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4 responses to “Best Sound Mixing & Sound Editing”

1. 

   Hollywood Z

   March 2, 2010

   Paolo,

   I tried to watch it again, in both the theater and my home theater surround sound and, believe me, I understand your points completely and I agree, movies don’t have to be auditorially deafening to be perfectly mixed. Like I mention in my favorites, sometimes it’s the echoes or the dissonence that resonates more than the loudness. But to me, The English Patient just didn’t have anything to write home about that every other movie doesn’t already have. Yes, the clinking bottles were about the only thing to me that stood out about the sound, but the film is just so ordinary. Simply crisping the dialog shouldn’t be award worthy, but a requirement of all films. Nothing against it’s sound, it didn’t sound horrible, but as a winner, it falls way, wayyyy short of what historical triumphs in sound mixing should be considered.

   Yes, I know that it won the Cinema Audio Society award, too, but then again, it faced the same competition, just replace Evita with The Birdcage (?!?). Like I mentioned, perhaps the award was a protest against the noisy summer action films and a way to sweep the rest of the awards. That much, I can understand. Or perhaps having Independence Day and Twister competing, their votes cancelled the other out to allow room for The English Patient. Either way, it just wasn’t too impressive for me. If I want breezes, I’ll listen to Lawrence of Arabia again.

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2. 

   Paolo de Luca

   March 2, 2010

   To Hollywood Z

   Your list look like mine so we mostly agreed on our favorites and least favorites winners.

   But I have to discuss your pick of The English Patient.

   I have seen that film like 20 times, I know many people find it boring (including Elaine in the Seinfeld episode jajaja). But the sound mixing is amazing dude. It won the Cinema Audio Society and Sound Editors Guild awards that year so the Oscars weren’t the only ones who liked how it sounded.

   The Music is perfectly mixed, that’s important in sound, the dialogs sound crips, the scene in the desert storm fills you into the moment, the few explosion are impressive, when the plane crash into the camera believe me that’s we you see a movie is made with special care in every scene. In the beginning when the desert people take the protagonist burned they carry many bottles that constantly touch each other and makes a very magical sound.

   I know you hated it and won’t see it again, but give it a try dude.

   Not all oscar winners in the sound department should be loud or full of blast. They have to inmerse you in the enviroment and feeling of the movie. Like E.T. and The Exorcist.

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3. 

   Hollywood Z

   March 1, 2010

   My Favorite Winners

   Best Sound Mixing
   1. Saving Private Ryan: This is a movie where the sound was able to both plunge the viewer into the chaotic and dangerous world of the battlefield the way that no other film was able to do so and yet still be the kind of film that home theater enthusiasts love to throw into their systems to show off.

   2. Star Wars: The first movie to fully realize the entire surround sound universe so effectively. Sure, we all know there’s no sound in space, but with such a perfect and soaring sense of triumph that we get from the space battle scenes, it’s done so well that we don’t really care. Now that’s a great mixing job.

   3. Lawrence of Arabia: Before the whole surround sound movement took off around the 1970s, Lawrence of Arabia used the mixing of the levels to capture the roaring of the cheers, the vastness of the landscapes and the furiousness of the battle scenes in such a manner that it practically defined what a perfect blend of sound was in a film.

   4. E.T. – Sure, much talk is made of the effects needed to blend the sounds of the voice, but it’s really the mixing job here that makes E.T. come alive. In addition to it’s radio signals and spiritual connection, the volume of each of the effects help to give the emotional scenes their true punches. The desolation in the beginning, fading of John Williams’ music to both sweet to heard-wrenching levels, the loudness of the AED machine and the glow of E.T.’s finger give the magic of the film a push even further into the hearts of the audience.

   5. The Exorcist: This is a movie where the sound works on a subconscious level. With it’s disturbing backwards chants, the barely audible whispers and creepy moments of silence, The Exorcist not set the standards for how a horror film should sound, but used it’s tracks in such an etherial sense that it plunged the viewers into it’s battle of heaven and hell.

   Best Sound Editing
   1. Terminator 2: Judgment Day: The melting & morphing noises of the T-1000, the gun blasts of each individual weapon, the mechanical noises and that absolutely flawlessly designed War of the Machines battle in the beginning. Terminator 2 is a film that doesn’t need music or even dialog for that matter. If you hear the sound effects alone for this movie, not only are they unique and originally crafted, but they could make the movie on it’s own.

   2. Jurassic Park: Another one-two punch from Gary Rydstrom, this time, it’s the sounds of animals that distinguish this film. Sure, we get some great sounds of crashes and computer noises, but it’s the personalities of the dinosaurs that come out in the hissing & screaching of the Raptors, the deafening roars of the T-Rex and the unplaceable noises of the Spitters that people remember after their through talking about the mind-blowing effects. Sure, we remember the visuals, but it’s the sounds that will haunt us later.

   3. Star Wars: Okay, it’s the only film on both my best mixed and designed, but for good reason: sound effects weren’t as revered in movie making before this film came around. The aliens, the robots, the vehicles, the blasters, everything in this movie was just so brilliantly conceived and placed to give everything their own life. The galaxy far, far away would be even further if those spectacular sound effects weren’t there to help us believe the world had such an interesting sound of it’s own.

   4. Aliens: What is it about science fiction films that are just so interesting to listen to? From the sounds of the Power Loader, to the pulse rifles, to the alien queen herself, the movie is just so much damn fun to listen to the effects and appreciate how much of the badass environment it creates.

   5. RoboCop: Okay, everything I said above about Aliens applies here as well. The reason this makes my list is because think of how the sounds help to create the atmosphere, the domineering force of ED-209, the first time we hear RoboCop enter the police station with that mechanical hum and those loud thuds his feet made, the automatic pistol and the noise the leg-holster made when he sheathed it. The auditory world of RoboCop may be loud and violent, but when they sound so artful like this, you can’t help but want to be a part of it in a way.

   My Least Favorite Winners

   Sound Mixing
   There’s a theme in all five of these winners and I won’t restate them after this, but when a movie is just so ushered in by the academy that it wins Best Sound for a movie that didn’t really have much to do with the sound, but only because it would win Best Picture and they wanted it to sweep? That’s like voting straight down the ballot for the same party without even looking at the other candidates.

   1. The English Patient: What was mixed here? Seriously. Was it just because the only other choices were Evita, Independence Day, The Rock and Twister that it won out of pure snobbery? Because it sure wasn’t anything spectacular. We have one explosion in the distance, one plane getting shot at scene & one plane crash. Whoopie. It sure didn’t sound like these things I just described, we just get a lot of mixing of wind and echoes. Yeah, crank that cave dialog. Woo. If the movie didn’t put you to sleep, the audio track was like listening to one of those white noise tapes you use to put you to sleep.

   2. Out of Africa: We have a couple of wild animals and a gunshot or two. And this one Best Sound over Back to the Future, A Chorus Line, Ladyhawke and Silverado? The voters must have been too busy with their AM/FM Walkman gift baskets from Sydney Pollack to hear how dull and uninteresting this sound mixing really was.

   3. In the Heat of the Night: Maybe because it was made back in the 60s and back then, the only thing that won were musicals and war films. Maybe because the musicals (Thoroughly Modern Milly, Camelot and Doctor Dolittle) just weren’t worth awarding and The Dirty Dozen couldn’t siphon enough votes away. But In the Heat of the Night is just talking. Even the TV show had more sound mixing going on in it than this movie did. Nothing against the film, but a rather odd award for it to have won.

   4. The Last Emporer: I can understand the allure of the echoes and the crowd scenes, but come on, we had all of that and so much more in Empire of the Sun. Not only that, but there were actually good action films to award like Lethal Weapon or RoboCop. Heck, I’d even settle for The Witches of Eastwick’s blend of spell-casting sounds. But the Academy was dead set on a clean sweep for the movie, so here it is.

   5. Slumdog Millionaire: Okay, we have crowds and whooshing flashbacks. I can see that in an episode of Lost. Perhaps the true crime is the wasted opportunity to award better sounding films like The Dark Knight, Wall-E or Wanted. But again, like The Last Emporer, the Academy was dead set on a sweep. Maybe it’s just movies with a foriegn setting that seem to blind them? Whatever the reason is, Slumdog Millionaire is just another over-awarded, nothing special about the sound movie. Should have seen it coming when it was nominated for Sound Effects, which made about as much sense as nominating Shakespeare in Love for Best Sound Mixing (which, by the way, is the worst nominee in that category I’ve ever seen/heard).

   Sound Editing
   1. Pearl Harbor: Great, now the worst movie I’ve ever seen can be called an Oscar Winner. And in a year they felt that movies like A.I., Black Hawk Down, The Fast and the Furious and (worst exclusion yet) The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Nothing new, we’ve all heard WWII sounds before, here, we get the same thing, only louder. Thanks, Academy branch of Sound Effects. To all of you out there that helped this film win, I hope you’re proud of yourselves. To paraphrase the Comic Book Guy: Worst…Winner…Ever!

   2. The Ghost and the Darkness: Lion roars and rifle shots. Really? Wow, and you passed up the designing of the Pulse Guns from Eraser for this? And refused to nominate Star Trek: First Contact, Independence Day or Twister? Did Beavis and Butt-head vote here AND present the award that night, too?

   3. The River: Farm equipment and warehouse labor. Not only that, but this was a Special Achievement in Sound Effects, which meant that the branch had over 70% voting for this. Over the Sound Effects for 2010, Ghostbusters, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and even Gremlins had better sound design. This was hardly a Special Achievement.

   4. U-571: Okay, remember how we heard all of those WWII sound effects before in Pearl Harbor? Now we get to hear where they were ripped off from, but they’re also underwater. Submarines? Been there with The Hunt for Red October and Crimson Tide. WWII Submarines? Have they even seen Das Boot? Again, nothing new, nothing spectacular except ping………..ping………….ping……….ping……..

   5. The Great Race: Slapstick fun? Had that before with It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, and it was used so much more distinctively in that movie. Here, we get balloons, cars and pies. Not that they don’t sound good for their time, but they just don’t hold up well over time.

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4. 

   Paolo de Luca

   March 1, 2010

   Best Sound Mixing should go to The Hurt Locker

   Best Sound Editing should rightfully go to Avatar

   My list of favorite winners in the last 40 years

   Best Sound Mixing:

   The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Thank you Peter Jackson)
   Chicago (how a musical should sound, every musical instrument is heard)
   Saving Private Ryan
   The English Patient (One of my favorite movies of all time because it’s just so perfect in every way and the oscar gave its award so rightfully)
   Last Of the Mohicans (I remember buying this movie in original vhs only to hear it in stereo sound, No wonder it won it’s only nomination, this was amazing sound)
   Terminator 2: Judgment Day (This was a revolution in sound mixing)
   The Exorcist (Sound is very important in horror movies, this is a great example)

   Best Sound Editing:

   The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Why didn’t they nominate Fellowship or Return of the kings is a mystery)
   The Matrix (I don’t agree with some who said this was his worst. This movie was amazing in every tecnichal way)
   Saving Private Ryan (one of those movies that deserves both awards, everything that sounds in it is magnificent)
   Jurassic Park
   Bram Stoker’s Dracula (My favorite, I remember watching this movie in vhs stereo and actually hearing new things every time I watched it)
   Terminator 2: Judgment Day (This was a revolution in sound editing)
   Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
   Back to the Future (This is the definition of great sound effects)
   E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial

   My least favorite winners in the last 40 years

   Worst Sound Mixing winners:

   Slumdog Millionaire (As much as I love the film, I think the oscar’s thought this was another english patient and wanted to give all the awards the can to the film. Wall-E deserved the oscar)
   Gladiator (A lot of noise sometime. I prefer Cast Away, a movie with only one actor for most of its lenght and the island is brought alive by the great sound design)
   Speed (I know you guys don’t like me comparing, but really, that year’s The Legends of the Fall had such a great sound, Speed is too loud and overworked at times)
   Out of Africa (I bought this movie in original vhs to see why it won the award and remember asking myself the same question in the end of the film)
   All the President’s Men (An all dialog and no action movie. I recently watched it on dvd and turned the sound loud to see what was special and didn’t hear anything better than Silver Streak or even Rocky)

   Worst Sound Editing winners

   Pearl Harbor (I Totally agree with you guys. This, like every michael bay films, is a mess in every sense)
   Braveheart (Love the film but in the battle scenes the sound is a bit overwhelming)
   The Ghost and the Darkness (GRRAAAWWW, that’s all we hear, it sounds good but hey, it’s monotonous)
   The Black Stallion

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