Cinema Audio Society

[Steph2]

If 'No Country' wins, it may be the most atypical winner of this category since 'All the President's Men'.

And the most deserving since Titanic.

[Sabin]

I would. 'Transformers' is auditory diarrhea. I don't hate the movie but this is Sound MIXING! The most effective mixing of sound for the most visceral narrative experience, narrative by nature including highs and lows. 'Transformers' had me screaming STOP FUCKING MY HEAD!!! IT HURTS!!! for two and a half hours. I got looked at. It was weird.

The biggest production is not the best one. Sometimes, yes. In '05, we had 'King Kong' and 'War of the Worlds'...those two movies made me shudder with both their mixing and the sounds they created ('WotW' especially). I would rank 'The Bourne Ultimatum' above 'Transformers' because the sense of atmosphere it created was largely an auditory one as well. If 'No Country' wins, it may be the most atypical winner of this category since 'All the President's Men'.

[Damien]

Last year at least one of the Hollywood nonsense shows (E.T. et al) featured him in the weeks leading up to the awards.

[Akash]

Thanks for reminding us of that back-story anonymous. You're right -- it's the kind of thing Oscar voters may not be able to resist, in addition to O'Connell being the Susan Lucci of the Oscars (thank god Randy Newman no longer holds that title).

I wouldn't mind him winning, I just wish it wasn't for something as wretched and wasted as Transformers. But sympathy probably helped Randy Newman finally win for Monsters Inc (one of his less accomplished songs) and it probably won a final Oscar for Conrad L Hall (preventing what seemed a boring, inevitable sweep of the top five technical categories by Chicago). So yeah, he'll probably get it. If I were him, I'd get that story back out there. I mean Oscar voters have short memories right? And I'm sure Dakota Fanning has no idea who he is.



Edited By Akash on 1200035412

[Sonic Youth]

Here they are...

No Country for Old Men

Sonic posited a month ago that the year's biggest injustice will be the lack of a sound nomination for 'No Country for Old Men'. I completely agree. It is a note-perfect work of audio suspense that does not for a second require a musical score.

I have to believe that 'No Country' can make a showing,

YES!!!

[Hollywood Z]

One of the sound mixers of Transformers is Kevin O'Connell, who has the distinction of having the most Oscar nods without a win. If he gets in for Transformers, it would be his 20th Oscar nomination. His mother died on Oscar night last year and Michael Minkler, one of the mixers who won that year, dissed him at the press room. If enough Academy members know that, he might finally win this year.

My thoughts exactly.

Now, with Sweeney Todd being out of the race (wow, one year where we won't have a musical/song enhanced film), I'm gonna have to put No Country for Old Men in there. Already figured Bourne would make the cut, now 300 apparently. I was already guessing it would get a sound editing nod, what with all the battles and period shield thumps (think Braveheart or Gladiator), guess it's a lock for sound mixing as well. Into the Wild is pretty much out here, so I'll throw in my dark horse prediction and say that 3:10 to Yuma might make it in. So my five for sound mixing are:

The Bourne Ultimatum
No Country for Old Men
300
3:10 to Yuma
Transformers

And the five for sound editing are:

The Bourne Ultimatum
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
300
3:10 to Yuma
Transformers

Perhaps Transformers could pull off the first win for O'Connell, especially with the press coverage that his loss followed by the lemon juice on the wound by Michael Minkler afterwards. That being said, if the academy truly wants to showcase that they are leaning in that direction, American Gangster would sneak into the fifth slot: Michael Minkler's only sound chance this year. Unless that's the reason the CAS nominated Into the Wild...

Also, with Pirates losing out on the precursor nom here, I'm starting to think that make-up is pretty much out for it. Support for 300 is growing more and more while Pirates is receiving less and less.

[cam]

I don't think Sweeney Todd will make it to the sound categories. There was a dreadful imbalance between the singers( I use the term very loosely) and the ramped-up orchestrations of Jonathan Tunick. In fact the sound track sometimes overwhelmed the action.
I am amazed that There Will Be Blood did not make it with this group: it was *full* of sound, both mechanical and Jonny Greenwood's soundscape. I would say it was vital to the film.

[anonymous1980]

One of the sound mixers of Transformers is Kevin O'Connell, who has the distinction of having the most Oscar nods without a win. If he gets in for Transformers, it would be his 20th Oscar nomination. His mother died on Oscar night last year and Michael Minkler, one of the mixers who won that year, dissed him at the press room. If enough Academy members know that, he might finally win this year.

[The Original BJ]

I'm kinda disappointed There Will Be Blood didn't feature here. I thought there was some terrific sound in the film.

I absolutely agree. I think the soundtrack to There Will Be Blood is absolutely vital to its success; now that No Country seems a good bet for its sound, I will be rooting for Blood as the dark horse I hope makes it in this category at the Oscars.

Into the Wild seems to be in the tradition of Crash/Finding Neverland -- it seems to help its Best Picture push more than its chances in this Oscar category, which I think are pretty weak. (Though the Penn film is of course much superior to those other two.)

Animated films also have done well here, so I think Ratatouille and Beowulf are both in the running.

I know it's not logical, but might Sweeney Todd have missed because the singing was so weak? That's bad casting, not bad mixing (though I didn't have a problem with the orchestrations the way some of you did), but the film isn't exactly a joy to listen to.

The one musical that SHOULD be nominated (and, thus, has absolutely zero chance) is I'm Not There.

[Sabin]

I don't think we'll see a musical (or anything resembling a musical) nominated this year, as there's been nothing close to consensus as to which musical was the best of the year. I've heard too much complaining about the singing in 'Sweeney Todd', and nothing about the singing or numbers in 'Hairspray'. The only film I've heard any degree of enthusiasm for musical numbers is 'Once', and that's not going to happen.

I'd imagine that 'American Gangster' or 'Atonement' are the best bets, two films prized for their elegant craftsmanship and criticized for their emotional pull (not here; seriously, I haven't seen 'Atonement', so I could be wrong but that's what I've read). I think 'Bourne' and 'Transformers' are locked (the latter probably in for a trifecta of wins Oscar night...<shudder>), '300' not far behind (THIS...IS...MIXING!), and 'No Country' probably a safe bet as the one OH, IT'S A GOOD MOVIE! pick. After that, I'm sticking to 'American Gangster'. Maybe '3:10 to Yuma', in which the behind-the-scenes players worked overtime making us forget the pedestrian nature of James Mangold's directing and turning it into (also thanks to Marco Beltrami's fantastic score) a totally engaging Hollywood production.

[OscarGuy]

Magilla, I think you're confusing the categories. Sound is now called Sound Mixing. Sound Effects/Editing is now called Sound Editing. The CAS corresponds with Sound Mixing, not Sound Editing. The Motion Picture Sound Editors (who haven't announced, I don't think yet) would correspond to the Sound Editing category.

[OscarGuy]

And another bit of CAS trivia. Their winners have always been at least Oscar-nominated and the Oscar winners have to at least be CAS-nominated. They have a perfect record back to 1993 (the earliest data they have available on their site anyway).

All years not listed below had a 4-for-5 match-up to Oscar.

5 for 5 years
2003
2000

3 for 5 years
2004 (they picked Bourne Supremacy and Finding Neverland, Oscar didn't)
1998 (they picked The Horse Whisperer and The X-Files, Oscar didn't)
1995 (they picked Heat and Jumanji, Oscar didn't)
1994 (they picked The Lion King and True Lies, Oscar didn't)

2 for 5 years
1999 (they only matched The Matrix and Star Wars: Ep I)

[Big Magilla]

I think whether we liked Sweeney Todd or not we can agree that the sound mixing was not very good. However there is a difference between overall sound and sound mixing, so while I wouldn't want Sweeney Todd to be anywhere near a Sound Mixing nomination I wouldn't object to an overall sound nomination over 300 and Transformers, which are just plain loud.

Like most technical categories, the Oscar nominations will most likely go to the films that employ the most technicians, so the crappy 300, Transformers and the over-rated Bourne Ultimatum are likely to be the nominees for both sound and sound mixing instead of No Country, There Will Be Blood and Into the Wild, the three I would choose.

[OscarGuy]

Moulin Rouge, Chicago, Ray, Walk the Line and Dreamgirls were all nominated by the CAS. They are also a very reliable precursor for the sound nominations yielding on average 4 of 5 simul-matches...and of those musical nominees above, every single one went on to an Oscar nomination.

And so far this decade, they've only once matched with the Oscars and that was last year with Dreamgirls.

I'm kinda disappointed There Will Be Blood didn't feature here. I thought there was some terrific sound in the film.

[Akash]

Sabin, I agree with you that the sound work on No Country for Old Men is exquisite and actually services the film's mood and tension instead of just being, um loud.

I think if LA Confidential can get nominated for Sound, I'm sure the bigger critical hit (and much better film) No Country for Old Men, can.

Is it telling that this is yet another group to ignore Sweeney Todd? Don't musicals often do well in Sound categories? (Even films that the HFPA categorizes as musicals, like Ray and Walk the Line?) Hopefully this is a good sign that Sweeney Todd is going to be shut out of the top categories (especially Actor, please don't let them waste another slot on Johnny Depp like they did in 2004). It would be pretty funny if the film was nominated for Sound at the Oscars given how conspicuously bad its Sound Mixing was -- people on this board even noticed and commented on it in the Sweeney Todd thread.

Oh and speaking of bad Sound, nothing sounds worse than "Oscar Nominee/Winner: Transformers."



Edited By Akash on 1199981759