Silence is Golden Alumnus Kevin Brittingham founded a business that has had significant influence in Hollywood and on U.S. military forces around the world. If you’ve seen “Saving Private Ryan,” “Pearl Harbor” or “Band of Brothers,” you’re probably aware of the attention to realism of these films. You probably weren’t aware that a Georgia College alumnus was a major factor in causing that realism. Every sound of every firearm from each of these films came from the unique and historic weapons collection of Kevin Brittingham, ’96.
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“In 1997, one of my friends saw an internet post looking for a specific collection of weapons from World War II for a special project,” said Brittingham. “They got in touch with me, and a few weeks later we were at my brother’s farm in Bethlehem (Ga.) filming and recording sound for Steven Spielberg’s ‘Saving Private Ryan.’”
“From a technical standpoint — that movie was groundbreaking,” he said.
George Lucas’ Skywalker Sound, the sound engineers for “Saving Private Ryan,” were so interested in authenticity that Brittingham’s unique collection was a must-have for their film. They recorded every sound imaginable from his collection of weapons: loading, firing, bullet impact on metal and concrete, the sound a bullet makes when it passes at a high rate of speed.
Skywalker Sound came back to Brittingham a couple of years later to record sound for Jerry Bruckheimer’s film “Pearl Harbor” and the HBO miniseries “Band of Brothers.”
Georgia College Connection | Summer 2013
The industry took notice. In 1999, “Saving Private Ryan” won two Academy Awards for sound —Best Sound Mixing and Best Sound Effects Editing.
While his firearms collection was gaining recognition in Hollywood for the sounds they made, Brittingham was busy building a business whose signature product, ironically, was designed to suppress the sound