JULIAN SLATER
SOUND DESIGNER
THE CHORAL GROANS of a zombie horde. The wail of pursuing police sirens. The slap of a tongue on Cornetto… If you’ve heard it in an Edgar Wright movie, then Julian Slater is the guy who’s brought it to aural life. As a sound designer, supervising sound editor and re-recording mixer, he sets all the levels and tweaks all the knobs to ensure your cinematic experience provides maximal sensory immersion. And not just in Wright’s movies, either. Over three decades, Slater’s brought the noise to titles as diverse as Leaving Las Vegas, Mad Max: Fury Road and The Trial Of The Chicago 7, earning himself a couple of Oscar nominations for 2017’s Baby Driver along the way. And it all started, weirdly enough, with Sting…
At what point in your life did you decide, “I want to work with sound”?
When I was about seven I saw the video for ‘Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic’ by The Police, where they’re on that big mixing desk at Montserrat. There was just something about seeing that… And it was around the same time I saw this documentary about the sound for Star Wars, with Ben Burtt. Those two things came together and I thought, “I want to get into sound.”
It doesn’t immediately spring to mind as a career option to present to schoolkids… Yeah, obviously it’s not something you fall into. I come from a very small town in Suffolk, and when I was 15 I said to my careers officer, “I want to get into sound for either music or television or films.” He looked at me and replied, “That’s all well and good; I can get you work experience down Barclays for two weeks.” [Laughs] When I get asked now by young people, “How do you get into the industry?” I say to them, “Look, if I can do it, anyone can do it.” I still pinch myself when I drive onto the Warner Bros. lot, which is where I’m based these days.
Why is sound so important to the cinematic experience?
I don’t get goosebumps watching movies at
home. I do get goosebumps watching movies in the cinema. I’m blessed that I’ve worked with directors who understand what sound is capable of doing. People like George Miller and Edgar Wright get that sound isn’t necessarily just a reflection of what is being viewed, but something you can use to help tell the story and give emotion to the audience.
Do the requirements of the job change from gig to gig?
Every job is unique, and every job you try to do something that will push the storytelling experience on a bit. Whether it’s the action sounds of a larger-than-life albino rhino in Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle or the tinnitus sounds in Baby Driver. Whenever Baby heard the ringing in his ears, it was louder depending on how stressed he was, and it was always tuned to the incoming music cue.
What’s the next stage of evolution in cinema sound?
I still get frustrated that when I’m mixing a movie, I sit in the sweet spot and it sounds perfect. And then if I go to the cinema and I have to sit down at front right, it sounds horrendous. So it’s not a question of more speakers or being able to get louder. I’d like to think there’s a way we can personalise the experience a bit more so that, regardless of where you sit, you’re getting a prime, personalised aural experience. That would be amazing.