2009 MPSE Awards

A few of weeks ago, Chana and I went to the 2009 MPSE Awards show, and we came away winners in more ways than one.

Oscar Nods: Sound Categories

Getting past the headlines of Oscar nominations, I'd like to turn focus upon the categories I feel are more interesting and (more importantly) less influenced by the millions spent on 'consideration' campaigns: Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing.

When I looked at the Editing and Mixing lists, I felt like each film deserved to be on it, but what I didn't expect was to personally know so many of the nominees. I guess the more I work in this business, the more I acquaint myself and work with some super-stud sound people. Some of them have been my sound heroes for a long time, and some I can truthfully call friends.

Sound Editing

The Dark Knight
Richard King

I don't know him, and I haven't worked with him... yet. For lack of a better pun, he's pretty much the "King" of sound in LA.

This movie has a front-runner presence on this list. I went to a sound-show a couple months ago highlighting the sound editing and music editing for this film. Very impressive.

Iron Man
Frank Eulner and Christopher Boyes

I know these guys through my times working up north at Skywalker Sound. Ironically (notice the use of the word "iron" there), both Frank and Chris were in talks to sound supervise "Hoodwinked" before Tom Myers came on. This is Frank's 1st nomination, and Chris's 11th. Chris has won 4 times, and he's a motorcycle rider, so I have to give him a good chance here.

Slumdog Millionaire
Glenn Freemantle and Tom Sayers

Don't know these guys, but they are riding an excellent wave of goodwill the academy feels towards this film. They could surprise us with a darkhorse victory.

Wall-E
Ben Burtt and Matthew Wood

Both friends through Skywalker. Ben is the most influential sound designer of the age, being the creator of all of the Star Wars sound effects including R2-D2, lightsabers, you name it. I could write a 900 page blog about him and still not cover his accomplishments or his love for the study of film sound.

He's still at it and with his latest feat, Wall-E. He not only sound designed it, but he also created the voice for the lead character. His and Matt's attention to detail here are unprecedented, especially considering the movie being largely sound effects laden. I give Wall-E a huge chance in this category.

Wanted
Wylie Stateman

I haven't seen it, but it reviewed well, and pretty much anything Wylie does, gets the Academy's attention. I don't expect it to beat out The Dark Knight, or Wall-E, but you never know.

Sound Mixing

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce and Mark Weingarten

I only know Michael from waiting in line for lunch at Skywalker, but he's an excellent mixer with a ginormous resume. Whatever he works on sounds awesome. Oscar certainly loves Benjamin Button, so this one could ride that wave.

The Dark Knight
Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo and Ed Novick

Gary has become a good friend of mine since he was a mixer on "Hoodwinked". He and Lora also mixed "Batman Begins". I have high expectations that this will be a front-runner in this category as well. As much as I like the sound editing on this picture, I like the mixing more.

Slumdog Millionaire
Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke and Resul Pookutty

Again, the academy loves darkhorse nominees sometimes, and in this category, this qualifies. Anything can happen. Plus, with a name like Pookutty, how can you go wrong?

Wall-E
Tom Myers, Michael Semanick and Ben Burtt

Tom was sound supervisor and another mixer on "Hoodwinked", and through the experience of working with him, he became a good friend to me, bestowing all sorts of great advice and encouragement. His work has been overlooked too many times by the academy, and I'm so happy for him. He rounds out an amazing team including Ben and Michael. This is my other front-runner choice in this category. (BTW - Tom is a madman on the racquetball court. Take him on at your own peril.)

Wanted
Chris Jenkins, Frank A. Montaño and Petr Forejt

I don't see this film competing against the favorites here, but again, there are no locks!

This year's categories are chock-full of amazing work. It will be interesting. What's your take? Who will emerge as the winners?

Foreshadowing

A few years ago I did sound design on this film short "Foreshadowing" for Steelehouse Productions in Tulsa. It played the festival circuit afterwards. I just found out it's on YouTube.

There was no production sound to work with, so the entire soundtrack had to be created from scratch; down to the voice work by Chana and myself. (notice the exquisite scream Chana belts out near the end) John Mark Painter did the whistle-provoking score.

The director Mark Steele gave me a lot of freedom with the sound effects, and it was a great experience. We mixed it at Todd AO in Studio City.

Decisions, Decisions

I have to upgrade my field recording gear this year. I'm going to be doing a lot of sound effects acquisition for my next project, so it's time to move on from the HHB minidisc recorder. It's a killer recorder, but I'm ready to get away from minidiscs as a medium.

I've been looking at Sound Devices gear. It seems to be what I need, but now the (semi)hard decisions need to be made. Do I buy strictly for sfx recording, in which case I don't really need the timecode features, making it about six benjamins cheaper. But if I want to ever use it for a shoot, TC would be kinda handy.

There's more though. What if I want to record surround ambiences? They make 4 and 8 track recorders too, but those little additions add big bucks. So I might have to settle for stereo for now. We'll see...


Then there's the microphone debate. I'm upgrading those too. I've just about decided upon the Oktava 012's. Apparently they are in thousands of production mixers and sound designer's mic lockers, plus the price is very good for high-end mics.



But I've been impressed by the Sanken mics too. Their CSS-5 is a switchable mono/stereo shotgun mic I looked at while at NAB last year. It's impressive, but the price tag is about three times the amount of a stereo pair of Oktava's. Monday and Tuesday I'll be back at NAB cramming as much info on this type of gear into my head as I can. Hopefully I'll come away with a set plan, and an affordable one.

Sound Effects Doing Their Job

This is a great example of sound effects telling the story. The animation for Simon's Cat is excellent, but it's the sound that makes me laugh. Never underestimate the power of a quality soundtrack.

Oscar Sound 2-fer

The Bourne Ultimatum pulled off a double Academy Award win in the sound categories tonight, "Best Sound Editing" and "Best Sound Mixing". It's a great movie, great sound effects, and great mixing. Check it out.

The last films to win in both categories: King Kong (2006), and before that, Master and Commander (2004).

So, you want to know more about the art of sound design?

From time to time I will be posting links that I've found useful in my quest to become a film sound guy. This site might be right at the top: filmsound.org

You can read tons of info on Ben Burtt's legendary work for the Star Wars movies, very useful articles from Randy Thom, and mind stretching articles about the use of sound from Walter Murch. There's also much, much more.

I've had the privilege of meeting all three of these men. They were all gracious and generous with their knowledge.
(Ben Burtt also has a mean volleyball serve!)