Both the visual and sonic landscapes of director Gareth Edwards’ The Creator have been honored in the class of 2024 Oscar nominees, and deservedly so. An organically futuristic picture that feels like a crossroads between Apocalypse Now and Blade Runner, the border between our reality and the fantastical vision that Edwards and his teams have collaborated on is always a bit blurry.
Nowhere is that proven in one of 2023’s best sci-fi movies more than in the story of how an excitable Gareth’s on-set habits landed him a role as a sound effect in his own movie.
Gareth Edwards: Director, Writer, Sound Machine
It definitely shouldn’t surprise you that Gareth Edwards is, in fact, a director with golden retriever energy. I was reminded about that when I kicked off an interview celebrating The Creator’s Oscar nominations for Best Visual Effects and Best Sound, with Edwards present alongside visual effects supervisors Jay Cooper, Ian Comely and Andrew Roberts.
When asking him about whether he’d realized the USS NOMAD was basically the US military’s Death Star, the Rogue One director's immediate retort was priceless. Claiming no knowledge of this Star Wars legend, Gareth asked if it was, “a Star Trek episode, or something?”
That tone of gleeful banter set the tone for speaking with Edwards and the members of his VFX team present. It opened up our conversation to dance between the serious and the silly, just as easily as the Godzilla director seems to do. That in turn led Gareth Edwards to share with CinemaBlend the following story about his own sound effects prowess:
It's really hard not to do the sound effects because it's like, when we were filming, it was a pandemic. We all had masks, and someone had the bright idea of, ‘Let’s put a microphone in Gareth's mask, so that he can whisper direction to the crew.’ But I also, without realizing it, you know, and get reminded of it after a take, is I subconsciously do sound effects. … When we were doing the robot, you know, the AI robots in the farmlands and stuff, the sound guys who I was going like, I just didn't mean to do it, but I was like, it's like a dial up modem. You know, like a binary, like they're speaking of foreign language, but you can't tell. And they were like, 'Do that again.’, and they brought a microphone. I was like, ‘Oh God.’ I ended up doing it, and apparently that's in the movie. That's like, they fucked with the settings on it. But my silly little impression is what [noise] the CG robots make now.
A sweeping epic that follows the very human Joshua (John David Washington) trying to protect young android Alfie (Madeleine Yuna Voyles) from harm is absolutely gorgeous to look at and listen to. And honestly, using Gareth Edwards’ own on-set noises to compliment the insanely talented work that the folks at ILM put into creating these machines is absolutely fitting.
Taking a look at how those designs came together, with real human performers being involved in making The Creator’s various robotic denizens a reality, hammers that home. You can see as much through this clip provided by the good folks at ILM, which walks through how Alfie and various other characters found themselves enhanced with digital magic:
I don’t know about you, but watching that facial surgery clip reminds me of the time VFX Supervisor Jay Cooper admitted to night sweats when recalling that sequence. It takes a strong vision to pull such delights into our world, and Gareth Edwards’ sound effects weren’t only a handy reference on set. As you’re about to learn in the next part of our story, working through the post-production VFX designs were also aided by Gareth and his gift of sound.
How Gareth Edwards’ Impromptu Sound Effects Helped The Creator’s VFX Team In The Moment
The story involving The Creator’s on-set sound effects might not have been told if it wasn’t for one of its Visual Effects Supervisors, Ian Comely. In discussing the absolutely terrifying, yet awe-inspiring laser weapon present on the USS NOMAD, Comely inspired Edwards to go deeper on his on-set sound effects career.
Which was thanks to this story from Ian, discussing how Gareth Edwards’ enthusiasm helped in the earlier phases of developing the visuals for NOMAD’s weapons system:
What was such a joy was the NOMAD laser. I mean there are so few visual effects that we put together that have very much their own distinct sound cue. I mean sound always provides a wonderful tapestry, but that is such an iconic ‘whomp.’ And then we had so many reviews with Gareth as well, where prior to the sound team sort of locking the design of this, he would be quietly having to make all the noises himself down the microphone. Sort of ‘whomp,’ and ‘da da da da.’ So we got an inkling as as to what was to come, ahead of the sound teams that are final in some of this.
While the self-effacing Edwards claims his overactive inner child as the inspiration for such behavior, I think he can also chalk it up to his passion for making films. It’s really easy to forget that before he opened up the MonsterVerse with 2014's Godzilla or shipped off to a galaxy far, far away, Gareth Edwards struck it big with Monsters.
A movie he wrote, directed and created the visual effects for, The Creator visionary was almost a one-stop shop when it came to making that first film come to life. Putting that sort of work into a movie takes a special passion, and that’s something that hasn’t waned with Gareth Edwards’ use of a deeper bench of players.
Selecting a team like Jay Cooper, Andrew Roberts and Ian Comely to help craft this organically futuristic world on display requires just as good of an eye as making the effect yourself. After having the chance to speak to them as a group, it’s safe to say that these VFX wizards are all still nurturing their inner children, which only makes their finished, award nominated work all the more impressive.
As Gareth Edwards' new Jurassic franchise duties see him moving into another exercise in leaving his stamp on an iconic series, The Creator serves as further proof of the strong vision he has when plugging away at something whole cloth. With any luck, Edwards will be able to bring his current team along for the ride, as their works of passionate beauty would definitely suit a world where dinosaurs roam the earth.
The results certainly speak for themselves, as anyone can step into the sandbox of The Creator, should they choose to. With the film currently available on digital and physical home entertainment formats, you can catch this sci-fi drama at your earliest convenience. But if you have a Hulu subscription, it’s even easier to become part of the fun, as that is the current streaming home for this picture and its audience to connect.
