Sunday, 30 October 2011

Jimmy MacDonald

As part of this blog I have to compare my first chosen designer with a second.
The first designer I've spoken about is Ben Burtt and his amazing sound design.

The second designer I'd like to talk about is Jimmy MacDonald.  




photo from http://www.dvdizzy.com/images/t-v/tlav1-13.jpg
MacDonald was a sound designer for Disney, and was appointed head of the sound effects department by Walt Disney himself!
He is very much the father of sound effects, and Ben Burtt has said he was inspired by Jimmy MacDonald.

photo from http://www.michaelbarrier.com/Funnyworld/Macdonald/Macdonald0001.jpg

Jimmy MacDonald started as a drummer (as did most sound effects designers back then I was  surprised to find out!) and in the 1930's he played with a band on the "Dollar Steamship Line".  

When he first began working for Walt Disney, MacDonald said:

"You know I had an awful time being still about the idea of not getting ready to go on a boat or whatever, ah, it was certain, certain sound of that foghorn and so-forth that it was tough to settle down."

In the end though, he decided that the foghorn couldn't compare to making sound effects for Mickey Mouse cartoons with Disney:

"I used to drive by it….and they had a great huge sign out in front with big pic, er, a big picture of Mickey. And ah, I'll never forget my first day coming over, I was, scared outta my wits, I really was, I thought, 'ooh, big studio, Disney Studio'. Because, we were all raised on Mickey Mouse." 

Early Mickey Mouse cartoons used musical sounds for their sound effects.
MacDonald created the sound props department at Disney:
"They had no props, not one prop here, that's why drummers were called. First place they had the facility in their hands, to do, everything that was required. And it was mostly the ah, the props that pit drummers would have, the slide whistle, the dude harp, the break drums,  ah, bulb horns, all of those gadgets these drummers had. The studio didn't have any. So after a couple of calls, I was asked, if I'd liked to stay and help develop a sound effects department, and I thought that was great!"

Jimmy MacDonald found himself working on many projects at the same time and didn't always know the names of the films he was working on:

"I worked on many pictures and never even knew the name of the things. I'd be down there doing the effects and ah, the name really wasn't as important to me as it was [to] the animators."

MacDonald made many, many sound effect props in his time at Disney.  These props made all sorts of sounds, from a creaky screen door spring (as I noted was commented on by Ben Burtt in my last blog entry) to machine gun sounds, rain, wind, and wave machines. 
One of these props in particular that was talked about in the video, is the rain machine.
It's an enclosed cylinder (like the raffle barrels that spin with a handle on the side) and it has strips of nails attached on the inside, with the points sticking out, and dried peas that move freely.  When the barrel is turned, the peas run over the nails making a sound like rain falling.  And you can spin the barrel faster or slower depending on how you want the rain to sound.  I personally found this one of the most interesting of the props, because it seems so simple, and yet it's an incredibly effective sound machine!  I would love to try it out myself!

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