For the 18th time, sound mixer Kevin O'Connell was nominated for an academy award, this year for his work on Memoirs of a Geisha. But, for the 18th time, he went home with nothing.Awh come on, that just seems gratuitous. I mean, I know we have all the stories to hand about the greats who never won, or who were nominated multiple times and never won, and the ones who won seemingly becasue they had been overlooked in the past... but really, this is stupid.
Myself, I've always been more interested in the visuals of cinema: art direction, cinematography etc. But let's face it, without the sound guys we're back in the days of silent cinema. Kevin O'Connell shuld have his day. Any chance it could be asap?
4 comments:
Some sound guy got an award - they do give them. But they usually give them to the best. I haven't heard his work or done comparisons, but isn't that like the person that goes to three olympics and always comes in fourth? Maybe they should start doing something different.
The awards aren't for longevity.
Oh dear. Don't get me started on the Oscars!
I always felt that many of the electorate vote on which film they liked rather than the specific category in everything except the top 6 awards.
The technical ones are even worse. When it comes to editing, costume, make-up and the like how can they really know. Is it really impossible for a brilliant screenplay to be turned into a foul film? Or for a film with no real quality to have brilliant costume design?
I think this bloke is hard done by. He gets nominated 18 times by a small group of experts who understand what he does, and then a few thousand actors, executives and others make their pick based on... what? The film they liked best?
Even if they were impressed by the sound in a film, would they know whether it was down to the sound recording, mixing or editing, cos I know I wouldn't have a clue!
It seems to me that if you do an adequate job in a specialist area but do it on a major film like Titanic you are more likely to win than a more skillful job on a lightweight film.
If a film like Road Trip, American Pie or Catwoman had the best sound mixing in the World ever do you think it would even get a sniff?
A friend of mine is a sound technician (engineer? artist? Um...) in TV and film. He won a bafta for the sound... editing! That's it. He's a sound editor.
Anyway, he did the sound editing on the Hillsborough doc and won a Bafta for it. Whenever I go round their house, I always do a double-take at the Bafta on the mantelpiece! It seems so showbiz.
Good on 'em. They do a good job. I have another friend who does the sound editing on Pingu and Bob the Builder. She is another very talented woman.
SOund editing on Pingu - now you've got me humming the theme tune.
Curse you, woman.
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