March 26, 2023
The Cinema Audio Society revealed its 52nd annual award winners at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel, Feb. 20. Taking home top honors for outstanding achievement in sound mixing were the teams from The Revenant in the motion picture live-action category and Inside Out in an animated feature. […]
The Academy Awards honors two categories in sound that may seem confounding but there’s a simple distinction between the awards. Sound editing references all the sound elements created for a film besides its music – the sound effects, foley, dialogue, or ADR – an example, the lightsaber in Star Wars or you can look at it as all the ingredients necessary to make a pizza. Sound mixing on the other hand is how well all those elements, including the music, are blended and balanced to tell the story. Or how the pizza tastes after coming out of the oven. […]
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was founded the same year The Jazz Singer was released and recognized the first achievement in sound during its third awards show. Douglas Shearer for The Big House (1929-1930). Eighty-five galas later, five prestigious films fill the best sound mixing category as nominees – Bridge of Spies, The Revenant, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Martian and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. […]
Director Steven Spielberg followed up the 2012 success of Lincoln with another true life story in Bridge of Spies. Taking place at the height of the Cold War attorney James Donovan (Tom Hanks) is tasked with defending accused Russian operative Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance). He then later negotiates a swap for an American pilot that was captured by the Soviet Union for the same spy he defended. All in a day’s work right? […]
One of the most iconic weapons in movie history is the lightsaber. We’ve all imagined having the real thing and a few of us have even been enshrined in a viral hit like the Star Wars Kid. But if you were to break down the lightsaber mechanically there isn’t much to it: a handle, an on/off switch, and then a brightly lit plasma blade that’s powered by a kyber crystal. While it can cut through virtually anything, what makes the weapon so undeniably mesmerizing are the sound effects behind it. Just saying “lightsaber,” you automatically play the sounds in your head, and it’s thanks to Oscar-winning sound designer Ben Burtt, we have them. […]
The Society of Camera Operators held its annual lifetime achievement awards at the Paramount Theatre in Los Angeles this past weekend. The evening’s two competitive honors went to P. Scott Sakamoto as camera operator of the year in feature films for his miraculous work on The Revenant, and Steve Fracol was honored as camera operator of the year in television for Scandal. […]
If the words “based on a true story” humbly appeared on the screen of director Denis Villeneuve’s Sicario you wouldn’t think twice about its integrity after watching it unfold. What makes it so believable is its standout narrative that’s anchored to the cold realities of the U.S.-Mexico drug war. The imagery from cinematographer Roger Deakins is impressive without being domineering. The sound track defines honesty and is dynamically laced to a complimentary score that keeps you wondering if what you’re listening to is music or sound effects. The picture and sound tie together so well it’s probably the reason why the film is recognized with Oscar noms in those three categories – cinematography from Roger Deakins, original score by Jóhann Jóhannsson and the sound editing of Alan Robert Murray. […]
When executive producer Jason McGatlin called production sound mixer Stuart Wilson about an unnamed project he was developing, the conversation was short, but after setting up a time to meet he ended it with, “If you put two and two together, you could maybe guess what it is.” Turns out, it was J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens. […]
With 12 Oscar nominations, director Alejandro Iñárritu’s The Revenant leads the way, including a best picture and director nod. He won both awards for Birdman in 2015. The Revenant is a terrifying tale of survival that shows how far one man must go to overcome the harshest conditions. Set in the 19th-century American-West, the film is a true story of sorts of fur trapper Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio), who is attacked by a bear and left for dead by his fellow trappers. Bent on revenge, Glass finds the strength to travel 200 miles to confront his faithless friends. Among those Academy Award nominations were two in sound – best editing (Martin Hernandez and Lon Bender) and best mixing (Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño, Randy Thom and Chris Duesterdiek). […]
More than 200 hundred people gathered at the Pasadena Convention Center in an evening that celebrated not only Make-Up Artist magazine’s 20-year anniversary, but the make-up industry itself and the creative artists behind it. Hosted by Matt Winston, son of Stan Winston and founder of the Stan Winston School of Character Arts and McKenzie Westmore, of Face Off and daughter to the legendary Michael Westmore, the festivities were laced with laughter, magic, and remembrance. Guests included Howard Berger, Mark Coulier, Leonard Engelman, Joel Harlow and Ve Neill. […]