8 minute read
Mix Presents
Awards Season — Sound for Film 2021 Over the next two months, sound for film and television professionals will be nominating and voting for the winners in Best Sound at the Oscars, the MPSE Golden Reel Awards and the CAS Awards, across many categories. Here are a few bits of news available as we went to print. Please check in at mixonline.com and in these pages for updates, including the MPSE Career Achievement Award, CAS Filmmaker Award and all the nominations.
On February 4, Mix and its parent company, Future, will host the debut of Mix Presents Sound for Film & TV: Awards Season, a virtual event honoring the year’s best creative talent in film sound. The sponsored, free virtual event will take place on February 4, in advance of nominations and voting for the Oscars, MPSE Golden Reel Awards and Cinema Audio Society CAS Awards.
“We’ve always featured awards season coverage as a companion to the annual Mix sound for film and television event held each September at Sony Pictures Studios,” says Tom Kenny, editor of Mix. “This year, we’re adapting to the current climate, and while the global pandemic has affected media distribution, schedules and attendance, it has not affected the quality of the sound work, and that work deserves to be recognized.”
Mix Presents Sound for Film & TV: Awards Season will include a series of film and composer profiles, featuring behindthe-scenes interviews with the leading supervising sound editors, sound designers, re-recording mixers, composers, production sound mixers, editors, technologists and creative talent vying for this year’s Best Sound awards.
The nomination processes for the 2021 Awards Season, which for the first time officially allows films that debuted on streaming services, begins in February with voting taking place in March. REGISTER FREE NOW AT WWW.MIXSOUNDFORFILM.COM
PRELIMINARY PROGRAM
MIX PRESENTS SOUND FOR FILM & TV: AWARDS SEASON On February 4, beginning at 10 a.m., PST, Mix will begin streaming a series of 10- and 20-minute video profiles of films, composers and technologies, produced by Coleman Films and moderated by veteran journalists Jennifer Walden and Lily Moayeri. As of mid-January, the lineup includes the following. Please check in at mixonline.com for updates.
THE FILMS
THE SOUND OF MANK (NETFLIX)
Ren Klyce, Supervising Sound Editor & Re-recording Mixer
Jeremy Molod, Supervising Sound Editor THE SOUND OF SOUND OF METAL (AMAZON STUDIOS)
Nicolas Becker, Sound Supervisor, Sound Editor, Sound Designer Phillip Bladh, Sound Mixer Jaime Baksht, Re-Recording Mixer Michelle Couttolenc, Re-Recording Mixer Carlos Cortés, Re-Recording Mixer Carolina Santana, Sound/Music Editor
THE SOUND OF THE MIDNIGHT SKY (NETFLIX)
Randy Thom Supervising Sound Editor Dan Hiland Re-Recording Mixer
THE COMPOSERS
Todd Becket Re-Recording Mixer
Blake Neely (Greyhound, Apple TV+) Phoenix (On the Rocks, The Song “Identical” Apple TV+)
Henry Jackman (Cherry, Apple TV+) Bruno Coulais (Wolfwalkers, Apple TV+) Tamar-kali (Palmer, Apple TV+)
Terence Blanchard (Da 5 Bloods, Netflix)
Chris Curtis, Marjorie Duffield, Helen Park (Over the Moon, Netflix)
TECHNOLOGY INNOVATIONS
Deluxe (One Dub, remote recording technology)
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS
Mix would like to thank Sponsors Netflix, Apple TV+, Amazon Studios, and Deluxe. Not surprisingly for a year dominated by stay-at-home orders, the major streaming services have emerged as primary distributors for premium content, for every film and television studio. And when Awards Season begins, this will no doubt be reflected in the nominations. CAS CAREER ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
PRODUCTION SOUND MIXER WILLIAM B. KAPLAN, CAS The Cinema Audio Society will present multiple CAS- and Oscar-nominated sound mixer William B. Kaplan, CAS, with the organization’s highest accolade, the CAS Career Achievement Award. Bill Kaplan grew up on the sets of MGM, where his father worked. He sat on the camera dolly watching Gene Kelly dance for Singing in the Rain, Bogart push the African Queen on stage, and Brando command the Bounty through a massive storm on Stage 30.
His high school years were spent at an experimental boarding school founded by Krisha Murti and Aldous Huxley. Rebellious at the beginning and student body president in the end, he remains an executive board member of this school that turned his life around. He then attended Cal Western University, University of Arizona, USC, and UCLA, majoring in psychology and pre-med. Eventually, he was wait-listed for film school.
A Hong Kong film producer, meanwhile, saw the list and offered Kaplan a job to DP on his 35mm, Mitchell rack-over, cinemascope feature. Having no familiarity with the equipment, he accepted the position but read the ASC manual for that camera all night.
Ultimately, Kaplan received a master’s degree in film from UCLA. The eager filmmaker’s hunger resulted in shooting and recording hundreds of training films, commercials and instructionals. He made his way to Roger Corman and New World and was DP on many low-budget disco, racecar and western films. He was eventually offered $600/week as a sound mixer, including equipment, instead of the $250/week he was making as a DP. The die was cast, and a sound mixer was born.
In 1977 John Landis hired Kaplan as sound mixer for Kentucky Fried Movie. He continued with Landis for eight more films, including Animal House, The Blues Brothers and Coming to America. Over the next four decades, Kaplan was the primary sound mixer for directors Robert Zemeckis and Tony Scott on more than 20 projects. On the film Top Gun, Kaplan recorded live dialog between actors in fighter jets traveling at speeds beyond the sound barrier. Later, given Bill’s extensive experience with stop motion, he was hired on Avatar.
Kaplan has garnered seven Oscar nominations, including Tony Scott’s Top Gun and Crimson Tide and Robert Zemeckis’ Back to the Future, Forrest Gump, Contact, Cast Away and The Polar Express. He also has a CAS win for Forrest Gump, as well as three other CAS nominations. He has contributed to 155 feature films and has recorded many well-known motion capture video games. Currently, he is working on The Morning Show for Apple TV.
Kaplan is a proud father of his two adult children. His daughter, Lindsey, lives in Colorado and is studying to be a veterinarian. His son, Jesse, worked as a boom/utility on Avatar and other films and now travels the world installing private television broadcast studios. Kaplan lives in Agoura Hills and has no plans to retire any time soon. While he enjoys his horses and goats on his small ranch, he still loves going to work every day!
AWARDS TIMELINES
Eligibility periods for film submission and rules regarding film distribution mostly went by the wayside this year, as all organizations had to adjust their rules and requirements in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Here are important dates to keep in mind:
THE OSCARS The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences will present the 93rd annual Oscars on April 25, 2021. Details and format are still being worked out. February 1: Preliminary voting begins February 5: Preliminary voting ends March 5: Nominations voting begins March 10: Nominations voting ends March 15: Oscar Nominations Announcement April 15: Finals voting begins April 20: Finals Voting Ends April 25: Oscars Telecast
CAS AWARDS The 57th annual CAS Awards, which will take place April 17, 2021, in Los Angeles. expanded its eligibility window for motion pictures to February 28, 2021, with theatrical motion pictures that had a previously planned theatrical release but were initially made available on commercial streaming or VOD service qualifying under certain circumstances. Please see Awards Entry and Voting Rules for details www.cinemaaudiosociety.org. February 11: Nomination Ballot Voting Begins February 24: Nomination Ballot Voting Ends March 2: Final Nominees Announced March 25: Final Voting Begins April 6: Final Voting Ends April 17: 57th Annual CAS Awards
MPSE GOLDEN REEL AWARDS The 68th annual MPSE Golden Reel Awards will be held on April 18, 2021, with format and announcements still under discussion. February 1: Nomination Voting Opens February 19: Nomination Voting Ends March 1: Nominations Announced March 1: Final Voting Opens April 12: Final Voting Ends April 18: MPSE Golden Reel Awards CAS, MPSE, AMPS TEAM UP ON SOUND CREDIT INITIATIVE The Cinema Audio Society, together with the Motion Picture Sound Editors and Association of Motion Picture Sound, is launching the next step in their Sound Credit Initiative.
CAS President Karol Urban explains: “From production through post-production, sound professionals contribute to creative storytelling and the elevation of the audience’s experience. This initiative allows filmmakers and studios to recognize their sound department’s importance in a film’s overall success.”
AMPS Chair Rob Walker comments, “Sound teams create 50 percent of a movie and win awards for their creative contribution, but they are positioned far down the list of credits. This initiative is a move toward representative credits. It’s time to give fair credit where it is due”.
And MPSE President Mark Lanza added: “While there is a technical aspect to sound for film, the overwhelming majority of what sound people do is creative. Sound is visceral. It tells the audience where we are, focuses the audience on what we want them to feel, and leads them through an elaborate illusion. The people creating these works are amazing artists and should be addressed as such.”
The link to the petition is at http:// soundcreditinitiative.org/
CAS STUDENT AWARD FINALISTS Five finalists from schools around the world have been invited to attend the 57th Annual CAS Awards, where the recipient of the CAS Student Recognition Award will be revealed and receive a $5,000 check. The CAS Student Recognition Award Finalists are:
Anna Cassady, University of
Southern California, Los Angeles, Calif.
Lindsey Ellis, Chapman University,
Orange, Calif.
Brandyn Johnson, University of
Southern California, Los Angeles, Calif.
Yan “Carol” Li, School of Visual Arts,
New York, N.Y.
Vandana Ramakrishna, Annapurna College of Film and Media, Hyderabad, India
