NEWS
52nd Annual MPSE Golden Reel Awards
by Sharon Benoit photos by Andrea Cimini
It takes a great deal of passion and energy to catch the attention of one’s peers in the sound mixing and sound-editing arena. When peer recognition surfaces, a great deal of satisfaction emerges. This year, more than 70 men and women in the sound community garnered top honors from the Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE). It’s an honor each individual winner relishes in a multitude of ways.
Take Paul Menichini, MPSE, for example. He was the big winner of four Golden Reel Awards this year, winning one award in the Best Sound Editing in Television: Short Form–Sound Effects and Foley category as the sound designer on Lost; one as sound effects editor in the Best Sound Editing in Television: Animated category for Jimmy Neutron; one as supervising sound editor on Golden Eye: Rogue Agent; and one of seven sound effects editors honored in the Best Sound Editing: Direct to Video category for Bionicle II: Legends of Metru Nui.
“I’m proud of the team that worked on Golden Eye: Rogue Agent, including David Farmer, Ann Scibelli, Tim Nielsen, Roland Thai, Mark Allen, Derek VanderHorst, Sean Rowe, Gordon Hookailo and Thomas Brewer,” Menichini says. “Ann and Tim did most of the ambiences. David and I did a large amount of the cinematics, with contributions from everyone else. The entire team also contributed to in-game sounds,” he notes. Menichini has been in the sound editing field for 12 years. A few months ago, he finished sound editing on Lords of Dogtown and he’s now working on a movie that will be released around the end of the year.
Brewer, MPSE, an Golden Reel-winning re-recording mixer, on Golden Eye, started his sound mixing career with 4MC in Burbank, California. He then moved to Complete Post where he helped build the Complete Post Sound Division. “Now I’m working on four or five different movie trailers in a given week,” he says. “It’s very gratifying.” VanderHorst won his first Golden Reel this year. Initially a boom operator on B movies in 1991, he’s currently working on the remake of The Longest Yard.
Another big winner this year was Bill Smith, who captured his first Golden Reel in the Best Sound Editing in Television: Long Form category for CSI: Miami as sound effects editor (shared with Edmond Coblentz), foley editor and re-recording mixer (shared with Yuri A. Reese, CAS). He has been a re-recording mixer for over 20 years and is currently working on a continuing contract with CSI: Miami. “I have to thank Brad Katona, MPSE, for his excellent sound effects editorial work. He’s willing to do whatever it takes to make the show sound better,” says Smith.
Katona took home two Golden Reel Awards for CSI: Miami as sound designer and sound effects designer. Other CSI: Miami Golden Reel winners included supervising sound editor Ann Hadsell, supervising foley editor Ruth Adelman, MPSE, assistant editors Hugh Murphy and Carrie Lisonbee, foley artists Zane Bruce and Shane Bruce, and foley mixers Don Givens and James Howe.
 Ruth Adelman, left, and re-recording mixer Melissa Hoffman. |
Adelman works on a weekly basis on all three of the CSI series (Las Vegas, Miami and New York) as ADR supervisor. She also works on “Without a Trace,” as does Smith. “It’s not so much about me and my work as it is about working as a team,” Adelman points out.
While she was nominated four times in the past three years, Lisonbee earned her first Golden Reel this year as an assistant editor on CSI: Miami. She works at Todd-AO on all three CSI series, as well as Without a Trace, Blind Justice and Scrubs, among several others. “When all of those shows turn over a new episode each week, I can’t even remember what end is up,” she exclaims, adding, “It’s my favorite part of being an assistant editor for television.”
Father and son team Zane and Shane Bruce each landed a Golden Reel for CSI this year. Zane has been a foley artist for 19 years, earning seven MPSE awards, plus two Emmy Awards. Shane started out in 2001 on The Sopranos. He works on all three CSI series. This year’s MPSE award was Shane’s first.
Another winner of three Golden Reel Awards this year was Phil Stockton, MPSE. He took home two top honors in the Best Sound Effects/Foley Editing in a Feature Film category as supervising sound editor on The Aviator, and one award in the Best Sound Editing in a Feature Film: Dialogue and ADR category as supervising sound editor/supervising dialogue editor for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Stockton has been in the field 23 years. He started out working in New York as a picture editor in 1982. “A few years later, I jumped over to sound and I’ve been a sound editor ever since,” he says. He’s currently working on the feature Brokeback Mountain, directed by Ang Lee, to be released in December.
Other winners in the same category for Eternal Sunshine were sound designer Eugene Gearty, supervising ADR editor Marissa Littlefield, dialogue editor Fred Rosenberg and ADR editor Hal Levinsohn, MPSE.
Gearty also shared the supervising sound editor award for The Aviator with Stockton. Also winning for The Aviator was supervising foley editor Frank Kern, assistant sound editor Larry Wineland, field recordist Patrico Libenson, re-recording mixer Tom Fleischman, CAS, sound effects editor Wyatt Sprague, foley editors Kam Chan and Jacob Ribicoff and foley mixer George Lara. Kern also just finished working on Brokeback Mountain. In regard to his future plans, Kern notes that he’s very content to work in New York. “I work with a great bunch of people at C5,” he noted.
Wineland, who won his first MPSE award this year, enjoys working as an assistant to Gearty. “Eugene will often edit effects as if he were composing a musical piece, focusing on the overall shape and emotional character of the effects, as opposed to the literal ‘see a dog, hear a dog’ type of editing,” he says.
Twenty-five-year field recordist Libenson has been nominated seven times for Golden Reel Awards. He’s won two other MPSE awards in the past–one for the feature Speed and the other for the TV series I’ll Fly Away. He started out as an apprentice in sound post-production. His first film in Los Angeles was The Water Dance, directed and co-written by Neil Jimenez and Mike Steinberg. Before that, he worked on documentaries on the East Coast.
 Curt Sobel. |
Curt Sobel scored a Golden Reel as music editor in the Best Sound Editing in Feature Film–Musical Feature category for Ray. His big break came in 1980 when he was assigned the film Cutter’s Way, with a score composed by Jack Nitzsche. That relationship led to seven other film projects with Nitzsche, including An Officer and a Gentleman, where he first met director Taylor Hackford. Since then, Sobel has worked on virtually all of Hackford’s films.
The award-winning music editor has many memories working on Ray, including “having the chance to work with the genius himself–Ray Charles–and working so closely with actor Jamie Foxx, Taylor Hackford and [editor] Paul Hirsch, ACE; it can’t really be beat, right?”
Along with a Golden Reel, the sound mixing work of Scott Millan, CAS, on Ray also earned him an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award (see related stories, page 13). He got his start in 1974 at KCOP Channel 13 in Los Angeles as a junior engineer, and recently completed a film, Dark Water, directed by Walter Salles, that’s set for release this summer.
 Zack Davis, left, Anna MacKenzie and Robert Deschaine, CAS. |
Zack Davis, MPSE, took home a Golden Reel award in the Best Sound Editing in Television; Long Form–Dialogue and ADR category for the HBO original movie The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. He won as dialogue editor and ADR editor; the latter award was shared with Anna MacKenzie. Also winning for Peter Sellers were Robert Deschaine, CAS, as ADR mixer, and Rick Ash as re-recording mixer. Davis is currently working as the ADR Supervisor on the Paramount comedy The Honeymooners.
In the Best Sound Editing in Television: Long Form–Music category, Joanie Diener, MPSE, and Gary Bourgeois, CAS, were honored for their work as supervising music editor/scoring editor, and music re-recording mixer, respectively, for A Christmas Carol: The Musical.
 Joanie Diener. |
Diener fondly recalls working with director Sam Mendes and editor Tarig Anwar on American Beauty, and with the late Elmer Bernstein on the last feature he scored, Far from Heaven. Bourgeois started out in Ottawa, Canada in 1969. One of his first feature film projects was on Janis, a film depicting the musical career of Janis Joplin. He also served as Bob Dylan’s mixer on the road before moving west in 1980.
Music editor Allen K. Rosen, MPSE, and re-recording mixer Dean Okrand captured Golden Reel awards this year for their work on The Mystery of Natalie Wood. Rosen was the first music editor to be brought onto the MPSE board. “The most interesting part of working on The Mystery of Natalie Wood was the diversity of music involved,” he says. “It encompassed a wide range of original music and re-recording standards.”
 Michael T. Ryan. |
Taking home the Best Sound Editing in Feature Film-Music category for Passion of the Christ were supervising music editor Michael T. Ryan, MPSE, scoring mixer Simon Rhodes and music re-recording mixer Kevin O’Connell. Ryan’s been a music editor for 14 years. Prior to music editing he was a dialogue editor.
Rhodes was delighted upon learning of his MPSE win. He recorded the orchestra, chorus and various individual soloists for Passion at the famed Abbey Road and Air Lyndhurst Studios in London, and has been with Abbey Road Studios since 1987.
O’Connell’s take on the MPSE award was simply: “Winning a Golden Reel is truly appreciated.” He started out as a projectionist in 1977 at 20th Century Fox and switched to the sound department at Samuel Goldwyn Studios in 1978. He began mixing motion pictures in 1982. As for working on Passion, O’Connell says, “Mel Gibson is not an actor pretending to be a director; he’s a full-fledged director. It was wonderful to help bring Gibson’s vision to the screen.”
The TV pilot for Lost won in the Best Sound Editing in Television Short Form–Sound Effects and Foley category. In addition to the aforementioned Menichini, those winning top honors for Lost included supervising sound editors Thomas de Gorter, MPSE, and Trevor Jolly; sound effects editors Roland Thai, MPSE, and Marc Glassman; assistant sound editor/ADR editor Dana Olsefsky; foley artist Patrick Cabral; and re-recording mixer Frank Morrone, MPSE, CAS. Also winning for Lost were supervising dialogue editor Christopher Reeves; dialogue editor Gabrielle Reeves; ADR mixer Doc Kane, CAS; and dialogue re-recording mixer Scott Weber.
Glassman started in the business 10 years ago as an ADR voice actor in a loop group and continues to work on Lost each week. “Lost is a unique show that is multifaceted and different each week. It stretches my sound effects editing,” he says.
Jolly also feels very fortunate to work on this high-profile show. He started out in Brisbane, Australia and eventually ended up in the US as a picture editor. He’s been supervising sound since 1996 and enjoys working with “any directors, producers or editors who have real passion for their projects.”
Olsefsky has been working in sound since 2001. She won her first MPSE awards for the Lost pilot. She also currently works on Alias. “I’d love to work on feature films at some point. It would be cool to work on a Tony Scott film since that is where I got my start.” (She started out as an intern for director Scott on Man on Fire.)
Lost is not routine, according to award-winner Morrone. “Sound is very important to each episode. We take the same approach to mixing this show as on a mini-feature.” He’d love to work with George Lucas in the future. “Lucas is the reason I got into this business. I saw Star Wars and it made me aware of what sound can do for a film,” he says. Lucas was honored at this year’s MPSE Awards with the inaugural Filmmaker Award and has been known to state, “Sound is 50 percent of a film.” It’s a Lucas quote Morrone can never forget.
Winning the MPSE award for Lost was Weber’s first. He started in the music business 17 years ago, at Group IV Recording Studio where he did music scores as a second engineer, then stepped up to sound mixer. Weber agrees that Lost is one of the most challenging jobs he’s worked on. “It’s very gratifying,” he offers.
Sex in the City has won countless awards in the past. This year, supervising music editor Dan Lieberstein and music editor Missy Cohen were honored with Golden Reel Awards for the episode entitled “An American Girl in Paris (Part Deux).” “This is my second Golden Reel Award; my first was for Chicago, the movie, as part of the crew,” Cohen explains. “Dan and I did all of the music for Sex in the City, so it is quite an honor to receive this award.” Cohen recently worked with Ron Howard as foley editor on Cinderella Man, set for a June release (see cover story, page 28), and A Beautiful Mind in 2001.
Also winning an MPSE Golden Reel Award in the Best Sound Editing: Special Venue Film category for Nascar 3-D: The Imax Experience were music editor Will Kaplan and ADR mixer Paul Aronoff.
Other winners in the Best Sound Editing: Direct to Video category for Bionicle II: Legends of Metru Nui were supervising sound editor/re-recording mixer/music editor Timothy J. Borquez, MPSE; supervising dialogue editor/re-recording mixer Eric Freeman, MPSE; supervising ADR editor/re-recording mixer Doug Andorka; sound effects editors Tom Syslo, Jeff Hutchins, Brian Mars, Michael Geisler, MPSE, Daisuke Sawa and Mark Mailand; and foley editor Jason Freedman.
Everyone who took home a top MPSE honor relishes the acknowledgement of this prestigious award in a similar fashion: Peer recognition is truly golden.
Sharon Benoit is a freelance writer and former interim editor of Editors Guild Magazine.
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