'The Wild Robot', Sound Designer, Jamey Scott

0:00Jamey ScottGenerally, people don't notice sound in films, by the majority of filmmakers and filmgoers and audiences in general. And I say filmmakers, you know, I s… I use that cautiously because there is a certain echelon of filmmakers that r… truly understand what sound brings to them in terms of options and expressiveness and ways to elevate their film. But there are a lot of filmmakers who honestly just, "Well, here's the sound part of the process. Let's just do this and get it done with." And, you know, it goes in and comes out the other side, and they say, "Oh, it sounds great. Okay, let's go." But, true great filmmakers, like Chris Sanders, are the people who I really enjoy working with because they understand the value of sound.

1:02Jawad MirLet's start with The Wild Robot…

1:03Jamey ScottOkay

1:03Jawad Mir... And your role on the film. If you can define that, what exactly your work consisted of.

1:13Jamey ScottOkay.

1:13Jawad MirWe can start with that and then sort of take it from there.

1:16Jamey ScottWell, I'm part of a team. I work with, Randy Thom, who is, kind of a, an illustrious grand poobah in the world of sound and sound design. And, he and I, started working together a few years ago, on the Super Mario Brothers movie. And, we have... We just kinda clicked. I think we make... We complement each other. Our styles complement each other in a really good way, so we've sort of... I've done, five projects with him since. We're currently working on five/six project together. And there's a third element to that, a guy named Lef Lefertz who,.. We're sort of a trio right now, and we complement each other very well. Although we're all very versatile in that we all mix, do sound design, we all do supervision. The way that we, dovetail each other is really kind of unique because Randy is more of a pastiche guy.

2:26Jamey ScottHe creates sound, in a way that he very creative. He sort of throws a lot of paint at the canvas, if you'll, for, if you'll give me the visual metaphor. And then I'm more of a detail-oriented person, where I prep the tracks for, to be mixed. And then Lef is on the other end in the mix as the mixer. So I sort of stand in this middle position, of sort of air traffic controller in a way for, f-for primarily for sound effects. I don't, I don't deal with dialogue or music or anything like that. I just deal with the actual sounds of things making things. So I stand just sort of in this, in this middle area of I'm, sometimes I'm a sound designer. Sometimes I create new sounds. Sometimes I'm editing some of Randy's sounds. Sometimes I'm triaging things from the editor, you know, organizing things, getting it ready to be mixed, and that is, short for a very complicated process of actually dealing with hundreds and thousands of assets to be culminated together in what becomes the final mix.

3:47Jawad MirYeah

3:47Jamey Scott... Now, on Wild Robot, th-there's, there's, like, first effects editors. I wasn't, like, the primary effects editor on Wild Robot. That was, David Farmer, who's, he's, you know, kind of industry legend as well. He's, he... I think he, his first film was, like, the Lord of the Rings trilogy back in the…

4:08Jawad MirOh, wow

4:09Jamey Scott... The '90s. Yeah. He's, he's wonderful. I mean, he's just such a great, talented, and wonderful human being as well. I was... This was m… actually my first time working with him, so I was really excited to work with him. And so it was, it was a bit of a quad attack on this one. But the budget on this was actually lower, and David lives in Skywalker, which is in, Marin. So he, it was cheaper for him to be the first effects editor because he was able to be there, and he was able to set the stage. Whereas I worked from home here in Burbank, and I made things, and I was constantly online. You know, we're... Everything is Zoom these days. We... I'm on Zoom constantly all day long just communicating and making things. And I have access to the Skywalker server here, so I, you know, do my things, and I put it on the server, and it's ready there on the stage, like, almost immediately, and they integrate it. And it's like this back-and-forth communication that we have all day, all day long every day.

5:13Jamey ScottSo that's, that was my involvement in Wild Robot. Specifically, the majority of my work on that movie was, Roz's movements. You know, throughout the film from start to finish, I dealt with all of the mechanics, all of the gears, all of the clicks and the eye blinks, the hand. Every little detail that was associated with Roz, I put together, as, like, the base, the core of her sound. And then after that, I just sorta went through, and I made tons of sounds for everything. So, like, pretty much the second half of the movie, I did a lot of stuff on that. I was really focused on the ship and her going up into the ship and Travanta Is that the…

6:11Jawad MirI think so. I think so

6:13Jamey Scott... Yeah, all of her s… scaly, tentacles and you know, when she goes up into the ship and when she's... This is spoiler stuff, so hopefully your readership…

6:26Jawad MirYeah, it's fine

6:26Jamey Scott... Has, seen the movie. But

6:29Jawad MirVontra. Vontra

6:30Jamey Scott... Vontra, yeah.

6:31Jawad MirYes.

6:32Jamey ScottI used to have a D&D character when I was a kid called Travonta, so ma… I'm mixing that up. But, yeah, all the stuff on the ship, all of the, you know, the gun battles. So a lot of the action-y kind of stuff is the stuff that I primarily dealt with in the movie.

6:52Jawad MirWell, that's amazing. I mean, you know, one of the things that, being in this business myself, I've realized over the last 10, 15 years, is that there's no substitute to the importance of sound, right?

7:08Jamey ScottOh.

7:08Jawad MirIn, you know, because you can have a bad visual, you know, you can have... Like e… even if you p… pull up, like, any of the tapes, like family videos from the '80s or '70s or '90s or... You know, it may look crappy, but the audio does all the telling, right?

7:25Jawad MirLike the sounds and effects. And I remember the very first time I realized the importance of sound two times actually. One was Jurassic Park when they did the making of, like how they recorded all the dinosaur…

7:37Jawad Mir... Sounds with dolphins and…

7:39Jamey ScottYeah

7:39Jawad Mir... Bunch of different animals. And then I saw a film, from back home where I am from, and it was a really well-done film, about the post-9/11 era. And the problem with that film was that it didn't have room tone. It didn't have footsteps.

7:55Jawad MirIt didn't have somebody getting out of the bed and that noise that it makes. And that speaks so much volume, which comes to me to your point. If you took away all the Roz's clicks and, you know, all those sounds and machine movement…

8:10Jawad Mir... It, people will notice more than they probably notice now because it's there. Because that really defines the characters. It's a very integral part of it.

8:20Jamey ScottYeah, that's really, interesting of you to say that. I have so many things to respond to that. But the first thing I wanted to say is that g… generally, people don't notice sound in films. You know, that's a generalization of course, but in my experience, coming from my perspective where sound is everything, you know, it's, it is my craft, it is my art. I think about it constantly, and I have for 30 years now. It goes completely unnoticed by the majority of filmmakers and filmgoers and audiences in general. And I say filmmakers, you know, I s… I use that cautiously because there is a certain echelon of filmmakers that r… truly understand what sound brings to them in terms of options and expressiveness and ways to elevate their film. But there are a lot of filmmakers who honestly just, "Well, here's the sound part of the process.

9:23Jamey ScottLet's just do this and get it done with." And, you know, it goes in and comes out the other side, and they say, "Oh, it sounds great. Okay, let's go." But, true great filmmakers, like Chris Sanders, are the people who I really enjoy working with because they understand the value of sound. And when you're in those situations, it's just great because it is a collaborative effort. You're speaking the same language. You are talking about the details on a subliminal level. Like, the things that we do are largely subliminal. And you can tell because, you know, I w… I read, I took a afternoon and read a bunch of the reviews for Wild Robot, and there's a lot. Not only reviews, like, on Rotten Tomatoes, but, like, people posting videos of their opinions of the film. And the, and everybody kinda says the same thing, you know?

10:24Jamey ScottObviously, a lot of people really love the film. But the mo… for the most part, I don't think I heard a single person say a single word about the sound design or the sound effects. Which is so bizarre to me, because we put so much love and craftsmanship and detail, and we went, you know, back and forth and iterated, like, you know, like you wouldn't believe on the soundtrack of this film. And usually when people say something about the sound, they actually are talking about the score.

10:59Jamey ScottSo when I say people don't understand, you know, the contribution of sound to film, that's kinda what I mean. It's like they know that there is a noise happening, but they don't give it the thought of where that noise…

11:13Jawad MirOh

11:13Jamey Scott... Came from or, you know. I, and I think that goes back to the olden days when, you know, if, you know, when people made a film, they recorded the things on set, and that was what went into the final print for the most part. But, that stopped in the '80s, I think. And now, you know, pretty much everything that you hear in a film is a fabrication. It's a recreation of, a, or an artistic interpretation of what it could have sounded like on set.

11:49Jawad MirYeah. No, it's, it's, again, like I say this all the time, even, like, when I'm on set, whether it's, directing a film or doing some sort of brand work for a company. For me, picking up a glass, even if there's music playing…

12:07Jawad Mir... I want to hear something in the back Because even if people don't get it's just like… ... They will feel that their glass is being lifted from a counter and being put on the table, or a tap is turning on. It reg… and I re… and I learned this on… on my first film, I understood something that was very... It was not just a, it was not a visual thing, but it was als… it was not a sound thing, but also a visual thing. You know…

12:32Jawad Mir... I did this film, political social film. I'm not gonna get into that, but there were a lot of great…

12:39Jamey ScottI saw s… I saw some trailers of the work that you've done, so I'm aware…

12:41Jawad MirOh, okay

12:42Jamey Scott... Of your films.

12:43Jawad MirOkay. Great. Awesome. So I, you know, did all these beautiful visuals of, scenic locations, mountains, and we screened the film, bunch of screenings, and I showed it to my sister. And so I'm like, "So what did you think?" And I thought she was gonna say, "It's a great story. It's a great visuals." And she goes, "You know, I only liked one thing that stood out for me." I'm like, "Really? What is that?" "A woman cutting vegetables and the sound that it made." And I was like, "Holy crap. Why?" And then I... It made sense. It's about relevance.

13:15Jamey ScottYeah.

13:16Jawad MirIt's about people relating to those little things because she probably cut vegetable and she hear the sound and, you know, it went into her brain more effectively than anything else. So again, sound has, is so important and I... It sucks that people don't notice it, but at the same time, I think it's a compliment to you that if you took the sounds out, then people will notice it.

13:38Jamey ScottThat's true, and that's been a whole, the, a thing throughou… a thread throughout my life, you know, coming to the realization that, sound is an invisible art. You know, w… we, as craftsmen, we want to create things that are appreciated obviously. But, in sound, you kinda gotta let that go because, when we are at the peak of our craft and we're doing a very good job, the end result is that people don't even know that you've treaded these grounds.

14:11Jawad MirYeah.

14:11Jamey ScottRight? So, and so to that effect, I think what we did with Wild Robot, is really, a, an accomplished job. I think that… ... What we did was quite good, and I, and I definitely think it was a benchmark in my career. You know, just because being able to service such a great story, you don't get that very often a… and even less often, to get to work on something that, mirrors what you want to put out into the world. That's, that's kind of, one of the best things about working on the Wild Robot for me was that, you know, it's like I grew up, when I was younger, I worked in video games and I f… I found myself working on all of these things that I would never want my children to play. And,... You know, it wasn't that I was, you know, embarrassed of the stuff that I was doing, it was just one of those things…

15:18Jawad MirI get it

15:18Jamey Scott... Where I didn't feel like I was, I was contributing anything constructive to the world. And so…

15:23Jawad MirRight

15:24Jamey Scott... For, you know, for that overlap to happen where I feel really good about what I'm putting into the world with these things, it's, it's a wonderful thing, you know?

15:35Jawad MirYeah. No, that's great, man. I'm glad to hear that. So going to Wild Robot, you know, the sound effects that you're talking about and… ... What is... And I probably know partially, but for the audience, what is the process of you com… working on those sounds? Is it when it's going through storyboarding stage, or is it more towards the completion, and how do you record those sound, if that's, you know, and mixing them up? Just without getting technical, just in a very similar, in a s… summarized way…

16:10Jamey ScottYeah

16:10Jawad Mir... If you can explain that.

16:12Jamey ScottSure. You know, Randy, is a great, proponent and evangelist for this concept of, starting sound design early, starting it at the conceptual phase, and it's, it makes such a difference when you do that. When you have somebody thinking about your film on the script level of being able to edit the script to accommodate for sound participating in the narrative, and he's, he's really amazing at that. You know, I've, I've read some of his script doctoring where he's come up with ideas, and I've been in, spotting sessions where he'll come up with an idea for these psychological tricks of, like, repeating a sound from one part of the movie to another part of the movie where a character's having a realization. And, like, those are the kinds of things that…

17:11Jawad MirWow

17:11Jamey Scott... About the art and the craft of sound that I learn so much when I work with Randy because he's really got his eye o… or his ear, forgive me, on that concept of film, of sound elevating a film in such a way that it is an i… integral part of the story. So, on Wild Robot, I think he was, involved pretty early. He and Chris Sanders have had a relationship for a long time. You know, Randy did, How to Train Your Dragon. I don't know if he did Lilo & Stitch. I think he probably did.

17:49Jamey Scott... You know, but they have this r… rapport for, many years. And so, when it came down to the team coming on board and attacking this thing and, you know, getting into the meat of it and getting it done, that's where I came in. So I'm not completely aware of the conversations that happened prior to that part. But, from my part on, it was like I was dumped in and Randy said, "Okay, y… I want you to own Roz." So I was like, "Okay, cool." So I spent a few days, recording things. You know, I went out and bought some props. Bought a, you know, some bike pumps. And then I have a n… really nice set of tools just like Spicoli's dad. Fast Times at Ridgemont High reference. Sorry if that's…

18:41Jawad MirThat's okay. That's okay

18:43Jamey Scott... No, so I've got all this great set of tools. And, so I basically sat here with the microphone and recorded, you know, bike pump hisses. And so, you know, get pneumatic things. You know, vice grips, like whatever I could sort of come in and grab. So I had this set of like building blocks for her, and everything that is in Roz in her core layers is all of that stuff that I originally recorded, and I piece it together, and I work in, I don't,.. It's called Soundminer, and Soundminer has a sampler base where you can layer things on it. It's called Radium. And that's, like, pretty much my primary sound design tool these days. But I layer sounds up. I, you know, I'll, I'll do all the tweaking and things until what I have in my head matches what I'm hearing out of the speakers. So that's kind of how Roz came about.

19:41Jawad MirThat's lovely, man. You know, something I just thought of, we're talking about sound, whether it's in relation to Wild Robot or just in general. Have you ever had a conversation with somebody who is visually impaired, and for them, sound is probably the only thing that speaks…

20:02Jamey ScottNo, but I think about them a lot, you know? You know, I think about how Stevie Wonder is, like, one of the greatest musicians of all time. You know, it's like, it's like there's that deficit that, because he has no vision, he's, he compensates with just this incredible aural, magic. A… and, a… and I do believe that, to that extension, I believe that people, different people relate to the world in different ways. Some people, a lot of people relate to the world visually. I am definitely a person that relates to the world audibly or aurally or whatever, you know, just because that has been the way that I have created the channels in my brain since I was a kid. I grew up in a, in a household, my dad was a woodworker and a furniture builder, and he built speakers because he was also a bit of a… an audiophile.

21:04Jamey ScottAnd, so my childhood was listening to records and radio and, I like visual arts, but for me, everything that I gravitated to was, auditorily. And I think, as a rule, we connect with things emotionally through our ears. I, you know, v… although in, when you're making a movie, as you know, the visuals cost everything, you know? To create a believable visual, that's where all of the money goes. But to get into an audience head, to get into their heart, you have to do it through their ears.

21:52Jawad MirThat's a nice quote. You should, you should, put that up online somewhere. It's, it's really well said. It's true. It's true because, I mean, you look, we live in the era of podcasts right now, right? I mean…

22:03Jawad Mir... You look at, you live at, people listen to audiobooks. It's sound. Everything is sound around us. Like, even when we go out for a hike or, you know…

22:13Jamey ScottYeah

22:13Jawad Mir... Yeah, the visuals are breathtaking, but you hear these birds making sound, the trees, you know… ... Falling on the ground. Sound is a very important…

22:25Jamey ScottYeah

22:25Jawad Mir... You know, I… Going to your beginning, and I'll come back to Wild Robot again. You kind of touched upon it right now, but was it your dad's work that kind of clicked you that, "I wanna go into sound," and then also into film and sound? Like, was there a specific catalyst that triggered all this journey that you are, have been on and you're still on?

22:52Jamey ScottI think it was, there's a lot of things. It was a continuum of things that attracted me. But, earlier you had, mentioned the, you know, like the eight-millimeter film, family films and stuff like that, and we definitely had those. And I would watch them, you know, when I was six or seven years old, and I would watch them, and it was just like, it was weird to see my younger self moving around on film, but there was no sound on these eight-millimeter films. And, you know, to me it was just like I didn't quite understand why it felt so weird and off. But, I think Star Wars was pretty much the first, the first, filming experience that I had that sort of opened my eyes to, like, this audible connection to media, to visual media. And it wasn't actually Star Wars.

23:55Jamey ScottIt was the record that came out like a year later called The Story of Star Wars, which was a, in like an expanded audio recreation of Star Wars that Ben Burtt... Put together, and it was far more sound focused. I mean, the music was there, and I love the music, you know? Who doesn't love…

24:16Jawad MirOf course

24:17Jamey Scott... As, i… as a, you know, pre… s… s… I was seven years old when Star Wars came out, so, you know, and everybody, all my friends, we were just, like, Star Wars obsessed. We all had the little action figures, and, so when that album came out that Ben Burtt did, it was, like, sort of a journey, a sonic journey into that world, and it worked, man. It was just like, we don't need the visuals. I already have a visual, you know, the imprint of what these characters look like in my head. But we were listening to it, and it had the same exact fulfillment, the same enrichment, the same story, the same... But it was cooler. And then th… a little while later, I, somehow I saw that documentary, I think it's kind of infamous now, of, you know, Ben Burtt, like, banging on the, wires to get the blaster sounds. And it was like, "Wow, man. That is really cool." So I compartmentalized that, but then I got into music, when I was, like, 12.

25:19Jamey ScottI started,.. No, actually, I started playing trumpet when I was, like, 10 or 11, and then I graduated into, playing electric guitar, 'cause that was the coolest thing ever to a 10 year, or, you know, 11-year-old kid.

25:34Jawad MirI bet

25:34Jamey Scott... And, yeah. So then I did a musical journey for a really long time. Went and I ended up getting my degree in jazz performance, of all things. I was really into j…

25:49Jawad MirWow

25:49Jamey Scott... Really into jazz, yeah. But then, so my first, foray into production was a couple years out of college. I was, you know, on the road with a, with a reggae band, and I had met my to-be wife, and, I realized that if I ever wanted to have with her, a life with her, I was gonna have to do something different than being on the road with, a reggae band. So,... So I hooked up with some friends. They were starting a multimedia company, and they needed audio and music, and I was just like, "Hey, I would love to do that." And so I started making music for them, and they were like, "Well, we need these sound effects." And I was just like, "Okay, how would I do that?" And it was like this whole... It was like the clouds opened up for me, because it was like I grabbed my wife and we were, like, hanging out in the closet in our apartment with a m… with a Shure SM57, you know, saying things into the microphone and making, like, sound effects.

26:52Jamey ScottAnd, it was just like, "Oh, this is, this is terrible. I gotta figure out how to do this, like, for real," you know?

26:59Jawad MirYeah.

26:59Jamey ScottSo, that started that whole journey of trying to figure out, you know, what sound design was and how I was gonna fit into that story. And yeah, it's been a, it's been a long journey, and it's a, it's a constant journey. I'm, I'm always learning. To this day, everything, I'm, I'm learning something new every day, and that's kind of a great thing, you know?

27:24Jawad MirThat's beautiful, man, and it's, it's interesting that partially your journey where it kind of got initiated with Star Wars, and now the universe has brought you to Skywalker Ranch, which you know, which is part of Skywalker…

27:41Jamey ScottYeah

27:41Jawad Mir... Luke Skywalker, and George Lucasfilm and all that. I don't know who owns it now, I have no idea, 'cause every… everybody gets bought out by somebody. But at the end of the day…

27:50Jamey ScottYeah

27:50Jawad Mir... You know, you're working at Skywalker, Sound and everything, and that's, that's amazing.

27:55Jamey ScottYeah. I finally got to meet Ben Burtt, last year.

28:00Jawad MirOkay.

28:00Jamey ScottThere w… no, actually it was over the holidays la... Yeah, so it was last year. It was

28:04Jawad MirYeah

28:05Jamey Scott... They do a breakfast on, a holiday breakfast, and, I had just happened to be there when Ben was. And, Leff, he's like... And we were... I was like, "Dude, could you introduce me to Ben Burtt?" He's like, "You haven't met Ben? Oh, let's go over here." So I was just like... I was really nervous, you know? And it was just because, you know, he's been kind of a hero for the majority of my life.

28:26Jawad MirWow.

28:26Jamey ScottThe vast majority of my life. And, he was just such a sweetheart. You know, Leff introduced me as like, "Hey, this is the guy that works with us on Super Mario and Ultraman," and he's like, "Super Mario and Ultraman? Wow, man. That's quite a Japanese resume you got there."

28:46Jawad MirThat's amazing. That's a great response. That's awesome.

28:48Jamey ScottYeah. Yeah.

28:49Jawad MirOh, that must've been nice.

28:51Jamey ScottIt was, yeah. Yeah.

28:52Jawad MirThat's super cool, man. That's really good. I really enjoy, you know, listening to stories like these more than about the film, just because, you know, people forget about everybody's journey. Everybody thinks that, you know, you've made it overnight to where you are. I mean, it's a long journey that, you know, it goes through…

29:11Jamey ScottOh

29:11Jawad Mir... Zigs and zags, and ups and downs, and left and center and everything, and it's so good to hear that, you know, that you made that journey from beginning of Star Wars in '77, having that realization, and to be where you are today. And a lot more to go, for sure.

29:26Jamey ScottWell, I hope so. Yeah. You know, I've been through the thick of it. It, doing sound is, it's, it's been a struggle. You know, like I s… told you earlier, I got my start in video games, and, that was the early days of video games. It's certainly not the, what we think of as video games today. I was doing like adventure games and, you know... Do you remember Myst?

29:51Jawad MirYeah.

29:52Jamey ScottYeah. I'd worked on the third Myst, which I really…

29:56Jawad MirOh, nice

29:56Jamey Scott... Yeah, I really liked that era of video games, like adventure games. They were non-violent, and I've always been sort of an, you know, a pacifist. But, I really liked that aspect. And then the company that I worked for six years… Went out of business, unfortunately. So I went out on my own and started freelancing, and my first client that I landed was Epic Games.

30:20Jawad MirOh, nice.

30:20Jamey ScottAnd they make, they make, like, you know, Unreal Tournament…

30:23Jawad MirYeah

30:23Jamey Scott... And Gears of War and all those games. And, so all of a sudden I was out of my comfort zone of doing, like, fun, non-violent things into, like, straight up battle, running down the halls, killing these guys, you know? And so it was just, like, sorta that was, that was my thing for a little while. But after... I did all the Gears of War trilogy. I did, the one, two, and three, and then after that it was just sorta like, you know, if I'm ever gonna get into film, I gotta do it. I gotta just, you know, make that…

30:58Jawad MirYeah

30:58Jamey Scott... That move. And so we moved to LA and, started hitting that road. It took eight years from the time that we moved to LA for me to land my first studio feature, and that was eight years of doing my game thing so that I could make money, because…

31:18Jawad MirOf course

31:19Jamey Scott... I was, I was working on independent films at night, and, you know, short films and indies and, you know, whatever I could get into, to get that experience and to, start really learning the language of film sound, 'cause it is very different, than game sound. And

31:38Jawad MirYeah

31:38Jamey Scott... So, you know, I had to pay my dues for eight years. But then I did get into the studio system and, you know, it's like I... And my first film was Total Recall, which I was in high heaven with that, because it was such a beaut…

31:53Jawad MirColin Farrell? Yeah?

31:55Jamey ScottYeah. Yeah.

31:56Jawad MirYeah.

31:56Jamey ScottIt was such a beautiful film. It didn't do so well, but when we were working on it was very exciting, because, you know, we were, we started,.. I was working with Stephen Flick on that one, who was like…

32:07Jamey Scott... Another hero of mine. You know, he did RoboCop, and he did, you know, like, the original Verhoeven movies. So he was already, like, an established hero of mine, so the opportunity to work with him, I didn't care what we were doing. But w… we, you know, just being able to work with him, was great. So, we did Total Recall and the... It started out with green screen. Everything was green screen and, you know, like these cars on stilts and everything, and it was just like, "This is so weird." But then as the final visuals started coming in, it was like, "Wow, this is really cool." And for a sound designer at my age, at that time, at that stage in my development, it was like a dream, because it was all, like, these cool sci-fi things, and I was able to make really cool stuff, you know, and work with Steve, you know? And Steve was egging me on, and I was starting to egg him on, you know? And we were, like, not competitive, but just sort of like this fun back and forth…

33:05Jawad MirYeah

33:05Jamey Scott... Of like, how cool can we make this thing sound, you know? And

33:10Jawad MirYeah

33:10Jamey Scott... So yeah. And…

33:12Jawad MirNo, that was, that was a... Sorry, go on.

33:14Jamey ScottOh, no, please go ahead.

33:16Jawad MirNo, I was just gonna say that was a, that was a good film, and I saw it again recently. I think Kate Beckinsale was in it too, if I'm not mistaken.

33:24Jamey ScottYeah.

33:24Jawad MirYeah.

33:24Jamey ScottYeah.

33:24Jawad MirI think they shot most of it in Toronto, where I am. And, it was, it wasn't that bad of a film. I mean, it wasn't Oscar worthy, but I just thought it was, it was really well done. And yeah, sure, it had problems here and there, but the idea, the concept, and then also the execution, again, sci-fi and sound, you can't have one or, you know, one or the other without each other. So yeah.

33:48Jamey ScottYeah.

33:48Jawad MirGood stuff, man.

33:50Jamey ScottWell, thank you. You know, it's like when you work on these things, you put your everything into it, you know, from the moment you wake up to the moment you pass out. It's just like every day you're just doing your best with a lot of, like, enthusiasm and creativity and craft work. And, you know, when I was in the thick of that film, th… there was, like, no question in my mind that it was, like, the greatest film ever…

34:15Jawad MirOf course

34:16Jamey Scott... And I'm gonna win an Oscar for this thing, you know?

34:18Jawad MirOh yeah, we all do that. We have…

34:20Jamey ScottYeah

34:20Jawad Mir... We all do that for every film that we make.

34:22Jamey ScottYeah.

34:22Jawad MirI'm gonna be on the stage accepting the Oscar.

34:25Jamey ScottYeah, that's the fantasy. But... And then it went out, and it was just sort of like, ah, reviewers hate it and all this stuff, and it's just like, "What? I don't get it."

34:34Jawad MirYeah.

34:34Jamey ScottBut, you know, you do a couple dozen films after that and you realize that it's, it's the same thing for every movie.

34:40Jawad MirYeah. Yeah.

34:40Jamey ScottSo you just sorta get used to it.

34:43Jawad MirYeah. No, I get it, man. L… let me just kind of wrap it up with Wild Robot, which is actually, people can rent and own it on streaming platforms. I did… I didn't realize it until yesterday. I forgot about it.

34:57Jamey ScottYeah, I don't understand why they're doing that.

34:59Jawad MirYeah. And then it's gonna be on DVD, I think, in a couple of months. I think they've, they've figured out some sort of a path, all these studios, that they release it online after a couple of weeks for rent and purchase…

35:10Jawad Mir... And then they do the DVD. But what was one of the biggest challenges that you can think of a story while working on Wild Robot or creating sound of Roz? I read in the book, I don't know if it was you who said it or somebody else said it, The Art of Wild Robot, that it took two years to create Roz's, Roz's sound to the way it is right now. So just any of the challenges or one of the challenges that you came across?

35:37Jamey ScottThat was, that was probably Randy. Randy

35:40Jawad MirOkay

35:40Jamey Scott... Does all of the publicity for the shows that we work on, thank God, because I'm... I don't mind doing, you know, podcasts or whatever, but I don't do a ton of publicity. But, r… like I said, I wasn't kind of, wasn't really aware of what R… Randy did prior to my coming on. But, there was a lot of conversation about, you know, sounds like mouth sounds for Roz and things like that. And I used some of the sounds that Randy recorded for that, but they weren't, like…... Prominent sounds, I don't think, because a lot of the, we originally had this conversation about, abandoning servos, which for robot designs, I've done a ton of robots in my life. You know, m… and it's like how you make things expressive is through, like, shaping the sounds of servos.

36:43Jamey ScottYou know? Like, when you, if she twists her head, you know, it's good to have a sound that goes zsh, you know, like a subtle, like, kind of upward turn to it, because it gives th… that motion validity. And so on my first pass, like, I did reel one, the first, the first reel of the film, and I did, I just kinda did my thing. He sort of mentioned that he wanted it to be less servo-y, so, I had that in my mind. But I attacked it like how I felt Roz should sound because that's what we do, you know? It's like he works with me because I have something to say, and I feel like if I didn't say what I wanted, then that's doing him a disservice because he doesn't have my perspective to bounce around in his head. So I did my thing, and it included servos.

37:44Jamey ScottNot to an, a great extent. I was, I was shying away from it, but, so and then he, I submitted it to him, and he listened to it, and he's like, "Yeah. It's, it's very, delicate and interesting, but I really wanna stick to this ethos of, no servos because I wanna do something different, you know, from every other robot that we've done." So that was a big challenge for me because he took away from me what I was using to make those expressions, which was a wonderful blessing because it stretched my mind into thinking about how I could achieve that expressiveness without using that crutch. You know what I'm saying?

38:38Jawad MirRight.

38:38Jamey ScottSo, by doing that, it put me into, like, a far more creative space where I was, like, searching for things, and I was, trying to come up with a way to do this, and my way of doing that was through bike pumps, through manipulating the output of a, you know, as I pu… pushed the air through the bike pump, I would, you know, have little, I would create little things on the tu… on the tips of it to, like, change the dynamic of how the air was released. And I was able to come up with expressive ways of pushing air through a nozzle. So it, the, it served the purpose twofold. It did, it did an expressive sound without servos, and it stuck to th… the more pneumatic approach that Randy was looking for. So my second, approach when I gave it to him, he was like, "Yep, that's it." So then I did the rest of the movie after that with…

39:42Jawad MirWow

39:42Jamey Scott... With that concept.

39:44Jawad MirThat's so cool, man. Thank you so much for sharing that. I, you know, again, I know I said this, like, five times already, but I e… cannot stress enough the importance of sound in general, but specifically in this film. I, when I saw it, I saw it at TIFF, I think it was, like, early September, and, saw it in IMAX theater, and it was just... You know, the music is one thing, sound design is another thing, but just hearing all these sounds, especially of Roz, really popped out. And, you know, I saw it once, and I'm gonna watch it again and again. It's one of my favorite animated, if not, you know, in the top three for sure…

40:25Jamey ScottWow

40:26Jawad Mir... Ever made for me. It's just the story, and it was just, like, one of those perfect films.

40:32Jamey ScottYeah

40:32Jawad Mir... And thank you so much for being part of it. Thank you so much because…

40:35Jamey ScottYeah. Oh, that's so wonderful to hear. Thank you for the praise on behalf of, like, you know, everybody that put their souls into the film. That's, that's such a wonderful compliment. It's really…

40:46Jawad MirYeah

40:46Jamey Scott... Really nice to hear.

40:48Jawad MirNo, I'm glad, I'm glad that it, you guys did a phenomenal job. And like you said, nobody goes out to, you know, when they w… make a movie, whether you're sound or cinematographer or director or writer, you don't start a movie by thinking of the idea in your head that I'm gonna make a bad movie. Everybody wants to make a great movie.

41:02Jamey ScottYeah.

41:02Jawad MirYou know? A lot of, a lot of stuff happens. Sometimes the script, sometimes the studio, whatever, and, or…

41:07Jamey ScottYeah

41:07Jawad Mir... Sometimes it's ti… timing. But this was just, you know, everything was spot on, and thank you so much again for making it. Thank you so much for being part of this conversation. I truly enjoyed, speaking to you.

41:17Jamey ScottThank you. Thank you. Thanks for the opportunity. Yeah, it's, been really great talking about it. I don't get to talk about this stuff to people very often, so it's fun.

41:25Jawad MirWell, you're, you're welcome anytime for any more of the past or upcoming work. I would love to have you again because I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation.

41:32Jamey ScottVery cool. Thanks so much, man.

41:35Jawad MirMy pleasure, man. Thank you so much, Damon. Appreciate it.

41:37Jamey ScottOkay.

41:38Jawad MirHave a good one.

41:38Jamey ScottBye-bye.