Thursday, April 18, 2013

OVP: Sound Editing (2010)

OVP: Best Sound Editing (2010)

The Nominees Were...


Richard King, Inception
Tom Myers and Michael Silvers, Toy Story 3
Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague, Tron: Legacy
Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey, True Grit
Mark P. Stoeckinger, Unstoppable

My Thoughts: I'm not going to do it-I'm going to fight it.  You're armed with Google, or if for some inexplicable reason you prefer it, Bing, and can figure out the difference between Sound Editing and Sound Mixing.

Sometimes I wonder if even the Academy knows the difference, or in the case of this category, at least what superb Sound Editing looks like.  It needs to be more than just having the most effects-you also need to audibly wow, which most of these movies just don't deliver on with their eligible work.

Take, for example, True Grit, a beautiful, desolate western that has a lot going for it, tech-wise, but the Sound Editing just doesn't appear to be one of those things.  It wasn't just a lack of the actual sound effects that I found odd (though it was oddly low on sound editing for a nomination in this category).  It was that all of the great, noisy plains of the film seemed to fall under the guise of Sound Mixing, not of Sound Editing. The gunshots, the horses, all seemed fairly basic to me, and though it wasn't that long ago that I saw this movie, I struggle to find anything particularly challenging or interesting about the sound editing.

Additionally, TRON: Legacy, a film I saw very recently (see the review above) was also in the camp of rather unimpressive sound effects.  Though it wasn't lacking opportunities (True Grit gains advantage over Tron on this front), it still didn't pack much of a wallop.  I think part of the problem is that they continually use the same whirl and boom throughout the movie, with little variation-if everything seems to sound the same, then how is that great sound wizardry-I know the point is a technological wasteland, but that doesn't mean that we can't mix up what we're hearing a little bit.

Unstoppable is a step in the right direction from the previous two films, creating a number of more thrilling scenes as a result of the well-timed boom, pop, or pow.  The film is essentially a two-hour train chase, and so the sound is a pertinent part of the movie in that regard.  With little to go in the way of script or major character development (Denzel playing Denzel, Chris Pine trying to figure out how he keeps getting outacted by his costars), you need the film's energy to stay high and loose.  The sounds don't always work-I think that with the turning of the larger track they don't go hard enough on the volume button and it seems a bit anticlimactic at that point, but overall this film at least knows what its mission statement is.

Inception's sound, on the other hand, takes it a step further-Unstoppable's aids the script, Inception's enhances it.  You're given so many heartwrenching moments to listen and stare back in awe of what's taking place.  Think of the way that Paris sounds when it folds in on itself or the persistent sustained crispness of the howling wind when Mar is trying to jump.  Like I said before, it's occasionally difficult to decipher the mixing from the editing, but even if you subtracted the grey areas, you'd still be left with a team of experts, aiding our minds through a high-concept plot by having recurring, consistent effects and a healthy dose of auditory precision and madness.

In a tradition that I celebrate (because it's usually worthy) and odd (because why only one studio), Pixar has continued to dominate, hard, in this category through the years, and so it isn't at all surprising that Toy Story 3 was amongst the nominees (with Cars 2 and Brave both missing out, you have to wonder if this gravy train is soon ending, though).  It makes definite sense, because this is an area that Pixar is great in, but Disney was also good at it in the 1990's, and they rarely made a play for the Sound categories.  With this particular film, you get a combination of the familiar (the clip clop of the toys) to the new (that devestating sequence with the incinerator where you worry your inner child is about to die crying), and everything clicks along swimmingly.  Yes, Pixar has been better (WALL-E) in this category, but that doesn't mean that, when you look into a bubble, this film doesn't clearly deserve to be called amongst the year's best.

Other Precursor Contenders: The Golden Reel Awards separate their nominees into animated and live-action, so we had two winners in 2010, and surpisingly in the animated race, the nominated Toy Story 3 lost out to the unnominated How to Train Your Dragon (alongside them were Tangled, Despicable Me, and Legend of the Guardians).  For the feature length film, there were eight nominees, so all of the Oscar nominees were joined by Black Swan, Salt (my gut guess for sixth place with Oscar), Iron Man 2, and 127 Hours, with Inception winning big.
Films I Would Have Nominated: Considering that Toy Story 3 and Pixar in general have done so well through the years here, you would think that they would have nominated How to Train Your Dragon in one of the few tech categories it blew its rival out of the water in-those flying dragons have distinctive roars and add an element of fun to the movie.
Oscar's Choice: Richard King pulled off his third Academy Award (he had previously won for Master and Commander and The Dark Knight) for once again reteaming with Christopher Nolan, probably winning in a landslide over True Grit and Toy Story 3.
My Choice: A fairly easy call for King as well, with Toy Story 3, Unstoppable, True Grit, and Tron: Legacy following.
Finally, let's turn this back to you-what'd you think of the Sound Editing category?  Are you like me and think it's an easy choice for Inception, or is there some other film that should have made?  Did you favor the sound effects of Toy Story 3 or How to Train Your Dragon more?  And what film was your guess at sixth place?

Past Best Sound Editing Contests: 2011

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