The awards for best sound have gone by different names since the advent of the Oscars in 1929. For 34 years, only the Sound Mixers were honored. The Academy started juggling categories in 1963: Sound Effects, Sound Effects Editing, Sound Editing. In ten years between the late 1960s and 1980, no award at all was given for Sound, just for the Mixers. How is the Academy at large supposed to sort all this out? An Oscar-winning Sound Editor weighs in:
OSCAR-WINNING SOUND EDITOR I don’t see how the Academy can judge the Sound awards. Many people think sound editing simply means sound effects. Not true. And because of technical advances, the boundary between sound editing and sound mixing has blurred. Sound editors come to the mix stage with hundreds of pre-mixed tracks.
NOLAN POWERS Some people think the Sound award includes the guys who record sound on set.
OSE No, they’re included in the Sound Mixing category. On action films, the role of the production mixer is greatly diminished, because the recorded dialogue is often unusable. You have to go back and re-record all the lines. “We’ll fix it at the mix”…you hear that all the time.
NP Most years, there’s a big overlap between the nominations for Sound Editing and Sound Mixing. This year, it’s 100%.
OSE That’s why there’s a move toward merging the two awards into one, the way BAFTA does it. In Northern California, there’s a tradition: the Sound Designer is also the Mixer. Ben Burtt. Gary Rydstrom. They occupy both chairs.
NP So many of the Sound awards have gone to action films. War pictures.
OSE The Academy tends to vote for explosions and gunshots, that’s true. Dramas get short shrift.
NP Can you think of an example?
OSE Well, back in the day…Oliver Stone’s Talk Radio. That was such a complicated dialogue job. Eric Bogosian was in all these different environments, and to bring clarity to that…very challenging…and it went totally unrecognized. Mind you, I’m not condemning war films in general. Saving Private Ryan, that opening 10-minute sequence, the Normandy landing, that was so beautifully done, every sound was precise, it wasn’t just glued-on muddle. Gary Rydstrom is a brilliant sound designer.
NP And Private Ryan won both Sound awards. Any movies you feel were overlooked this year?
OSE War for the Planet of the Apes. The chimp vocals, the clarity of the dialogue. Really good mix. And last year, I thought Deepwater Horizon should have won. Lots of explosions, but so much better done than…what was that war picture that got nominated?
NP Hacksaw Ridge.
OSE No flavor to that at all.
NP The Revenant was nominated the year before. What was so distinctive about that?
OSE Well, the opening battle scene. But DiCaprio’s heavy breathing felt out of sync to me. I can’t guarantee it was re-recorded, but it certainly sounded cheesy.
NP Dunkirk is the heavy favorite to win Best Sound. And Best Sound Mixing.
OSE I remember when I saw Inception at the Academy. A bunch of us were talking later, none of us could hear what was going on the first ten minutes. I’ve spoken to several mixers, and they tell me, “This is what Nolan wants.” But if you can’t understand the dialogue, where are you?
NP It’s the element everybody on the production is familiar with.
OSE Exactly. The editor, the director, the sound guys…we’ve heard this dialogue for nine months. We know every word. Sometimes I’m tempted to take a guy off the street, sit them down, and every time they can’t understand the dialogue, tell them to hit a buzzer.
NP What was your favorite this year?
OSE Baby Driver. I thought that mix was terrific. Dunkirk? That was the least interesting of the nominees.
NP As a film?
OSE As a film, and I don’t remember anything that noteworthy about the mix.
NP But it’s loud.
OSE It’s the loudest film of the five, so it’s the easiest choice.
First published in The Ankler.