Warner Bros' Inception is one of this summer’s most highly anticipated films, and Full Sail Recording Arts Graduate Gary Rizzo, sound re-recording mixer on the film, wants audiences to know that “just like a dream, this is the [movie] that breaks the most rules; the one that will actually challenge the audience. This is the one that will really make people think long after the movie is over.”

Inception is Gary’s fourth post-production partnership with director Christopher Nolan for sound mixing. He and mix partner Lora Hirschberg first collaborated with the director on Batman Begins.  Supervising Sound Editor Richard King then joined Lora & Gary for The Prestige, and The Dark Knight.

“Chris has assembled a great team, and it's an honor to have been a part of it for so many terrific projects."  Gary says. “Chris is interested in powerful, effective emotions…he really wants to make a big impact with both picture and sound, and he relies on his crew to follow through and deliver and do so in a timely manner. That’s an exciting team to be a part of.”

From as early as the first temp mix of Inception, it was evident to Gary that he was contributing to a unique project.  “From an emotional perspective, this film is always growing and from a sound perspective, we're always having to keep up with it. The film feels as if it starts as one genre and almost morphs into another.” he says. “There are very passionate sequences with characters expressing incredible loss.  A sweeping Hans Zimmer score and delicate production dialog tracks prevail here.  In the same movie, you also have big, James Bond-like action sequences, with skiing, guns, military vehicles and explosions. This soundtrack as well as the screenplay are deliberately dynamic, to serve the emotional effectiveness of the film the whole way through."

The environments and scene settings are an example of this dynamic. With a plot that cuts within several layers of consciousness, from a rainy urban environment in one dream, to an inhospitable snowy mountain in the next, and then to a oddly foreign, yet somehow familiar hotel, there was considerable variation in the different soundscapes that Gary and the crew were responsible for.

“In certain scenes where the mix does get powerful and punctuated with sound effects, the layers of punctuation are wonderfully refreshing.  This is because we utilized some unorthodox sound elements,” says Gary. “Visuals that one would traditionally expect to sound a certain way, are not adhered to [in this film.]”  Gary further explains and elaborates on a specific scene that takes place in Paris:

“Everything is rapidly exploding around us, but none with the element of fire… and as fast as each explosion is, they rapidly and individually go into extreme slow motion immediately after combustion. Vehicles are being unnaturally tossed about, and the cobblestone from all over the street is exploding like geysers.  The explos each have an ultra-low end energy rush that starts off each event. Then there’s a tonal, sound-design-y element that fulfills the combustion, then the literal sound of the debris that travels away from the explosion - normally not heard clearly through a huge fiery explosion - and then a layer of design that resembles mid-range organic moans. But none [of those elements] are a traditional fiery explosion like you would think. I love that!"

“Chris is an all-round exquisite filmmaker,” says Gary. “He understands and maximizes all of the aspects and all of the mediums that go into filmmaking.  And he’s very loyal to the team, which I very much appreciate."

"When we work for Chris, we are working with Chris. He is right there with us everyday. He directs us like he directs the actors. We are working with direct input from his perspective to complete the emotional quotient for any given point in the movie.”

With more than 15 years in the industry, Gary has accumulated an enviable list of credits: Office Space, Fahrenheit 9/11, Hellboy, The Incredibles, 9, Brüno, Hoodwinked!, How to Train Your Dragon*, and many others. Recently, Gary received the distinction of becoming a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. With only 6,000 fellow voting members worldwide, it’s definitely an elite honor.

“2010 has been an amazing year, one that I do NOT take for granted.” Gary says. “I started with Percy Jackson, went right into How to Train Your Dragon, Oceans, and then Inception.  This fall, I move onto the mix of Tron Legacy, and now with the Academy [honor], 2010 has turned out to be a banner year.”