to see more from Izik in the years to come, since an artist that is not afraid to show emotions is always fun to watch.

​Todd Jones – If you go to a con and don’t talk to Todd Jones, you do not know what you are missing. With a joy for life that everyone should have, Todd is just a joy to chat with, laugh with and sometimes even at. Even though Todd has made his mark as a writer, he is still working on perfecting his next craft in the drawing sector. Not too long ago, the idea came out that Classic Monsters should all be put into Shark form, because sharks have taken the world by storm the past couple of years. While there are several characters in the series already, Todd is willing to pass on some of the alternates and someone will be receiving the one of a kind Bride of Sharkenstein.  Also, I am not somebody that will say no to having a one of a kind commission made just for me so Todd decided to do something that I have not had done for many years, he drew me! I am not ashamed to say this, it looks just like me after using Just For Men on my greys.

​Well that is it for the 2016 season, and you know what, I regret nothing. I am a believer that once you find something that you like, you need to pick it up right away, mostly because when I was a kid and I waited, it was never there again. One of the bright parts about knowing so many great artists is starting to know what they are capable of, then being blown away by their always evolving work. This is one thing that never gets old and I would tell anyone that asks to follow as many artists as you can, mostly because you may find something that could change your world forever, or even just for a minute, it is the emotional response the artwork gives you that makes it so special. Rocky Mountain Con did a fantastic job once again of bringing some of the most talented artists together and I cannot wait to see them all again next year!