The ‘Godzilla Minus Zero’ Filmmakers Terrified Bystanders With Their Monster Sounds
Sound designers for the latest Godzilla film used real-world acoustic recording techniques at a dam to create terrifying monster roars. The team also utilized analog foley methods to simulate the sounds of the kaiju King Ghidorah.
Why it matters
This highlights the intersection of traditional analog sound design and modern visual effects in creating immersive cinematic experiences.
While introducing the New York Comic Con panel for the 39th film in the Godzilla franchise, Green stressed that the filmmakers behind the movie “have created kaiju that feel physically real and, trust me, emotionally terrifying.”
While a lot of that terror came from the work of Oscar-winning visual effects artist Tatsuji Nojima, some it came from the shrieking of Godzilla and his three-headed nemesis, King Ghidorah. Those roars were the work of sound designer Natsuko Inoue and her team, who created the monsters’ outsize vocalizations by rolling speakers to the top of an outdoor dam—much to the horror of people nearby.
“There were people having a picnic, maybe people just taking a stroll,” Hisafumi Takeuchi, who also worked on sound for the film, said during the panel. “The person walking their dog, though—they had the worst time, because the dog was freaking out and barking back at us.”
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in