Nathan Robitaille Wiki: Sound Editor, Net Worth, 'Assault On Precinct 13' & Facts To Know

You have probably watched “The Shape of Water,” which is a 2017 romantic drama thriller film with a twist of Dark Fantasy. Set in Baltimore, in the year 1962 “The Shape of Water” is about a mute custodian at a government laboratory that is high-secured. The custodian befriends a humanoid-amphibian creature. The movie would not have been a success if it were not for the team who sacrificed their time to work on it. Working with the director Guillermo del Toro was Nathan Robitaille. The film has been nominated for Oscar 2018 in different categories and was awarded the Gold Lion for best film. You might be wondering who Nathan Robitaille is. Well, not much of his information is on the web, but according to Wikipedia, he is a Canada born sound editor and his most notable work was on “The Shape of Water” because he was nominated for Oscar 2018 for his contribution to the film. From Robitaille’s LinkedIn profile we learn that he has been a sound editor since 2004 working for Work Bench Inc. and Sound Dogs Toronto. He previously worked for Urban Audio. Robitaille graduated from Fanshawe College in 2002 with a Music Industry Arts and Digital Application degree. Other projects that Robitaille has worked on are “Death Race,” “Assault On Precinct 13,” “The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones” and much more and he has earned his net worth.

Almost everything in the film is a suit-and-tie affair as directed by Guillermo del Toro. The film opened on December 8 and like mentioned above it’s about a mute woman going by the name of Elisa, and she works on the night shift as a custodian of a government facility. Inside the facility, there is a top secret ‘Asset’ being held captive by Colonel Strickland. It’s an amphibious creature that becomes friends with Elisa. She goes ahead to convince her neighbor Giles to help her save the creature from the government laboratory. Strickland pursues them determined to retake custody of the creature. The sound of the film went through some thorough editing to make the film come out perfectly regarding sound quality. That task was given to the sound editor, Nathan Robitaille. Robitaille designed the little sounds like space-aged lab-gadget sounds to the dense atmosphere and created the creature’s sound. Nathan Robitaille also used water sounds to show the metaphorical connection between water and love. “The Shape of Water” is the leading on Oscar 2018 in terms of nominations. It has been nominated for 13 categories. Chances are high that they will take some of those awards home including Robitaille’s.

Robitaille’s past work including “Death Race,” “Assault on Precinct 13,” and “The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones” was an assurance that he was a talented sound editor. Besides, Robitaille had worked with del Toro on “The Strain” alongside Nelson Ferreira who was the supervisor on the film, “The Shape of Water.” Guillermo was familiar with his work, and so it wasn’t hard for him to land the job. The sound editor was looking for a project to work on and when “Shape of Water” came up, Dough forwarded the script to him and when he saw that it was about a mute woman falling in love with an expressive creature who spoke no language but communicated, he loved it and was all over it.

Robitaille stated that Guillermo was actively involved in sound design and made it clear what his priorities were from the very beginning. There were also some smaller elements that he wanted to flesh out from the start and they all went smoothly. The biggest element the Robitaille and the director had was the creature because it was a vital part of the film. Not everything went smoothly though, according to Robitaille. He received the lab torture scene second, and it was among the last creature scenes in the film to go past the finish line. In short, it was a tricky part to work on. However, Robitaille also said that the scene saw a lot of love before anybody could watch and get convinced.

Robitaille said that he was directed by Guillermo to make the OCCAM look like a place out of bounds. So together they thought the facility should sound like an impenetrable fortress. The movie has an elevator, and several sub-basement levels and the tone grew heavier and built pressure as if it was a diving submarine. Robitaille also said that the T4 lab was constructed to look helpless and be similar to an aquatic prison. Some of Robitaille’s favorite sounds in the movie were in the background like the ‘beep-poop’ that was cut in by sound editor Dashen Naidoo for space-aged lab-gadgets. It was fun for them, but Robitaille thought that the light-hearted attitude helped them undermine the villain’s authority.

According to Net Worth Post, Nathan Robitaille has a net worth of $1 million. The movies that he has worked on as a sound editor are the ones that have helped him make his net worth.

Robitaille was happy after he heard that he was nominated for an Oscar 2018 award. He has a high chance of taking the award home, but his fate lies with the voters.