I was having a
casual conversation the other night with an old friend when the subject of the
academy awards popped up. The
conversation suggested that their might be too many awards, so some of the categories
don’t really matter as much as some of the bigger more popular ones. But that’s ridiculous! Of course we need as many categories as
possible, a movie cannot be made without everyone doing the part the were hired
to do, and well. The big actors don’t
make the movie themselves, every part, from costumes to lighting to the person
that cleans up after everything is said an done, movie making is a complex web
of individuals creating one final project.
So of course they have an academy award for “best sound editing”.
Wikipedia suggests, thank you
Wikipedia, that “The Academy Award for
Best Sound Editing is granted yearly to a film exhibiting the finest or
most aesthetic sound editing or sound design. The award is usually received by
the Supervising Sound Editors of the film, perhaps accompanied by the Sound
Designers.”
I thought it would be fun to look
over the list of past recipients to enjoy the memories and ponder what sound
effects we can remember from movies that may have once touched us. In a good
way.
2000
– U-571 – Jon Johnson
2001
– Pearl Harbor – George Watters
2002
– The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers – Mike Hopkins and Ethan Van der Ryn
2003 – Master and Commander: The Far Side of the
World – Richard King
2004 – The Incredibles – Michael Silvers and Randy
Thom
2005 – King Kong – Mike Hopkins and Ethan Van Der
Ryn
2006 – Letters from Iwo Jima – Bub Asman and Alan
Robert Murray
2007 – The Bourne Ultimatum – Karen Baker Landers
and Per Hallberg
2008 – The Dark Knight – Richard King
2009 – The Hurt Locker – Pan N. J. Ottosson
2010 – Inception – Richard King
2011 – Hugo – Eugene Gearty and Phillip Stockton
2012 – “Skyfall” / “Zero Dark Thirty” – Per Hallberg
and Karen Baker Landers / Paul N. J. Ottosson
2013 – Gravity – Glenn Freemantle
Check out the names that
appear more than once during the past decade and more. The style of the movies is also unique to
point out. Movies that center around
demonstrating dramatic climaxes and intense story telling; Movies filled with
sound effects ranging from explosions to specifically engineered one-time
spots. The necessity for strange sound effects that you can’t find anywhere
unless you live everywhere.
This is very true. From a music perspective, I feel that the big-name award shows for hit records lacks on recognizing the great mix engineers behind the sound; they're also part of the team you know! Luckily there were a group of individuals who felt the same way, and actually decided to start their own awards show and did a live broadcast of it via YouTube. You should check it out. It's called the Pensado Awards.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a cool ting to point out. Many people don't really pay attention to the names of the people working behind the scene from my experience. Also I will be looking closely to the style of the winners like you pointed out, it wasn't something I considered until now.
ReplyDeleteI remember walle won best sound design but i see that its not on here it was a great movie that without the sound design they did to it, it wouldnt have been as good of a story because sound sometimes pushes the action foward
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