Creating science fiction sounds out of wild mashups of assorted noises is a long tradition. The things that reportedly went into the many sound effects of Star Wars include bathroom pipes, idling projectors, airplanes, a lion’s roar, and dentist’s tools.
In a long interview for Dolby’s Sound + Image Lab, director Denis Villeneuve and the sound team from Dune recently discussed the sounds of Villeneuve’s new film, which has truly epic sound design—and design in general. The ornithopters, transportation on the desert planet Arrakis, are one of the coolest things in the film; they look like giant dragonflies and maneuver like nothing else. And as it turns out, they don’t just look like bugs: The distinctive sound of the flying machines also includes bug noises. And cats purring. And other things, too.
“I was terrified,” supervising sound editor Mark Mangini says of trying to create the sound for the ornithopters. The sound team had to experiment to figure out what elements would go into the sound, which they didn’t want to sound like helicopters, but like something more natural. Villeneuve wanted Dune to feel like “a believable universe of science fiction,” Mangini says.
The wing sound eventually was made up of bug wings (one of the sound guys wanted to ship in bugs from Hungary), a cat purring, and a canvas strap from a tent, battered in 140-mph winds to create the rapid flapping sound, all layered and then manipulated. “Engine sounds were made almost entirely of bugs, mostly of bees,” Mangini explains.
Many, many more details of the film’s sound design are discussed in the interview, including how exactly one mics a sand dune, how sandworms move, how the shield sound was designed, and how sound vibrations play into the technology of Dune. It’s a fascinating peek into how Villeneuve conceives of his films, and how many small details and individual elements are combined to create the small but vital pieces of every scene.
If Frank Herbert had not wanted bird wings for his ornithopters but dragonfly wings, wouldn’t he have called them Anisothopters?
Although Leonardo da Vinci’s research was inspired by birds, many modern aeronautical engineers and researchers define an ornithopter as designed after the natural wing movement of birds and insects.
Herbert himself emphasized the insect-like nature of his ornithopters. In Dune, the smuggler’s ornithopters are described as being “like a swarm of insects following their queen” and elsewhere he talks of the wings being folded along its sides and “snicked in to beetle stubs” when diving.
I loved the ornithopters! Probably impractical in practice. but win on Rule of Cool for me.
When I saw those flying machines in the Dune trailer, I had a flashback to John Carter and its Martian flying machines.
@3,
Definitely impractical for anything large enough to carry a person. On the other hand, the ecology of Arrakis, with football-field sized, fossorial worms on planet roughly akin to the Atacama Desert writ large, makes the impractical ornithopters pale to nothingness in comparison to the totally unbelievable ecology
I have always thought the Ornithopters as one bit of tech that really would not have worked, trying to get mechanical wings to beat fast enough to give flight is just too much. VTOL makes much more sense.
OTOH I loved how they did the carry-all, using balloon assists was genius – I just hope they could lift off in time!
I have seen more than one article over the last 50 years about how ornithopters as described will not fly or would require huge wingspans to carry any weight, but that universe includes Holzman fields and generators that can be big enough to fold space and small enough to allow that hunter seeker that Paul caught to flit around the room, and economically produced in such a way that home lighting could include them and float with you.
Now I have also read that the still suit as described would cook you in the desert, but even the Fremen in this movie didn’t seem to concerned about water discipline.
@7:
SF, even the sort of SF much harder than was Frank Herbert’s wont, frequently is no better at holding to scientific validity than is fantasy. That said, Dune is well-enough written so the bad aerodynamics and ecology could be ignored. It didn’t let me forget the laser+shields=explosion deal: why did no one ever put outsome laser-based anti-personal mines?
8: Wouldn’t work well on Arrakis as shields call worms if I recall correctly. Also, I understand that the reaction is magnitudes greater than is useful for a localized weapon.