Amon Tobin watched Avatar at Skywalker Ranch with James Cameron

Composer and producer Amon Tobin has discussed the time he spent at Skywalker Ranch, the famous ranch of filmmaker and sound designer George Lucas, on the latest episode of the My Forever Studio podcast.

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Skywalker Ranch serves as the work place of Lucas, and is also where the sound division (Skywalker Sound) of his company LucasFilm is situated. During the most recent episode of MusicTech’s My Forever Studio, which is in partnership with Audient, Tobin revealed what it was like when he spent some time there himself.

Tobin discussed his dream studio and shared that it would include a fireplace, as he had previously had one in a studio before despite its impracticality. When asked by host Will Betts if the fireplace wood would have to have no knots in it (as per a rumour that George Lucas had requested to have no knots in the wood used at Skywalker Ranch), the topic of conversation then led on to what it’s truly like at the illustrious ranch which is private to the public.

Tobin revealed that he would go to watch old movies there on a Monday with some friends of his who were sound designers. “When Avatar came out, they [the sound designers at the ranch] were like ‘Oh, this Monday’s a bit special. You should definitely come round!’. So I went over there and James Cameron and George Lucas were there and they were talking about the film,” he said.

“It was just like a really small room of people watching and I guess what they do is they watch the film before it goes to be distributed ‘cause they work on all the sound obviously, and then they get to hear it in the way that they made it before it gets destroyed by all the horrific sound systems of all these terrible theatres. So it’s sort of a final, ‘Oh my God, after all my hard work I get to see what I’ve done’.”

You can listen to the full episode of My Forever Studio below: