"Ratatouille" Secrets

In a summer of special effects-laden movies, one opens Friday thats propelled as much by what you hear, as what you see on the screen. "Ratatouille," like all Pixar movies, jumps off the screen because of high-tech computer animation, but the movies roots are really at Skywalker Ranch, where just above Ewok Lake, its harvest time and time for a new movie release. "There are about 8 or 10 layers that you havent heard," says Sound Designer Randy Thom. For Thom, that means taking a final listen to "Ratatouilles" sound mix. Thom is the two-time Oscar-winning dean of Skywalker Sound. His resume is as long as a reel of film, and he knows better than anyone that sound is a key ingredient in any movie. "People who go see movies have this vague idea that theres a microphone on the set, and they add some music later, and thats basically the deal for movies, and it couldnt be further from the case," says Thom. Even as technology rapidly takes over the sound mixing process...its all over his studio...Thom says the human touch is what makes movies sound best. "Though we use a lot of technology in movie sound, its really not about the technology," says Thom. He says its about taking the real world that we hear every day, and bringing it onto the screen. "Capturing and evoking the real world and a real space, as opposed to synthesizing a space, allows you to tell a more powerful story," Thom says. Which is why Thoms sound crew recorded in an actual Parisian kitchen, and in an actual Parisian sewer. Because every single drop from Thoms computer should help the movie move along. "We have to decide, moment to moment, what set of sounds the audience will hear, and its very much like orchestrating a piece of music," Thom says. And everything the audience breathes in should be music to your ears.