Hollywood's Art of Sound Celebration
March 8th, 2007 @ the Samuel Goldwyn Theater

Sound has always been one of my favorite aspects of film-making. And over the years as I've designed sound for a number of Machinima films, the technique of editing and mixing sound have fascinated me. So, it was with great anticipation that I attended the first annual “Art of Sound” event sponsored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences held this last Saturday, March 8th, at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Los Angeles.

After a rather rigorous security check at the front door, the beautiful 1,000 seat theater was nearly filled to capacity with Hollywood sound technicians, sound students and a keen, appreciative general audience. After a brief introduction to the event by Kevin O'Connell (himself an excellent sound editor) who told a surprising story of the fairly recent inclusion of “sound mixing” into the main awards category and out of the “special awards”. I would have thought this would have been changed years ago, but I suppose large organizations like the Academy are slow to change.

The audience was presented with a 10-minute film covering the history of academy awards in sound. Clips from such films as “Saving Private Ryan”, “ET” and “Pearl Harbor” filled the auditorium with incredible sound. I did notice, however, that a large percentage of awards went to war or action films. I suppose this makes sense since there sound in these kinds of films is usually very dramatic.

After the sound award history, we saw extended clips from each of the nominees in the sound editing and sound mixing category. Clips (approximately 6 to 8 minutes long) from “No Country for Old Men”, “Ratatouille”, “There Will be Blood”, “3:10 to Yuma”, “Transformers” and the “The Bourne Ultimatum” (this film won the award) were each introduced by either the editor/mixer from the film, or a significant member of the team.

Once all of the clips were done, four members of the sound team from “Bourne” assembled on-stage and proceeded to answer questions and discuss the making of the sound for the film. Karen Baker Landers, and especially Per Hallberg, were eloquent in their comments on the clip they called the “Tangier Sequence”. I was pleased to hear Per echo my own feeling about paying close attention to the script so that your sound work will support the story and the emotions evoked by scenes in the film. Scott Millan and David Parker, who mixed the film, were quick to acknowledge the importance of teamwork in the work on the film.

Much was made of the fact that the composer, John Powell, recorded the music without a “spotting” session, which made their work more difficult. There was discussion of the main fight scene between Bourne and a young middle-eastern man in a small bathroom. Since there was no music under the scene, the sound work could really shine. Karen Landers relayed the story that they had essentially finished the sound edit when they got a note from one of the producers wondering where the sound of the “razor” is in the scene. Try as she could, she couldn't see a razor in the scene, but they insisted, so they have the razor sound. Of course, the editing of the entire film is so fast that it creates challenges for the sound editors. There was talk of long work hours and tight deadlines. But to a person, they were all proud and very pleased with how the sound was presented in the film.

There was a short question-and-answer session from the audience at the end of the evening. The inevitable "What advice would you give to someone trying to break into the business" question was met with a friendly, "Learn Pro-Tools". Another questioner asked if there were films in their experience that were underrated for the sound. Kevin O'Connell rolled off a dozen films as fast as he could say them and everyone had a good laugh. Karen mentioned “The Cell” as a film she admired for the sound and Per Hallberg seconded “300” as a film with great sound work.

The final question was the best though; a young man asked if the panel thought that with new digital technologies for sound, would the role of the sound mixer and sound editor start to blur. There was a nice pregnant pause while everyone in the theater considered the question and then most of the panel proceeded to basically agree that sound artists were definitely going to be wearing more hats than in the past. Cutting costs by having fewer people do more sound work would also appeal to budget-conscious film companies.

Walking in the slightly chill air to the car on Wilshire, my partner noted that whoever edited the “Ratatouille” clip managed to find the only point in the film where a gun is fired (early in the film). As if to say it's guns, explosions and fist-fights that seem to be the most acknowledged scenes for sound awards. I just nodded in agreement as I got into the car for our trip back to the Valley. I was psyched to get back to working on the sound in a gunfight scene in a new Machinima film I've been editing. What an inspiring evening!

Ricky Grove [gToon], Contributing Columnist with the Renderosity Front Page News. Ricky Grove is a bookstore clerk at the best bookstore in Los Angeles, the Iliad Bookshop. He's also an actor and machinima filmmaker. He lives with author, Lisa Morton, and three very individual cats. Ricky is into Hong Kong films, FPS shooters, experimental anything and reading, reading, reading. You can catch his blog here.