One Category at a Time: Sound Editing

As it is in Best Sound Mixing, the competition for the Best Sound Editing trophy seems to be pretty well sewn up. Even though a 4/5 overlap with the former category makes a separate analysis of the latter somewhat redundant, let's take a look at the nominees anyhow. After all, last year saw the first time ever that the two sound awards were split between three films, so clearly the Academy doesn't always lump the two together -- often, but not always.

My Award nominations: Sound Editing

Last year my nominees for Best Sound Editing were five completely different films than my nominees for Best Sound Mixing, but as much as I do wish I could similarly spread the wealth this year, there were a couple of films whose sound elements simply could not be denied recognition in both categories.

My Award nominations: Sound Mixing

The sound people provided us with a wealth of rich sounding films this year. I once thought that my own award would be a slam dunk for one film in particular, but as I look at my final five, I honestly don't know which one I'm going to crown the best Sound Mixing of the year. They're all so deserving...

Review - All Is Lost

The 'old man and the sea' concept gets amped up to eleven in J.C. Chandor's arresting new survival drama All Is Lost, in which Robert Redford (referred to simply as “Our Man” by the closing credits) struggles to keep a sinking yacht afloat in the Indian Ocean.

Chandor's screenplay, which barely runs 31 pages due to its virtual absence of dialogue, is elegant in its simplicity; a refreshingly radical U-turn from the dense verbosity of his 2011 debut Margin Call. Our man wakes up from a nap on his 30' luxury yacht, the Virginia Jean, to discover water pouring in through a hole in the hull. He must rely on his resourcefulness and stoic determination (albeit one that's slowly ebbing away) as his situation constantly deteriorates from bad to worse to worse yet.

My Award nominations: Sound Mixing

For the first time in a long time, I have no overlap between my Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing nominees. I guess that's testament to what a rich and diverse year it's been for sound design overall. I'm also pleased to see that three of my five are the frontrunners for the Oscar. Whoever wins it this year will have earned it.

Review - Beasts of the Southern Wild

A remarkable meditation on the balance of nature and the inevitability of change, rookie feature director Benh Zeitlin's Beasts of the Southern Wild chronicles the life-changing odyssey of a little girl and her small community as they attempt to keep their way of life afloat following a cataclysmic event.

Six-year-old Quvenzhane Wallis plays Hushpuppy, a fiercely curious child with simple yet profound knowledge about the way the universe fits together. In her bayou shanty town affectionately entitled The Bathtub (a marvelously constructed film environment that brims with character), she lives with her father Wink (Dwight Henry) and an assortment of free-range pets whose heartbeats she is always listening for – a reassurance that the pulse of the universe is still ticking. When news comes that a terrific storm approaches their low-lying tract of land, many head for higher ground, but Wink and a handful of other holdouts stubbournly stay to spite this catastrophic occurrence. Meanwhile, ancient beasts known as aurochs – think Erymanthian Boar, but bigger – are thawed out of the southern polar icecaps, and migrate north out of hunger towards the now sunken Bathtub. With their homes below water, the ragtag group of swamp dwellers band together and eke out a survival plan, while Hushpuppy watches and learns, all the while looking for a way to fix the broken piece of the universe and set things right once more.

My Award nominations: Sound Editing

Sound Editing:

Black Swan (Brain Emrich, Craig Henighan):
Dance steps and swirling costumes sound suspiciously like fluttering wings. Creative ambient noise cranks up the tension considerably.

How to Train Your Dragon (Al Nelson, Randy Thom, Jonathan Null):
A plethora of wonderfully imaginative and persuasive dragon sound effects stand out, although let's not forget all those awesome Viking war machines!

Inception (Richard King):
Explosions and weapon-fire are subtly altered to give a convincing but slightly surreal palette of sounds for the dream world.

Robin Hood (Harry Cohen, Ann Scibelli, Wylie Stateman, Mark Stoeckinger):
Didn't care for the movie, but it sounded great! Those zipping arrows and combative clanks are what carried the action sequences.

TRON Legacy (Steve Boeddeker, Christopher Boyes, Addison Teague, Gwen Whittle):
Those digitized crashes, hums, vrooms, and booms feel right at home in The Grid. They sound appropriately dangerous as well.

Just missed: 127 Hours, Iron Man 2, Scott Pilgrim vs the World