My Award Nominations: Sound Mixing

A 3/5 crossover this year between my two sound categories. That's more than I usually want, but the three double-dippers just can't be denied. Find out what they are, plus what other two titles I loved for their Sound Mixing:

My Award Nominations: Sound Editing

Only a little more than a week before the big night. Over the next three days I'll be polishing off my personal nominations, leading up to the unveiling of my top 20 list starting on Tuesday.

For today, I'm tackling the sound categories, beginning with Sound Editing:

One Category at a Time (x2): Sound Mixing+Editing

It seems like every year I end up saying something along the lines of, "the sound categories are especially tough this year". In truth, they're just hard every year. Which precursor do you believe in? Do you double down on one movie winning both (usually the case), or do you hedge your bets by predicting a split? Will it even be the right split?

I twist myself into a pretzel every year running over the permutations, so this year I'm gonna do myself a favour and just get Sound Mixing and Sound Editing over with quickly in one brief post. Like ripping off a band-aid.

Early Oscar Predictions: Sound

Music and sound are amongst the final touches to be put on a film, which means there's usually not much to go on when trying to predict Oscar nominees from a year out. Actioners, war movies, or films of a grand size and scale are as good a bet as any at this stage. Better yet if their crews feature sound designers and mixers you have had brushes with awards success in the past.

My Award Nominations: Best Sound Editing

For today's entry on my ballot, we're lending an ear to the best sound jobs of 2014. Herewith are my nominees for Best Sound Editing, which will be followed later today by my sound mixing favourites. I usually try to minimize overlap between the two categories, although there are always a couple of titles that deserve recognition in both. You'll just have to guess which of these five will double dip!

Review - How to Train Your Dragon 2

It's usually hard to get excited about the film franchises of DreamWorks Animation. In order to cling to the pop culture zeitgeist on which so many of them depend, the studio churns out sequels and spinoffs with a rapidity and middling quality that might be better suited to television! One could therefore be forgiven for being pessimistic on the prospects of a sequel to How to Train Your Dragon, a critically acclaimed box office hit that spun the quaint morality tale of how an oddball viking named Hiccup (Jay Burachel) managed to capture and bond with the most unlikely of pets: a wild dragon he named Toothless.

I quite enjoyed that film when it was released back in 2010, and my affection for it has only grown since then. Obviously, my hopes weren't too high for its inevitable follow-up, but this is one sequel for which DreamWorks deserved the benefit of the doubt. How to Train Your Dragon 2 truly delivers, and with fiery confidence to boot. Not only is it the studio's most thrilling adventure to date, but also its most thematically robust and elegantly handled as well.

The story picks up five years after the events of the first Dragon, in which time the once dragon-fearing highland village of Berk has become a more harmonious place where Vikings and dragons happily coexist. Hiccup's father Stoick (Gerard Butler) is intent on preparing his son to eventually succeed him as clan chieftain, but the soul-searching Hiccup naturally has his doubts. He'd rather devote his time to flying around on Toothless, mapping out new lands, outfitted with a tricked-out steampunk wing-suit that allows him to literally glide alongside his winged companion.

MPSE winners!

This is a pretty good slate. Inception took home two deserved trophies for Richard King's terrific sound design and for the outstanding integration of Hans Zimmer's music. It's the one with the Oscar heat in this category, but there's still a chance True Grit could upset.

The Social Network, meanwhile, impressed the organization with its tricky tidying-up of Aaron Sorkin's dizzying dialogue. Fine choice, but I may have liked to see TRON Legacy take that category.

Finally, I'm thrilled to see Randy Thom get his due for How to Train Your Dragon, the best sound editing of the year sadly overlooked by Oscar.

Best Sound Effects and Foley in a Feature Film: Inception
Best Dialogue and ADR in a Feature Film: The Social Network
Best Sound Effects, Foley, Music, Dialogue and ADR in a Animated Feature Film: How to Train Your Dragon Sweet!
Best Music Editing in a Feature Film: Inception
Best Music Editing in a Musical Feature: Country Strong
Best Sound Editing in a Documentary: Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage
Best Sound Effects, Foley, Dialogue and ADR in a Foreign Feature: Micmacs

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