7/21/2019 Ethan Van Der Ryn: Designer Profile

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Ethan Van Der Ryn

Noteable Involvements:

 

Terminator II: Judgement Day (1991)

  Pearl Harbour (2001)

  Transfromers:

o 

Revenge of the Fallen (2009)

o  Dark of the Moon (2011)

o  Age of Extinction (2014)

  The Lord of The Rings:

o 

The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

o  The Two Towers (2002)

o 

Return of the King (2003)  G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013)

  King Kong (2005)

  Godzilla (2014)

Ethan Van Der Ryn is an award-winning sound designer and a supervising sound designer in charge of the

sound production company E2 Sound. Born in Almeda, California, USA in 1962, Ethan began his career as a

sound effects editor (prior to this he was a sound assistant during the 1980s) for the 1991 film Terminator 2:

 Judgement Day . Ethan gained his first Academy Award for sound design for his work on the 2002 film The

Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. After his work on Michael Bay’s Pearl Harbour   (2001) he became a

supervising sound editor for almost all of his subsequent collaborations, while also working as one of thesound designers for most of them.

Ethan founded E2 Sound with Erik Aadahl sometime before 2001 where The Lord of the Rings served as

the company’s first major collaboration. He is considered by his colleagues at E2 Sound as difficult to please

and highly enthusiastic about his work. His common method involves looking to new levels in order to find

new sounds, sometimes in grand ways. During the creation of Peter Jackson’s King Kong “Ethan got to throw

cars off cliffs, then decimate them with enormous boulders.”  (Kunkes, 2006) When making a palette of roars

for Godzilla  (2014), one of the things the E2  team did was set up a large speaker system within an empty

street in order to understand what the structural arrangement of a built-up area does to Godzilla’s roar. 

Bibliography

  Abrams, B., 2014; Godzilla Sound Designers Erik Aadahl & Ethan Van Der Ryn On Creature Language;

The Credits; available at http://www.thecredits.org/2014/05/godzilla-sound-designers-erik-aadahl-

ethan-van-der-ryn-on-creature-language/ (last accessed 3rd March 2015)

  E Squared, 2015; Behind the Scenes; E Squared Sound; available at

http://www.e2sound.com/profiles/ (last accessed 3rd

 March 2015)

  Franklin, O., 2011; Transforming Sound For Sci-Fi: How Transformers ‘ Effects Were Created; Wired;

available at http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2011/08/play/scound-for-sci-fi (last

accessed 3rd March 2015)

Figure 1: Ethan Van Der Ryn in 2013 (Winter

2013) 

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  IMDb, 2014; Ethan Van Der Ryn; Internet Movie Database; available at

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0886399/ (last accessed 3rd

 march 2015)

  Kunkes, M., 2006; ‘Kong’ Proves 800lb Gorilla in Academy’s Sound Catergories; Editor’s Guild

Magazine, available at

http://www.editorsguild.com/v2/magazine/archives/0506/news_article03.htm (last accessed 3rd

March 2015)

  The Numbers, 2014; Ethan Van Der Ryn; The Numbers; available at http://www.the-

numbers.com/person/145530401-Ethan-Van-der-Ryn#tab=technical (last accessed 3rd

 March 2015)

Image References

  Figure 1: Winter, K., 2013 [Ethan Van Der Ryn in 2013]; The Wrap 4th

 Annucal Pre-Order - Party Red

Carpet; available at

http://www1.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Ethan+Van+Der+Ryn+TheWrap+4th+Annual+Pre+Oscar+65nA

 _LX5P2ul.jpg (last accessed 3rd

 March 2015)