Gary Rydstrom

Gary Roger Rydstrom (born 1959) is an American seven-time Academy Award-winning sound designer and director.

Rydstrom graduated from the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts in 1981. [http://cinema.usc.edu/alumni/alumni-history/ Notable Alumni] , USC School of Cinematic Arts, "Accessed August 10, 2008.] He began his career at Skywalker Sound, Northern California in 1983. Offered the job by a college professor, Gary received the opportunity to work with his mentor, "Star Wars" sound designer Ben Burtt.

After gaining invaluable experience as a sound technician in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom", he went on to do sound design for the comedy "Spaceballs". The sound design for "Backdraft", prepared from scratch, would become the precursor for his sound for "". The original sound effects from "Backdraft" are constantly referenced and have been used for numerous other films including the "The Lord of the Rings" film trilogy and "Shrek".

Gary Rydstrom's work on "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" is arguably his career crowning achievement where he pioneered original techniques still used to this day for creating realistic sound effects. Even to this day "Terminator 2" is considered the benchmark for high-end motion picture sound design and Gary went on to win an Academy Award for his groundbreaking achievement.

Gary's sound work on "Jurassic Park" was a milestone in terms of innovation as he and his team set out to create dinosaur sounds by mixing together numerous different animal vocalizations to make the audience feel as though giant bellowing prehistoric beasts surrounded them. The Oscar-winning film took a giant leap in being the very first motion picture to be presented in DTS.

He subsequently went on to work on sound for numerous successful films including "Titanic", "Saving Private Ryan" (for which he won his third Academy Award), "Minority Report" and "Finding Nemo". He won an MSPE lifetime achievement award for his stunning career and regularly speaks at various sound design forums sharing his extensive knowledge and enthusiasm with aspiring sound design artists.

He has recently made his directorial debut with the Pixar animated short, Lifted, for which he received his fourteenth Academy Award nomination. He is currently directing Newt for Pixar.

Filmography

* "Lifted" (2006) director
* "Newt" (2011) director

References

External links

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* [http://mixonline.com/recording/interviews/audio_gary_rydstrom/ Interview with Rydstrom]