OVP: Best Sound Mixing (2013)
The Nominees Were...
Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith, and Chris Munro, Captain Phillips
Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead, and Chris Munro, Gravity
Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Michael Semanick, and Tony Johnson, Inside Llewyn Davis
Skip Lievsay, Greg Orloff, and Peter F. Kurland, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Andy Koyama, Beau Borders, and David Brownlow, Lone Survivor
My Thoughts: We’ve
taken a brief sabbatical from the 2013 Oscar races, but we are now back in for
the final stretch, finishing up where we left off in the middle of the sound
categories. Like many years, the
sound categories ended up being nearly identical to each other (making writing
back-to-back articles about both of them a bit of a chore, hence the slight
delay between the two). For those
that need to get caught up, click at the bottom for past Sound Mixing articles
and some of our previous 2013 races.
But on with the show, and what a show this was-honestly,
this is by far the best lineup of 2013, as there are no really bad contenders to
speak toward. I’ll start with the
film that continues to surprise in me in how well it holds up, Lone Survivor. I’ve talked about this a couple of times, but the sound work
in this film is really incredible.
The overall movie knows exactly how to play with volume in a way that heightens
at the precise right moments. So
many war films turn up the volume and leave it there, but Lone Survivor plays with tones, giving us far more tension and a
natural quiet during the scenes in the woods, even breaking up the occasional
battle scenes with the crinkling of branches and walking. It’s a really well-made picture, and
one that probably got thrown out by some art house-style patrons because of the
subject matter and presence of Wahlberg in the starring role.
After missing the year before, I was perplexed to see The Hobbit amongst the nominees, not
because of a lack in quality but because The
Hobbit seems to have now entered Harry
Potter or Star Wars territory,
where it always seems to be nominated for something but never for the same
things-who knows what Five Armies will
get this year? The sound work in
these films is always divine. It
helps that Howard Shore has a truly mesmerizing theme that haunts the work, and
the film is constantly finding prickly ways to keep you glued aurally to the
screen-I love the spiders in this particular piece, and the way that even
conversations take on a new majesty with the way the score drops but frequently
accompanies soliloquies.
All-in-all, another great installment in an extremely memorable series.
Captain Phillips continues
to baffle me in terms of quality-I’ve said this twice now, but the middle third
of the film continues to be where everything is working, and that includes the
sound. The crashing of the water
becomes both terrifying in its constancy and closeness and yet there’s something
calming in the way that the main ship speeds by-it’s a weird conundrum for the
audience and one of several aural quandaries that highlight the film. I don’t care for the final third, where
the noise (and script) become sanctimonious and muddled in their message-the
sound and speaking becomes too underlined on the lines the director wants you to
pay attention toward and you don’t feel the naturalism. But the middle parts of the film
(particularly the first unsuccessful pirate attempt on the ship) are truly
excellent.
Gravity of course
is a sound mixers dream, getting the chance to do some near perfect sequences
that exist largely based on the rush of sound around Sandra Bullock’s tragic
astronaut. We are given long
stretches of film where it’s either just Bullock or just a pair of actors, and
so sound and its frequent absence are critical to maintaining the illusion of
space and the impending tension that would come with each swirling cascade of
debris. The movie balances its
highs and lows and finds ways to make Bullock’s breathing even more
uncomfortable for the audience, making us practically hyperventilate in unison
in our seats. A lovely triumph.
The final nominee, and the only nominee that didn’t get a
doppelganger nomination over in Sound Editing is Inside Llewyn Davis.
Because of the obvious need for strong sound work during onscreen
performances, musical pictures usually do quite well in this category. However, Llewyn Davis doesn’t fall into the sad pattern of only being
interesting when the band has stopped playing onscreen. Instead, it has a delicate quiet that
casts a shadow over the entire film, so that we can hear the wooden floorboards
and the hum of a mellower, less commercial New York.
Of course, when the music actually starts playing, we hit
perfection. The music plays as if
it is live, and you are genuinely in a studio recording or the back of a bar
listening to a man bare his soul.
The actual singing is heavenly, and frequently has an authenticity that
is lacking in larger-scale more recent musicals that are so quick to make
something perfect that they forget to make it interesting. Inside
Llewyn Davis is a wonderful selection here, and while I would have put it
in a few more categories with Oscar, there’s no denying that the two citations
it did grab were well-earned.
Other Precursor
Contenders: The Cinema Audio Society started breaking out its live-action
and animated contenders a few years ago, so we have two sets of nominees to run
through. The live action
categories are almost a carbon copy of Oscar’s list, with only The Hobbit being taken down for Iron Man 3 (Gravity was victorious).
In the Animated field we had everyone’s favorite pair of princesses taking
down The Croods, Despicable Me 2,
Monsters University, and Walking with
Dinosaurs. Gravity was also the victor at the BAFTA
Awards, with The Hobbit and Lone Survivor both being taken out for All is Lost and Rush. I am going
against the grain here and assuming that, considering that Rush was so poorly-taken with AMPAS that either Frozen or All is Lost (probably the latter) was the sixth place nominee.
Films I Would Have
Nominated: I hate to go there again, but what was with the weird aversion
to the handsome if occasionally staid work that made up Man of Steel. Once
again I think I would have found room for it, but to be honest this is a very
strong list and doesn’t have a lot of need for improvement.
Oscar’s Choice: Once
again, there was no denying Gravity for
a trophy.
My Choice: This
is a genuine tossup for me between Gravity
and Inside Llewyn Davis. I think that Gravity is probably whom I would have to vote for in a bubble
(realizing that I’ve given it an alarmingly high number of trophies so far but
admitting it’s slightly the better of the two even with a high awards count),
but both of these are five-star pieces of work. I’m going to follow that with Lone Survivor, The Hobbit, and Captain
Phillips bringing up the rear.
Also in 2013: Sound Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume, Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, Previously in 2013
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