Film Bitch Awards: Song, Score, Sound & Film Editing
Sunday, January 22, 2012 at 7:29PM Around this time of year when I abruptly stop watching movies in full (a breather if you will. It usually lasts two to three weeks) I tend to spend a lot of time skimming through films I've already seen for writing purposes or little reminders of what makes them tick (or tick me off). Scanning through Hanna recently I was amazed anew at the rich theater of its sound work. I didn't quite love the movie or even like it at all in spots and yet it's really difficult to shake.
Of course, you always notice great sound work more when you're also responding to the music and you'll see that reflected in the song, score, sound mixing and sound editing categories which contain nominations for films ranging from Drive to Captain America, The Skin I Live In to The Muppets, Moneyball to Super 8. I don't tend to write much about these categories and I don't claim to be an expert but every year I promise myself to pay a little more attention to sound and scoring. I can't say that I kept the promise in 2011 but since Hollywood was busy obsessing over silent movies (Hugo and The Artist) I'll interpret that as a deferrment.
Let's talk scoring a lot more in 2012, mmmkay?!
As for 2011, which is still going on in our world since Oscar is the New Year's Eve of the film year, I'm all about Alberto Iglesias. There are a number of composers that do multiple films a year these days. Many of them repeat themselves. I think the strain is starting to show a smidgeon with Alexandre Desplat, for example, a god among composers. He's the Jessica Chastain of composers; working round the clock and signing up for endless more projects. But WOW with Iglesias this year. He's done great work before but The Skin I Live In and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy are both A grade scores for very different films. I'd nominated him for both but for my policy of not doing that (I treat the craft categories like Oscar treats acting. You're only allowed on nomination in a category each year).
I hope Iglesias hasn't peaked yet but if he has, you'd be hard pressed to find a better twofer from any composer in the space of a single year. Both scores really fit and elevate their films.
NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCED IN ALL FOUR AURAL CATEGORIES
P.S. I've add editing to the VISUAL CATEGORIES. I meant to have more done by now but I'm told that I was wrong about their being 32 hours in every day. Who knew?
Reader Comments (12)
I'm glad to see "Moneyball" on your sound mixing list. I know its guild nomination raised some eyebrows, but I thought it was very well deserved. And yes, "Hanna"'s mix is truly a thing of wonder.
Nat, in costumes "The Help" is accompanied by a description of the Iron Lady.
And yes please to more scoring discussions this year. I don't see as many movies as I'd like but I'd enjoy reading and learning about the area, which is so under-discussed. (My brother has the soundtrack of The Magnificent Seven in his car and would play it blaring in the neighborhood, as if in answer to all the bad pop music we usually heard. I loved that.)
When will the rest of the acting categories be ready, Nat?!!!!
Don't feel too bad about not focusing on scores this year. There wasn't a lot that one could focus on. I feel the same about this year's scores as I do about this year's movies-- a lot of them have great moments, but very few are great throughout. There were lots of film scores where I LOVED one tune or theme, but the rest of the score didn't do it for me. My Week with Marilyn, Shame, Take Shelter, and Margaret come to mind.
My nominees would be, starting with my most favorite: Hanna, Senna, (then a huge gap back to) The Artist, Contagion, and Rango.
Good to see The Skin I Live in here (and a fitting category). I was hoping it would be more of a part of the end-of-year conversations.
I agree with you about Iglesias; both of his scores this year were very good. My favourite of his is the one for "Broken Embraces," which I have on CD and listen to often.
Great score choices. I would have put Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy in over The Skin I Live In, but they're both good. If the nominations look anything like that tomorrow, I'll be very happy.
The only great score I can think of you didn't mention is Like Crazy. It's not a flashy score, but the subtle shifts in chord progression do wonders to define the mood of the film.
Alberto Iglesias did have a great year, didn't he? I love the Tinker Tailor score. And the songs they chose to put in the film were perfect as well- Dana, George Formby, Julio Iglesias! That film was so meticulous, they really got all the details right.
It's nice to see you mention Hanna too. I thought it was really well put together. I'd love if it got a nomination somewhere tomorrow. I think it's deserving in score, sound and cinematography.
Love seeing MONEYBALL in film editing!
My Picks…
BEST FILM EDITING:
DRIVE, Matt Newman
MONEYBALL, Christopher Tellefsen
THE REEF, Peter Crombie
RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, Conrad Bluff IV & Mark Goldblatt
THE TREE OF LIFE, Corwin, Rabinowitz, Daniel Rezende, Weber & Yoshikawa
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE:
THE ARTIST, Ludovic Bource
HANNA, The Chemical Bros.
RANGO, Hans Zimmer
RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, Patrick Doyle
THE SKIN I LIVE IN, Alberto Iglesias
BEST ORIGINAL SONG:
ALBERT NOBBS, “Lay Your Head Down”
CAPTAIN AMERICA, “Star Spangled Man”
EATING OUT: DRAMA CAMP, “Drama Queen”
THE MUPPETS, “Pictures In My Head”
WIN WIN, “Think You Can Wait”
BEST SOUND MIXING:
Drive
Hanna
Martha Marcy May Marlene
Moneyball
The Tree of Life
BEST SOUND EFFECTS EDITING:
Drive
Hanna
Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol
Rango
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
I know this was not the point of the post, but I loved the cinematography in Hanna. It captures different settings so well and makes them appealing or frightening (be it the desert, the mountains or a subway station). I first saw the movie when it came out and I couldn't shake the scene where Cate Blanchett shoots the moving car off my mind. The cinematography here is one of my favourites of the year.
My Ballot…
BEST FILM EDITING:
DRIVE, Mat Newman
MONEYBALL, Christopher Tellefsen
THE REEF, Peter Crombie
RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, Conrad Bluff IV, Mark Goldblatt
THE TREE OF LIFE, Corwin, Rabinowitz, Rezende, Weber & Yoshikawa
BEST MUSIC – ORIGINAL SCORE:
THE ARTIST, Ludovic Bource
HANNA, The Chemical Bros.
RANGO, Hans Zimmer
RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, Patrick Doyle
THE SKIN I LIVE IN, Alberto Iglesias
BEST MUSIC – ORIGINAL SONG:
“Lay Your Head Down”, ALBERT NOBBS
"Star Spangled Man", CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER
“Drama Queen”, EATING OUT: DRAMA CAMP
“Pictures In My Head”, THE MUPPETS
“Think You Can Wait”, WIN WIN
BEST MUSIC – ADAPTED SCORE/SONG:
A DANGEROUS METHOD, Howard Shore
DRIVE, Cliff Martinez
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, “Immigrant Song” Reznor, Ross &
Karen O.
THE TREE OF LIFE, Alexandre Desplat
YOUNG ADULT, Kent, Mesina, & co.
BEST SOUND MIXING:
DRIVE
HANNA
MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE
MONEYBALL
THE TREE OF LIFE
BEST SOUND EFFECTS EDITING:
DRIVE
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE GHOST PROTOCOL
RANGO
RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES
THE TREE OF LIFE