Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/637797
37 Q1 2016 / CINEMONTAGE editing work done!" Director Ridley Scott's film The Martian, based on Andy Weir's best-selling book, follows what happens on the Red Planet when Mark Watney, an astronaut played by Matt Damon, is presumed dead after a fierce storm and mistakenly left behind by his crew. "I saw Ridley's Alien at the age of 10 — traumatizing at the time — only years later realizing just how much sound had contributed to those chilling atmospheres, and how important it had been narratively," confides supervising sound editor Tarney, who worked on the intricate soundtrack at the UK's Twickenham Studios. He was previously Oscar-nominated for Captain Phillips (2013). "The Martian presented wonderful opportunities for sound, from huge, muscular events like the opening sand storm, to tiny nuanced moments like the ping of the bolts on Watney's visor in zero gravity," Tarney continues. "We made a subtle tribute to Alien by designing the boot-up sounds that the older Pathfinder computer makes at JPL to mimic the mainframe on the Nostromo spaceship." Since there are no human villains in the film, "Ridley wanted the Mars sections to play like a two-hander between Watney and the Red Planet," he explains. "Through the violent sound of the wind pounding and lashing at the Martian habitat known as the Hab, or the harsh whistle of Watney's oxygen when his helmet cracks, we wanted to create the presence of this elemental beast that was waiting for the astronaut to fail." Being set in the near future, the challenge for sound designer Mike Fentum and Tarney was to design the sound with a familiarity about it so that the audience wouldn't question its reality, according to the sound editor. "While dialogue supervisor Rachael Tate was busy worldizing production mixer Mac Ruth's location recordings with speakers in helmets and AM transmitters, we went lo-fi too," Tarney explains. "For instance, we used the foreboding whine of an old aeoliphone — a cylindrical wood and canvas wind machine — to create much of the wind we hear from inside the Hab." Foley supervisor Hugo Adams worked with Tarney's desert Foley and space-suit effects recordings. "Although this material sounded natural, we wanted to experiment with cheating perspectives by hearing both the exterior atmosphere and Watney's breaths and moves inside his suit," Tarney continues. Andrea King performed beautifully detailed Foley for Watney's scenes, and the blend of wild tracks and Foley worked very well." Director Alejandro G. Iñárritu's The Revenant tells the story of a frontiersman on a fur trading expedition during the 1820s as he fights for survival after being mauled by a bear and left for dead by those he was leading back to safety. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy and Will Poulter. According to co-supervising sound editor Bender, the director's primary goal was to bring alive the sound of the country through which the actors would be journeying, beginning with initial scenes at a river camp that open the film. "We wanted to re-create the sound of several natural environments," Bender says. "As Alejandro put it to us, 'to contrast the beauty of nature with the danger of nature.' He wanted us to put together a natural world that played a major part in the film and enabled picture editor Stephen Mirrione, ACE, to develop a fully measured film." Bender was previously nominated for an Oscar David White. Oliver Tarney.