After a rather elongated break, we're back in our seats and ready for the awards for Best Sound Editing. To present is Stephen Hawking. Some thing this is in bad taste, but Gil Cates is at That Point where he doesn't care anymore. And Mr Hawking is happy enough, so here we go:
Nominees are:
ET: The Extra-Terrestrial - Ben Burtt, Richard Anderson (Burtt is a bit of a sound legend when it comes to creating artificial voices, including the creatures in Star Wars and WALL*E...on the other hand, it was the elderly Ms Pat Welsh, smoker of two packs of cigarettes a day, who provided the voice for ET. Hmm.)
Back to the Future - Charles Campbell, Robert Rutledge (because who doesn't want to see this film up here. It's freaking awesome)
Jurassic Park - Gary Rydstrom, Richard Hymns (the amount of animal calls they recorded to get a brand new voice for the T-Rex and the raptors)
Saving Private Ryan - Gary Rydstrom, Richard Hymns (pew! pew! pew! KABOOM!)
The Incredibles - Michael Silvers and Randy Thom (I've always wanted an animated film to win this. Just seems natural)
And the winner is....Ben Burtt for ET! And yes, it's largely due to the trivia, which is fairly awesome. Adding to the voice of the title character were: Spielberg himself, Debra Winger, Burtt's wife, asleep and with a cold, racoons, sea otters and horses and his USC film professor's burp. Now, who wouldn't brag about that until their dying day? Anyway, Burtt gives a largely unintelligible speech, but one at which Chewbacca and Jabba the Hutt roar with laughter.
Next up is Best Sound, and I have to be honest, at this point the, er, impartial judges are getting a little overwhelmed, and I think the following award categories may suffer for it. Nevertheless...
The Sound Barrier, 1952 - London Films Sound Department (if I knew how to type a shrug, that's what you'd see here)
The Sound of Music, 1963 - James Corcoran etc. (lots of the musicals got nominations, and I figured, what with the titles and all that singing in high places....)
Apocalypse Now, 1979 - Walter Murch, Mark Berger, Richard Beggs, Nat Boxer (Walter Murch had about three months in which to get the sound done, a fact not made easier by the fact that the previously-planned narration had been dropped...pretty impressive to go from that to an Oscar. A huge achievement in surround sound development)
Apollo 13, 1995 - Rick Dior, Steve Pederson, Scott Millan and David MacMillan (it sounds like this: WHOOOOOOOOSHHHHH! BANGGGG!)
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2003 -
Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Hammond Peek and Michael Semanick (clash! oof! thud! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!)
Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Hammond Peek and Michael Semanick (clash! oof! thud! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!)And the Fantasy Oscar goes to....Apocalypse Now! Walter Murch looks immensely tired and overworked, and can barely hold his award. He is, however, dragged off the stage before he can get too far into his speech to Francis Ford Coppola about how he's a horrible man who worked him into the ground with unreasonable timelines and lack of understanding...he really doesn't even get that far, but I'm filling in the blanks for you here.
Everyone manages to pat down their sweaty foreheads, as the final deadline looms before them, like a great looming thing...
Yeah. Like that.
