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?

Simon's Cat 'TV Dinner'

I've become a big fan of the "Simon's Cat" series. Here's the latest. FYI, this is EXACTLY how my siamese cat Asia acts. And as usual with these, the sound effects make the video.

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).

Hollywood Lost and Found

This is kind of a natural segue from the previous post, because Steve Lee's "Hollywood Lost and Found" website contains links to several great vintage film locations.

"But that's not all."

Besides the info on locations, his site has lots of Hollywood history documented there concerning: film sound, movie props, trivia and tributes, etc. It's just a good resource for Hollywood info that is hard to find elsewhere.

You may remember my "Wilhelm Scream" post some months ago, well, this is the site I stole (but gave credit for!) most of my information. As a matter of fact, that post is what got me aquainted with Steve in the first place.

So, check it out.

A Spotlight On The Ambience

In Film/TV sound, you place ambient sound effects (aka: backgrounds) in scenes to enhance the impression of the time of day, the scene's location, mood or feeling, etc. This would include effects like birds, wind, traffic, crowd voices, and many more, depending on the structure of the scene you're building. It is also the best way to describe many unspoken things in the scene subliminally.

If it's designed well, the movie fan won't give it a thought, but just accept that it was the sound that was picked up on location. There are times when background ambiences are supposed to play a more obvious role - to spook us with a scary drone, or overwhelm us with raging waters so we feel suffocated, etc - but 99% of the time, background sound effects are meant to be just that - background and invisible.


Another type of "background" in Film/TV production is the use of background performers. We don't think about them when we watch a movie, but if they weren't there, the show would seem empty. Just like background sound effects, they're vital, but we rarely notice them.

Funny that you DON'T notice something when it's there, but you DO notice it when it's not!

I'm going to be working on a feature documentary titled "Strictly Background" for about a week. It's based on ten career Hollywood extras. I found it fascinating and wanted to be a part. Hopefully Jason Connell, the creator and director of the doc will have success in getting it widely distributed. Watch the trailer.

Return of the King of Superheroes

I just got back from seeing Superman Returns tonight, and I must say, with all the hype and pressure upon it to deliver the goods, it does all that and more.

Brandon Routh and Kate Bosworth are excellently cast, and Kevin Spacey is perfect as Luthor. But a surprise favorite character for me, is the little boy (Tristan Lake Leabu) that plays Lois' son. He was great.

The sound was also excellent. I especially loved the flying sounds. It was very smooth, almost "transparent" sounding. The whole sound package is marvelous. I will be surprised if this movie doesn't get at least an Oscar nomination, if not the win for best sound.

Audio Post Production Primer

Above is a screen-shot from my Pro Tools sound effects pre-mix session for an independent feature called RSTC. The final mix for RSTC was last week. Look for it soon on DVD everywhere; it's a lot of fun.

From time to time I have friends, even family members, ask what I do. I tell them, "I'm a sound designer and sound editor for film and TV", and they say "oh, cool." Then more times than not, they follow up with the question "so WHAT do you do?"

The nomenclature of my job, like almost any industry, is specific and confusing at times. For instance, ADR stands for "Automated Dialogue Replacement". Anyone who knows how ADR works knows that there ain't nuthin' automatic about it. ADR is the process of bringing in an actor to replace a line of dialogue for a movie when the original location sound is unusable. The actor watches the scene on a video monitor, hears three beeps leading up to the line, then reads the line in sync (hopefully) with the shot on screen. This new recording usually must be finessed by a dialogue editor to tighten sync and be prepared for the final mix. There's a lot of set-up time involved as well as post-time. Automated? Yeah, right.

There are many processes involved in creating a soundtrack for a TV show or movie. My favorite is the sound design stage. You can read about the many different aspects of audio post production here at the MPSE website. There are also some good FAQ's.


Above is a screen-shot from my reconformed fx-stem session for reel 1 of the movie Hoodwinked. There were last-minute picture changes, so I reconformed (reconforming is resyncing existing sound files with new picture and filling in all the inevitable gaps in the tracks) all of the previously rerecorded tracks from April/May 2004, added more effects where we needed them, then delivered approximately 50 reconformed sessions to Skywalker Sound for the final rerecording sessions in October 2005. It was the most complicated "fix" I've ever wrapped my head around.


And finally, this is a picture of a sound design suite at Skywalker Sound in the Tech Building. It belonged to Gary Rydstrom (Jurassic Park, T2, The Titanic) for many gigantic movie making years. You can see his synclavier on the console. Chris Boyes (Lord of the Rings, King Kong, Titanic) has worked here, and Randy Thom (The Incredibles, Cast Away, Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi) now calls this suite home. Photo courtesy of custom-consoles.

More to come...

The Wilhelm Scream

I'm about to let you in on a fun- yet sacred - sound editor tool. It's called the Wilhelm Scream. Basically, it's a distinct sounding scream, and if you've seen ANY adventure-type movies in the last 30 years, you've heard it multiple times.

(08-01-06, corrected per Steve Lee - Wilhelm scream authority)
The Wilhelm scream was recorded wild, on a sound stage (perhaps even a production stage). The only recorded slate was very laid back as well... "Man getting bit by an alligator, and he screams." It first was heard in the 1951 Warner Bros film called Distant Drums. It was directed by Raoul Walsh and starred Gary Cooper. (The above picture is actually from a 1953 movie entitled "The Charge at Feather River", in which the character's name is Wilhelm, thus the name of the scream. I guess the character's name in the 1951 film wasn't interesting enough?)


SInce then the scream has made it's way to several features, largely thanks to Ben Burtt. He has faithfully used the scream in all of the Star Wars movies, the Indiana Jones movies, and many more. Many other sound editors have used the scream as well. Ben Burtt has declared that he has finished his Wilhelm use and will let it rest.

I've have worked with many great re-recording mixers, including Gary Summers. He has mixed several Oscar winning films, and he has four Oscars of his own. His philosophy towards the Wilhelm scream is "that the character it's synced in for, MUST be airborne." (see the Lord of the Rings trilogy for examples)

To hear this most excellent scream, click HERE.

For a comprehensive history on the Wilhelm, click HERE. And here is a pretty thorough list of the movies the scream has been used in.

A lot of this info was stolen from Steve Lee and his Wilhelm page.

Plastic Man

I just finished doing sound design on a pilot for WB Animation called Plastic Man. The original Plastic Man was created by Jack Cole, and is owned by DC Comics.

This version of Plastic Man has been in development at WB for a few years, and the word is that it's most likely about to see daylight. (keeping our fingers crossed for a real commitment from the network)

The 10 minute segment was directed, produced and co-written by Andy Suriano. He's got serious artistic chops, plus the perfect wit for modern cartoons. I worked with him on another "pitch" a few years back, and this time was another great experience. We seem to think alike when it comes to sound effects.

Andy has been an artist and designer for such shows as Samurai Jack, Star Wars: Clone Wars, Powerpuff Girls and The Fairly Oddparents. The whole team for this short was really good and there seemed to be good chemistry.





Tom Kenny, the man who voices Spongebob Squarepants, is also a producer and co-writer on this project. He also lends the voice for our hero, Plastic Man. I've met Tom before, but never had the chance to work with him this closely. He's a lot of fun (big stretch, huh) to work with, and he's got a great sensibility for sound.

We mixed it last Friday, and I'm pretty sure that I set a new personal record for the amount of SFX contained in 10 minutes. This thing is thick! The SFX were wall to wall; the music was wall to wall. Luckily, the dialogue still cuts through!

A highlight for the family: At the end of the mix, Tom agreed to leave a message as Spongebob on my home phone recorder for the kids. They flipped out hearing Spongebob say each of their names, and he told them to have a "Sponge-o-riffic Square-tastic Memorial Day!"

Big Movie Sound Effects

George Lucas says that "sound is 50 percent of the moviegoing experience." This makes logical sense, but if you're in the movie industry, you probably know sound many times is an afterthought during the filmmaking process, plus it isn't usually given 50 percent worth of the credit if a movie is a hit. There have been some films however, that have commanded respect because of the incredible sound they have.

The "Star Wars" movies are a prime example of films that contain sounds indigenous to those movies, but are also widely recognizable by the masses (who doesn't know what lightsabers, R2-D2, and Vader's breathing sounds like?) In 1978, the Academy awarded Ben Burtt a Special Achievement Award for the creation of the alien, creature and robot voices in Episode IV. THAT's communicating with sounds! (pun intended)


Gary Rydstrom is one of the most influential and successful sound designers in film history. If you go to his IMDB page, his filmography speaks for itself. He has won seven Oscars for films such as Titanic, Saving Private Ryan, Jurassic Park, and more. Here is a transcript from a July 2004 event where he discusses his work and the influence of Jurassic Park on the sound community.






Dane Davis, the sound designer for "The Matrix" also appeared that evening, and here is his transcript. Every once in a while a movie comes out that reshapes the industry, and I think that "The Matrix" definitely pushed forward the art of sound design once again.



Stay tuned for more Big Movie Sound Effects commentary....

Hoodwinked DVD Comes Out May 2nd

On Tuesday, May 2nd, one of the most clever animated films ever made will come out in the stores.

I might be a bit biased, because this is a movie I'm so proud to say I worked on from the beginning to the end of the process, and it was a GREAT journey. It's also the largest production I've been a part of, and my first feature. There will be a commentary by the directors: Cory Edwards, Todd Edwards, and Tony Leech, plus outtakes, and many extras. (please get the widescreen version so you can see the whole thing!)

I started out editing the whole soundtrack in the beginning, but when the production of Hoodwinked grew (as did the budget), Blue Yonder Films decided to take the movie to Skywalker Sound in Marin County for the complete sound package.

I was fortunate enough to be asked to stay with the picture, so I moved up north for about four months to continue as one of the sound designers as well as to wear a few other hats. I also cut the dialogue (twice, but that's a long story of many new voices joining the picture last minute), and I cut the Foley (you can learn about what 'The Art of Foley' is in another blog entry I made the other day).

One other thing that happened was that I made a great friend in Tom Myers from Skywalker Sound. He is a fantastic sound designer and re-recording mixer with many huge movies under his belt, including Star Wars Ep III, Monsters Inc, Toy Story I & II, and many more. Needless to say, I learned a lot from him as well as from some of the other great guys around the ranch.

I'll not soon forget the experience I had at Skywalker Ranch, and I hope to be back some day soon. My family LOVED visiting when they could. McKenna (our 8 yr old) actually learned to ride a 2-wheeler there a couple of years ago!

RSTC

Reserve Spy Training Corps

On my off-hours (ha-ha), I've been working on this "indie" film by a friend in OK City named Jon Baker. He's been putting this together for a couple of years now, and considering he has made it for almost ZERO dollars, it's quite an achievement. We should wrap up sound post production in June. It will go direct to DVD shortly after. Be on the lookout for it.
Go check out the trailer on his site, you'll like it. It's a fun kid-spy-movie-with-a-message.

Click here:
RSTC-Movie

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!)