The Oscar Nominated Transformers Dark of the Moon Sound Mixer

Im not trying to discredit the individual for his talents, but since when did "Sound Mixing" become a category for an Oscar ??? Can a movie watcher really tell the difference from one "sound technicians" work and another one ??? Does the make-up artist get a trophy too ??? How about the guy with the black and white striped sign that says "ACTION" !!!

Good article. It's just sad that he has such an uphill struggle what with half the voting members of the Academy likely not having seen DotM. It should be required that all voting members watch at least some significant portion of the film they are voting on and not just the short clips that get sent in.

Rated X wrote:Im not trying to discredit the individual for his talents, but since when did "Sound Mixing" become a category for an Oscar ??? Can a movie watcher really tell the difference from one "sound technicians" work and another one ??? Does the make-up artist get a trophy too ??? How about the guy with the black and white striped sign that says "ACTION" !!!

I can't give you an exact year but Sound Editing has been a viable category for quite some time. It's been that way with most of the other behind the scenes categories but they just don't get the publicity they deserve.
As for being able to tell the difference, yeah after a while you can but it more gets credited to it being the Directors style but if you have a director who uses the same team all the time then that team will know what the director likes and keep that up throughout all of his films. If TF-4 actually comes to pass and it isn't Bay at the helm, you will definitely notice a difference in both the sound and visual style because both teams will have to adapt to the new director.

Admittedly I have an advantage when it comes to the audio aspects since I have had a few operations on my inner ear workings and, due to a minor slip up during the last procedure, have a bit more range in the high and low ends of human hearing than the average guy does (it's not always as much fun as it sounds, trust me) so I am a big stickler for sound quality when it comes to watching movies because I pick up on subtleties that most people miss.
And yes, I also use this "gift" to catch my kids in the midst of mischief that they think nobody hears them committing. Totally pisses them off.

T-Macksimus wrote:Good article. It's just sad that he has such an uphill struggle what with half the voting members of the Academy likely not having seen DotM. It should be required that all voting members watch at least some significant portion of the film they are voting on and not just the short clips that get sent in.

Rated X wrote:Im not trying to discredit the individual for his talents, but since when did "Sound Mixing" become a category for an Oscar ??? Can a movie watcher really tell the difference from one "sound technicians" work and another one ??? Does the make-up artist get a trophy too ??? How about the guy with the black and white striped sign that says "ACTION" !!!

I can't give you an exact year but Sound Editing has been a viable category for quite some time. It's been that way with most of the other behind the scenes categories but they just don't get the publicity they deserve.
As for being able to tell the difference, yeah after a while you can but it more gets credited to it being the Directors style but if you have a director who uses the same team all the time then that team will know what the director likes and keep that up throughout all of his films. If TF-4 actually comes to pass and it isn't Bay at the helm, you will definitely notice a difference in both the sound and visual style because both teams will have to adapt to the new director.

Admittedly I have an advantage when it comes to the audio aspects since I have had a few operations on my inner ear workings and, due to a minor slip up during the last procedure, have a bit more range in the high and low ends of human hearing than the average guy does (it's not always as much fun as it sounds, trust me) so I am a big stickler for sound quality when it comes to watching movies because I pick up on subtleties that most people miss.
And yes, I also use this "gift" to catch my kids in the midst of mischief that they think nobody hears them committing. Totally pisses them off.

Oh trust me, I know how hard sound engineers work. I used to mix rap music off of an 8 track Mackie mixer and later on learned how to adapt to Acid Pro 6. But when working for other artists I was always humble. I knew my role and just wanted my payment.


I have a good ear for quality sound recording (in music) But what I trying to say is that when someone is properly trained to do the job, they really don’t have any distinctive or definitive style. They just do it by the book and it sounds good. If there are thousands with the proper training, you really cant tell them apart by listening to their work. And with that being said, it kind of takes away from the point of public recognition if the public couldn’t recognize their work when blindfolded.