OVP: Best Sound Mixing (2009)
The Nominees Were...
Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson, and Tony Johnson, Avatar
Paul N.J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett, The Hurt Locker
Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti, and Mark Ulano, Inglourious Basterds
Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson, and Peter J. Devlin, Star Trek
Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers, and Geoffrey Patterson, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
My Thoughts: Shifting from the Sound Editing races to Sound Mixing (at the bottom of the page are all of the links to past 2009 contests, including Sound Editing), I have to say the field looks pretty much the same. In fact, only one film (Up!) is missing from our last article, and so as to keep everyone interested, let's start with the one film that (inexplicably) missed in Sound Editing: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
It's generally accepted that Transformers 2, even adjusting for a curve, is the worst of the Transformers films. The movie's plot is ridiculous and it lacks the "neat-o" aspects of the first film and the heightened stakes of the third flick. It's basically just two "actors" who are both attractive (one, albeit, in a far more conventional way) and sprouting awful dialogue. If this were almost any other category, I'd be reaching for the "Razzie" award statue rather than the Oscars, but the film knows its aural ropes, and the sound effects work is superb. Overall, the balance is thrown out-of-whack on occasion (I saw this movie in theaters, which might be hitting my judgment a bit since the theater was far too loud and I can never quite figure out if that's the projectionist's or the sound mixer's fault), but particularly the scenes in Petra are quite strong and I feel that the Academy was justified in including this movie in their sound lineup, even if the actual film is terrible.
I spoke a bit about this over in the Sound Editing write-up, but the Sound Mixing of Avatar isn't the slam dunk it was in the other category. Here, we have a bit of a problem, as Cameron occasionally wants to pull too many emotions from the audience-he wants the effects of the Toruks and Na'vi, he wants the epic plotting, and he wants his gigantic James Horner score. Individually, these all work, but Sound Mixing ties them together, and while there are still plenty of parts to celebrate, I feel like this becomes more of a miss in pivotal scenes. The sound mixers emphasize the score too frequently, and don't give us a proper balance, nor enough lulls to make the crashes burn in our memories. It's strong enough that I probably would have cited it as well (honestly-this is a solid lineup if not a perfect one), but it's not quite at the level I think some would assume without revisiting the movie.
Inglourious Basterds doesn't have quite the same problem, though it admittedly didn't have the grandiose sound effects that something like Avatar started with. Part of the appeal of Quentin Tarantino's films is the way that he incorporates a sound score into his pictures, and here we get some brilliant choices, including the "Cat People" sequence with Melanie Laurent and the card game (with a wonderful use of silence). This movie is actually quite wonderful when it comes to its sound work-the bigger scenes pop, but it's the smaller scenes where Minkler and team make brilliant floor-creaking and the unsheathing of knives sound more dangerous and suspenseful-those are the moments that really sold me.
One of the things I don't know that a lot of people realize about the Sound Mixing categories is that they frequently nominate people multiple times (Ray Beckett and Tony Lamberti are the only two of these sound mixers to only have one Oscar nomination and six of them have been nominated into the double digits), even within the same year. One of those men is Gary Summers, the other here is Andy Nelson, who did Avatar and Star Trek, and like Avatar, Star Trek is better in the sound editors' wing. The film frequently sacrifices too much of its specificity and sound character at the sacrifice of bigger and louder. The movie of course has its strengths (as does Avatar) and the battle scenes sell extremely well, but overall this isn't up to the par of Avatar, which cannot compete with the best this category has to offer to begin with.
That leaves us only the Best Picture winner, and as anyone who has been following these pieces knows, I am not a huge fan of this film (I preferred Bigelow's followup, which won my Best Picture in 2012). That being said, the sound design is arguably the best part of this movie. The way that the breathing and the silence ripple through the audience, the distinctive sound design gives the audience a sense of atmosphere. I actually hear the specific moments in the movie, rather than just picture them, when I recall them in my head-that's a sign that someone has left an imprint. The movie occasionally underwhelms with the score, but makes up for it by using dialogue and noise to fill up emotional voids on-screen. As we're going to visit this film four more times by my count, we'll still hear some of my continued problems with this movie, but here I have only minor quibbles.
It's generally accepted that Transformers 2, even adjusting for a curve, is the worst of the Transformers films. The movie's plot is ridiculous and it lacks the "neat-o" aspects of the first film and the heightened stakes of the third flick. It's basically just two "actors" who are both attractive (one, albeit, in a far more conventional way) and sprouting awful dialogue. If this were almost any other category, I'd be reaching for the "Razzie" award statue rather than the Oscars, but the film knows its aural ropes, and the sound effects work is superb. Overall, the balance is thrown out-of-whack on occasion (I saw this movie in theaters, which might be hitting my judgment a bit since the theater was far too loud and I can never quite figure out if that's the projectionist's or the sound mixer's fault), but particularly the scenes in Petra are quite strong and I feel that the Academy was justified in including this movie in their sound lineup, even if the actual film is terrible.
I spoke a bit about this over in the Sound Editing write-up, but the Sound Mixing of Avatar isn't the slam dunk it was in the other category. Here, we have a bit of a problem, as Cameron occasionally wants to pull too many emotions from the audience-he wants the effects of the Toruks and Na'vi, he wants the epic plotting, and he wants his gigantic James Horner score. Individually, these all work, but Sound Mixing ties them together, and while there are still plenty of parts to celebrate, I feel like this becomes more of a miss in pivotal scenes. The sound mixers emphasize the score too frequently, and don't give us a proper balance, nor enough lulls to make the crashes burn in our memories. It's strong enough that I probably would have cited it as well (honestly-this is a solid lineup if not a perfect one), but it's not quite at the level I think some would assume without revisiting the movie.
Inglourious Basterds doesn't have quite the same problem, though it admittedly didn't have the grandiose sound effects that something like Avatar started with. Part of the appeal of Quentin Tarantino's films is the way that he incorporates a sound score into his pictures, and here we get some brilliant choices, including the "Cat People" sequence with Melanie Laurent and the card game (with a wonderful use of silence). This movie is actually quite wonderful when it comes to its sound work-the bigger scenes pop, but it's the smaller scenes where Minkler and team make brilliant floor-creaking and the unsheathing of knives sound more dangerous and suspenseful-those are the moments that really sold me.
One of the things I don't know that a lot of people realize about the Sound Mixing categories is that they frequently nominate people multiple times (Ray Beckett and Tony Lamberti are the only two of these sound mixers to only have one Oscar nomination and six of them have been nominated into the double digits), even within the same year. One of those men is Gary Summers, the other here is Andy Nelson, who did Avatar and Star Trek, and like Avatar, Star Trek is better in the sound editors' wing. The film frequently sacrifices too much of its specificity and sound character at the sacrifice of bigger and louder. The movie of course has its strengths (as does Avatar) and the battle scenes sell extremely well, but overall this isn't up to the par of Avatar, which cannot compete with the best this category has to offer to begin with.
That leaves us only the Best Picture winner, and as anyone who has been following these pieces knows, I am not a huge fan of this film (I preferred Bigelow's followup, which won my Best Picture in 2012). That being said, the sound design is arguably the best part of this movie. The way that the breathing and the silence ripple through the audience, the distinctive sound design gives the audience a sense of atmosphere. I actually hear the specific moments in the movie, rather than just picture them, when I recall them in my head-that's a sign that someone has left an imprint. The movie occasionally underwhelms with the score, but makes up for it by using dialogue and noise to fill up emotional voids on-screen. As we're going to visit this film four more times by my count, we'll still hear some of my continued problems with this movie, but here I have only minor quibbles.
Other Precursor Contenders: The Cinema Audio Society is one of those rare tech-only awards that don't break out their nominees by Comedy or Drama or Animated, so we just have the five motion picture nominees. They sided with The Hurt Locker for the win, and substituted Inglourious Basterds out in favor of District 9. BAFTA also sided with The Hurt Locker, but found room for only Avatar and Star Trek amongst the other Oscar nominees (they cited District 9 and Up). As for the sixth place-it's really hard to say and I have a feeling Transformers was fighting a tough four-way battle with District 9 (it got in at both precursors), Up (the Sound Editing nominees generally land or are close to landing Sound nominations) and Nine (this is a category that LOVES its musicals). My gut says Up was probably in sixth, but you could make the argument for either of the others.
Films I Would Have Nominated: I feel like I'm constantly repeating myself, but for a film that landed a major nomination in Best Picture, District 9 seemed to constantly be snubbed in a lot of the tech categories it seemed destined for-this is another case where I would have found the room.
Oscar’s Choice: Like the CAS and BAFTA, the Academy couldn't help but honor their Best Picture winner with another trophy.
My Choice: A tough race between Basterds and Hurt Locker, and I'm going to surprise myself by going with the consensus choice here and give my first OVP trophy to Kathryn Bigelow's film. Basterds obviously follows, with Transformers, Avatar, and Star Trek behind it.
Those are my thoughts-how about yours? Do you also think that The Hurt Locker should have swept this category, or are you more in the blockbuster Avatar/Star Trek camp? Why do you think District 9 struggled so much to get nominated in categories made for it? And what film had the best sound design of 2009? Share in the comments!
Also in 2009: Sound Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume, Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, Previously in 2009
No comments:
Post a Comment