Mark Mangini, sound designer on documentary Good Night Oppy, talks to TVBEurope about creating believable sounds for the Mars Opportunity rover, including when it developed arthritis
By Jenny Priestley
Published: November 24, 2022
Mark Mangini, sound designer on documentary Good Night Oppy, talks to TVBEurope about creating believable sounds for the Mars Opportunity rover, including when it developed arthritis
target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn class=share-linkedin>
Sound designer Mark Mangini is no stranger to working on major sci-fi movies having won Oscars for his work on Mad Max: Fury Road and Dune. He's also credited with recording and editing a new sound for Leo the Lion, MGM's mascot.
Mangini's latest project takes him literally out of this world. He talks to TVBEurope about creating the sound for a new documentary that charts the story of Opportunity, a NASA exploration rover that was sent to Mars for a 90-day mission but ended up surviving for 15 years.
How did you get involved with Good Night Oppy? The OPPY filmmakers had approached my studio about doing the post production sound work. They had me at the top of their wish list as the sound designer they most wanted but were afraid I wouldn't be interested in anything but feature films. To the contrary, when I saw the teaser and spoke with Ryan White, the director, I knew this was something I had to do. I loved the film, I loved the message and I relished the opportunity to work with and at NASA and JPL to capture authentic sounds.
What exactly was your role on the project and what does that involve? My role was that of sound designer. I am the person responsible for creating everything that the audience hears except the music. The musical score, which is amazing, was written by Blake Neely.
Movies are made up of three major components: dialogue, sound effects and music. My team and I recorded hundreds of authentic sounds at NASA and Jet Propulsion Library like the rovers and the control rooms, designed sounds that have never been heard before like the sound of landing on Mars or Martian wind, edited thousands of incidental sounds like footsteps and computer keyboards and then mixed them together to create the final soundtrack.
Remember that 30 minutes of the film take place on Mars and there were no microphones to capture any of Oppy's journey. ILM created stunning photorealistic VFX for all of Oppy's adventures on Mars but, of course, they are made in a computer and have no sound at all. It was our job to record, create and edit a realistic audio soundscape for everything the audience sees, but from scratch!
How did working on Good Night Oppy differ to working on a project like Dune? Dune is a narrative film in the science-fiction genre. This means that we see many things we've never seen before and, as such, we have licence to invent sound for those things we've never heard before. Oppy is a documentary. In documentaruies we feel a deep and abiding responsibility to present the audience with sound that is authentic, to give them as realistic experience as possible. This made work complex because much of the film utilises archival footage that had no sound with it. Our team had to reconstruct these sounds, sometimes finding modern equivalencies. For example, when NASA was testing the balloons that would cushion Oppy's landing on Mars, the footage had no sound so I re-imagined it by bouncing a beach ball on the dirt in my backyard and slowing it down to give it size and weight.
What technology did you use? I used digital mobile sound recorders to capture new sounds at NASA and JPL. When I designed and edited the voice of Oppy and made the sounds of the rovers, I used digital audio workstations on desktop computers, in this case Avid's Pro Tools and hosts of plugins that allowed me to alter the original sounds into something new. When all the sounds were recorded and designed and edited, I mixed them together in a recording studio using a large frame digital mixing console while watching a digital projection on the screen.
How do you create the sound of both the rover and Mars? The rover was made out of many components but mostly the actual sounds of the rover prototypes of Oppy and Perseverance at JPL. We drove them on a fake Mars landscape built on the campus at JPL in Pasadena that included the same type of terrain that Oppy might encounter. This gave us many of the motors and mechanical sounds we needed as well as the unique sound of Oppy's aluminum wheels rolling on hard rock.
We made the voice of Oppy, the electronic chittering it makes when it communicates with NASA, out of hard disk chatter modulated with my voice speaking what Oppy would have said in English if it could speak.
Mark Mangini The coolest sounds were the ambiences on Mars. When I began the project, I started creating sounds for what I thought Mars would sound like based on my imagination. We knew from NASA footage that there was wind on the planet so I started imagining what those winds might sound like in a sterile and lonely landscape. A couple of months into the work, NASA released to me the first-ever recordings made on another planet! They had put a single microphone on Perseverance and it had captured Martian wind! A very short, monoaural snippet, I might add. I think only 10 seconds long. I took this sound, extended it and weaved it into a fully immersive Dolby Atmos ambience and used it whenever we were on the surface of the planet. In fact, the very first sound you hear in the film are those winds captured on the Martian surface, captured by the rover!
How much collaboration did you have with the director and the film editors? There was a great deal of collaboration with the director, producer and film editors. These are critical relationships on every film. From the first day
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
16/07/2026
33 leading exhibitors are taking part in the GREAT Britain and Northern Ireland Pavilions and linked locations across IBC2026 (Amsterdam RAI, 11 14 September)...
16/07/2026
Hitomi Broadcast will introduce Spectra, a new HDR colour verification solution measured in picture, not using VPID, at IBC2026 (Hall 10, Stand A40). Expanding ...
16/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/07/2026
Zixi, a leader in live video delivery and workflow orchestration, and Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) today announced a strategic new integration to deliver ...
16/07/2026
Blackmagic Design Cameras Capture Immersive Flight for New Cirrus App
Brie Clayton July 15, 2026
0 Comments
Leader in Personal Aviation taps URSA Cin...
16/07/2026
XenData Announces LTO Archive Appliances with both File and S3 Object Storage In...
16/07/2026
Together the semi-finals had a combined reach of 1.98 million unique individuals...
15/07/2026
The 2026 FIFA World Cup is a big deal for DAZN, which has distribution rights in three markets: Italy, Spain, and Japan. Each requires a different editorial app...
15/07/2026
As sports-media organizations manage rapidly growing content libraries and incre...
15/07/2026
HBS director of digital Johannes Franken talks SVG Europe through the operation built to serve FIFA World Cup 2026 rights holders remotely from Stratford, east ...
15/07/2026
IBC has unveiled the conference program for IBC2026, with this year's event ...
15/07/2026
Software-defined wideband RF platform supports 96-kHz monitoring, streamlined fr...
15/07/2026
New AI-powered module enables broadcasters and content owners to extract dialogu...
15/07/2026
Weeklong gathering at EBU headquarters will test new IPMX capabilities and expand certified product ecosystem...
15/07/2026
Force Tech has announced the appointment of Bryan Adams, CTS, as Vice President of Integration. Adams will oversee AV and broadcast integration project delivery...
15/07/2026
USA Sports has announced an exclusive English-language agreement with the Bundes...
15/07/2026
ITV Sport's FIFA World Cup 2026 coverage has been produced from one of the m...
15/07/2026
Program will provide professional camera kits, training, and technical support to participating local newsrooms...
15/07/2026
San Francisco church becomes first U.S. deployment of the 2 M/E production switcher...
15/07/2026
Former ESPN and NFL Network executive to advise startup league on media, distribution, technology, and fan engagement...
15/07/2026
The Houston-based RSN is the live-game home of the Astros and Rockets...
15/07/2026
Launched alongside new FreqSoft installer
Designed to bridge the gap between hardware and software, Freqport's FreqInOut FO1 unit provides a simple way ...
15/07/2026
Save up to 55% on software until 23 July 2026
Expressive E have just launched their Summer Offer sale, with discounts of up to 55% now applied across their ...
15/07/2026
Real-time stem-separation tool updated
zplane have recently released a new and improved version of their real-time stem-separation plug-in which they say ma...
15/07/2026
A new benchmark in bass enhancement
Described as a new benchmark in bass enhancement , Baby Audio's latest release has been designed to augment the lo...
15/07/2026
DMC Production's AR 1 and AR 2 units reverse the conventional OB workflow, keeping all production-critical processing at the venue while operators work remo...
15/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/07/2026
GigaCloud, a leading Ukrainian cloud service provider, and Cubbit, the first geo-distributed cloud storage enabler, today announced a new Business Alliance Part...
15/07/2026
SMPTE, the global society for media professionals, technologists, and engineers, has announced the launch of the SMPTE 110th Anniversary Campaign, a fundraising...
15/07/2026
Studio Technologies, a leading manufacturer of high-quality audio, video, and fiber-optic solutions, unveils the new StudioComm Model 762 Stereo Level Control, ...
15/07/2026
COW Jobs: Producer, Virtual Events - Hybrid, Full Time, Salaried
Brie Clayton July 15, 2026
0 Comments
Producer, Virtual Events (Hybrid | Full-time | ...
15/07/2026
Brazilian media organization builds nationwide CDN with Broadpeak's high-performance software for low-latency streaming and new content distribution service...
15/07/2026
DHD announces a new utility designed to increase the efficiency of its audio mixing systems during initial installation and subsequent configuration.
Anyone w...
15/07/2026
BCNEXXT Brings Next-Generation Vipe to IBC2026, Breaking the 1:1 Channel-to-Server Ratio New innovations liberate broadcasters from legacy playout infrastructur...
15/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/07/2026
General-purpose robots and autonomous machines are moving from research labs to ...
15/07/2026
Wednesday 15 July 2026
Screeners and press pack now available: Gomorrah: The Or...
15/07/2026
Trinity's Treasures features Ruth Negga, Eleanor McEvoy, and David Norris, a...
15/07/2026
Join geographer Dr Susan Hegarty, Engineer Tim Joyce and Architect Orla Murphy a...
Mark Mangini, sound designer on documentary Good Night Oppy, talks to TVBEurope about creating believable sounds for the Mars Opportunity rover, including when it developed arthritis
