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Exclusive Interview: Sound Designer Luke Gibleon of 'Avatar The Last Airbender' · The BSB Podcast

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  Audiences around the world return to the world of Avatar the Last Airbender with
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  season two at Netflix. And today we're talking with Luke Gibleon from Formosa Group,
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  who served as co-supervising sound editor and sound designer on the series.
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  Thank you so much for being here,
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  Luke.
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  Thanks for having me.
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  Avatar The Last Airbender has been such an iconic animated legacy.
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  How do you approach honoring the familiar sounds with creating something that feels
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  grounded in live action?
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  well, it first goes to ~ going back to the original source material,
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  the the original animated show,
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  and just, you know, watching it and and trying to kind of pick and glean whatever
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  I can from that and make sure that if there's an opportunity to try
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  to create some sounds that are similar ~ to what what they've done in the series.
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  And then of course when you go into live action.
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  ~ the the imaging and the beautiful effects that they've done as are
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  so much more dimensional and involved.
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  So you have to build upon that.
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  And it's kind of like taking something that was like the animated element,
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  which is almost like a skeleton,
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  and then, you know, creating muscles and flesh and skin front with
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  new sounds to create layers and and give it more life to what we're seeing
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  on screen.
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  That has to be quite a ~ a journey though.
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  When you kinda has such a great backbone,
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  like Avatar is such an incredible show.
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  But then like you said, there's there's a lot of work that goes into finding what
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  that sounds like and what that what that looks like to bring it to the live action.
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  ~ there's a lot of moving parts,
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  it seems.
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  Yeah, yeah, there's definitely a lot of moving parts.
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  And I mean the thankfully it's helped out so much by the incredible visual work that
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  they're doing. So it's ~ you know,
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  you you you see all these layers and depth to the great visual stuff that they're
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  doing that you're like, okay, I can I to to this bending ability,
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  there's I see I see sand grain in it,
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  I see air blowing inside of it,
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  you know, I see ~ a force inside of it as well.
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  So I can create these different layers that
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  that touch upon all of those elements that are in that one visual effect.
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  What would you say then is kind of like the guiding philosophy that influenced
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  the sound design as you were kind of going into season two?
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  Story. Story is always guiding philosophy.
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  and and so you're you're you're gonna try to stay true to the story
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  as much as possible. There's a growth that's occurring along in season two,
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  so the bending itself is getting stronger and more powerful as he's learning it.
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  And then, of course, you have Toph,
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  who's a new character to the show,
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  and she's got her own sound to her bending,
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  plus she has her own point of view as she,
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  you know, she hears and feels.
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  the
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  her her environment around her.
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  So there's creating new sounds for that as well.
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  And then additional characters like,
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  I mean we met Azula in season one,
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  but season two is really where we get to learn more about her.
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  And she's got her own sound of bending as well that ha you know,
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  that you have to make distinctly different from Zuko's bending because when they're
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  fighting together, you know, like against each other,
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  you you want to create that difference.
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  And and Azuka's is kind of a little bit Zukos is a little bit more
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  ~ animalistic and Azula I made hers more like rage.
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  ~ with a like he had some he uses lions and tigers inside of
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  his bending and and Azula I have things that are more like screaming elements,
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  her own screams, other rage screams,
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  as well as like this distorted kind of thundery and lightning stuff that also kind
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  of works with her lightning bending that she does.
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  You know, I was a I was a fan of the show growing up,
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  ~ and the animated show, and then getting to watch it as an adult.
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  But one thing I noticed is what you're describing is the everybody
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  had such a distinct sound to them and how they were bending,
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  even if they were within the same kind of element,
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  such as like, you know, Zuko and Azula,
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  they had it was cool to kind of hear that and how it all kind of played together
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  and gave them each like a unique fingerprint to their soundscape.
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  Yeah. It's it's I mean, it's the beauty of storytelling,
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  is is giving having those opportunities to you know,
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  use sound to help tell that story and help differentiate ~ these different parts
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  of the characters.
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  You know, with the the world expanding quite considerably this season
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  and there's a whole bunch of new locations,
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  as you mentioned, there's a whole bunch of new characters.
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  What do you feel is was the most exciting or most challenging aspect
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  of this world to design from a sound perspective this season?
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  This season, I mean Toph's bending and her point of view was ~ definitely
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  big and a challenging one, and that took some evolution.
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  and in addition to that,
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  ~ the one I had a lot of fun with would be the sea serpent fight,
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  which is, you know, very cinematic and you know ~ much like s like something you'd
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  see in a movie.
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  So that that involved, you know,
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  a whole lot a lot of layers of creating the sea serpent itself as far
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  as his vocal palette, and and and all the different elements I use for that,
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  as well as the fighting, the bending,
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  the water and air bending and the ice bending and and and then what you're trying
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  to do is you're trying to make sure you can create separation with those elements
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  so that they distinctly have their own sound each time you're kind
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  of highlighting that moment.
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  'Cause there's so much going on.
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  So you're really kind of going,
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  Okay, for this couple of seconds,
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  I really want to focus on this part of,
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  you know, the story for sound.
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  And then in the the next couple of seconds doing focusing
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  on something completely different and really trying to balance all
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  of those things together. It's a lot of fun.
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  You know, one of the scenes that stands out,
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  I think, both when you see the animated show,
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  but of this one, is when Toph learns how to metal bend and that moment that
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  it kind of all the pieces kind of come together and the soundscape of that
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  is so it's so incredible. So what is it kind of like to create an entirely
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  new sonic signature such as that one?
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  ~ it's you I I call it sometimes like you're throwing spaghetti at the wall
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  to see what's fit. You know what I mean?
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  Okay. Sure.
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  Like
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  that's usually what I do a lot of times in my design process is we're like
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  I have an idea I have ideas. So I'm like throwing ideas.
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  Well, what what would it sound like if ~ you know,
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  it's it's mental bending, but it's coming from earth bending.
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  So, you know, w if I started from an earth element approach and then
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  but then there's metal parts that need to grow.
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  So I'm like, okay, what are different resonances which might be interesting?
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  You know, and then how might I then use those to kind of meld with
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  the earth bending and create a ripple sound and then from there move into something
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  that's more of a metal ripple?
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  And so you're just kind of trying out different ~ a whole whole bunch
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  of different things in your life,
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  that works, that doesn't work.
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  And slowly you start building them together and then creating something that's
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  you know uniquely its own.
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  there's not one kind of blueprint,
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  but it's kinda like you have to kind of find what feels authentic to
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  the scene or the character and build from there.
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  I think so. I think it's hard to try to like,
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  you know, if you if you call if you would to go with a blueprint,
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  it end it can end up sounding tropey.
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  ~ so yeah, I think it's a lot more fun anyway to just really
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  try to ~ experiment with things and and see what the story's telling you.
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  And you're gonna some things are gonna come quicker than others,
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  you know. Sometimes you're gonna be like,
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  ~ I know exactly what I should do for this.
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  But other times you're like, I know what I should do for this.
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  And you kind of put it together and you're like,
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  nope. And then you
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  Not this time.
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  just kind of, you know, like you you try again.
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  ~ but that's the fun part of it.
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  And it it's cool too when you think about how many elements are in a show like this.
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  Like just I mean, we've talked about like fire,
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  water, like there's all these different things that all have their
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  own personalities to be able to kind of again put your unique kind of spin
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  on like what would water sound like when it's flying through the air and,
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  you know, potentially being used as a whip or something,
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  you know? and finding those sounds for each person as they do that.
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  Yeah, it's a lot of fun.
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  Was there any real world recordings or unexpected sound sources that
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  you feel like became key ingredients or elements to the show soundscape?
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  ~ I mean, I'm funny thing is you just like try to like they're definitely real
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  worldly things. I have I mean some great fire recordings that that I
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  use that just have good ~ warmth but also edgy,
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  ~ crispy kind of sound to them.
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  ~ I'll I've I I'll a lot of little water kind
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  of splashes that will sound small on their own,
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  but when I kind of pitch them and work with them.
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  I
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  can get them to sound pretty big.
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  ~ and then I use my I mean I use a void my voice in a
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  lot of like monster and creature recordings.
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  Even if if at the end result my voice doesn't stay,
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  I might use it like ~ like an envelope,
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  like a like a a master that then I take animal sounds and I I
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  I use the shape of my voice and alter those animal sounds to get
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  a shape that's more matches what the animal might be doing.
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  That's incredible. That's really cool.
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  And then you're also kind of a piece of that then.
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  You know, not just that you're designing it,
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  Yeah.
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  but you're
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  actually like vocally a part of it.
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  Yeah, yeah. It's it's it's kind of neat to think about like how how much
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  we use our voice in things. But our voice is emotive.
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  Like like our,
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  Right.
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  you know, and like when you're trying to do things,
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  especially creatures, you know,
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  they emote. ~ and and I think it can st it can sound one note or false
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  if if you know you're not giving them their own kind of personality and emotion.
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  So of the vo using the voice is a great way to do that.
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  Now, when it comes to like a specific character,
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  do you feel like there's one character that kind of stands out whose sonic identity
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  changed as the story's progressing?
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  Well, I would say there's I d just about all of the characters' sonic identities
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  are changing as they learn new things.
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  Zuko is I mean,
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  not to bring too many spoilers,
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  his his sonic identity is definitely gonna change.
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  ~ moving into season three. ~ but Aang and Katara,
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  I mean, as their bending gets stronger,
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  so does their sonic identity cool
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  Sure.
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  out bending.
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  ~ so I'm slowly kind of weaving things in as I go along and and and they grow
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  in terms of their bending prowess or mastery.
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  ~ so there are changes that are occurring.
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  ~ and sometimes it's it's a change where you're just like,
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  you know what? Not after having done so much of it,
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  you're like, no, I think I found an interesting way to evolve this.
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  So you're just doing it anyway just because you're like,
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  you know, I think this will help.
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  ~ especially as their ~ character is is facing a arc,
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  you know, and a change.
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  You know, this is kind of a season ~ season two is kind of all about change.
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  I guess the whole show's about change,
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  but season two has a lot of change.
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  Like you mentioned, Zuko, he has a very actual change happening without spoiling
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  anything. But when you look at like how Katara's developed from the
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  the ending of season one to season two,
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  there's a great jump in her abilities as well.
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  Which you do, you could hear right away,
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  like there is a difference in like both who she is as a character,
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  but also just how she's sounding with her powers.
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  Well,
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  something we did, and this stems back to season one,
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  is ~ the sound of bending itself.
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  Like I have an kind of an energy sound that I made that is the sound of bending,
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  like chi And some some of that's actually sounds different based upon the character.
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  ~ so their chi might sound a little bit different.
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  but like for Katara for example,
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  she w she was struggling, ~ especially the
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  Beginning of season one. So we actually kind of pushed up the sound
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  of her bending more than the sound of the element itself to show
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  Okay.
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  her really trying to, you know,
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  she trying to get a grasp of this force,
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  right? And then
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  Right.
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  as the characters evolve and get more powerful,
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  we we typically have almost a little bit less bending sound inside.
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  the elements and it's more about the elements because now the elements
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  are strong and powerful and and it's,
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  you know, become second nature to them.
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  So it's really not they're not w working as hard to to do the the bending.
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  Now it's more about their control.
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  So it's more about the elements themselves being powerful over the sound
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  of the bending being powerful,
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  if that makes sense.
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  As a psychologist, I absolutely love that because there's things that people aren't
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  even thinking about as they're watching a show,
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  but like that's telling a whole story right there.
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  Just almost like cognizant, you know,
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  like they're they're not as cognizant of it happening,
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  but like you're telling that story and it's people are aware of that.
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  You know what mean? That's really cool.
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  and it does make sense too, though,
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  is like as a novice, you are kind of you're putting a lot of energy
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  and effort into that. So that would be their kind of chi.
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  And then eventually, as you master that,
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  like
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  you are kind of one with the element in this world.
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  Yeah.
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  So you also served as co-supervising ~ sound editor.
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  So when you're kind of working with another person in that,
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  ~ in that role, how do you balance like working as like a creative vision,
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  but also having your own kind of stamp on ~ the sound editing?
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  I I mean we we have discussions and we you know,
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  spotting spotting that's done with ~ the show runners.
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  And so there's there's first just a collection of notes and information,
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  things that they're looking for.
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  and it can the you know,
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  when you're co supervising, it can vary depending upon what kind
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  of project you're on. But like this one,
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  for example, is more like Tim he he he's like
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  the overall but
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  supervisor, but also he's focused on ~ dialogue and ADR and then
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  I'm ~ focused on the whole effects world side of things.
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  That you
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  So
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  the the effects editorial and the design and ~ and foley and kind of making sure
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  all of that's coming together.
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  And then we're we're pulling it all together.
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  And sometimes we help each other out when there's like a need where
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  or an availability issue where I'll go ~ supervise some ADR sessions or
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  ~
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  Tim might cut in some ~ effects on something that that's needed ~ last minute
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  or something.
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  What would you say is like the biggest challenge to managing like
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  a sound editorial team across a multiple episode series such as this one?
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  ~ pro probably just really kind of staying on task because you're always like,
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  you know, you're you you for for something like this,
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  you've got days. You're like, okay,
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  this is how many days I have per episode.
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  And so it's more just kind of managing your time in that aspect,
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  especially with something like this,
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  because you don't get like you don't get an episode that turns over where
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  all the VFX are done. Like
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  Okay.
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  you you get an episode turned over where sometimes there's literally just dots
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  moving on the screen.
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  Or like very rudimentary animation.
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  So you have to pick and choose like what's worth taking the time to do.
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  But at the same time, you're like going,
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  okay, well, I have to do, I have to kind of get something in place just
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  due to the amount of time I have,
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  the the time up into the mix dates.
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  So you're you you can't I can't also just wait because sometimes VFX like final
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  VFX don't drop in until
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  days before you're starting to mix.
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  So you that the the challenge there is like you have to have a you have
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  to start painting the picture before the the picture's in front of you.
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  ~ and it can be,
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  That would be tough, I would assume.
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  yeah. And
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  then you have to kind of r once you get those VFX in,
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  then you have to reshape the material you've done you've done to better
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  fit that image. And then you might have to sweeten it or,
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  you know, do something to adjust.
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  But
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  That's where it can get challenging,
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  is where you're just like, I mean,
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  I ~ I know for season one, some of it was like it was like,
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  you know, like practically nothing there in certain parts.
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  And I just like had to just create and make up stuff and then and then
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  ~ and then just hope it worked.
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  ~ but you know, once you get the images,
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  but it yeah, it it got challenging.
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  At least with, you know, as you move into further seasons,
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  you've established stuff. So it's like
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  You already know what's working,
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  how things might sound. So that can be a little bit easier just because you're like,
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  okay, these aren't new, like some some stuff is brand new,
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  and you're like, I you you want to get them in front of the showrunners' ears
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  to sign off on. But then other stuff that you've at least established,
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  you're like, okay, there's that trust that's been built,
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  you know, and and it's easier to take kind of an executive action with that
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  to to to know that you don't really have to worry about that.
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  as far as getting anybody's ears on it.
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  You that this is what how it already is working and is gonna sound and
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  ~ just kind of taking those steps.
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  It it can be challenging and but also you know,
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  pretty rewarding.
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  When you're in those moments where they're just kind of dots and you're kind
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  of making, you know, you have to make something.
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  Do you feel like that there's points then where like the sound department influences
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  the final edit or even the visual effects as like if they're being established
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  first?
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  It can. yeah. And I've I've we've definitely had moments when we've done that.
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  I mean, some of the initial design I did on the first season was before they
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  had VFX. And I think there was some stuff that they were doing that
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  was they were altering it based upon the sound.
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  and and I've worked on other movies before where
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  we where the VFX was actually like they designed the VFX based upon what
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  the sound was doing.
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  ~ so it it doesn't
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  That's incredible.
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  happen a lot. Most of the time it's like I'd say ninety nine percent
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  of the time it's the other way around because VFX is the one that's really coming
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  in last minute at the same time.
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  And it's easier to adjust the sound than it is to have to get a whole new VFX dump.
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  ~ but it has happened.
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  Was there a specific scene from the season that you're especially proud of
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  I would say both the sea serpent and then Toph her whole once she's introduced,
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  you know, we do this interesting sound design thing as the ~ as she comes
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  to to stage and the crowds into it and we go inside of her head.
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  ~ and then we introduce her bending and her point of view,
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  which is just a new flavor that ~ we haven't introduced to the audience yet.
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  So those are probably both my favorite.
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  ~ the final episode's
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  Incredible C.
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  got a lot of fun stuff in it too though with the metal bending and
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  ~ Aang's Avatar State that gets really big.
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  ~ there's a lot
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  Right.
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  of fun th things, you know. Even Ty Lee,
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  her like, you know, doing her specific chi blocking fighting ~ is fun.
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  Yeah.
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  Absolut I will say that a standout moment is absolutely when Toph shows up.
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  That is such a cool scene. And then when you think of all the different pieces that
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  go into that, I won't spoil any of it for anybody who hasn't seen it,
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  but there's a lot of elements to Toph's introduction.
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  Yes, there is. It's a great scene.
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  Yeah. It really played
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  So just
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  well to the origin like to the original anime too.
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  yeah, it felt like it was absolutely ripped from from the animation onto
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  the screen for in every aspect.
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  So just just one final question for you.
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  Just what are you hoping audiences notice or perhaps feel about the sound when they
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  watch season two of Avatar The Last Airbender?
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  I mean the truth is you're always hoping they they don't.
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  ~ typically
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  Okay.
• 19:47
  when when people notice something it's it's it's because it's taking them out.
• 19:51
  ~
• 19:52
  Okay.
• 19:54
  so I mean, you know, in general you hope they just like are like,
• 19:57
  ~ wow, that was like that was big or huge or or really cool or that just took
• 20:03
  me to a place. ~ I mean, you know,
• 20:06
  maybe audiophiles, you know, when it's always nice when you
• 20:09
  get colleagues that reach out and
• 20:12
  and
• 20:12
  and mention there how they thought something just sounded,
• 20:14
  you know, really cool and really unique.
• 20:17
  ~ but yeah, I guess i i it's odd in in a way where you're just kinda like you're
• 20:23
  you're often doing your best job when people really don't know that you're there.
• 20:27
  You know, where you know, like a lot of the sound design we do,
• 20:30
  yeah, sometimes it's you you see the thing,
• 20:33
  you hear the thing, but then there's other stuff that we do that
• 20:35
  can be very subjective where it's meant to be felt and not heard.
• 20:39
  ~
• 20:39
  Sure.
• 20:41
  So yeah, I don't know. That's I just I just hope they,
• 20:43
  you know, enjoy it.
• 20:46
  So it's the job well done when they don't notice it.
• 20:49
  Yeah, it can it can be in many
• 20:50
  times. Yeah, I mean sometimes you're like there's there's things that,
• 20:54
  you know, you you remark from,
• 20:56
  you know, favorite shows where you're like you know sonically that like changed
• 21:03
  you and you're like, wow, like the way they did that,
• 21:05
  you know, there's there's signature things that ~ are done,
• 21:10
  at least as from my point of view,
• 21:12
  that are like, yeah, it it you'd be you'd love it if you could create those things
• 21:17
  for people.
• 21:18
  and it become, you know, really memorable.
• 21:20
  But ~ yeah, I I mean in general,
• 21:23
  you're just hoping hoping to tell the story and hoping to keep people locked inside
• 21:29
  of that world.
• 21:30
  Absolutely.
• 21:31
  thank you so much for being here,
• 21:32
  Luke. It's been such a pleasure chatting with you.
• 21:34
  ~ and this is what such a credible season.
• 21:36
  So thank you again for being here.
• 21:38
  Thank you so much, Brian.
• 21:39
  You can check out Avatar The Last Airbender season two,
• 21:41
  which is currently streaming on Netflix.