Selective Sound – LOTR: The Two Towers/The Dark Knight

– LOTR: The Two Towers/The Dark Knight –

Selective Editing and Mixing

This is discussed in the extended dvds (LOTR) I believe.  It’s an effective technique that numerous movies use.  The two that come to mind for me is LOTR: The Two Towers and The Dark Knight. Both happen to have won an Oscar for Best Sound Editing.  Both movies have a scene that drops out the majority of the audio for a short moment before a big impact: LOTR right when the orc sacrifices his body to ignite the bomb in the helms deep battle scene and the truck flip over in Dark Knight.

Nowadays with DAWs (digital audio workstations), you have unlimited tracks to work with.  You can add as many layers of sound effects as you want.  Most times its best not overwhelm the audience’s hears.  That’s why I think this technique is effective especially in these movies.  Both movies have numerous long action sequences overpowered with music and layers of sound effects.  The respective sound editors and re-recording mixers knew this.  They decided to drop the majority of audio not only to give our ears a break, but to make the impact (of the explosion or truck falling) that much “bigger.”  Our ears can only handle so much. In the Two Towers, you just hear the foosteps and the growl of the orc before the explosion even though there are tens of thousands of orcs and humans fighting in the environment.

Here are both audio clips:

Dark Knight Clip

LOTR: The Two Towers Clip