We are back with the continuing saga of predicting the below-the-line Oscar categories and today we take a look at Sound Editing and Sound Mixing. You can take a look at my current predictions for Picture, Actor, Actress, Director and the Supporting categories right here, Adapted and Original Screenplay right here and yesterday’s predictions for Original Score and Original Song here.
Drum roll… and the nominees please…
- The Dark Knight, Richard King
- Iron Man, Frank Eulner and Christopher Boyes
- Slumdog Millionaire, Tom Sayers
- WALL•E, Ben Burtt and Matthew Wood
- Wanted, Wylie Stateman
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce and Mark Weingarten
- The Dark Knight, Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo and Ed Novick
- Slumdog Millionaire, Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke and Resul Pookutty
- WALL•E,Tom Myers, Michael Semanick and Ben Burtt
- Wanted, Chris Jenkins, Frank A. Montaño and Petr Forejt
First off, I have done a little searching around just to make sure I have an understanding of these two categories since they can be a bit confusing. How I understand it, Sound Editing involves the creation of sound while Sound Mixing is simply that, mixing the sound into the film including effects, music, dialogue, etc. and adjusting the levels. Both descriptions are oversimplified, of course, but they work for me.
Editing has actually been known at the Oscars in the past as Best Sound Effects and Sound Effects Editing, which gives a little background understanding for the category while giving it a broader scope with its current title. I like to also think about it as saying Sound Editing pretty much equals Sound Design. Whether it’s 100% accurate or not, it helps me sleep at night.
Now, as far as these two categories go my gut tells me WALL•E is the film to beat in both, especially Sound Editing. Slumdog Millionaire recently took home the BAFTA for Sound, but that award is all encompassing and includes Production Sound Mixer, Re-recording Mixer and Supervising Sound Editor/Sound Designer.
I guess I could use Slumdog‘s BAFTA win as inspiration to make it my pick for Mixing, but this is a category I don’t exactly have much of an ear for. I don’t often notice the sound mix unless something is too quiet or too loud, but even then I don’t typically make a note of it unless it is an out-and-out nuisance. All I can do here is speak from personal experience, and in 2008 the one film that stuck out in my mind in terms of its use of sound was WALL•E hands down, and in with that it’s my pick for both categories.
Agree? Disagree? Is Slumdog destined to sweep every category it’s nominated in or is the field far more open than that? Does the WALL•E sound featurette I included help you make up your mind?
