Oscars 2012: Sound Mixing

Note: This is my personal ranking, listed in order from best to worst, with #1 being my favorite. Prediction for the actual winner is in orange.

BEST SOUND MIXING
(a film’s overall sound)

1. THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

2. HUGO

3. WAR HORSE

4. TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON

5. MONEYBALL

This is much the same race as Best Sound Editing, but with Drive switched out for Moneyball.

Moneyball is the least obvious nominee of the bunch, and it’s because of this — not because it doesn’t perfectly capture the crack of the baseball bat or the echoey tones of the flashback scenes — that it bottoms out my list. It also doesn’t help that Ed Novick snagged the trophy last year for Inception, nor that Deb Adair and Ron Bochar are Oscar newcomers. Moneyball is the longest shot here.

If Moneyball‘s nomination came out of left field, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, was the no-brainer. The robot battle actually has a decent chance here because there’s just so. much. sound. And while I think it’s a bit of an aural attack — screaming, shattering glass, grinding gears, bashing ‘bots — there’s a huge amount of expertise at work here: not only is this Greg P. Russell’s third nomination for the series, it’s his fifteenth nomination altogether, yet he still hasn’t got a single Oscar to his name. Add  to that insanity Jeffrey Haboush and Peter J. Devlin who also have  a few nominations each to their names, and this is the group that is “due” a win (but they won’t get it).

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo won’t win, but it’s certainly worthy. What’s so fantastic about this group – David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce and Bo Persson — is that their care for the overall sound is so intricately detailed, accounting for the desolate Swedish winter and the  cool, detached characters with boots stomping through snow, fingers flying across keyboards, winds whistling through doorways. Then, suddenly, those sounds we thought were just the wind seamlessly become musical — or is it just the wind after all? — and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s beautifully unnerving score takes over (we’ll get to that Oscar snub later). The way this group of sound mixers integrates and overlaps each type of aural effect to achiever Fincher’s vision is truly fantastic.

But really this race comes down to two: War Horse more obviously relies on sound — those majestic battle scenes and John Williams’s sweeping score — and once again, Spielberg didn’t scrimp on the talent. We’ve already gone over Gary Rydstrom’s seven wins and sixteen nominations, but working alongside him are Andy Nelson (he and Rydstrom shared a win for Saving Private Ryan), also on nomination sixteen, and eight-time nominee Tom Johnson (co-winner with Rydstrom for Terminator 2 and Titanic) — that’s an impressive resume for the other nominees to overcome.

But despite War Horse‘s clout in this category, Hugo is by far the favorite film, and with its tinkering toys, ticking clocks, chugging choo-choos and crowds of chatty Parisians making up a happily busy train station, it will more than likely earn Tom Fleischman and John Midgley their first wins.

Oscars 2012: Sound Editing

Note: This is my personal ranking, listed in order from best to worst, with #1 being my favorite. Prediction for the actual winner is in orange. 

BEST SOUND EDITING
(aural effects)

1. DRIVE

2. THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

3. HUGO

4. WAR HORSE

5. TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON

Did you hear that? That was the sound of the Academy bitch-slapping Drive with this sole, random nomination. Nicolas Winding Refn’s über-violent film may have the most unique and thrilling aural landscape of the bunch: though the title declares otherwise, Drive that doesn’t focus on the accelerations and gear-shiftings of car chases (though we have those too), but on revelatory moments between and about characters with coolly calming, ominous tones that hit harder than any punch. Despite this, one-time winner Lon Bender (Braveheart) and Oscar newbie Victor Ray Ennis will be going home empty-handed come February 26th.

Perhaps an even longer shot is Transformers: Dark of the Moon: despite all its super-high tech gadgetry and explosions, this ‘bot bloodbath really hasn’t a shot. Sorry, Ethan Van Der Ryn, but three times is not a charm.

As for the last three nominees, I’m honestly not sure who’s going to nab this award. While I would never be inclined to say War Horse, some folks think hit as a real shot with its galloping steeds, bombing airplanes and destructive tanks. And it certainly has the most pedigree behind it: three-time winner Richard Hymns and seven-time winner — yes, seven — Gary Rydstrom certainly aren’t slouches, and what’s more, they’re regular Spielberg sidekicks. The man knows how to pack in the super-techies which may garner his big war slash horse film its only honor of the night.

The Girl wit the Dragon Tattoo sounds as cool and desolate as it looks, thanks to Fincher favorite, Ryn Klyce: all gusty winds, creaking floorboards and clinking chains, we hear the loner Lisbeth as much as we see her. It’s got a solid chance, as I feel voters will want to give it something, but then again…

… there’s always Hugo (not quite as sweep-tastic as The Artist, but pretty darn close). Despite having zero Oscars to their names, Philip Stockton and Eugene Gearty may very well be the big winners for their bustling Paris station that’s all bells, whistles and trains chugging and clocks chiming.

2011 Tony Awards: Sound Design of a Musical

Note: My personal rankings are listed in order from best to worst, with #1 being my favorite, while predictions for the actual winners will be in orange.

SOUND DESIGN OF A MUSICAL

1. The Scottsboro Boys

2. The Book of Mormon

3. Anything Goes

4. Catch Me If You Can

I fear I’m about to disappoint Mr. Robert Kaplowitz, Tony Award winning Sound Designer for Fela! (who was kind enough to explain to me — in detail — what a Sound Designer does for a musical here). Based on his comment that “Every musical has an essential sound – a sound it SHOULD be conveying. Did the designer do so successfully?” here’s my attempt to rank this year’s nominees.

Steve Canyon Kennedy’s design for Catch Me If You Can made me feel like I was being aurally attacked — all the way up in the upper balcony of the huge Neil Simon Theatre. Sure, Marc Shaimon’s score is big and brassy (super-similar to his work on Hairspray), but the production’s sound was so aggressive and punchy that I felt as though I was getting whacked in the face repeatedly (not unlike how I felt during American Idiot, but for what was essentially a Green Day concert, that made much more dramaturgical sense).

Beyond Kennedy’s misfire, however, I’m at a loss. One can probably assume that Brian Ronan (who coincidentally designed American Idiot), who is nominated twice here –for The Book of Mormon and Anything Goes — will take home the award for the immensely more popular of two shows, Mormon. He’s also one of the two designers here who’s been previously nominated (Next to Normal), so that doesn’t hurt. (To learn a bit about his approach to design, go here).

Of all the nominees, however, only Peter Hylenski’s work on The Scottsboro Boys (at least to my memory) includes some sound effects in addition to the obligatory amplification of the actors and orchestra.  For the tale of the 1930s trial of rape and racism, he creates traffic on bustling Alabama streets and the chilling clink of prison cells locking down. Previously nominated for his design for the loud and cocky Rock of Ages, Hylenski’s work here is the most subtle and thoughtful of the nominees, and it certainly helps that this show, the last of the masterful Kander and Ebb, was a critical darling. But Tony voters tend to have short memories, and Scottsboro is the only of the nominees no longer running, having long since closed in December.

2011 Tony Awards: Sound Design of a Play

Let the 2011 Tony-a-thon Begin!

A quick note on my progress:  I have six shows left to see, missed three that closed prior to the nominations (Driving Miss Daisy (zzzzz), Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, La Bête), and am worried that I have little to no recollection of some from long, long ago (Bloody, Bloody; Merchant of Venice, Scottsboro Boys). So this could get interesting — or just plain ridiculous.

Before we begin, let us have a moment of silence for Spidey, which sadly, did not manage to open (in time for this year’s awards).

. . .

Aaaand, here we go!

Note: My personal rankings are listed in order from best to worst, with #1 being my favorite, while predictions for the actual winners will be in orange.

SOUND DESIGN OF A PLAY

1. War Horse

2. Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo

3. Brief Encounter

4. Jerusalem

Due to the near seamlessness of its gorgeous overall design, it’s perhaps all too easy to forget just how well done War Horse‘s particular sound is. Christopher Shutt floats Adrian Sutton’s music softly through the quiet moments and then gives it a heart-pumping intensity for the battles; he weaves John Tams’ alternately folksy songs and stirring anthems with all those sounds of war — tanks crushing the earth, bullets flying through the air, and the endless marching of soldiers. Assisted by the intimacy of the Vivian Beaumont’s thrust stage, Shutt pulls you deep into the heart of the action and envelopes you in the raw, honest emotions of life in war.

Maybe it’s just because I saw it, oh, a few hours ago, and thus its sound is fairly easy to recollect, but Cricket Myers and Acme Sound Partners’s aural atmosphere for Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo is largely how we know we’re in buzzy, precarious capital of Iraq. The traffic and the muffled Arabic chatter in the streets trickles in and out; foreboding, vaguely Middle Eastern tones waft over and under scenes, filling the space with a detailed intimacy and cultural context that the production otherwise largely lacks. Watch this clip to hear Cricket discuss how she crafted this sound specifically for the Richard Rodgers Theatre. Unfortunately she couldn’t stop Robin Williams (not very much of a Tiger), or most of his fellow castmates, from bellowing their way through the show, but she certainly didn’t amplify their tirades (we can thank Moisés Kaufman’s direction for that).

While Brief Encounter surely will be the favorite in this category, its sound is not unlike the rest of the super-stylized production — larger than life. A living room clock tick-tocks so loudly that we could not possibly miss its meaning (OPPRESSION), swaying vocal chords bemoan despair, a racing locomotive symbolizes the anticipatory adrenaline of a first romantic encounter. It’s all so much — so many feelings —  and yet not enough, at least, for a Broadway theatre. From the balcony of Studio 54, it all seemed tinny, underwhelming, and quite frankly, a little silly. Simon Baker’s design should have swept me up into the romance of it all, but it’s as though it wasn’t reimagined at all for the transfer to a much larger theatre. I suspect this is true of the production in general, which by all accounts, lost much of its magic when it departed the more intimate St. Anne’s Warehouse.

A bit remiss, I’m not sure what Jerusalem is doing here. Many insist that sound design relies on its invisibility — if you don’t notice it, that must mean it’s good — but I can’t say I agree. For the life of me, I can’t recall Jerusalem‘s sound at all, and if I can’t, you know Tony voters won’t either.

Oscars 2011: Best Sound Editing

Note: This is my personal ranking, listed in order from best to worst, with #1 being my favorite. Prediction for the actual winner is in orange.

BEST SOUND EDITING
(aural effects)

1. Tron: Legacy

2. Inception

3. Toy Story 3

4. Unstoppable

5. True Grit

Missing: Black Swan

As most sound effects are created in the studio in order to enhance a film, it’s slightly bizarre to think that Tron: Legacy won’t win, given that Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague invented an entirely new aural realm for the film’s video game universe. Sure, it’s ’80s cheesetastic, but it’s exactly what the film requires. The Academy, however, favors more realistic sounds, preferably from big, action-packed summer blockbusters, and thus Inception most nicely fits the bill. One of the most impressive aspects of this visual stunner of a film is actually its amalgamation of sound by director Christopher Nolan’s go-to sound effects guru, Richard King. Frenzied fisticuffs, wildly screeching tires, unhinged locomotives…you name it, King traveled the world to collect and create it. It’s time he also collected his third Oscar (after The Dark Knight and Master and Commander).

Toy Story 3 is book-ended by spiffy action sequences that incorporate the expertise of sound designers Tom Myers and Michael Silvers, but Pixar’s history in this category is not a good one, having only won once before despite repeated nominations. Unstoppable on the other hand is nothing but sound. In addition to the constant “tense” musical scoring, Mark P. Stoeckinger crams the film full of tires screeching, trains chugging, whistles blowing, gravel crunching, glass shattering, and so much more it’s impossible to list it all. It’s actually quite impressive, as the sound is what drives the otherwise uninteresting film, constantly raising the stakes and pushing the action forward. Unfortunately, Unstoppable is on sound-overload, and at some point it just comes across as noise. Thinking of True Grit, it’s hard to recall sound specifics, and while that could be a good thing for a Coen Brothers Western (demonstrating cohesiveness rather than the ostentatious like its co-nominee, Unstoppable), Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey’s nomination seems to be a bit of a head-scratcher. And we all know that Aronofsky’s Black Swan wouldn’t be nearly effective without the creepy, tension-fueled, paranoid sounds (wings flapping, anyone?) created by Craig Henighan.

Oscars 2011: Sound Mixing

The Oscar race begins!

While I still have many, many more films to see (17 + all the shorts), I have managed to complete quite a few of the categories already, so let the blog-o-thon commence! Let’s ease into it with one of the easier categories: Sound Mixing. I say easy, because I believe the winner to be obvious, not because sound mixing is an easy art. It is certainly not my area of expertise.

Note: My personal rankings are listed in order from best to worst, with #1 being my favorite, while predictions for the actual winners will be in orange.

SOUND MIXING
(a film’s overall sound)

1. Inception
2. The Social Network
3. Salt
4. True Grit
5.  The King’s Speech

Missing: Tron

True Grit sounds every bit the western with its desert desolation and comical gun-slinging, and Salt does just fine with predictable aural espionage, but only The Social Network puts up a fight in this category simply because it’s a film about computers and  servers and typing and hacking and loyalty and friendship and revenge and, ultimately, connection. And it actually sounds it. Speaking of servers and computers: where the heck is Tron? Its absence is ludicrous, especially considering that The King’s Speech inexplicably nabbed its spot.

Now let’s be honest: despite all its flaws — and it has many — Inception is the clear winner here. One of the most impressive aspects of the visual stunner is actually its amalgamation of sound by some of director Christopher Nolan’s fave sound mixers, Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo, and Ed Novick. Melding Richard King’s stellar sound effects together with the surrealistic aural landscape they created to parallel the malleable physical world dreamt up by the imaginative Nolan, and you hear the spooks steal intel from others’ minds.  It’s by far the most creative and intelligent sound mixing of the group, so let’s go ahead and give these three their first Oscar (they were nominated, but lost, for The Dark Knight).

Tony Awards 2010: Best Revival

BEST REVIVAL OF A PLAY

1. A View from the Bridge

2. Fences

3. Lend Me a Tenor

The Royal Family

The winner of this category is obvious (to this reviewer at any rate), but many will vote for the still-running, star-studded Fences.  Kenny Leon‘s (Best Direction nominee) production, while wonderful in so many ways, is flawed and id not the cohesive masterpiece that many claim it to be. There is the misstep in sound design (Best Sound Design nominee) that slows the pace and confuses the tone. But the real error involves the charismatic Denzel Washington (Best Leading Actor nominee): instead of tempering Troy Mason’s bravura with equal parts fear and rage, director Kenny Leons allows Washington to highlight the endearingly brash showman within Troy, causing the final significant scenes to peter off anti-climatically. But if Washington isn’t the revelation that everyone wants him to be, no matter: for that we have Viola Davis (Best Leading Actress Nominee), Stephen McKinley Henderson (Best Featured Actor nominee), and rest of the fantastic supporting cast, who each master their own moments of heartbreak, creating an affective, if not innovative, production.

Total Nominations: 10

Lend Me a Tenor is hit and miss, but mostly it misses. The hits: Jan Maxwell‘s (Best Featured Actress nominee) hilariously tempestuous Italian wife; Tony Shalhoub as the desperate, no-nonsense opera GM; Anthony Lapaglia’s dopey Italian tenor; the fantastically frantic and fun curtain call wherein the cast reenacts the entire show in two hilarious minutes… and the blackface?  Yep, the blackface is a definite highlight. The misses: Jay Klaitz’s obnoxious singing bellhop,  the miscast Brooke Adams as the pointless Chairman of the Opera Guild; Justin Bartha’s “singing”; and much of Ken Ludwig’s script which is not so funny as it is silly. For the most part, director Stanley Tucci does what he can to keep the production moving (lots of running in and out of and slamming of doors; constant flinging onto sofas and beds and chairs; repeated spitting of indiscernible items into the audience), but this farcical production simply isn’t as good as the company it keeps in this category.

Total Nominations: 3

How does Ken Ludwig even survive in a category that includes Arthur Miller? And a damn fine production of an Arthur Miller work at that. Director Gregory Mosher (nominee) takes a quiet approach to the tragic A View from the Bridge, carefully keeping in check emotions that could easily become high-pitched and overwrought (there is, after all, a Greek chorus present). The tone is low but warm, both visually and aurally (Best Sound Design nominee), letting the melancholy design reflect the quiet anguish simmering beneath the surface, and allowing the familial tension to gradually imbue the entire production. If there was a “Best Ensemble Cast” award it would certainly go to Liev Schrieber, Jessica Hecht, Scarlett Johansson (all nominated), and the rest of the superb supporting cast. Mosher’s A View from the Bridge comes to a slow boil, and when tragedy finally fells the Carbone family, you feel your very bones ache along with them in despair, making this View a masterful production of a master’s work.

Total Nominations: 6

The Royal Family (unseen)
Total Nominations: 5

BEST REVIVAL OF A MUSICAL

1. A Little Night music

2. La Cage aux Folles

3. Finian’s Rainbow

4. Ragtime

With a whopping eleven nominations, La Cage aux Folles‘s win here is pretty much guaranteed. The performances by both Kelsey Grammer and Douglas Hodge (Best Leading Actor nominees) have been widely praised, the costumes are absolutely fabulous (Best Costume nominee), the lighting is sexy and smart (Best Lighting nominee), choreography is cheeky and clever (Best Choreography nominee), and Terry Johnson (Best Direction nominee) smartly doesn’t get in the way of the inherent hilarity and endearing cast of characters; he simply allows those fabulous Cagelles to be What They Are, and What They Are in is a finely tuned production.

Total Nominations: 11

Tony voters’ runner- up would be my top pick. A Little Night Music is by far the most accomplished musical revived this year, and while Director Trevor Nunn’s production isn’t innovative, it’s tight and cohesive, both in direction and design (Best Sound Design nominee). The cast creates a terrific ensemble, including the always brilliant  and saucy Angela Lansbury (Best Featured Actress nominee), though decidedly excluding the shrill Ramona Mallory as the virginal Anne. All in all, a fine production of a fine musical.

Total Nominations: 4

The remaining two nominees each closed early after brief runs to mixed reviews, and so practically bow out of the running altogether. Ragtime was a mess of misguided minimalism (thanks to Best Direction nominee, Marcia Milgrom Dodge),  and Finian’s Rainbow should probably just be thankful it made it to Broadway in the first place (what an odd — and oddly delightful — obscure little musical).

Ragtime‘s Total Nominations: 6

Finian‘s Total Nominations: 3

Tony Awards 2010: Sound Design

With one week until Broadway’s biggest event, it’s high-time I begin my series of predictions fro the 2010 Tony-Award winners. Because the Tonys are not exactly as talked-about as the Oscars, these lists almost entirely reflect my tastes only, but if I think voters will choose differently, I’ve put that prediction in orange (yes, this is the opposite of how I did the Oscar listings) — because, let’s face it: Red and Memphis will undoubtedly dominate in their respective categories. (Sigh.)  Let’s begin with the category I probably have the least critical abilities to speak on. That’s right: Sound Design.

BEST SOUND DESIGN OF A PLAY

1. Enron (Adam Cork)

2. Red (Adam Cork)

3. A View from the Bridge (Scott Lehrer)

4. Fences (Acme Sound Partners)

Only the first category, and things are already starting to get tricky. If you notice below, in the category of Best Original Score, Fences and Enron are listed there as well. But – gasp! – those aren’t musicals, you say. Of course you’re right, though I would argue that Enron‘s use of music/song should place it alongside such pieces as Spring Awakening (though SA is more conventional) — and therefore should be eligible for Best Musical. But I digress (I’ll speak more on this issue in upcoming posts).

If you haven’t seen the shows, or simply haven’t a clear recollection of their sounds, go here for some audio samples of each nominee.

If you’ve seen or heard, rather, all these nominees,  you too muttered a baffled “wtf?” during scene changes in the revival of the late August Wilson’s masterpiece, Fences. Almost the entirety of play’s sound design came in the form of musical interludes while actors not-so-quickly changed costumes or sets pieces moved in and out. If you’re anything like me — and I’d like to think Troy Mason is — you’ve given Kenny Leon’s otherwise proficient production one huge strike simply for entertaining the necessity of these superfluously static moments. But more to the issue is that Branford Marsalis’s finger-snapping jazzy tunes that accompany the multiple minutes-long plunges into darkness are entirely incongruent to the tragic tone of Troy Mason’s raging battle against death and prejudice in 1950s Pittsburgh (the Times magically managed to find the only 30 somber seconds of sound in the entire design, as heard in the link I included above). Instead of highlighting the complexities of character, the design simplified or completely ignored themes, all while slowing down the pace of a mostly engrossing production.

On the other hand, Lehrer’s aural urban landscape competently transplanted us into 1930s Red Hook, Brooklyn, in A View from the Bridge. But with two nominations, Adam Cork deservedly dominates this category. Of the three designers, Cork is far and away the most theatrical, seamlessly infusing his productions with music that is stylistically pitch-perfect and dramatically powerful. Red sounds like Abstract Expressionist Marth Rothko’s paintings look — or maybe more to the point, it sounds what it might be like to be inside Rothko’s head with swimming, sweeping strokes of musical chords building and building to a frenzy of color and sound. But even more impressive is a corrupt corporation devolving into aural chaos with a dizzying swirl of ’90s-styled techno and stock ticker quotes. The fact that Enron‘s score incorporates original songs – strangely patriotic anthems and chants of sorts – not only sidesteps boundaries of conventional “musical theatre,” but brazenly emphasizes and expounds the bizarrely over-the-top behavior of the company’s crooked corporate heads. And I love it. And if you had managed to snag a ticket in the two seconds it lasted on Broadway, you would have loved it too. Unless, of course, you’re Ben Brantley.

BEST SOUND DESIGN OF A MUSICAL

1. A Little Night Music (Dan Moses Schreier and Gareth Owen)

2. Fela! (Robert Kaplowitz)

3. La Cage aux Folles (Jonathan Deans)

4. Sondheim on Sondheim (Dan Moses Schreier)

Here is where my complete ignorance of sound design comes into play. We have the Original Score and Orchestrations categories, so what exactly is Sound Design of a musical if not those two things?  If I could recall any other kind of sound in the shows besides that which is written by the original composer and re-orchestrated for these productions, I  could maybe attempt to put these in some kind of order. Is it to do with amplification? Some other kind of technical prowess? If any sound designers are out there, please enlighten me. As it is, I’m assuming that Dan Moses Schreier is some kind of musical sound design master, since he’s nominated for two shows, so he’ll probably take home the golden guy for one of them — hopefully A Little Night Music, the infinitely better of the two in every imaginable way (surely Sondheim on Sondheim‘s musical awfulness is largely due to Michael Starobin’s cheesetastic orchestrations that made me long for my high school showchoir days.) But I’m secretly hoping for a Fela! upset. Just because.

Post-Oscar Wrap-up: 2010

With only a few minor surprises last night — Precious‘s winning Best Adapted Screenplay (excuse me?) and The Hurt Locker sweeping those sound awards (Sorry, Avatar!) – everything else went off according to plan. Hooray for Hollywood! Let’s break down the evening’s festivities, shall we?

THE TALLY

Which films earned the most — and the least — little gold men.

6
THE HURT LOCKER

3
AVATAR

2
PRECIOUS , CRAZY HEART, UP

1
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, THE BLIND SIDE, THE YOUNG VICTORIA, STAR TREK

0
UP IN THE AIR, A SERIOUS MAN, AN EDUCATION, THE LAST STATION, INVICTUS, A SINGLE MAN, THE MESSENGER, JULIE & JULIA,  THE LOVELY BONES, NINE, THE IMAGINARIUM OF DR. PARNASSUS, DISTRICT 9, FANTASTIC MR. FOX, CORALINE, THE SECRET OF KELLS, THE PRINCESS & THE FROG

Since the awards failed to excite, let’s check out what did manage to thrill / appall us. And by ‘us’ I mean me.

HIGHLIGHTS:

1. Sandy‘s speech (adorable). And that dress (gorgeous Marchesa).
Also: turning to hug Meryl, apparently changes her mind and does a 180, leaving The Streep with empty, outstretched arms (priceless).

2. Ben Stiller, dressed as an Avatar despite the fact that Avatar was not nominated for Best Makeup (genius). Also brilliant: when plaintively states, “I want to plug in my tail.”

3. Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin’s paranormal activity. Totes brills, and the only amusing moment the uber-awkward hosting duo offers all night.

4. The lovely John Hughes tribute:

When you grow up, your heart dies.
So, who cares?
I care.

5. The mysteriously included horror film tribute. Not sure why it was there, but sure glad it was.
Jaws! The Exorcist! Nightmare on Elm Street! Psycho! Nosferatu! Twilight! – wait, what?

5. Kathryn Bigelow becomes the first woman to win Best Director. Too bad cameras fail to catch ex James “I’m king of the world!” Cameron’s glower as she accepts her golden guy.

6. Fantastically inspired, the League of Extraordinary Dancers interprets each of the nominated scores. It felt like the Tony Awards. But in the best possible way.

Skip the dreadful Zimmer score and go straight to the delightful Fantastic Mr. Fox and Up sequences.

LOWLIGHTS (slash highlights):

1.Neil Patrick Harris’ opening song and dance was totally awkward and unfunny. We love you NPH, but no. Just no.

2. Charlize Theron’s cinnabons.

2. Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin “banter” as the most painfully torpid and unfunny co-hosts ever by simply insulting everyone in the room. It was like that year Chris Rock hosted. Except not funny.

3. George Clooney’s sourpuss mug throughout the entire ceremony. Why so angry, George? Was it part of the dreadfully unamusing act? Or did you finally realize that Up in the Air just isn’t very good?

4. Christopher Plummer, who appeared in three of this year’s nominated films, still has no Oscar to call his own (no other actor this year appeared in more than one nominated film). Shame on you, Academy. Shame. On. You.

5. Miley Cyrus’s posture. We realize your boobs will pop out of that golden gown if you stand up straight, but perhaps you’re not a size 0 after all. Just sayin’.

6. James Cameron’s sloppy look: in Joan Rivers’s immortal words, “He looks like a lesbian.”
There’s no better words to end the night with. Thanks, Joanie.

I had a blast seeing all the nominees this year — 43 features and 15 shorts in all. Thanks for reading. Until next year!

Next Up: The Tony Awards

Oscars 2010: Sound + Score

The sound categories comprise the most forgettable and indiscernible cinematic aspects for me. How easy it is to take for granted those complex and myriad ways in which a film’s world is created and heightened through sound! Listening specifically for the aural effects, as I did this morning while watching Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, is an overwhelming and even humbling experience; sound designers are easily the most underappreciated in the industry, and yet how vital they are to the success of any given film. That I am not acutely aware of their work as I watch a film is a merit, not a discredit, to their oftentimes subtle artistry.  With this in mind, I offer you my picks and predictions for all the sound-related categories.

[Note: My personal rankings are listed in order from best to worst, with #1 being my favorite, while predictions for the actual winners will be in orange.]

SOUND EDITING
(aural effects)

1. Avatar
2. Hurt Locker
3. Star Trek
4. Inglourious Basterds
5. Up

Even I have to admit that Avatar’s special effects, including the aural effects, are superlative. Each sound in the forests of Pandora is detailed and precise: the fluttering of the butterfly-like creatures, the whispering of the wind rustling through the trees, the soothing tones of a waterfall; the computerized ticks of futuristic technology are just an added bonus on top of the superb aural experience. Basterds’s creepily audible scalpings and Star Trek‘s infernal “blips” and laser-like shivers just don’t come anywhere close to the design of Avatar.

SOUND MIXING
(a film’s overall sound)

1. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
2. Avatar
3. The Hurt Locker
4. Star Trek
5.  Inglourious Basterds

While Avatar remains a cut above the rest, I can’t help but lean towards the futuristic techie sounds that infiltrate and generate the world of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. That film is its sound–along with those fabulously creative CGIed robots, of course – and without it, the incessant and intensely choreographed action would fall completely flat. Despite these accomplishments, one can’t overlook how the dessert winds whip violently through Iraqi towns that bustle with energy one moment only to abruptly silence the next; how a single helicopter hovers ominously overhead; or, most significantly, how tension mounts with inevitable explosions or releases cathartically with the audible defusings of bomb after bomb.  While The Hurt Locker’s sound design lacks the flashiness of its co-nominees, that does not make its attention to detail less accomplished – it simply makes me want to root for its win all the more.

ORIGINAL SONG

1. “The Wear Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” (Crazy Heart)
2. “Loin de Paname” (Paris 36)
3. “Almost There” (The Princess and the Frog)
4. “Down in New Orleans” (The Princess and the Frog)
5. “Take It All” (Nine)

Singer and Writer Ryan Bingham performs “The Weary Kind”

This ain’t no place for the weary kind / This ain’t no place to lose your mind / This ain’t no place to fall behind /
Pick up crazy heart and give it one more try

I’ve never cared much for country music. I can’t ever seem to get past the nasal twang that overwhelms most “country music” today; and so, admittedly, I miss some of the greatest musical storytelling there is, and some of the most startlingly emotionally honest lyrics out there. While it’s not surprising that I found the Crazy Heart heartbreakingly beautiful, it is surprising that I found myself downloading the entire soundtrack, including the Oscar-nominated (and sure winner), “The Weary Kind.” If you also saw the film, you know that none of the other nominated songs come anywhere near encompassing the entire feel and story of their respective films; “The Weary Kind” completely encompasses the, yes, weariness and heartbreak and even the faint glimmer of optimism of Jeff Bridge’s lonely yet stalwart Bad Blake. While “Loin de Paname” adequately offers the cabaret feel of 1930s Paris (though perhaps reminds one a bit too much of Edith Piaf), Randy Newman’s jazzy Nawlins-inspired tunes are entirely forgettable (causing us to long for the Disney heydays of Menken and Ashmen) and Maury Yeston’s indistinguishable “Take It All” simply reminds us of the utter fiasco that was the horrible cinematic adaptation of his unimpressive stage musical, Nine.  Truth be told, the only nominee that doesn’t make me weary while listening is “The Weary Kind.”

ORIGINAL SCORE

1. Up
2. Sherlock Holmes
3. Fantastic Mr. Fox
4. The Hurt Locker
5. Avatar

Michael Giacchino’s wins big for Up, incorporating delightfully breezy tones with music that soars as high as the characters themselves, lightly transporting us through the clouds and under the sun as Carl and Russell adventure together. Hans Zimmer’s Holmes score is typically accomplished and intensely heart-pounding, Fox’s tunes are whimsically jaunty wonderfully reflecting the film’s own clever humor, and The Hurt Locker’s score gets the job done, but none of these scores encompass the feel of their respective films as fully and whole-heartedly as Giacchino accomplishes with Up. (And Horner’s work on Avatar is just plain terrible)

Up Next: Visual Design (costumes, make-up, art direction)