Christopher Nolan's last few films have all had one thing in common: very detailed sound design. Maybe that goes without saying for a large Hollywood film, but the depth and scope of the sound work is what really helps each of his films come together. We've talked about SoundWorks Collection before, when we shared their video for Prometheus, but this time they take a look at the team behind The Dark Knight Rises, including the movie's composer, Hans Zimmer.


If you're wondering how you can improve your film (assuming the visuals are already fantastic), sound design and music are usually the two places you can look first. While it helps to have a huge budget to back up your sound ambitions, a lot of what the sound design team does is problem-solving. They ask themselves how they can make each particular visual element that much more powerful with the use of sound, and then they figure out how to combine and rework those individual pieces until they work together harmoniously to improve each other.

Like anything, sound is all about trial and error, and it's interesting to hear them talk about trying to improve Tom Hardy's voice by adding all sorts of different elements, but in the end, they removed all of the extraneous bits and just let his vocal performance stand on its own. Decisions like that are what can make or break a film, and it's important to be conscience of those things when you're working on your own film.

Link: SoundWorks Collection - The Dark Knight Rises