CineMontage

Winter 2015

Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/462877

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 35 of 67

34 CINEMONTAGE / WINTER 2015 by Mel Lambert T his year's Oscar nominees in the Sound Mixing category include an offering that profiles a conflicted long-gun wielder, one that focuses on a sadistic music teacher, a zany theatrical comedy, a journey across space and time, and a character overcoming adversity. The re-recording teams that created these ground-breaking soundtracks are John Reitz and Gregg Rudloff, nominated for American Sniper (together with production mixer Walt Martin); Jon Taylor, CAS, and Frank A. Montaño for Birdman (with Thomas Varga), as well as Unbroken (with David Lee); Gary A. Rizzo, CAS, and Gregg Landaker for Interstellar (with Mark Weingarten); and Craig Mann and Ben Wilkins, MPSE, for Whiplash (together with Thomas Curley). Re-recorded on Warner Bros. Studio Services' Stage 10 with Reitz handling dialogue and music and Rudloff overseeing sound effects, American Sniper, directed by Clint Eastwood, represents the sixth Academy Award nomination for a team that has worked together for over 30 years; they both secured an Oscar for The Matrix (2000), with Rudloff earning a second one for Glory (1990). "We are totally jazzed at receiving the nomination," Rudloff confesses. "And thanks to the spectacular job done by [supervising sound editors] Al Murray and Bub Asman, who supplied us with newly recorded guns and vehicle elements, we were able to produce an outstanding soundtrack," Reitz says. The pair also received a CAS Award nomination for Live- Action Motion Picture, as well as a BAFTA nomination for Film Sound. "Our biggest challenge was balancing the sound design being used in place of a music score," Reitz explains. "We had to blend effects elements that sounded like instruments," to reinforce the film's emotional threads. "We also received clean dialogue tracks from the set, plus some group and Farsi-language elements. Between us we spent a combined 10 to 12 weeks on pre-dubs, and then three weeks for Oscar's Favorite Re-Recording Mixers Gregg Rudloff, left, and John Reitz.

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of CineMontage - Winter 2015