*What does a dinosaur sound like? Since no one has actually heard a dinosaur roar one would have to find its genesis in the imagination of the sound engineer. Before George Lucas, the original creator of sound in space, there was no sound associated with space. After Lucas simulated sound in space everyone had to follow suit.
Brice Carrington, who was born and raised in South Central in Los Angeles, California, is occasionally called the sound “It Man” in Hollywood. “Although sound is creative, it’s more a technical experience,” mentioned the sound architect. “There are many jobs in sound. There is field recorder, wherein a boom operator uses a microphone on a long stick. He records into a dat machine or digital recording box sound effects as it happens in a live production” explained Brice. “A foley artist is someone who mimics sound to screen in order to create continuity. ADR (Dialogue Replacement) enables actors to return to the studio and re-voice their lines for a sound artist. There is mixing which entails mixing all the music and sound together for the film. There are editors, like myself, who create sound from other sounds,” stated Carrington. “For instance, to simulate a car driving down a street, I would use an actual car driving down pavement add running water and other elements and mix all the sounds together in order to create the sound of a car driving down the street.”
After his stint in the Navy, Carrington formed a partnership with a friend, opening a record shop. “I was selling records at swap meets at flea markets on Crenshaw Street and promoting concerts. Eventually, our record shop became known as a result of these promotions. The professional relationships I developed led to a job with Sony. Ultimately, I was transferred out of the music department to the movie department,” recalled the sound mastermind.
It was Brice Carrington who gave King Kong his roar, the T-Rex and other dinosaurs their menacing sound in the movie Jurassic Park, put the hiss in Snakes on a Plane, the swoosh in Superman’s flight and the swirling sound in Spiderman’s web-shooting. Carrington is the man behind the pops, bangs, booms and blasts of the firepower in Miami Vice, True Lies, The Fantastic Four and the Incredible Hulk, etc.
“When I think of creating the roar of a T-Rex or of a T-Rex eating, I think of a lion. A male lion’s growl, a lion eating a bone, a lion breathing, an elephant, and some flesh tearing. I combine all this together to come up with the sound of a T-Rex,” stated the audio expert. “In order to make it authentic to the audience, I do research and speak to a paleontologist or archeologist to learn about the origins of the animal. I learned that the range of a T-Rex voice could be heard for 25 miles. So, I think of reverberation. The T-Rex had membranes in his mouth so I look at the head and jawbone of the T-Rex and think of the amount of reverberation wielded when it vocalized. Sound can be obstructed very easily. Therefore, I had to determine what time of day the male lion’s voice is the strongest. Once I studied that, I determined a male African lion roaring early in the morning best mimics the sound of a T-Rex,” informed Brice.
Carrington works with a male lion named Joseph on virtually all his sound effects. Joseph who is about 12 years old is the current MGM lion that does much of the promotion work involving Hollywood lions. Joseph has a full mane which wraps around his head, across his shoulder blades, down through his legs, on his belly, and all the way up through his rear. “Joseph is sweet but still scary because he is huge. His head is 3 times the size of a human head and his paws are bigger than your face. His roar is intimidating. They get him to roar by putting meat on a stick. His handler gives him a command to roar, Joseph roars, and then they feed him. Raised in captivity, Joseph is trained to know that the louder he roars, the bigger the piece of meat he gets,” says Brice of his secret sound weapon. “To create the voice of King Kong, I used Siberian tigers, lions, a monkey, and a Silverback gorilla and bubbling water out of a straw,” Carrington explained. Mr. Carrington’s sound adaptation of Godzilla is based on animal sounds, horns, and trumpets.
“All of my sound effects are made by real animals because they give me more resonance and more texture. No synthetic sound is used. I design and build my sound packages. It’s a very complicated process. Because I often work with animals to make sounds, I worked with Siegfried & Roy at their private habitat in Las Vegas. Roy is a wrangler who makes certain the animals perform. Roy had a stroke while on stage,” remarked Carrington. Roy’s tiger, Montecore, whom Roy raised from a cub, realized Roy had a stroke so tried to help by carrying him off stage. As a result, Montecore unwittingly bit into Roy’s shoulder causing massive blood loss. Roy Uwe Ludwig Horn is presently undergoing rehabilitation.
Carrington received 3 commemorative Oscars for “King Kong,” “Ghost and the Darkness,” and “Jurassic Park.” He has created sound effects for 41 blockbuster films, including Jurassic Park 3, Blade, The Blood Hunt, Rush Hour 2, Van Helsing, Superman Returns, Spiderman, and the Mummy Returns sequels.
A family man and Lamborghini owner, Carrington has been in the sound business for nearly 20 years. He is the first African American to obtain a worldwide distribution deal for his sound library. Interested parties can pay to use his effects in music, film, TV, multimedia and software via his company Ultimate FX. He is also producing a TV project currently in development with Buena Vista entitled “Preacher Man.”
To learn more about sound see resonatingfx.com