Who doesn't love dinosaurs?

We are all fascinated with dinosaurs at some point in our lives. Or like just a few wish you could grow up to be a t-rex or velociraptor.  Since the first Jurassic Park movie came out, it was the talk of the classroom for many days.  Kids talking about how cool the dinosaurs looked and to be honest at that time pretty life like and scary.   But did you ever stop to think how they make those dinosaurs come to life?  Because last I checked there are no actual real life recordings of dinosaurs.  As sound designer and  Sound Supervisor at Lucas Sound. Al Nelson puts it: "We don't have a whole lot of raw recordings of dinosaurs."

So with the new movie release Jurassic World came new bigger and scarier dinosaurs.  But how did the get those raws in? How did they get the sound design for the velociraptors?   I’ll tell you the secret.  It’s magic with a touch of brilliance.  In this youtube video you can see how they came up with some raws and movements of the dinosaurs.

Awesome right? But wait a minute that was the sound design for the new dinosaurs but what about the T-Rex I’m pretty sure her roar has been updated.  So lets look into what it was then compared to now.  Reading in the article you will never guess how the dinosaur’s sounds in Jurassic Park were made. Your right after reading the article I didn’t see the key sound was from Gary Rydstorm’s dog and the holly crap shivering roar elements are from a baby elephant! Dog and elephant there you go I would of never guessed.  So the next question I’m curious about is did they change the T-rex roar or did they keep it the same?  In the video Making of the sound of Jurassic World.  The T-Rex is a legendary sound and they didn’t want to change anything with the T-rex.

AaaAaahh Godzilla!!!

If you are thinking it, you are right.  Today I want to talk about the sound design for the iconic movie star legend Godzilla.  Now I know that over the many years Godzilla’s roar has changed.  From his vary first appearance in 1954.  To the last film he stared in recently in 2014.  Godzilla’s roar is like any movie stars signature move.  They are always looking to improve upon to old and re-create themselves.

Godzilla’s original 1954 roar was created by composer Akira Ifukube; He dragged a resin-coated leather glove along the loosened strings of a double bass. Now I have to be thinking.  What in the world would make someone think of that?  But in the long run of things as Godzilla’s fame became world known.  Anyone who has seen or even heard of Godzilla at the time could tell you they could recognize him just by his roar.

Now jumping to the year 1998.  Many years after the first roar came out.  There are new variations of the roar.  But now in 1998 we are more technologically advanced.  I wasn't even in high school when this movie came around so at the time this was pretty neat stuff.  But listening to his roars over repeatedly.  I keep coming to the feeling that all his roars come from a mixture of other animals and maybe a small hint of previous Godzilla roars.

Moving forward to the latest Godzilla Movie released in 2014. Directed by Gareth Edwards.  Ethan Van der Ryn and Erik Aadahl were the new sound designers tasked with coming up with a new Godzilla roar.  It is quite funny they didn’t clue in Gareth until after the movie was released to what had gone into the making of the roar.  After searching many sites for the answers to this question.  I keep coming up short.  Until the other day, I watched the behind the scenes for the movie Godzilla.  Lets just say they didn’t give you all the dirty details but a shoe and an instrument were used.  But the Godzilla roar is being kept an industry secret for now.  So I leave you with the clip of the newest 2014 version of Godzilla’s roar.  Tell me what you think makes up the roar.