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Frame from My Squirrel Recording is in a MOVIE! 📽 DUNE: Mark Mangini, Oscar Winning Sound Designer Plays via YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed

My Squirrel Recording is in a MOVIE! 📽 DUNE: Mark Mangini, Oscar Winning Sound Designer

Dani Connor Wild
Interviews
YouTube
1 HN user recommended this interview1 month2021–2026 score 1
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

Linked in threads about Dune's sound design as a first-hand interview about the squirrel recording.

Wildlife videographer Dani Connor Wild talks with Oscar-winning sound designer Mark Mangini about how her red squirrel recording became the desert mouse sound in Dune.

“interview with the person who originally recorded the squirrel (Dani Connor)” (HN, 2024)

1 recommendations · 3 citations · Interviews

4 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@throw0101a Mar 2022 Recommends
on HN thread The secret sounds of Dune: Rice Krispies and Marianne Faithfull
Two good videos on the topic of sound in Dune . The first from Vanity Fair , "How 'Dune' Composer Hans Zimmer Created the Oscar-Nominated Score": * [link] Interesting tidbit: a good number of the "bagpipe" sounds were not created with bagpipes. The second is from wild life photograph Dani Connor, "My Squirrel Recording is in a movie: Interview with Mark Mangini, Oscar Winning Sound Designer": * [this video] A squirrel recording of hers was used to make the sound in the desert mouse ( muad'dib ) scene.
Interview about a squirrel recording used for the desert mouse in Dune.

Citations, criticism and jokes

@throw0101a Oct 2021 Cites it
on HN thread “Dune” (The Movie), Annotated
> The sound editor could have done that more tastefully. An interview with Mark Mangini, the sound designer, with someone whose sound was used in Dune (for the desert mouse, muad'dib ): * [this video]
Interview with Dune sound designer about the desert mouse sound.
@throw0101c Apr 2024 Cites it
on HN thread Dune ornithopters flap their blades in the wrong plane for vertical takeoff
The scene in the movie where they're first shown: * [link] Somewhat related, the sound design team (who won an Oscar for their work) used cats purring, beetles fluttering, and the canvas strap of a tent in a 100mph wind for the sound of the ornithopters (at 2m40s) * [link] Also, for the desert mouse (muad'dib) they used a Swedish baby red squirrel (named Baby Pear); interview with the person who originally recorded the squirrel (Dani Connor): * [this video]
Interview with the recordist whose squirrel became the desert mouse.
@throw0101d Mar 2026 Cites it
on HN thread My Astrophotography in the Movie Project Hail Mary
Somewhat related, nature photographer/youtuber Danni Connor had her recording of a red squirrel used in the movie Dune (Part 1) for the sound of the desert mouse ( muad'dib ). Her interviewing with (Oscar-winning) sound designer Mark Mangini on it: * [this video] * transcript: [link] * [link] * [link] Story of her 'adopting' the squirrels: * [link] The name of the squirrel is "Baby Pear"; her viral tweet: * [link]
Interview with Dune's Oscar-winning sound designer about a squirrel recording.

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