Sound editor Matthew Wood reveals the origin of Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones. The film was released in 2002 and received mixed to negative reviews from critics and audiences alike but was generally praised for being an exceptional display of sight and sound as it revolutionized digital film production. Although the film was derided by many, Attack of the Clones received recognition for its technical achievements with an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects.
Attack of the Clones found Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) tracking the bounty hunter Jango Fett to the desert planet of Geonosis where he uncovers a secret Trade Federation factory used to build their droid army. In the preceding chase, Jango tries to lose Kenobi in an asteroid belt around the planet and uses a series of seismic charges in attempt to decimate the Jedi. The sequence is regarded as one of the most exciting in the entirety of the film and prequel trilogy, with the unique sound of the charge's detonation as a stand-out aspect from that sequence.
During the Attack of the Clones 20th anniversary at this year's Star Wars Celebration, Wood shared the origin of the distinctive sound effect for Jango's seismic charges. While discussing behind the scenes details for the asteroid sequence of the film, Wood explained that reaching the final sound resulted from frustration during the editing process. Read what Wood said below.
"In the sound world, George Lucas trusted Ben Burtt so much that we had carte blanche to kind of create this whole universe -- audio-wise -- in the films, however we wanted. And he really trusted our input on that. So we had crazy things like in the speeder chase we had the sonic charges that everyone really loves. The PRAAANG. The big sound there. That was just born out of -- we were just trying to find a sound for the initial explosion."
"There was kind of a little poof that happened first that got sucked back into the artillery then blew up again. We kept going over different things we could put for that little poof over and over. And Ben Burtt's library, of course, you could imagine is hundreds and hundreds of sounds. So we're just kind of picking through stuff and at one point the idea came through like, 'Why don't we just do nothing? Let's have nothing be in that little thing.'"
"So...the absence of sound really brought that moment together and made it very unique sounding to the point of even when we released the film, people thought -- the QC department that goes through and everyone meticulously checks these movies before they go out to the public -- thought there was an actual error in the film. They were like, 'There's a drop-out. There's a drop-out in the show. The audio goes away. The audio goes away for like a second.' I'm like, 'It's okay. We meant to do that.'"
"And it became something of a signature that we did in Star Wars and subsequent films that absence of sound and building that thing. That's something that the experimental nature of George -- I was always grateful for because he let us do it. He's like, 'Yeah, sounds great'"
The brief silence before the cracking bang of the charge proved to be exactly what the explosion needed. Throughout the runtime of Attack of the Clones, there is rarely a moment without the orchestral score playing in the background. However, during the asteroid sequence above Geonosis, no music plays and director Lucas lets the diegetic sound carry the audience through the action to riveting results.
Finding the right sound effect for a moment in film can be as simple as pulling an effect from a database of files, but more so than not its an act of pure creation, especially within a science-fiction film where there may be no real-world comparison for the on-screen action. Every blaster fire, engine hum, and explosion needs to be carefully crafted to help make an alien world distinctive yet familiar. The Attack of the Clones seismic charge sound effect has gone down as one of the most iconic sounds in all of Star Wars, a sound that excited many when it made its return in The Mandalorian season 2.
