As I sat in the temple of movie sound — the main theater in Skywalker Ranch — the thing that truly brought home for me the power of well-utilized sound and music in film was a simple demonstration Burtt did for us. He played a short scene from Star Wars, first with all the sound and music in place, then stripped away the score, and then the sound effects, finally leaving just the footage with the raw sound captured at filming. The difference was startling. Each sound element added a powerful set of cues that helped drive the emotion and overall impact of the scene.
Since that lecture I have often times found myself listening to a movie as much as I watch it. I was reminded of that incredible college experience last year at TED when James Horner spoke. As Horner deconstructed the famous scene from Titanic for which he won an Academy Award, I could hear Ben Burtt stressing the same things about emotion and emphasis. With any luck I will get a chance this year at TED to talk with Peter Gabriel about his incredible score to the film Birdy and see what further insights he has to share.