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Oscar Caliber?
An Early Look at This Season's Possible Top Guns
compiled by Michael Kunkes

The first salvo of Hollywood’s 2007 Award season have already been fired––by the Hollywood Post Alliance and the Behind the Camera Awards––but the main barrage is still to come, including the grand finale, the Academy Awards on February 24, 2008. In anticipation, Editors Guild Magazine decided to see what films are generating that “Oscar Buzz,” so we polled some recent Academy Award-winning and -nominated Guild members (and a couple of national film critics) in the three categories that award our membership: Best Achievement in Film Editing, Sound Editing and Sound Mixing. Following are their thoughts on what films they saw in 2007 that are in their sites as novel, noteworthy and likely to have a shot at an Academy Award nomination come January 22, 2008.

Guild Members

Some of my favorite films so far this year include Michael Clayton [John Gilroy, ACE, picture editor], Zodiac [Angus Wall, picture editor], Eastern Promises [Ronald Sanders, picture editor], Year of the Dog [Dody Dorn, ACE, picture editor] and The King of Kong [Seth Gordon, picture editor]. I know the editing is great if the story is working and the subject is engaging me. Michael Clayton had one of the most interesting and exciting openings I’ve seen in a while. The film opens with very simple shots of buildings and offices, and a wheel on a cart, but with the great voiceover and the building musical score, the film sucks you right in.

I don’t think a lot of people saw Year of the Dog, but I thought it had a very interesting style and wonderful characters. The Nines was a small film that I edited, but it got a very small release. Look for it in January on DVD. My Oscar picks: Pietro Scalia, ACE, for American Gangster and Angus Wall for Zodiac.

Douglas Crise, Picture Editor
2006 Nomination, Best Achievement in Film Editing (Babel)

***

One film that stands out for me this year is Michael Clayton. Beautifully edited throughout, especially the climactic final scene between George Clooney and Tilda Swinton. That is the kind of scene that any editor worth his salt would love to get his hands on. As far as some of the films that I would single out for editing Oscar nominations, from what I have seen so far, here are some I will be considering: Michael Clayton, Zodiac, No Country for Old Men [Roderick Jaynes, picture editor], American Gangster, Gone Baby Gone [William Goldenberg, ACE, picture editor] and Hairspray [Michael Tronick, ACE, picture editor].

Mike Hill, ACE, Picture Editor
1995 Oscar, Best Achievement in Film Editing (Apollo 13); 2005 Nomination, Best Achievement in Film Editing (Cinderella Man); 2001 Nomination, Best Achievement in Film Editing (A Beautiful Mind)

***

I have a lot of catching up to do––and I also have an eight-year-old son with whom I see a lot of movies, so they’re skewed young––but following are a couple of films that stood out for me. I was very impressed with the picture editing, sound design and mix for Transformers [Thomas A. Muldoon, Paul Rubell, ACE, Glen Scantlebury, picture editors; Ethan Van der Ryn, Mike Hopkins, supervising sound editors; Eric Aadahl, sound designer; Greg P. Russell, CAS, Kevin O’Connell, Michael Babcock, re-recording mixers]. The integration between live action and visual effects was seamless, due in large part to the imagination of the picture editors. The sound design of the Transformers made them totally believable, and I immediately accepted them as real. The mix was very clean, always highlighting what was important in the moment.

At the opposite end of the audio color spectrum, the mix on The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford was absolutely beautiful. (Full disclosure: I did the sound design, but that’s not why I’m bringing it up.) The very inexperienced director had an artistic heart but hadn’t a clue how to translate the sound in his head to the screen. Ron Bartlett and Doug Hemphill, CAS, accomplished this beautifully, and in the process, put so much of themselves into the film. It’s a textbook example of how much sound can contribute to the emotional impact of a film. I can’t stress how much Ron and Doug added to the film in spite of very difficult circumstances. Dylan Tichenor, ACE, the primary picture editor [along with Curtis Clayton], did a wonderful job assembling the miles of footage. The film honestly didn’t change all that much in the year and a half I was involved; he got it pretty close very early on.
I wouldn’t even attempt any predictions, as I always seem to be wrong. Hopefully, my fellow Academy members can see through the ads and hype and really appreciate the contributions sound and picture editing have made to this year’s films––and vote accordingly.

Richard King, Sound Editor
2003 Oscar, Best Achievement in Sound Editing (Master and Commander—The Far Side of the World); 2005 Nominee, Best Achievement in Sound Editing (War of the Worlds)

***

It’s been a very busy year for me, so I haven’t had the opportunity to see too many films. I do believe that the sound editing team on Transformers did an outstanding job creating something we have never heard before. Semi-tractor trailer trucks, helicopters, fighter jets, muscle cars, and even a CD player all transforming into giant robots and wreaking havoc. Ethan Van der Ryn and Erik Aadahl, working together with Greg Russell, did an amazing job of crafting an enormous amount of sound effects into one of the most creative and diverse soundtracks I have heard in many years.

I did get a chance to see 3:10 to Yuma [Michael McCusker, ACE, picture editor; Donald Sylvester, supervising sound editor; Paul Massey, CAS, David Giammarco, re-recording mixers], and I’d have to say that both the movie and the soundtrack kicked ass!

Kevin O’Connell, Re-Recording Mixer
Oscar Nominations, Best Achievement in Sound Mixing, 2006 (Apocalypto); 2005 (Memoirs of a Geisha); 2004 (Spider-Man 2). Nominations, Best Sound, 2002 (Spider-Man); 2001 (Pearl Harbor); 2000 (The Patriot); 1998 (Armageddon); 1998 (The Mask of Zorro); 1997 (Con Air); 1996 (The Rock); 1996 (Twister); 1995 (Crimson Tide); 1992 (A Few Good Men); 1990 (Days of Thunder); 1989 (Black Rain); 1986 (Top Gun); 1985 (Silverado); 1984 (Dune); 1983 (Terms of Endearment)

***

The overall quality of the average film soundtrack these days is pretty high. Even a lot of smaller-budget films have really good tracks. Given this, I can only think of a couple of films that have given me pause this year because of their soundtracks. Transformers had an exemplary track, as fine an example of conventional big-budget sound as I have seen in a long while.

Another film that surprised me was Elizabeth: The Golden Age [Mark Auguste, supervising sound editor; Tim Cavagin, Steve Single, re-recording mixers]. This track was idiosyncratic, to say the least, but I was impressed by the sheer exuberance and over-the-top melodrama of the entire mix. I do have somewhat idiosyncratic taste, so this film is tops for me right now.

Of course, there are a whole lot of biggies yet to come. I’m particularly looking forward to seeing the Coen brothers’ No Country for Old Men, about which I’ve heard nothing but praise, especially for its distinctive soundtrack [Skip Lievsay, supervising sound editor/re-recording mixer; Craig Berkey, sound designer/re-recording mixer; Greg Orloff, CAS, re-recording mixer].

Dominick Tavella, CAS, Re-Recording Mixer
2002 Oscar, Best Sound (Chicago)

***

One film I’d like to applaud this year in terms of its use of sound is No Country for Old Men. The sound team did an excellent job, and the Coen brothers deserve great praise for structuring the movie in ways that opened doors to sound’s participation in storytelling. No matter how creative a supervising sound editor, sound designer and mixer might be, little will be accomplished unless the film is “designed for sound,” beginning with the script. Kudos to Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey and the rest of their sound team for taking advantage of the creative opportunities the Coens gave them.

In terms of my own projects this year, I’m equally proud of Ratatouille, Beowulf and Enchanted. Each film had a distinctly different visual and narrative style, and it was fun and challenging to match those styles with sounds that served each story.

Randy Thom, Audio Designer
2004 Oscar, Best Achievement in Sound Editing, (The Incredibles); 1983 Oscar, Best Sound (The Right Stuff); 2004 Nomination, Best Achievement in Sound Editing (The Polar Express); 2004 Nominations, Best Achievement in Sound Mixing, (The Incredibles, The Polar Express); 2000 Nomination, Best Sound (Cast Away); 1997 Nomination, Best Sound (Contact); 1994 Nominations, Best Sound, Best Sound Effects Editing (Forrest Gump) 1991 Nomination, Best Sound (Backdraft); 1983 Nominations, Best Sound (Never Cry Wolf, Star Wars – Episode VI: Return of the Jedi)

The Critics

What a deafening silence… In No Country for Old Men, a film that many critics have hailed for abandoning a musical soundtrack altogether (though subsequent viewings reveal three key sequences that employ the faintest of jarring musical harmonies and foreboding bass lines), the sound team of sound designer Craig Berkey, supervising sound editor Skip Lievsay and others has stitched together the sounds of the natural world to form a visceral, haunting soundscape that is every bit as effective in portraying humanity at the brink.

Perhaps not so subtly, the existential tale of death’s march across the countryside opens and closes with sounds that remind us of man’s insignificance: the wind blowing across the desert at sunrise, as windmills slowly kick into action, and ultimately a wall clock, relentlessly ticking away the seconds. And in between, a man’s attempt to weasel his way out of what’s coming to him is marked by the world around him: the unholy silence that permeates through the valley of the drug-deal-gone-wrong, the thunderclap that seems to seal his fate as he makes off with another man’s money, the faint echo of a gunshot in the hotel lobby, signaling death’s arrival.

The film’s pinnacle is achieved solely by the sound design, as the audience, and our hero, strain to hear something––anything––in the darkness. Arising somewhere in the distance, we hear both harbingers of doom: the feet ascending the staircase, and the beeps of the tracker… Step, step, step. Beep, beep, beep. And with the shadows of two feet outside the hotel door, an agonizing, electrifying pause. Without the twitch of an actor’s muscle, or a single camera trick, Mr. Berkey and the rest of the sound team orchestrates the ambient and accelerates the tension from zero to 60––in about ten seconds flat.

S. James Snyder, Film Critic, New York Sun; Member, New York Film Critics Circle

***

It’s some kind of a marvel that image and sound editing create the most noteworthy effects in a film that’s being hailed for a five-and-a-half minute Steadicam shot.

But Atonement is a narrative about multiple perspectives and misinterpretations thereof, and that’s driven home throughout by Paul Tothill, ACE, and his canny cutting of repeated sequences. In an equally impressive way, the clacking of typewriter keys woven in and out of the soundtrack not only lend strong, stirring syncopation to the visual rhythms, but signals that a writer’s imagination is actively at play behind what we’re seeing.

Finally, segues between timeframes are smooth and clear, and extraordinarily sensitive to the intensifying emotional, psychological and moral aspects of Atonement’s story [Catherine Hodgson, supervising sound editor; Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen, re-recording mixers].

Bob Strauss, Film Critic, Los Angeles Daily News; Member, Los Angeles Film Critics Association

We see the mountains first, hulking and impassive. And then we dive inside. A dusty miner, streaked with sweat, wields a pickaxe. Sparks fly up like curses. Metal screams against rock. And director Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood has begun.

The Academy tends to honor films in which craftsmen have made the fantastic real. But in There Will Be Blood, the sound designers and editors [Dylan Tichenor, ACE, Tatiana S. Riegel, picture editors; Richard King, Michael Babcock, sound designers; Matthew Wood, supervising sound editor; Michael Semanick, CAS, Tom Johnson, Chris Scarabosio, re-recording mixers] have made the real utterly fantastic. You hear it in that opening scene, which might just as well have been shot in Hades. In a following one, in which Daniel Day-Lewis’ oilman confronts a simmering babble of townspeople. And again when his derricks finally rise, and his pumps thunder like the heart of some ailing goliath.

There Will Be Blood is a grim movie full of Old Testament imagery. But even when the visuals force us to look away, the sound insists we hear the sermon being preached.

Stephen Whitty, Film Critic, The Star-Ledger; 2007 Chairman, New York Film Critics Circle

Michael Kunkes is a freelance editor and writer specializing in animation, production and post-production. He can be reached at writermk@sbcglobal.net.

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