Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/462877
32 CINEMONTAGE / WINTER 2015 the contrasts between the armies was something Peter Jackson felt imperative to keep the soundtrack exciting and driving forward. Creatures were also massive in scale and variety, both the English-speaking and the pure animal." Jackson gives his supervising sound editors great freedom to develop their own sonic concepts to complement the extraordinary visual designs he creates with Weta, and these designs are often unlike anything that was done before. "Trolls with spikes for legs, and eyes sewn shut with chains attached for steering," Burges mentions as an example. "As much freedom as we get, these concepts sometimes have to be changed at a moment's notice in the mix as, in the context of the soundtrack, they don't achieve what Peter wants." According to Canovas, the added complication in the battle was also trying to make each army unique. "For example, the Dwarf army sound effects were given a heavier iron sound; the Elves brighter, steel sounds; and the Orc armies more rough, dirty, metallic sounds," he adds. Canovas suggests that their nomination is a nod to the outstanding work this crew has continued to do on both of the Tolkien trilogies. "I think the Academy has recognized just how much goes into a Peter Jackson soundtrack," he posits. "How busy it is, how little time we actually get on screen to move from one emotion to another, and how the soundtrack helps and directs the audience along the way." With Interstellar, director Christopher Nolan wanted to find a new sonic approach to the sci-fi epic, according to supervising sound editor Richard King, a three-time Oscar winner for Inception, The Dark Knight and Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. "We steered clear of the usual interior spaceship whirs and hums, in favor of a quiet, very naturalistic sound — except when the engines are lit up!" King notes. "There are a lot of contrasts, between the vacuum of space and a cornfield somewhere in the Midwest. The weightless feeling that silence gives you contrasted with the sound and fury of a pressurized spacecraft coming apart at the seams as it approaches a black hole or enters the atmosphere of an alien planet. Silence can be incredibly eloquent, and crossing that line between silence (the unfamiliar) and sound (the recognizable world) can be a very powerful moment." King, who was also nominated by the MPSE for Sound Effects/Foley for the film, is gratified that the Academy's Sound Branch recognized "that we tried to do something new, that we tried very hard to find sounds for experiences that no one has yet had. I'm very proud of the film and our work on it." Unbroken, which recounts the Brent Burge. Jason Canovas. "We steered clear of the usual interior spaceship whirs and hums, in favor of a quiet, very naturalistic sound." – Richard King