Johnnie Burn (‘The Zone of Interest’ sound designer) describes the research he did to produce the sounds of Auschwitz [Exclusive Video Interview]
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To produce the distinct sound design for “The Zone of Interest,” Johnnie Burn (sound designer and re-recording mixer) had to conduct a ton of research including reading novels and the testimonies of guards and prisoners at Auschwitz. From there he was able to create a template to frame the sounds of the movie. “I made a document that was about 600 pages long that catalogued all of the planes, automobiles, guns and everything that I needed to record, but more importantly, what to go and find so that I could reenact it,” he tells Gold Derby during our recent webchat (watch the exclusive video interview above). This led to a year-long quest to record different sounds including people playing in parks, people shouting in pain, rioters in Paris and young men shouting at 3:00 am as they exited a club. “We just knew that to have sound that was going to work, it had to be credible. It had to be things that were real.”
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“The Zone of Interest,” which will be released in theaters later this month, is from Jonathan Glazer and marks his first film in 10 years. The film centers on Rudolf Höss, the commandant of the concentration camp at Auschwitz. Living directly next door to the camp, Höss seeks to build an idealistic life for his wife and five children while also maximizing the “efficiency” of the camp as part of his job. The film is the official selection of the United Kingdom for this year’s Oscar race for Best International Feature and back in May, the movie won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival. On Sunday, when the film won the Best Score prize from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, Burn received a special citation for his sound work alongside composer Mica Levi.
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Burn has been working with Glazer now for 25 years. Their first collaboration was on the disturbing music video “Rabbit in Your Headlights” by UNKLE featuring Radiohead’s Thom Yorke. “That’s what really got me into film was working with Jonathan for a few good years and him mentioning that he had a film coming up and that I should figure out how to do it because I was going to do it. This was ‘Birth.’” Burn’s favorite thing about working with Glazer as a director is the way he explores the medium and how he’s willing to explore all different aspects of putting a movie together. “This may be filming, talking to a composer, picture editing or with an actor, when he sees something that he thinks is the good bit, he’s quite happy to pivot his whole format of filmmaking around a new, better idea.”
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