ONLINE EXCLUSIVE
 From left, Bill Smith, David F. Van Slyke, Ruth Adelman, Yuri Reese and Jivan Tahmizia. Not pictured: Mace Matiosian. Photo: Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging |
Sound and Picture Editors Win HPA Awards
By Michael Kunkes
Post-election humor abounded at the third annual Hollywood Post Alliance (HPA) Awards ceremony, held November 6 at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. From HPA president Leon Silverman’s saluting “Joe the Editor,” to MC Wil Shriner declaiming that he’d just lost his job as Sarah Palin’s personal shopper, the clearly expressed mood was one of hope for better times in the industry. As Silverman said, “These are challenging times in Hollywood and particularly for post, which is going through some big transition and change. The HPA vows to continue to provide a forum for issues vital to our industry and fight to make sure that others understand the value of our work. We’re here to celebrate the best of the best.”
 Stuart Bass. Photo: Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging |
Among the best were Editors Guild members who were winners in four categories. Stuart Bass, A.C.E. was present to receive the award for Outstanding Editing—Television for his work on “Pie-Lette,” the 2007 pilot of ABC’s Pushing Daisies, directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, who brought his feature directing flair for out of the box visuals to creator Bryan Fuller’s (Dead Like Me, Wonder Falls) forensic fairy tale about a pie maker with the power to bring the dead back to life. Bass, who won an Emmy earlier this year for the same episode, stated, “There was a $5 million budget and a 19-day shooting schedule for 40 minutes of show. We were able to utilize a lot of 3-D graphics, virtual sets and carefully composed shots to build some really cool transitions––as in one great scene where the sun turns into a pie. The edit could be really controlled because a lot of it didn’t exist in reality.”
Bass, who has edited more than a half-dozen episodes of the show, added that the cutting rhythms on Pushing Daisies are different from the majority of today’s TV series, including a show he worked on for several seasons, Arrested Development. “I came to Pushing Daisies from a show that was very cutty to one that is very judicial about where the edits are,” he said. “By keeping the coverage to a minimum and pacing it slowly, we were able to make the pilot more luxurious––almost with the feel of an old movie. There are magical qualities to Bryan’s shows, and though subsequent episodes may not have had the luxury of the pilot’s budget and schedule, it’s a show with a lot of style.”
In what may be a preview of things to come this awards season, Lee Smith, A.C.E. won for Outstanding Editing—Feature for his work on Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. “Editing The Dark Knight was a unique experience,” said Smith from his Australia home. “While it is complicated enough to make an action blockbuster, on The Dark Knight we had to make two films at once––a 2:35:1 general cinema release version and a dedicated IMAX day-and-date release of the same film. With all the complications involved in the visual effects world, studio screenings, temp screenings, audience screenings and marketing requirements, there were never enough hours in the day. Add to that four action sequences shot in Imax 65 mm, and the job of editing a multi-format film was enormous. What I needed was a great team working with me and I had just that, led by John Lee, my first assistant editor, Tom Barret, our senior visual effects editor, and, of course, Christopher Nolan, a director with an unwavering sense of what the film should be. All this made the editorial experience on The Dark Knight one of the most challenging and rewarding films of my life. I want to thank the Hollywood Post Alliance for recognizing the creative challenges of everyone who works in post-production.”
 Lee Smith. |
For the second straight year, the Todd-AO sound crew from CSI won for Outstanding Sound––Television, this time for an eighth-season episode, “Cockroaches,” directed by another respected Hollywood veteran, William Friedkin (The Exorcist, Rules of Engagement). According to ADR supervisor Ruth Adelman, MPSE, “Anyone who has worked with William Friedkin knows that sound is a big part of how he puts together any project and directs it. On “Cockroaches,” there was a lot of room for sound design in general, which is what you need to have in a show that you’re going to submit for an award. He is a very giving director, and he’ll be coming back to do our upcoming 200th show.”
Adelman, an MPSE Board member and Television Academy member, praised her fellow Todd-AO winners—sound supervisor Mace Matiosian, MPSE, sound designer David Van Slyke, MPSE, re-recording mixers Bill Smith and Yuri Reese, CAS; and sound editor Jivan Tahmizian, MPSE, many of whom have been with the show for all nine seasons. “I also want to credit co-producer Phil Conserva, who is very involved in the post process and encourages us all to continue to do what we do best,” Adelman continued. “I also want to thank the executive producers, especially Carol Mendelsohn, who have kept us on track all these years, and the terrific actors and writers who work with the material and make it live, week in and week out.”
In features, the Outstanding Audio Post award was won by the Wall-E team of Pixar supervising sound editor/sound designer/character voice designer Ben Burtt, Skywalker Sound re-recording mixers Tom Myers and Michael Semanick and co-supervising sound editor Matthew Wood. Myers, Wall-E’s effects mixer who is currently working on a 3-D remake of My Bloody Valentine, said, “What makes the sound in Wall-E so unique is that so much of the story––especially the first half-hour––is told with almost no dialogue from the two major characters, Wall-E and Eve. They emit sounds that put forth emotion without using a lot of dialogue; the story unfolds in a way that’s told largely through movement, sounds, non-literal vocalizations and music. It was a real challenge to tell a story like that without having traditional characters around to explain everything.”
Myers credited Burtt as the prime mover behind Wall-E’s soundscape. “Ben spent two years creating and recording material and designing character voices,” he said. “That was a long process that evolved between him and director Andrew Stanton. Andrew would explain the emotions he wanted Wall-E to convey, and Ben would go out and put them forth. Every sound in the movie went through his hands first.”
Todd-AO’s Adelman summed it up best: “What makes the HPA important is its inclusiveness; it is about the entire post-production community and not just any one discipline. They cross all borders and that is a very positive thing for our industry.”
Michael Kunkes is a freelance editor and writer specializing in animation, production and post-production. He can be reached at writermk@sbcglobal.net.