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Category Archives: Awards

CAS Awards: The Last of Us, The Bear, Oppenheimer Among Winners

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 The Cinema Audio Society (CAS) announced the winners of its 60th annual CAS Awards during a recent ceremony at the Beverly Hilton. The sound mixing teams for Oppenheimer, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and 32 Sounds were honored with feature film wins, while The Last of Us, The Bear, 100 Foot Wave and Weird: The Al Yankovic Story won the top non-theatrical honors.

The Cinema Audio Society recognized sound mixing excellence in the seven awards categories, with two special honorees and the annual student filmmaker award. Sound industry executive Doug Kent presented the CAS Career Achievement Award to sound mixer Joe Earle, CAS (American Horror Story, Six Feet Under, Monster’s Ball), and Jon Favreau presented the CAS Filmmaker Award to writer/director/producer J.J. Abrams.

The winners of the 60th Annual CAS Awards are:

Motion Picture — Live Action:

Oppenheimer audio team. Credit: Alex J. Berliner/ABImages

Oppenheimer

Production Mixer – Willie D. Burton, CAS
Re-Recording Mixer – Gary A. Rizzo, CAS
Re-Recording Mixer – Kevin O’Connell, CAS
Scoring Mixer – Chris Fogel, CAS
Foley Mixer – Tavish Grade
Foley Mixer – Jack Cucci
Foley Mixer – Mikel Parraga-Wills

 

Motion Picture — Animated:

 

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Original Dialogue Mixer – Brian Smith
Original Dialogue Mixer – Aaron Hasson
Original Dialogue Mixer – Howard London, CAS
Re-Recording Mixer – Michael Semanick, CAS
Re-Recording Mixer – Juan Peralta
Scoring Mixer – Sam Okell
Foley Mixer – Randy K. Singer, CAS

 

Motion Picture — Documentary:

 

32 Sounds

Production Mixer – Laura Cunningham
Re-Recording Mixer – Mark Mangini
Scoring Mixer – Ben Greenberg
ADR Mixer – Bobby Johanson, CAS
Foley Mixer – Blake Collins, CAS

 

Non-Theatrical Motion Pictures or Limited Series:

 

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story

Production Mixer – Richard Bullock, CAS
Re-Recording Mixer – Tony Solis
Scoring Mixer – Phil McGowan, CAS
ADR Mixer – Brian Magrum, CAS
Foley Mixer – Erika Koski, CAS

 

 

 

 

Television Series — One Hour:

 

The Last Of Us: S01 E01 When You’re Lost In The Darkness

Production Mixer – Michael Playfair, CAS
Re-Recording Mixer – Marc Fishman, CAS
Re-Recording Mixer – Kevin Roache, CAS
Foley Mixer – Randy Wilson, CAS

 

Television Series — Half Hour:

 

The Bear: S02 E07 Forks

Production Mixer – Scott D. Smith, CAS
Re-Recording Mixer – Steve “Major” Giammaria, CAS
ADR Mixer – Patrick Christensen
Foley Mixer – Ryan Collison
Foley Mixer – Connor Nagy

 

Television Series — Non-Fiction, Variety or Music/Series or Specials:

 

100 Foot Wave: S02 E05 Lost at Sea

Re-Recording Mixer – Keith Hodne

Yushu “Doris” Shen from University of Southern California won the Student Recognition Award, receiving a check for $5k. The other four student finalists each took home $1K from the CAS, along with $10k in products and gear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MPSE Gold Reel Award Winners: Maestro, Oppenheimer and More

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The Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE) have announced the winners of its 71st Annual MPSE Golden Reels. Awards were presented in 19 professional categories, alongside one student award. Categories spanned feature film, television, animation and computer entertainment.

Additionally, Dane A. Davis, MPSE, received the MPSE Career Achievement Award, and Michael Dinner was presented with the MPSE Filmmaker Award.

“What makes this event so special is that we come together from around the world as a sound community to celebrate each other,” says newly elected MPSE president David Barber. “We celebrate each other’s artistry and each other’s achievements. MPSE members are an extraordinarily passionate and giving group of sound enthusiasts who exemplify the meaning of ‘community.’”

Here are the 71st Annual MPSE Golden Reel Award winners:

Outstanding Achievement in Music Editing – Feature Motion Picture

Maestro

Netflix

Supervising Music Editor: Jason Ruder

Music Editor: Victoria Ruggiero

 

Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Feature Dialogue / ADR

Oppenheimer

Universal Pictures

Supervising Sound Editor: Richard King

Supervising Dialogue Editor: David Bach

Dialogue Editors: Russell Farmarco, Albert Gasser MPSE

 

Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Feature Effects / Foley

Oppenheimer

Universal Pictures

Supervising Sound Editor: Richard King

Sound Effects Editor: Michael Mitchell

Sound Designer: Randy Torres

Supervising Foley Editor: Christopher Flick

Foley Artists: Dan O’Connell, John Cucci MPSE

 

Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Broadcast Animation

Star Wars: The Bad Batch: “Faster”

Disney

Supervising Sound Editors: David W. Collins, Matthew Wood

Sound Designer: David W. Collins

Sound Effects Editors: Justin Doyle, Kevin Bolen MPSE, Kimberly Patrick

Supervising Foley Editor: Frank Rinella

Foley Artists: Kimberly Patrick, Margie O’Malley, Andrea Gard

 

Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Non-theatrical Animation

The Monkey King

Netflix Animation

Supervising Sound Editors: David Giammarco, Eric A. Norris MPSE

Dialogue Editor: Sean Massey MPSE

Sound Designers: Jon Title MPSE, Tim Nielsen

Foley Artists: Dan O’Connell, John Cucci MPSE

 

Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Feature Animation

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Sony Pictures Animation

Supervising Sound Editor: Geoffrey G. Rubay

Sound Designers: John J. Pospisil, Alec G. Rubay, Kip Smedley

Sound Effects Editors: Cathryn Wang, David Werntz, Bruce Tanis MPSE, Greg ten Bosch MPSE, Daniel McNamara MPSE, Will Digby, Andy Sisul

Supervising Dialogue Editor: James Morioka MPSE

Dialogue Editors: Robert Getty MPSE, Jason W. Freeman, Kai Scheer, Ashley N. Rubay

Foley Supervisor: Colin Lechner MPSE

Foley Artist: Gregg Barbanell MPSE, Jeff Wilhoit MPSE, Dylan Wilhoit

Supervising Music Editor: Katie Greathouse

Music Editor: Barbara McDermott

 

Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Non-theatrical Documentary

Our Planet II: “Chapter 3: The Next Generation”

Netflix

Sound Editor: George Fry

 

Outstanding Achievement in Music Editing – Documentary

Pianoforte

Greenwich Entertainment

Supervising Music Editor: Michal Fojcik MPSE

Music Editor: Joanna Popowicz

 

Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Feature Documentary

32 Sounds

ArKtype

Supervising ADR Editor: Eliza Paley

Supervising Sound Editor: Mark Mangini MPSE

Sound Editor: Robert Kellough MPSE

ADR Editor: Mari Matsuo

Foley Artist: Joanna Fang MPSE

 

Outstanding Achievement in Music Editing – Game Music

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

Respawn Entertainment

Music Director: Nick Laviers

Music Implementers: Colin Andrew Grant MPSE, Andrew Karboski

 

Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Game Dialogue / ADR

Alan Wake 2

Remedy Entertainment

Audio Director: Richard Lapington

Senior Dialogue Designers: Taneli Suoranta, Arthur Tisseront

 

Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Game Effects / Foley

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

Insomniac Games

Supervising Sound Editors: Ben Minto MPSE, Chris Sweetman MPSE, Csaba Wagner MPSE, Samuel Justice, Gary Miranda

Supervising Sound Designer: Emile Mika

Senior Director of Sound: Phillip Kovats MPSE

Director, Audio Management: Karen Read

Audio Managers: Daniel Birczynski, Jesse James Allen

Director of Sound Design: Jeremie Voillot MPSE

Senior Audio Directors: Paul Mudra, Jerry Berlongieri, Dwight Okahara

Technical Sound Designers: Ben Pantelis, Sebastian Ruiz, Nick Jackson, Enoch Choi, Cameron Sonju, Gavin Booth

Lead Sound Designer: Blake Johnson

Senior Sound Designers: Eddie Pacheco MPSE, Tyler Cornett, Johannes Hammers MPSE, Zack Bogucki, Alex Previty, Matt Ryan, Juliet Rascon, Andres Herrera, Robert Castro MPSE, Jeff Darby, Beau Anthony Jimenez MPSE, Derrick Espino, Jon Rook

Sound Designers: Tyler Hoffman, Daniele Carli, Bob Kellough MPSE, Bryan Jerden, Eilam Hoffman, Graham Donnelly MPSE, Jason W. Jennings MPSE, Matt Hall, Michael Leaning, Michael Schapiro, Randy Torres, Richard Gould, Stephano Sanchinelli, Tim Walston MPSE, Tobias Poppe, Tom Jaine MPSE, Jeremy Neroes, Adam Sanchez, Brendan Wolf, Roy Lancaster, Rodrigo Robinet, Daniel Barboza, Charlie Ritter, David Goll, Chris Kokkinos MPSE, TJ Schauer

Foley Editors: Blake Collins, Annie Taylor, Austin Creek

Foley Artist: Joanna Fang MPSE

 

Outstanding Achievement in Music Editing – Broadcast Short Form

Dave: “Met Gala”

Hulu

Supervising Music Editor: Amber Funk MPSE

Music Editor: James Sullivan

 

Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Broadcast Short Form

The Mandalorian: “The Return”

Disney

Supervising Sound Editors: Trey Turner, Matthew Wood

Sound Designer: David W. Collins

Sound Effects Editors: Luis Galdames MPSE, Kevin Bolen MPSE

ADR Editors: Brad Semenoff MPSE, Ryan Cota MPSE

Supervising Foley Editor: Frank Rinella

Foley Editors: Joel Raabe, Alyssa Nevarez

Foley Artist: Shelly Roden MPSE

 

Outstanding Achievement in Music Editing – Broadcast Long Form

The Last of Us: “When You’re Lost in the Darkness”

HBO

Music Editor: Maarten Hofmeijer

 

Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Broadcast Long Form Dialogue / ADR

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel: “Four Minutes”

Amazon Prime

Supervising Sound Editor: Ron Bochar

Dialogue Editor: Sara Stern

ADR Editor: Ruth Hernandez MPSE

 

Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Broadcast Long Form Effects / Foley

All the Light We Cannot See: Episode 4

Netflix

Supervising Sound Editors: Craig Henighan MPSE, Ryan Cole MPSE

Sound Effects Editor: David Grimaldi

Foley Editor: Matt Cloud

Foley Artist: Steve Baine

 

Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Student Film (Verna Fields Award)

Dive

National Film & Television School

Supervising Sound Editor: Simon Panayi

 

Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Non-theatrical Feature

The Last Kingdom: Seven Kings Must Die

Netflix

Supervising Sound Editor: Jack Gillies

Dialogue/ADR Supervisor: Michael Williams

ADR Editor: Steve Berezai

Foley Editor: Neale Ross

Foley Artist: Jason Swanscott

 

Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Foreign Language Feature

Society of the Snow

Netflix

Supervising Sound Editors: Oriol Tarragó, Iosu Martinez, Guillem Giró

Foley Artists: Erik Vidal, Kiku Vidal

Sound Editors: Sarah Romero, Marc Bech, Brendan Golden

Sound Designer: Oriol Tarragó

Music Editor: John Finklea

 

 

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Oppenheimer

ACE Eddie Award Winners: Oppenheimer, The Holdovers and More

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American Cinema Editors (ACE) have named the winners of the 74th Annual ACE Eddie Awards, which recognize outstanding editing in 14 categories of film, television and documentaries. In addition to this year’s recipients, John Waters accepted the ACE Golden Eddie Award, which recognizes an artist for their distinguished achievement in film.

ACE president Kevin Tent, ACE, presided over the event and also took home top comedy honors for his work on The Holdovers. Jennifer Lame, ACE, won for her work on Oppenheimer in the feature drama category.

WINNERS FOR 74th ANNUAL ACE EDDIE AWARDS

BEST EDITED FEATURE FILM (Drama, Theatrical):
Oppenheimer
Jennifer Lame, ACE

(L-R) Paul Rogers presented the Eddie to Kevin Tent for his work on The Holdovers.

BEST EDITED FEATURE FILM (Comedy, Theatrical):
The Holdovers
Kevin Tent, ACE

BEST EDITED ANIMATED FEATURE FILM:
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Michael Andrews, ACE

BEST EDITED DOCUMENTARY (Theatrical):
Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie
Michael Harte, ACE

BEST EDITED DOCUMENTARY (Non-Theatrical):
Escaping Twin Flames: “Up in Flames”
Martin Biehn
Kevin Hibbard
Inbal B. Lessner, ACE
Troy Takaki, ACE
Mimi Wilcox

BEST EDITED MULTI-CAMERA COMEDY SERIES:
How I Met Your Father: “Daddy”
Russell Griffin, ACE

BEST EDITED SINGLE CAMERA COMEDY SERIES:
The Bear: “Fishes”
Joanna Naugle, ACE

BEST EDITED DRAMA SERIES:
The Last of Us: “Long, Long Time”
Timothy A. Good, ACE

BEST EDITED FEATURE FILM (NON-THEATRICAL):
Reality
Jennifer Vecchiarello

BEST EDITED LIMITED SERIES:
Beef: “The Birds Don’t Sing, They Screech in Pain”
Harry Yoon, ACE
Laura Zempel, ACE

BEST EDITED NON-SCRIPTED SERIES:
Couples Therapy: “Episode 310”
Delaney Lynch
Helen Kearns, ACE
Katrina Taylor

BEST EDITED VARIETY TALK/SKETCH SHOW OR SPECIAL:
Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour
Dom Whitworth
Guy Harding
Hamish Lyons
Rupa Rathod
Ben Wainwright-Pearce
Reg Wrench

BEST EDITED ANIMATED SERIES:
Blue Eye Samurai: “The Tale of the Ronin and The Bride”
Yuka Shirasuna

ANNE V. COATES AWARD FOR STUDENT EDITING:
Ariel Emma Martin – Chapman University

Additionally, film editors Kate Amend, ACE, and Walter Murch, ACE, received Career Achievement Awards for their outstanding contributions to film editing. Stephen Lovejoy, ACE received the ACE Heritage Award for his unwavering commitment to ACE and its mission.

Main Image: (L-R) Film editor Carol Littleton presented Jennifer Lame with her Eddie for her work on Oppenheimer.


British Film Editors Announce 2024 Award Nominees

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The British Film Editors (BFE) have announced the nominees for its 2024 Cut Above Awards. The organization’s members are currently voting on 10 film editing categories, and winners will be revealed in a live stream of its awards ceremony on 16th February 16.

“We are excited for our 4th BFE Cut Above Awards,” says Renée Edwards, BFE chair. “The pace at which BFE is growing and the increasing level of support and spotlighting we are able to bring to our craft is something we’ve long dreamed of.”

Here is a list of the nominees:

Chris Crookall Award for Breakthrough Editor

Jasmin John

Nathan Summerfield

Harfun Li

Fiorella Santaniello

 

Michael Johns BFE Award for Outstanding Assistant Editor

Elise Anderson

Christopher Frith

Kirsty Hampton

Rob Redford

Jan Schroeder

Highly Commended: Raphi Randell and Sion Roberts (a job share)

 

Best Edited Single Drama

Oppenheimer – Jennifer Lame, ACE

Past Lives – Keith Fraase

Poor Things – Yorgos Mavropsaridis, ACE BFE

Saltburn – Victoria Boydell BFE

 

Best Edited Single Documentary or Non-Fiction Program

20 Days in Mariupol – Michelle Mizner

Still: A Michael J Fox Movie – Michael Harte, ACE BFE

The Deepest Breath – Julian Hart, BFE

Tish – Angela Slaven & Lindsay Watson

 

Best Edited Single Animation

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget – Stephen Perkins BFE

Elemental – Stephen Schaffer, ACE

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse – Michael Andrews, ACE

The Boy and the Heron – Rie Matsubara, Takeshi Seyama & Akane Shiraishi

 

Best Edited Current Affairs

20 Days in Mariupol – Michelle Mizner

Russell Brand: In Plain Sight – Florence Kennard BFE

Ukraine’s War Diaries – Pawel Slawek BFE

North Korea: The Insiders – Adam Richardson BFE

 

Best Edited Series: Comedy

What We Do in the Shadows – Season 5 – Thomas Calderon, Liza Cardinale, ACE, A.J. Dickerson, ACE & Dane McMaster, ACE

The Marvelous Mrs Maisel – Season 5 – Ant Boys, ACE BFE, Tim Streeto, ACE & Zana Bochar

Ted Lasso – Season 3 – Melissa McCoy, ACE, A.J. Catoline, ACE , Francesca Castro & Alex Szabo

Extraordinary – Dan Crinnion, Carly Brown BFE & Adam Moss

 

Best Edited Series: Animation

Blue Eye Samurai – Yuka Shirasuna & Brad Lee Zimmerman

Rick and Morty – Season 7 – Lee Harting, ACE

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off – Abel Góngora, Keisuke Yanagi & Moko-chan

Star Wars Visions – Season 2 – Rodrigo Blaas, Richie Cody, ACE BFE, Tarek Karkoutly, Emily Killick & Clea Mallinson

 

Best Edited Series: Drama

Succession – Season 4 – Ken Eluto, ACE, Jane Rizzo, ACE, Bill Henry, ACE, Ellen Tam & Venya Bruk

The Bear – Season 2 – Joanna Naugle, ACE BFE, Adam Epstein, ACE BFE, Nia Imani & Megan Mancini

Slow Horses – Season 3 – Zsófia Tálas & Sam Williams

The Last of Us – Season 1 – Timothy Good, ACE BFE, Emily Mendez BFE, Cindy Mollo, ACE & Mark Hartzell, ACE

 

Best Edited Series: Documentary or Non-Fiction  

Beckham – Michael Harte, ACE BFE

Louis Theroux Interviews – Season 2 – Robbie Pettigrew, Daniel Gulley & Holly Lubbock BFE

Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland – Anna Price, Simon Sykes, Justin Badger, William Grayburn & Bjorn Johnson

MH370: The Plane That Disappeared – Jane Hodge BFE, Duncan Hill, Greg O’Toole, ACE & Safi Ferrah

 

Best Edited British Drama

Poor Things – Yorgos Mavropsaridis, ACE BFE

Saltburn – Victoria Boydell BFE

Tetris – Col Goudie BFE, Ben Mills BFE, Martin Walsh, ACE

The Zone of Interest – Paul Watts

 

Best Edited British Documentary or Non-Fiction 

Right Here, Right Now – Eoin McDonagh ISE

Tish – Angela Slaven & Lindsay Watson

Russell Brand: In Plain Sight – Florence Kennard BFE

The Deepest Breath – Julian Hart, BFE


ACE Eddie Awards

Editing: ACE Eddie Award Nominees Announced

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The American Cinema Editors (ACE) have announced the nominations for its 74th Annual ACE Eddie Awards, recognizing outstanding editing in 14 categories of film, television and documentaries. The winners will be announced live during the ACE Eddie Awards on March 3.

As previously announced, filmmaker John Waters will receive the ACE Golden Eddie Filmmaker of the Year Award, recognizing a filmmaker who exemplifies distinguished achievement in the art and business of film. Also previously announced, film editors Kate Amend, ACE and Walter Murch, ACE will receive Career Achievement Awards for their outstanding contributions to film editing. Stephen Lovejoy, ACE, will receive the Heritage Award for his unwavering commitment to ACE.

Here is the full list of nominees for the 74th Annual ACE Eddie Awards:

BEST EDITED FEATURE FILM (Drama, Theatrical):

Anatomy of a Fall
Laurent Sénéchal

Killers of the Flower Moon
Thelma Schoonmaker, ACE

Maestro
Michelle Tesoro, ACE

Oppenheimer
Jennifer Lame, ACE

Past Lives
Keith Fraase

BEST EDITED FEATURE FILM (Comedy, Theatrical):

Air
William Goldenberg, ACE

American Fiction
Hilda Rasula, ACE

Barbie
Nick Houy, ACE

The Holdovers
Kevin Tent, ACE

Poor Things
Yorgos Mavropsaridis, ACE

BEST EDITED ANIMATED FEATURE FILM:

Elemental
Stephen Schaffer, ACE

Nimona
Randy Trager, ACE
Erin Crackel

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Michael Andrews, ACE

The Super Mario Bros. Movie
Eric Osmond

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
Greg Levitan, ACE

BEST EDITED DOCUMENTARY (Theatrical):

20 Days in Mariupol
Michelle Mizner

American Symphony
Sammy Dane
Matthew Heineman
Jim Hession
Fernando Villegas

Joan Baez I Am a Noise
Maeve O’Boyle

Little Richard: I Am Everything
Nyneve Minnear
Jake Hostetter

Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie
Michael Harte, ACE

BEST EDITED DOCUMENTARY (Non-Theatrical):

100 Foot Wave: “Jaws”
Alex Bayer
Alex Keipper
Quin O’Brien

Albert Brooks: Defending My Life
Bob Joyce

Beckham: “The Kick”
Michael Harte, ACE

Being Mary Tyler Moore
Mariah Rehmet

Escaping Twin Flames: “Up in Flames”
Martin Biehn
Kevin Hibbard
Inbal B. Lessner, ACE
Troy Takaki, ACE
Mimi Wilcox

BEST EDITED MULTI-CAMERA COMEDY SERIES:

Frasier: “Blind Date”
Joseph Fulton

How I Met Your Father: “Daddy”
Russell Griffin, ACE

The Upshaws: “Off Beat”
Angel Gamboa Bryant

BEST EDITED SINGLE CAMERA COMEDY SERIES:

Barry: “Wow”
Ali Greer, ACE
Franky Guttman, ACE

The Bear: “Fishes”
Joanna Naugle, ACE

The Bear: “Forks”
Adam Epstein, ACE

Only Murders in the Building: “Sitzprobe”
Shelly Westerman, ACE
Payton Koch

Ted Lasso: “So Long, Farewell”
Melissa McCoy, ACE

BEST EDITED DRAMA SERIES:

Ahsoka: “Fallen Jedi”
Dana E. Glauberman, ACE

The Last of Us: “Long, Long Time”
Timothy A. Good, ACE

Slow Horses: “Strange Games”
Sam Williams

Succession: “Conner’s Wedding”
Bill Henry, ACE

Succession: “With Open Eyes”
Ken Eluto, ACE

BEST EDITED FEATURE FILM (NON-THEATRICAL):

Black Mirror: Beyond the Sea
Jon Harris

Flamin’ Hot
Kayla M. Emter
Liza D. Espinas

Reality
Jennifer Vecchiarello
Ron Dulin

BEST EDITED LIMITED SERIES:

Beef: “The Birds Don’t Sing, They Screech in Pain”
Harry Yoon, ACE
Laura Zempel, ACE

Beef: “The Great Fabricator”
Nat Fuller

Fargo: “The Paradox of Intermediate Transactions”
Christopher Nelson, ACE

Fargo: “The Tragedy of the Commons”
Regis Kimble

Lessons in Chemistry: “Introduction to Chemistry”
Géraud Brisson, ACE
Daniel Martens

BEST EDITED NON-SCRIPTED SERIES:

Couples Therapy: “Episode 310”
Delaney Lynch
Helen Kearns, ACE
Katrina Taylor

Dancing with the Stars: “S32.E5”
Laurens Van Charante
Ben Bulatao, ACE
Fernanda Cardoso
Jessie Sock
Jon Oliver
Neal Acosta
Raiko Siems
Joe Headrick
Mike Bennaton

Deadliest Catch: “Pain Level Ten”
Rob Butler, ACE
Isaiah Camp, ACE
Alexander Rubinow, ACE
Josh Stockero

BEST EDITED VARIETY TALK/SKETCH SHOW OR SPECIAL EVENT:

A Black Lady Sketch Show: “My Love Language is Words of Defamation”
Stephanie Filo, ACE
Malinda Zehner Guerra
Taylor Joy Mason, ACE

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: “Dollar Stores”
Anthony Miale, ACE

Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour
Dom Whitworth
Guy Harding
Hamish Lyons
Rupa Rathod
Ben Wainwright-Pearce
Reg Wrench

BEST EDITED ANIMATED SERIES:

Blue Eye Samurai: “The Tale of the Ronin and The Bride”
Yuksa Shirasuna

Bob’s Burgers: “Amelia”
Jeremy Reuben, ACE
Stephanie Earley

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off: “Ramona Rents a Video”
Keisuke Yanagi

ANNE V. COATES AWARD FOR STUDENT EDITING:

Isaiah Clarke – Spanish Springs High School
Jamie Diaz – California State University Los Angeles
Ariel Emma Martin – Chapman University


Academy Announces Science and Technical Oscar Awards, Plaques

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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will celebrate 16 scientific and technical achievements at its annual Scientific and Technical Awards ceremony on February 23 at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.

“Each year, a global group of technology practitioners and experts sets out to examine the extraordinary tools and techniques employed in the creation of motion pictures,” reports Barbara Ford Grant, chair of the Academy’s Scientific and Technical Awards Committee, which oversees the vetting of the awards. “This year, we honor 16 technologies for their exceptional contributions to how we craft and enhance the movie experience, from the safe execution of on-set special effects to new levels of image presentation fidelity and immersive sound to open frameworks that enable artists to share their digital creations across different software and studios seamlessly. These remarkable achievements in the arts and sciences of filmmaking have propelled our medium to unprecedented levels of greatness.”

Unlike other Academy Awards to be presented this year, achievements receiving Scientific and Technical Awards need not have been developed and introduced during a specified period. Instead, the achievements must demonstrate a proven record of contributing significant value to the process of making motion pictures.

The Academy Awards for scientific and technical achievements are:

TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS (ACADEMY CERTIFICATES)

To Bill Beck for his pioneering use of semiconductor lasers for theatrical laser projection systems.

Bill Beck’s advocacy and education to the cinema industry while at Laser Light Engines contributed to the transition to laser projection in theatrical exhibition.

To Gregory T. Niven for his pioneering work in using laser diodes for theatrical laser projection systems.

At Novalux and Necsel, Gregory T. Niven demonstrated and refined specifications for laser light sources for theatrical exhibition, leading the industry’s transition to laser cinema projection technology.

To Yoshitaka Nakatsu, Yoji Nagao, Tsuyoshi Hirao, Tomonori Morizumi and Kazuma Kozuru for their development of laser diodes for theatrical laser projection systems.

Yoshitaka Nakatsu, Yoji Nagao, Tsuyoshi Hirao, Tomonori Morizumi and Kazuma Kozuru collaborated closely with cinema professionals and manufacturers while at Nichia Corporation Laser Diode Division, leading to the development and industry-wide adoption of blue and green laser modules producing wavelengths and power levels matching the specific needs of the cinema market.

To Arnold Peterson and Elia P. Popov for their ongoing design and engineering, and to John Frazier for the initial concept of the Blind Driver Roof Pod.

The roof pod improves the safety, speed and range of stunt driving, extending the options for camera placement while acquiring picture car footage with talent in the vehicle, leading to rapid adoption across the industry.

To Jon G. Belyeu for the design and engineering of Movie Works Cable Cutter devices.

The design of this suite of pyrotechnic cable cutters has made them the preferred method for safe, precise and reliable release of suspension cables for over three decades in motion picture production.

To James Eggleton and Delwyn Holroyd for the design, implementation and integration of the High-Density Encoding (HDE) lossless compression algorithm within the Codex recording toolset.

The HDE codec allows productions to leverage familiar and proven camera raw workflows more efficiently by reducing the storage and bandwidth needed for the increased amounts of data from high-photosite-count cameras.

To Jeff Lait, Dan Bailey and Nick Avramoussis for the continued evolution and expansion of the feature set of OpenVDB.

Core engineering developments contributed by OpenVDB’s open-source community have led to its ongoing success as an enabling platform for representing and manipulating volumetric data for natural phenomena. These additions have helped solidify OpenVDB as an industry standard that drives continued innovation in visual effects.

To Oliver Castle and Marcus Schoo for the design and engineering of Atlas, and to Keith Lackey for the prototype creation and early development of Atlas.

Atlas’s scene description and evaluation framework enables the integration of multiple digital content creation tools into a coherent production pipeline. Its plug-in architecture and efficient evaluation engine provide a consistent representation from virtual production through to lighting.

To Lucas Miller, Christopher Jon Horvath, Steve LaVietes and Joe Ardent for the creation of the Alembic Caching and Interchange system.

Alembic’s algorithms for storing and retrieving baked, time-sampled data enable high-efficiency caching across the digital production pipeline and sharing of scenes between facilities. As an open-source interchange library, Alembic has seen widespread adoption by major software vendors and production studios.

SCIENTIFIC AND ENGINEERING AWARDS (ACADEMY PLAQUES)

To Charles Q. Robinson, Nicolas Tsingos, Christophe Chabanne, Mark Vinton and the team of software, hardware and implementation engineers of the Cinema Audio Group at Dolby Laboratories for the creation of the Dolby Atmos Cinema Sound System.

Dolby Atmos has become an industry standard for object-based cinema audio content creation and presents a premier immersive audio experience for theatrical audiences.

To Steve Read and Barry Silverstein for their contributions to the design and development of the IMAX Prismless Laser Projector.

Utilizing a novel optical mirror system, the IMAX Prismless Laser Projector removes prisms from the laser light path to create the high brightness and contrast required for IMAX theatrical presentation.

To Peter Janssens, Goran Stojmenovik and Wouter D’Oosterlinck for the design and development of the Barco RGB Laser Projector.

The Barco RGB Laser Projector’s novel and modular design with an internally integrated laser light source produces flicker-free uniform image fields with improved contrast and brightness, enabling a widely adopted upgrade path from xenon to laser presentation without the need for alteration to screen or projection booth layout of existing theaters.

To Michael Perkins, Gerwin Damberg, Trevor Davies and Martin J. Richards for the design and development of the Christie E3LH Dolby Vision Cinema Projection System, implemented in collaboration between Dolby Cinema and Christie Digital engineering teams.

The Christie E3LH Dolby Vision Cinema Projection System uses a novel dual modulation technique that employs cascaded DLP chips along with an improved laser optical path, enabling high dynamic range theatrical presentation.

To Ken Museth, Peter Cucka and Mihai Aldén for the creation of OpenVDB and its ongoing impact within the motion picture industry.

For over a decade, OpenVDB’s core voxel data structures, programming interface, file format and rich tools for data manipulation continue to be the standard for efficiently representing complex volumetric effects, such as water, fire and smoke.

To Jaden Oh for the concept and development of the Marvelous Designer clothing creation system.

Marvelous Designer introduced a pattern-based approach to digital costume construction, unifying design and visualization and providing a virtual analogy to physical tailoring. Under Jaden Oh’s guidance, the team of engineers, UX designers and 3D designers at CLO Virtual Fashion has helped to raise the quality of appearance and motion in digital wardrobe creations.

To F. Sebastian Grassia, Alex Mohr, Sunya Boonyatera, Brett Levin and Jeremy Cowles for the design and engineering of Pixar’s Universal Scene Description (USD).

USD is the first open-source scene description framework capable of accommodating the full scope of the production workflow across a variety of studio pipelines. Its robust engineering and mature design are exemplified by its versatile layering system and the highly performant crate file format. USD’s wide adoption has made it a de facto interchange format of 3D scenes, enabling alignment and collaboration across the motion picture industry.


Visual Effects: VES Award Nominees Announced

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The Visual Effects Society (VES) has announced the nominees for its 22nd Annual VES Awards, which recognize visual effects artistry and innovation in features, animation, television, commercials and video games. The awards also recognize the VFX supervisors, VFX producers and hands-on artists who bring this work to life. Awards will be presented on February 21 at The Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles.

The Creator leads the feature film field with seven nominations, and the animated Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse has seven nominations as well. Leading in the episodic category with nominations is The Last of Us, which has six.

Nominees in 25 categories were selected by VES members at 39 in-person and virtual nomination events conducted worldwide over a 36-hour continuous process. The VES Awards nominations protocol included a review of each award submission, including before-and-afters, by a minimum of three different judging panels. Participating VES members on the panels represented 25 countries.

The nominees for the 22ndAnnual VES Awards in 25 categories are as follows:

OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

Ben Snow

Diana Giorgiutti

Khalid Almeerani

Scott Benza

Sam Conway

 

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

Stephane Ceretti

Susan Pickett

Alexis Wajsbrot

Guy Williams

Dan Sudick

 

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Andrew Whitehurst

Kathy Siegel

Robert Weaver

Julian Hutchens

Alistair Williams

 

Oppenheimer

Andrew Jackson

Mike Chambers, VES

Giacomo Mineo

Dave Drzewiecki

Scot Fisher

 

The Creator

Jay Cooper

Julian Levi

Ian Comley

Charmaine Chan

Neil Corbould, VES

 

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE

 

John Wick: Chapter 4

Janelle Croshaw Ralla

Reina Sparks

Jonathan Rothbart

Javier Roca

Gerd Nefzer

 

Killers of the Flower Moon

Pablo Helman

Brian Barlettani

Sam Bassett

Brandon Keys McLaughlin

 

Napoleon

Charley Henley

Sarah Tulloch

Luc-Ewen Martin-Fenouillet

Simone Coco

Neil Corbould, VES

 

Nyad

Jake Braver

Fiona Campbell Westgate

Christopher White

Mohsen Mousavi

 

Society of the Snow

Félix Bergés

Micaela Gagliano

Laura Pedro

Ezequiel Larrú

Pau Costa

 

OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE

 

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget

Jon Biggins

Jim Lewis

Charles Copping

Matthew Perry

 

Elemental

Peter Sohn

Denise Ream

Sanjay Bakshi

Stephen Marshall

 

Nimona

Archie Donato

Yancy Lindquist

Theodore Ty

Anthony Kemp

 

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Alan Hawkins

Christian Hejnal

Michael Lasker

Matt Hausman

 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

Matthieu Rouxel

Marie Balland

Jacques Daigle

Vincent Leroy

 

OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL EPISODE

 

Ahsoka; Season 1; Dreams and Madness

Richard Bluff

Jakris Smittant

Paul Kavanagh

Enrico Damm

Scott Fisher

 

Loki; Season 2; Glorious Purpose

Christopher Townsend

Allison Paul

Matthew Twyford

Christopher Smallfield

John William Van Der Pool

 

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters

Sean Konrad

Jessica Smith

Jed Glassford

Khalid Almeerani

Paul Benjamin

 

The Last of Us; Season 1; Infected

Alex Wang

Sean Nowlan

Stephen James

Simon Jung

Joel Whist

 

The Mandalorian; Season 3; The Return

Grady Cofer

Abbigail Keller

Victor Schutz IV

Cameron Neilson

Scott Fisher

 

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL EPISODE

 

A Murder at The End of the World; Season 1; Crypt

Aaron Raff

Tavis Larkham

Douglas Stichbury

Mat Ellin

 

Citadel; Season 1; Secrets in Night Need Early Rains

Wesley Froud

Scott Shapiro

Aladino Debert

Greg Teegarden

 

Ted Lasso: Season 3; Mom City

Gretchen Bangs

Bill Parker

Lenny Wilson

 

The Crown; Season 6; Dis-Moi Oui

Ben Turner

Reece Ewing

Oliver Bersey

Joe Cork

 

Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty; Season 2; BEAT LA

Raymond McIntyre Jr.

Victor DiMichina

Javier Menéndez Platas

Damien Stantina

 

OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A REAL-TIME PROJECT

 

Alan Wake 2

Janne Pulkkinen

Johannes Richter

Daniel Kończyk

Damian Olechowski

 

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty

Jakub Knapik

Paweł Mielniczuk

Maciej Włodarkiewicz

Kacper Niepokólczycki

 

Immortals of Aveum

Joseph Hall

Kevin Boyle

Dave Bogan

Julia Lichtblau

 

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

Jacinda Chew

Jeannette Lee

Bryanna Lindsey

Alan Weider

 

Mortal Kombat 1

Christopher Chapman

Scott Quinn

James DeSousa

Jeff Palmer

Matt Gilmore

 

OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A COMMERCIAL

 

Accenture; Changing Tree

Simon French

Vic Lovejoy

David Filipe

Matteo La Motta

 

Apple; Air Pods Pro; Quiet The Noise

Iain Murray

Oscar Wendt

Dean Robinson

Sergio Morales Paz

 

Coca-Cola; Masterpiece

Ryan Knowles

Antonia Vlasto

Gregory McKneally

Dan Yargici

 

Jean Paul Gaultier; Divine Perfume

Stéphane Pivron

Cécile Hubin

Guillaume Dadaglio

Mathias Barday

 

Virgin Media; Goat Glider

Ben Cronin

George Reid

Sam Driscoll

Christian Baker

 

OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A SPECIAL VENUE PROJECT

 

Hypersphere 360; SeaWorld Abu Dhabi

Daren Ulmer

Cedar Connor

Lindsey Sprague

Ryan Kravetz

 

Postcard From Earth

Aruna Inversin

Eric Wilson

Corey Turner

Bill George

 

Rembrandt Immersive Artwork

Andrew McNamara

Sebastian Read

Andrew Kinnear

Sam Matthews

 

The Marvels: Goose the Flerken Cat

Tim Kafka

Mari Suarez

Toya Drechsler

Sebastian Niño Florez

 

Zootopia: Hot Pursuit

Blaine Kennison

Jeanne Angel

Darin Hollings

Aaron Arendt

 

OUTSTANDING ANIMATED CHARACTER IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom; Topo the Octopus

Thomas Ward

Andrew Butler

Felix Slinger-Thompson

Jacob Burstein

 

Godzilla Minus One; Godzilla

Kosuke Taguchi

Takashi Yamazaki

 

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3; Rocket

Nathan McConnel

Andrea De Martis

Antony Magdalinidis

Rachel Williams

 

Wonka; Oompa Loompa

Dale Newton

Kunal Ayer

Valentina Ercolani

Gabor Foner

 

OUTSTANDING ANIMATED CHARACTER IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE

 

Elemental; Ember

Gwendelyn Enderoglu

Jared Fong

Jonathan Hoffman

Patrick Witting

 

Elemental; Wade

Max Gilbert

Jacob Kuenzel

Dave Strick

Benjamin Su

 

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse; Spot

Christopher Mangnall

Craig Feifarek

Humberto Rosa

Nideep Varghese

 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem; Superfly

Gregory Coelho

Anne-Claire Leroux

Simon Cuisinier

Olivier Pierre

 

OUTSTANDING ANIMATED CHARACTER IN AN EPISODE, COMMERCIAL, GAME CINEMATIC OR REAL-TIME PROJECT

 

Diablo IV; Inarius and Lilith Cinematic; Lilith

Matt Onheiber

Jason Huang

Maia Neubig

 

Shadow and Bone; Season 2; No Funerals; Nichevo’ya the Shadow Monster

José María del Fresno

Matthieu Poirey

Carlos Puigdollers

Guillermo Ramos

 

The Last of Us; Endure & Survive; Bloater

Gino Acevedo

Max Telfer

Pascal Raimbault

Fabio Leporelli

 

The Nevers; It’s a Good Day; Robot Dog

Christian Leitner

Bernd Nalbach

Sebastian Plank

Martin Wellstein

 

Virgin Media; Goat Glider; The Goat

Sam Driscoll

Kanishk Chouhan

Suvi Jokiniemi

Chloe Dawe

 

OUTSTANDING CREATED ENVIRONMENT IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE

 

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3; Knowhere

Omar Alejandro Lavrador Ibanez

Fabien Julvecourt

Klaudio Ladavac

Benjamin Patterson

 

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny; Underwater Wreck Environment

Johan Gabrielsson

Adrian Tsang

Stefan Andersson

Martin Eneroth

 

John Wick: Chapter 4; Place de L’Étoile

Manuel Gaudreau

Fabrice Vienne

Vignesh Ravi

Laurent Makowski

 

The Creator; Floating Village

John Seru

Guy Williams

Vincent Techer

Timothée Maron

 

OUTSTANDING CREATED ENVIRONMENT IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE

 

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget; Chicken Island

Charles Copping

Matthew Perry

Jim Lewis

Jon Biggins

 

Elemental; Element City

Chris Bernardi

Brandon Montell

David Shavers

Ting Zhang

 

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse; Mumbattan City

Taehyun Park

YJ Lee

Pepe Orozco

Kelly Han

 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem; Midtown Manhattan

Olivier Mitonneau

Eddy Frechou

Guillaume Chevet

Arnaud Philippe-Giraux

 

OUTSTANDING CREATED ENVIRONMENT IN AN EPISODE, COMMERCIAL, GAME CINEMATIC OR REAL-TIME PROJECT

 

Loki; Season 2: 1983; World’s Fair White City

Christian Waite

Ben Aickin

Francesco Ferraresi

Pieter Warmington

 

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds; The Broken Circle

Nathaniel Larouche

Owen Deveney

Mujia Liao

Alex Morin

 

The Last Of Us; Look for the Light; Salt Lake City

Pascal Raimbault

Nick Cattell

Jasper Hayward

Kristine -Joeann Jasper

 

The Last of Us: Post-Outbreak Boston

Melaina Mace

Adrien Lambert

Juan Carlos Barquet

Christopher Anciaume

 

OUTSTANDING VIRTUAL CINEMATOGRAPHY IN A CG PROJECT

 

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

Joanna Davison

Cheyana Wilkinson

Michael Cozens

Jason Desjarlais

 

Migration

Guylo Homsy

Damien Bapst

Antoine Collet

David Dangin

 

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Rich Turner

Randolph Lizarda

Daniela Campos Little

Thomas Campos

 

The Creator

Roel Coucke

Christopher Potter

Amanda Johnstone-Batt

Jeremy Bloch

 

OUTSTANDING MODEL IN A PHOTOREAL OR ANIMATED PROJECT

 

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3; The Arête

Kenneth Johansson

Jason Galeon

Tim Civil

Artur Vil

 

Peter Pan & Wendy; Jolly Roger

Patrick Comtois

Thomas Gallardo

Harrison Stark

David Thibodeau

 

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse; Spider HQ

Dongick David Sheen

Mark JeongWoong Lee

Mikaela Bantog

René Völker

 

The Creator; Nomad

Oliver Kane

Mat Monro

Florence Green

Serban Ungureanu

 

OUTSTANDING EFFECTS SIMULATIONS IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE

 

Napoleon

Koen Hofmeester

Gianmichele Mariani

Clair Bellens

Hernan Llano Duque

 

Nyad; Stormy Waters

Korbinian Meier

Sindy Saalfeld

David Michielsen

Andreas Vrhovsek

 

The Creator

Ludovic Ramisandraina

Raul Essig

Mathieu Chardonnet

Lewis Taylor

 

The Nun 2

Laurent Creusot

Sebastien Podsiadlo

Michael Moercant

Benjamin Saurine

 

OUTSTANDING EFFECTS SIMULATIONS IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE

 

Elemental

Kristopher Campbell

Greg Gladstone

Jon Reisch

Kylie Wijsmuller

 

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Pav Grochola

Filippo Maccari

Naoki Kato

Nicola Finizio

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

Louis Marsaud

Paul-Etienne Bourde

Serge Martin

Marine Pommereul

 

The Super Mario Bros. Movie

Simon Pate

Christophe Vazquez

Milo Riccarand

 

OUTSTANDING EFFECTS SIMULATIONS IN AN EPISODE, COMMERCIAL, GAME CINEMATIC OR REAL-TIME PROJECT

 

Citadel; Secrets in Night Need Early Rains; Ocean Water

James Reid

Mathew Rotman

Filipp Elizarov

Nardeep Chander

 

Invasion; Season 2; A Voice from the Other Side

Zybrand Jacobs

Alex Marlow

Tim Jenkinson

Tobias Grønbeck Andersen

 

Loki; Season 2; Science/Fiction; Spaghettification

Rafael Camacho

Jonathan Lyddon-Towl

Julien Legay

Benedikt Roettger

 

The Mandalorian; Season 3; Lake Monster Attack Water
Travis Harkleroad

Florian Wietzel

Rick Hankins

Aron Bonar

 

Willow; Children of the Wyrm; Crone Duststorm and Magical Effects

Michael Cashmore

Robert Zeltsch

Jiyong Shin

Audun Ase

 

OUTSTANDING COMPOSITING & LIGHTING IN A FEATURE

 

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

Indah Maretha

Beck Veitch

Nathan Abbot

Steve McGillen

 

John Wick: Chapter 4; Apartment Massacre Videogame Style

Javier Roca

Julien Forest

Thomas Bourdis

Dominik Kirouac

 

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Bret St.Clair

Kieron Cheuk-Chi Lo

Kelly Christophers

Rowan Young

 

The Creator; Bar

Phil Prates

Min Kim

Nisarg Suthar

Toshiko Miura

 

The Creator; Spaceships

Ben O-Brien

Juan Espigares Enriquez

Wesley Roberts

Hayes Brien

 

OUTSTANDING COMPOSITING & LIGHTING IN AN EPISODE

 

The Last of Us; Endure and Survive; Infected Horde Battle

Matthew Lumb

Ben Roberts

Ben Campbell

Quentin Hema

 

The Last of Us; Infected; Boston

Casey Gorton

Francesco Dell’Anna

Vaclav Kubant

Natalia Valbuena

 

The Mandalorian; Season 3; The Return

Sam Wirch

Tory Mercer

Donny Rausch

Erich Ippen

 

Willow; Children of the Wyrm

Jeremy Sawyer

Steve Hardy

Martin Tardif

Miguel Macaya Ten

 

OUTSTANDING COMPOSITING & LIGHTING IN A COMMERCIAL

 

Accenture; Changing Tree

David Filipe

Matteo La Motta

Jordan Dunstall

Taran Spear

 

Coca-Cola; Masterpiece

Ryan Knowles

Greg Mckneally

Taran Spear

Jordan Dunstall

 

Smirnoff; Cocktail

Vittorio Barabani

Peter Hodsman

Giacomo Verri

Marc Greyvenstein

 

Starfield

Jimmy Bullard

Ajit Menon

Ruairi Twohig

Karim Moussa

 

OUTSTANDING SPECIAL (PRACTICAL) EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL PROJECT

I’m a Virgo

John McLeod

Scott Kirvan

Alec Gillis

Carl Miller

 

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One

Neil Corbould, VES

Ray Ferguson

Keith Dawson

Chris Motjuoadi

 

Oppenheimer

Scott Fisher

James Rollins

Mario Vanillo

 

Society of the Snow

Pau Costa

Carlos Laguna

Guillermo F. Aldunate

Eloy Cervera

 

EMERGING TECHNOLOGY AWARD

 

Blue Beetle; Machine Learning Cloth

JohnMark Gibbons

Allen Ruilova

Momme Carl

David Minor

 

Elemental; Volumetric Neural Style Transfer

Vinicius C. Azevedo

Byungsoo Kim

Raphael Ortiz

Paul Kanyuk

 

The Flash; Volumetric Capture

Stephan Trojansky

Thomas Ganshorn

Oliver Pilarski

Lukas Lepicovsky

 

Wish; Dynamic Screen Space Textures for Coherent Stylization

Brent Burley

Daniel Teece

Brian J. Green

 

OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A STUDENT PROJECT

 

Au 8ème Jour

Flavie Carin

Agathe Sénéchal

Alicia Massez

Elise Debruyne

 

L’Animal Sauce Ail

Aurélien Duchez

Ysaline Debut

Diane Mazella

Camille Rostan

 

Loup y es-tu ?

Célina Lebon

Louise Laurent

Emma Fessart

Annouck François

Silhouette

Alexis Lafuente

Antoni Nicolaï

Chloé Stricher

Elliot Dreuille

Podcast 12.4

Cinematography: ASC’s 38th Annual Award Nominees

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The American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) has announced its 2024 Outstanding Achievement Award nominees in the feature film, documentary, television and music video categories. Winners will be announced during the 38th Annual ASC Awards ceremony on March 3. The event will be live-streamed worldwide.

Below is a complete list of this year’s nominees by category:

THEATRICAL FEATURE FILM NOMINEES 

Edward Lachman, ASC for El Conde (Netflix)

Matthew Libatique, ASC, LPS for Maestro (Netflix)

Rodrigo Prieto, ASC, AMC for Killers of the Flower Moon (Apple TV+)

Robbie Ryan, ISC for Poor Things (Searchlight)

Hoyte van Hoytema, ASC, FSF, NSC for Oppenheimer (Universal Pictures)

SPOTLIGHT AWARD 

Eric Branco for Story Ave. (Kino Lorber)

Krum Rodriguez for Citizen Saint

Warwick Thornton for The New Boy

EPISODE OF A ONE-HOUR REGULAR SERIES 

Ricardo Diaz for Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, “The Second Coming” (Max)

Rob C. Givens for Gotham Knights, “Daddy Issues” (CW)

M. David Mullen, ASC for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, “Four Minutes” (Prime Video)

Cathal Watters, ASC, ISC for Foundation, “In Seldon’s Shadow” (Apple TV+)

Glen Keenan for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, “Hegemony” (Paramount+)

LIMITED OR ANTHOLOGY SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TV 

Dan Atherton for Great Expectations, “The Three Keys” (FX)

Sam Chiplin for The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, “Part 1: Black Fire Orchid” (Prime Video)

Ben Kutchins, ASC for Boston Strangler (Hulu)

Igor Martinovic for George and Tammy, “Stand by Your Man” (Showtime)

Jason Oldak for Lessons in Chemistry, “Book of Calvin” (Apple TV+)

Tobias Schliessler, ASC for All the Light We Cannot See, “Episode 2” (Netflix)

EPISODE OF A HALF-HOUR SERIES 

Julian Court, BSC for The Diplomat, “The James Bond Clause” (Netflix)

Carl Herse for Barry, “Tricky Legacies” (Max)

Jon Joffin, ASC for Schmigadoon, “Something Real” (Apple TV+)

Blake McClure, ASC for Minx, “I Thought the Bed was Gonna Fly” (Starz)

Andrew Wehde for The Bear, “The Bear” (Hulu)

DOCUMENTARY AWARD (Category sponsored by RED Digital Cinema)

Jeff Hutchens for Murder in Big Horn, “Episode 1” (Showtime)

Curren Sheldon for King Coal

D. Smith for Kokomo City (Magnolia Pictures)

MUSIC VIDEO AWARD 

Scott Cunningham, ASC for Gorilla (Performed by Little Simz)

Jon Joffin, ASC for At Home (Performed by Jon Bryant)

Andrey Nikoleav for Tanto (Performed Cassie Marin)

 

Podcast 12.4
CAS Awards

Sound Mixing Awards: CAS Announces Nominations

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The Cinema Audio Society (CAS) has announced its nominees in seven categories for the 60th Annual CAS Awards, which will recognize Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for 2023. The 60th CAS Awards will be held on Saturday, March 2, at the Beverly Hilton.

As previously announced, the society will honor multi-award-winning sound mixer Joe Earle, CAS (American Horror Story, Six Feet Under), with the CAS Career Achievement Award.

CAS Award nominees represent the contributions of sound mixers, honoring outstanding achievements in the craft of sound mixing for both film and television. Each year CAS members, possessing extensive expertise in the art and science of sound mixing, review hundreds of projects to ensure that nominees truly embody excellence in sound mixing in motion picture and television entertainment.

“2023 posed numerous challenges for the industry, yet we remain deeply grateful for the abundance of contenders and are truly impressed by the skills and talent displayed by the sound community,” says CAS president Peter Kurland. “The upcoming awards promise a celebration of our community’s remarkable efforts, achievements and work. We extend heartfelt congratulations to all the deserving nominees.”

The 60th Annual CAS Award nominees for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing are:

MOTION PICTURES – LIVE ACTION

Barbie  

Production Mixer – Nina Rice
Re-Recording Mixer – Kevin O’Connell CAS

Re-Recording Mixer – Ai-Ling Lee CAS
Scoring Mixer – Peter Cobbin
Scoring Mixer – Kirsty Whalley
ADR Mixer – Bobby Johanson CAS
Foley Mixer – Kevin Schultz

Ferrari

Production Mixer – Lee Orloff CAS

Re-Recording Mixer – Andy Nelson CAS

Re-Recording Mixer – Tony Lamberti
Re-Recording Mixer – Luke Schwarzweller CAS
Scoring Mixer – Andrew Dudman

ADR Mixer – Matthew Wood
Foley Mixer – Giorgi Lekishvili

Killers of the Flower Moon

Production Mixer – Mark Ulano CAS
Re-Recording Mixer – Tom Fleischman CAS
Re-Recording Mixer – Eugene Gearty
Foley Mixer – George A. Lara CAS

Maestro

Production Mixer – Steven A. Morrow CAS
Re-Recording Mixer – Tom Ozanich
Re-Recording Mixer – Dean A. Zupancic
Scoring Mixer – Nick Baxter
ADR Mixer – Bobby Johanson CAS
Foley Mixer – Walter Spencer

Oppenheimer

Production Mixer – Willie D. Burton CAS
Re-Recording Mixer – Gary A. Rizzo CAS
Re-Recording Mixer – Kevin O’Connell CAS
Scoring Mixer – Chris Fogel CAS
Foley Mixer – Tavish Grade
Foley Mixer – Jack Cucci
Foley Mixer – Mikel Parraga-Wills

 

MOTION PICTURES – ANIMATED

Elemental

Original Dialogue Mixer – Vince Caro CAS
Original Dialogue Mixer – Paul McGrath CAS
Re-Recording Mixer – Stephen Urata
Re-Recording Mixer – Ren Klyce
Scoring Mixer – Thomas Vicari CAS
Foley Mixer – Scott Curtis

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Original Dialogue Mixer – Brian Smith

Original Dialogue Mixer – Aaron Hasson
Original Dialogue Mixer – Howard London CAS
Re-Recording Mixer – Michael Semanick
Re-Recording Mixer – Juan Peralta
Scoring Mixer – Sam Okell

Foley Mixer – Randy K. Singer CAS

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

Original Dialogue Mixer – Doc Kane CAS
Re-Recording Mixer – Michael Semanick
Re-Recording Mixer – Mark Mangini
Scoring Mixer – Trent Reznor
Scoring Mixer – Atticus Ross
ADR Mixer – Chris Cirino
Foley Mixer – Chelsea Body

The Boy and the Heron

Original Dialogue & Re-Recording Mixer – Kôji Kasamatsu

The Super Mario Brothers Movie

Original Dialogue Mixer – Carlos Sotolongo CAS
Re-Recording Mixer – Pete Horner
Re-Recording Mixer – Juan Peralta
Scoring Mixer – Casey Stone CAS
ADR Mixer – Doc Kane CAS
Foley Mixer – Richard Durante

 

MOTION PICTURES – DOCUMENTARY

32 Sounds

Production Mixer – Laura Cunningham
Re-Recording Mixer – Mark Mangini
Scoring Mixer – Ben Greenberg
ADR Mixer – Bobby Johanson CAS
Foley Mixer – Blake Collins CAS

American Symphony

Re-Recording Mixer – Tom Paul
Re-Recording Mixer – Tristan Baylis
Foley Mixer – Ryan Collison

Little Richard: I Am Everything

Re-Recording Mixer – Tom Paul

Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie

Re-Recording Mixer – Skip Lievsay CAS
Re-Recording Mixer – Paul Urmson
Re-Recording Mixer – Joel Dougherty
Scoring Mixer – John Michael Caldwell
Foley Mixer – Micah Blaichman

Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour

Production Mixer – Jacob Farron Smith CAS
Re-Recording Mixer – John Ross CAS
Re-Recording Mixer – David Payne
Re-Recording Mixer – Christopher Rowe

 

NON-THEATRICAL MOTION PICTURES OR LIMITED SERIES

All the Light We Cannot See: Ep.4 

Production Mixer – Balazs Varga
Re-Recording Mixer – Mark Paterson
Re-Recording Mixer – Craig Henighan CAS
Scoring Mixer – Nick Wollage
ADR Mixer – Bobby Johanson CAS
Foley Mixer – Peter Persaud CAS

Beef: Ep.9 The Great Fabricator

Production Mixer – Sean O’Malley CAS
Re-Recording Mixer – Penny Harold CAS
Re-Recording Mixer – Andrew Garrett Lange CAS
Foley Mixer – Andrey Starikovskiy

Black Mirror: S6, Ep3. Beyond The Sea

Production Mixer – Richard Miller
Re-Recording Mixer – James Ridgway
Scoring Mixer – Daniel Kresco
ADR Mixer – James Hyde
Foley Mixer – Adam Mendez CAS

Daisy Jones & The Six: Ep. 10 Track 10: Rock n’ Roll Suicide

Production Mixer – Chris Welcker

Re-Recording Mixer – Lindsey Alvarez CAS
Re-Recording Mixer – Mathew Waters CAS
Scoring Mixer – Mike Poole
ADR Mixer – Chris Navarro CAS
Foley Mixer – James B. Howe

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story

Production Mixer – Richard Bullock CAS
Re-Recording Mixer – Tony Solis
Scoring Mixer – Phil McGowan CAS
ADR Mixer – Brian Magrum CAS
Foley Mixer – Erika Koski CAS

 

TELEVISION SERIES – ONE HOUR

Succession: S04 E03 Connor’s Wedding

Production Mixer – Ken Ishii CAS
Re-Recording Mixer – Andy Kris
Re-Recording Mixer – Nicholas Renbeck

Scoring Mixer – Thomas Vicari CAS
ADR Mixer – Mark DeSimone CAS
Foley Mixer – Micah Blaichman

Ted Lasso: S03 E12 So Long, Farewell

Production Mixer – David Lascelles CAS
Re-Recording Mixer – Ryan Kennedy
Re-Recording Mixer – Sean Byrne CAS
Foley Mixer – Jordan McClain

The Crown: S05 E08 Gunpowder

Production Mixer – Chris Ashworth
Re-Recording Mixer – Stuart Hilliker CAS
Re-Recording Mixer – Lee Walpole
Re-Recording Mixer – Martin Jensen
ADR Mixer – Ben Tisdall
Foley Mixer – Anna Wright

The Last Of Us: S01 E01 When You’re Lost In The Darkness 

Production Mixer – Michael Playfair CAS
Re-Recording Mixer – Marc Fishman CAS
Re-Recording Mixer – Kevin Roache CAS
Foley Mixer – Randy Wilson

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel: S05 E06 The Testi-Roastial

Production Mixer – Mathew Price CAS
Re-Recording Mixer – Ron Bochar CAS
Scoring Mixer – Stewart Lerman
Foley Mixer – George A. Lara CAS

 

TELEVISION SERIES – HALF HOUR

Barry: S04 E08 Wow

Production Mixer – Scott Harber CAS
Re-Recording Mixer – Elmo Ponsdomenech CAS
Re-Recording Mixer – Teddy Salas
Scoring Mixer – David Wingo
ADR Mixer – Aaron Hasson
Foley Mixer – Darrin Mann

Only Murders in the Building: S03 E08 Sitzprobe

Production Mixer – Joseph White Jr. CAS
Re-Recording Mixer – Mathew Waters CAS
Re-Recording Mixer – Lindsey Alvarez CAS
Song Mixer – Derik Lee
Scoring Mixer – Alan DeMoss
ProTools Playback Mixer – Derek Pacuk
Foley Mixer – Erika Koski CAS

The Bear: S02 E07 Forks

Production Mixer – Scott D. Smith CAS
Re-Recording Mixer – Steve “Major” Giammaria  CAS
ADR Mixer – Patrick Christensen
Foley Mixer – Ryan Collison

The Mandalorian: S03 E08 The Return

Production Mixer – Shawn Holden
Re-Recording Mixer – Scott R. Lewis CAS
Re-Recording Mixer – Tony Villaflor
Scoring Mixer – Chris Fogel CAS
ADR Mixer – Aaron Hasson
Foley Mixer – Scott Curtis

What We Do in the Shadows: S05 E05 Local News

Production Mixer – Rob Beal CAS

Re-Recording Mixer – Samuel Ejnes CAS

Re-Recording Mixer – Diego Gat CAS
Foley Mixer – Stacey Michaels CAS

TELEVISION NON-FICTION, VARIETY or MUSIC – SERIES or SPECIALS

 100 Foot Wave: S02 E05 Lost at Sea

Re-Recording Mixer – Keith Hodne

Bono & The Edge: A Sort of Homecoming With Dave Letterman

Production Mixer – Karl Merren
Re-Recording Mixer – Brian Riordan CAS
Re-Recording Mixer – Phil DeTolve CAS
Scoring Mixer – Jacknife Lee

Formula 1: Drive to Survive: S05 E09 Over The Limit

Production Mixer – Doug Dredger

Re-Recording Mixer – Steve Speed CAS
Re-Recording Mixer – Nick Fry CAS

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: S08 E31 John Oliver; Broadway Cast of “The Lion King”

Production Mixer – Pierre de Laforcade

FoH Mixer -Tom Herrmann
Monitor Mixer – Al Bonomo
Music Mixer – Harvey Goldberg

Welcome to Wrexham: S02 E06 Ballers

Re-Recording Mixer – Mark Jensen CAS

 

STUDENT RECOGNITION AWARD FINALISTS

Allison Blum, Savannah College of Art and Design

Shubhi Sahni, University of Southern California

Doris (Yushu) Shen, University of Southern California

Eunseo (Bella) So, Savannah College of Art and Design

William Tate, Georgia State University

Tickets will be available from the CAS site on January 15th.

 

HPA Awards

HPA Awards Celebrate Creative Category Winners

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Held at the Television Academy’s Wolf Theatre, the HPA Awards paid tribute to the creative contributions of the post production industry, honoring work in color grading, sound, editing, restoration and visual effects for theatrical features, commercials and episodics. The HPA also presented the HPA Judges’ Award for Creativity and Innovation for the Las Vegas Sphere and recognized the previously announced winners of the Engineering Excellence awards.

To acknowledge the heart, spirit and difficulties of the past year, the evening included an HPA-produced short film, Tribute to Post, saluting the members of the post community. Directed by Clyde Bessey of Origin Point, the short features commentary from many industry mainstays, including Wendy Aylsworth; Jill Bogdanowicz; Mike Brodersen; Larry Chernoff; Nikki Jee; Rob Legato, ASC; Loren Nielsen; Sabrina Plisco, ACE; Leon Silverman; and Mandy Walker, ASC, ACS.

The winners of the 2023 HPA Awards Creative Categories are:

Outstanding Color Grading – Live Action Theatrical Feature

“Barbie”

Yvan Lucas // Company 3

 

“The Fabelmans”

Michael Hatzer // Picture Shop

 

“Asteroid City”

Gareth Spensley // Company 3

 

“Oppenheimer”

Kostas Theodosiou, Kristen Zimmerman // FotoKem

 

“Tár”

Tim Masick // Company 3

 

Outstanding Color Grading – Animated Theatrical Feature

“Elemental”

Susan Brunig // Pixar Animation Studios

 

“The Super Mario Bros. Movie”

Jason Hanel // Company 3

 

“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”

Natasha Leonnet // Picture Shop

 

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem”

Mitch Paulson // Company 3

 

Outstanding Color Grading – Live Action Episode or Non-Theatrical Feature

“Swarm – Stung”

Alastor Pan Arnold // Keep Me Posted

 

“Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty – One Ring Don’t Make a Dynasty”

Walter Volpatto // Company 3

 

“American Gigolo – Pilot”

Shane Harris // Picture Shop

 

“Great Expectations – Episode 2”

Toby Tomkins // Harbor

 

“Wednesday – Wednesday’s Child Is Full of Woe”

Siggy Ferstl// Company 3

 

Outstanding Color Grading – Documentary

“Descendant”

Sam Daley // Light Iron

 

“Bono & The Edge: A Sort of Homecoming with Dave Letterman”

Taylor Black // Apache

 

“Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie”

Stefan Sonnenfeld, Adam Nazarenko // Company 3

 

“Chimp Empire – Paradise”

Blair Wallace // Evolutions Post Production

 

“Shaq – From Shaquille to Shaq”

Taylor Black // Apache

 

Outstanding Color Grading – Commercial

Zara – “Man SS23 Studio Collection”

Tim Masick // Company 3

 

Levi’s – “One Fair Exchange in the Greatest Story Ever Worn”

Sofie Borup // Company 3

 

Expedia – “Wisdom & Obi”

Mark Gethin // Trafik

 

Duracell x Williams Racing – “Scream”

Tyler Roth // Company 3

 

Belvedere – “Daniel Craig”

Matthieu Toullet // Company 3

 

Outstanding Editing – Theatrical Feature

“Barbie”

Nick Houy, ACE

 

“Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One”

HPA AwardsEddie Hamilton, ACE

 

“Oppenheimer”

Jennifer Lame, ACE

 

“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”

Michael Andrews, ACE

 

“Tár”

Monika Willi

 

Outstanding Editing – Episode or Non-Theatrical Feature (30 Minutes and Under)

“The Righteous Gemstones – Burn for Burn, Wound for Wound, Stripe for Stripe”

Justin Bourret, ACE

 

“Barry – it takes a psycho”

Franky Guttman, ACE

 

“What We Do in the Shadows – Local News”

A.J. Dickerson, ACE, Thomas Calderón

 

Barry Editor Ali Greer, ACE, with other winners

“Barry – a nice meal”

Ali Greer, ACE

 

“How To With John Wilson – How To Watch Birds”

Cori Wapnowska

 

Outstanding Editing – Episode or Non-Theatrical Feature (Over 30 Minutes)

“The Last of Us – Endure and Survive”

Timothy A. Good, ACE, Emily Mendez

 

“White House Plumbers – The Beverly Hills Burglary”

Erick Fefferman, Roger Nygard

 

“Succession – With Open Eyes”

Ken Eluto, ACE

 

“The White Lotus – Arrivederci”

John M. Valerio, ACE

 

“White House Plumbers – True Believers”

Grady Cooper, Jon Merchen

 

Outstanding Editing – Documentary

“100 Foot Wave – Lost at Sea”

Alex Keipper, Alex Bayer

 

“A Tree of Life: The Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting”

Eric Schuman

 

“Being Mary Tyler Moore”

Mariah Rehmet

 

“Branson – Episode 2, Atlantic”

Paul Trewartha

HPA Awards

“Moonage Daydream”

Brett Morgen

 

Outstanding Sound – Theatrical Feature 

“Barbie”

Ai-Ling Lee, Kevin O’Connell, Dan Kenyon // Warner Bros. Post Production Services

 

“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio”

Scott Gershin, Chris Richardson, Masanobu ‘Tomi’ Tomita, Andrew Vernon, Dan Gamache // Sound Lab a Keywords Studio

 

“Creed III”

Aaron Glascock, Tom Ozanich, Walter Spencer, Curt Schulkey // Warner Bros. Post Production Services

 

“John Wick: Chapter 4”

Mark Stoeckinger, Andy Koyama, Casey Genton, Alan Rankin, Manfred Banach // Formosa Group

 

“Puss in Boots: The Last Wish”

Jason W. Jennings, Julian Slater, Greg P. Russell, Paul Pirola, Ken McGill, Mia Stewart // Warner Bros. Post Production Services

 

Outstanding Sound – Episode or Non-Theatrical Feature

“Star Trek: Picard – The Last Generation”

Matthew E. Taylor, Michael Schapiro, Todd Grace, Ed Carr III, Ian Shedd // Warner Bros. Post Production Services

 

“The Last of Us – Infected”

Michael Benavente, Marc Fishman, Kevin Roache, Chris Terhune, Chris Battaglia // Formosa Group

 

“Barry – it takes a psycho”

Sean Heissinger, Matthew E. Taylor, John Creed, Rickley Dumm // Warner Bros. Post Production Services

Elmo Ponsdomenech, Teddy Salas // Sony Pictures Entertainment

 

“Wednesday – A Murder of Woes”

Mike Baskerville, Jamie Sulek, John Loranger, Alastair Gray, Dan Sexton // Company 3

 

“Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Hegemony”

Matthew E. Taylor, Michael Schapiro, Todd Grace, Ed Carr III, Sean Heissinger // Warner Bros. Post Production Services

 

Outstanding Sound – Documentary

“32 Sounds”

Mark Mangini, Robert Kellough, Eliza Paley, Joanna Fang, Blake Collins // Formosa Group

 

“A Tree of Life: The Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting”

Daniel Timmons // Harbor Sound

 

“Good Night Oppy”

Mark Mangini, Dave Whitehead, Tim Walston, Dave Bach, Angela Claverie // Formosa Group

 

“If These Walls Could Sing”

George Foulgham, Philip Moroz, Alex Gibson, Tom Verstappen, Miles Sullivan // George Foulgham Soundscapes

 

“Moonage Daydream”

Nina Hartstone, David Giammarco, John Warhurst, Paul Massey // Public Road Productions

 

Outstanding Visual Effects – Live Action Feature

“Avatar: The Way of Water”

Christopher Egden, Nick Epstein, Wayne Stables, Pavani Rao Boddapati, Sergei Nevshupov // Wētā FX

 

“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio”

Aaron Weintraub, Jeffrey Schaper, Cameron Carson, Emma Gorbey, Warren Lawtey // MPC

 

“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3”

Guy Williams, Daniel Macarin, Mike Cozens, Mark Smith, Marvyn Young // Wētā FX

 

“Avatar: The Way of Water”

David Vickery, Lee Briggs, Jan Maroske, Steve Ellis, Miguel Perez-Senent // Industrial Light & Magic

 

“Transformers: Rise of the Beasts”
Matt Aitken, Mike Perry, Aaron Cowan, Kevin Estey, Jong Jin Choi // Wētā FX

 

Outstanding Visual Effects – Live Action Episode or Series Season

“Andor – Season One”
Mohen Leo, Scott Pritchard // Industrial Light & Magic

TJ Falls // Lucasfilm

Joseph Kasparian // Hybride

Jelmer Boskma // Scanline

 

“House of the Dragon – The Heirs of the Dragon”

Angus Bickerton, Nikeah Forde, Mike Bell // MPC
Sven Martin, Mark Spindler // Pixomondo

 

“The Last of Us – Season One”
Simon Jung, Aaron Cowan, David Hampton, Dennis Yoo, Ben Roberts // Wētā FX

 

“The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power – Season One”

Ron Ames, Jason Smith, Jesse Kobayashi, Ryan Tudhope, Sam Scott // Amazon Studios

 

“The Mandalorian – Season Three”
Grady Cofer, Abbigail Keller, Paul Kavanagh, Delio Tramontozzi // Industrial Light & Magic

Bobo Skipper // Important Looking Pirates

 

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects – Episode or Series Season

“Barry – Season Four”
Justin Ball, Laura Hill, Andrew Kalicki, David Lopez, Manuel Guizar // Crafty Apes

“Citadel – Secrets in Night Need Early Rains”
Aladino Debert, Greg Teegarden, James Reid, Mathew Rotman, Viv Jim // Digital Domain

 

“Interview with the Vampire – Is My Very Nature That of a Devil”

Ted Rae, Tavis Larkham, Matthew Harris, Hugo Leveille, J.V. Pike // FuseFX

 

“The Night Agent – Season One”

Grant Miller, Hallana Barbosa, Pierceon Bellemare, Mariia Osanova, Ben Stommes // Ingenuity Studios

 

“The Righteous Gemstones – Season Three”

Bruce Branit, Valeri Pfahning // Rough House

Fred Ruff // Refuge VFX

Ed Bruce // Screen Scene Studios

David Lebensfeld // Ingenuity Studios

 

Outstanding Achievement in Restoration

“Casablanca”

1942

Warner Bros.

 

“Cinderella”

1950

Disney

 

“Cimarron”

1931

Warner Bros.

 

“The Godfather”

1972

Paramount Pictures

 

“Winds of Chance”

1925

First National Pictures and Christopher Gray Post Production

 

As previously announced, winners of the Engineering Excellence Award include Adobe for Adobe Premiere Pro Text-Based Editing, Flanders Scientific for XMP550 and Kino Flo for Mimik 120. StypeLand XR received an Honorable Mention.

 

 

Colour Award Winners Announced at Camerimage

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The 2023 FilmLight Colour Award winners were announced by jury president Lawrence Sher, ASC, at a color ceremony as part of EnergaCamerimage in Poland on November 12. The awards, which are open to colorists on any grading platform, were independently judged by renowned cinematographers, directors and colorists.

“These diversely talented artists – and the inspiring work they helped craft – are a testament to the critical importance of the colorist in the art of filmmaking,” says Sher. “It’s great to see these artists come from across the globe – proving that good work isn’t limited to huge budgets or big shops, but available to everyone with a good eye and refined skills.”

The award for the grading of a theatrical feature went to Yvan Lucas at Company 3 for Barbie. Lucas worked closely with director Greta Gerwig and cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto, ASC, AMC, to create the perfect “Barbie look.” Gerwig wanted the skin tones in BarbieLand to be more pastel and less saturated, but everything else about the shots to be full of those pinks, turquoises and other colors that stand out so much. The look was partially defined by a specific LUT that Lucas and Prieto created to enhance the strong feeling of saturation and push the colors into the BarbieLand space.

“It is like the recognition of a lifetime’s work,” comments Lucas. “It brings me immense joy that color grading is recognized as an essential part in crafting the look of a film. The experience of working on this film with Rodrigo and Greta was one of the most artistically gratifying of my career.”

The award for grading of a TV series/episodic went to freelance colorist Dirk Meier for his work at D-Facto Motion on Season 1 of The Pimp: No F***ing Fairytale. Meier and cinematographer Tim Kuhn found look inspiration in a music video that used documentary footage from a sequence of the 1962 movie, Mondo Cane, shot in the red-light district around the Reeperbahn street. Meier developed a highly textured look with a dark and moody atmosphere. Especially in the HDR version, he worked with the extended range of contrast and wider color palette to create a period feeling with lifted black levels, while ensuring the 1980s neon lights stood out.

“When I first read the list of nominees and their projects, I couldn’t fully grasp how I made it into this group,” says Meier. “And now I’m really grateful and touched that the jury found my work merits this award.”

The award for grading of a commercial went to Tim Masick at Company 3 for his work on Zara Man, SS23. Masick, who also won the commercial category in 2021, worked with director Fabien Baron and DP Philippe Le Sourd to create the winning spot. Masick worked to create a fantasy/dream world where the elements are subtly dramatized – recreating the mood and imagery of Red Desert, Paris, Texas and photographer Todd Hido.

“I am honored that our work has been recognized by the jurors among so much great work from around the world,” comments Masick. “Winning a second time is a great affirmation, but also feels like a challenge to go beyond and push things further.”

The award for the grading of a music video went to freelance colorist Marina Starke for her work on Horra by Mayyas – America’s Got Talent’s 2022 dance group winners. Starke was nominated across three categories this year, making her a five-time nominee of the FilmLight Colour Awards. Horra was directed by the all-female group’s choreographer, Nadim Cherfan, and shot by cinematographer Shadi Chaaban, who Starke worked closely with to create the moody, mysterious and bold aesthetic that they were looking to achieve.

The Spotlight award, which showcases the craft that contributes to the creative impact of a low-budget feature, went to freelance colorist Cem Ozkilicci for his work at Uhoert on Possession. Inspired by Scandinavian romantic and landscape painters, Ozkilicci completed the grade over 10 days, working closely with director Henrik Martin and cinematographer Oskar Dahlsbakken to create a nostalgic look with a unique patina – achieved through a combination of lenses and sharpening techniques in grading.

Emmys: Supervising Sound Editor Talks Reservation Dogs

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Created by Taika Waititi and Sterlin Harjo, Reservation Dogs is a comedy series about four Native American teens growing up on a reservation in Oklahoma. The multi-nominated, multi-award-winning show got an Emmy nod this year for Outstanding Sound Editing for the episode “This Is Where the Plot Thickens.” Supervising sound editor Patrick Hogan shares the nomination with David Beadle, Sonya Lindsay, Michael Sana, Daniel Salas, Amber Funk and Lena Krigen.

Hogan, who has also been Emmy-nominated for shows such as Cobra Kai and American Horror Story along with several miniseries, movies, and specials, has also been nominated and/or won multiple times on the festival circuit. We talked to Hogan about Reservation Dogs sound and what went into the episode under consideration right now.

How would you describe the soundscape of Reservation Dogs? What makes it unique?
The Rez Dogs soundscape is definitely restrained and, I’d say, tasteful. Life on the reservation is different than being in the city. There are geographic and cultural differences, which we try to reflect in the sounds of the show. When we are on the reservation, it isn’t as busy as when we are in a city. There are fewer people — even in a similar location — when compared to how we would fill in the sound in a city scene. We play it sparser; we leave more space between the characters, if you will, which also leaves a little more space, sonically, for smaller sounds to play. We hear a lot of the Foley in the show. In the nominated episode, you can really hear Big’s police uniform and utility belt jingle and jangle as he runs around in the woods, little details like that. Even the sound design moments are usually one or two carefully crafted sounds rather than a large sound-design build.

What direction were you given by the showrunners?
Sterlin is actually pretty hands-off when it comes to the sound. He usually talks more in terms of the story and emotion and gives us the latitude to discover how to accomplish that in the sound. I guess, generally speaking, his main direction is usually keeping it simple and letting the characters and their experiences drive the scene. The sound subtly comments on and reinforce those experiences. But he’s really great at discussing what the intention is in a scene and then giving us some freedom to experiment in the sound. He always lets us know when we’ve gone too far and have to dial it back.

What episode did you submit for Emmy consideration and why? What was it about that episode that you feel made it worthy?
We submitted Episode 208 — “This Is Where the Plot Thickens” — for Emmy consideration. We really love this episode. It is really, really funny and also really touching and puts us inside (almost literally) Big’s head. It was an episode that had several interesting sound moments and was a great example of the “less is more” approach we take with the show.  That’s what we thought would make it worthy — that combination of showcasing our sound editorial abilities while tackling some big moments in very subtle and effective ways, all without being too showy or distracting from the episode.

What was a challenging scene or sequence from that episode?
There is a moment while Big is tripping when birds chirp in the woods, triggering a flashback. The sounds of the birds transform into a police siren. It was a great opportunity to use sounds to inform the audience about what is happening and a great example of how sound can subconsciously affect the audience. I’m not even sure how many people realized they were hearing that. But it’s moments like those that I love in sound design. We spent some time on that scene on the stage, working to make the pitches of the birds match the sirens and manipulating the bird sounds and the sirens so the transformation sounded natural and had a similar pace to the visuals.

It was nice that we had the time on the stage to work through some trial and error to make it work just right. Again, I don’t know that audiences will notice it and appreciate the work that went into it, but it was a little detail that helped the audience experience Big’s drug-induced trip through his memories… and the clarity he gains by re-experiencing those painful memories.

What was an example of a note you were given by the showrunners?
When Big’s third eye opens, the showrunners were very clear that the temp sound wasn’t working — that is needed to both sound more realistic and be transformative as the drugs open up his memories. Your eye doesn’t really make a sound when it opens. But this is very common thing you encounter in sound for film and TV. You need to create a sound for something that doesn’t make sound in real life, and you have to make that sound seem realistic — if something did make a sound, what would it be? And then on top of that, what would it sound like when memories and thoughts that you’ve repressed come flooding back into you?

What tools were used on the show? Anything come in particularly handy?
We always work in Pro Tools. It’s basically the industry standard for sound editing and sound design. I don’t know all the plugins that the sound editors who work on the show use in their systems, but personally, I use Auto-Align Post, Dehumaniser, iZotope Ozone10, iZotope Trash and FabFilter EQ extensively.

What studio did you work out of?
Reservation Dogs sound post was done at Formosa Group, mixing on Stage 5 at Paramount with Joe Earle and Gabe Serrano. I have worked with Joe and the editors on this show for almost 20 years.

What haven’t I asked about Reservation Dogs that’s important?
I think what’s great about Reservation Dogs, beyond its significance as the first TV series with an all-Indigenous creative team, is that it’s both very funny and very touching. And the sound (and music) works really well within that world to help accentuate the funny moments (like the Foley for the stick when Kenny Boy pretends he is holding a rifle) and the sad or emotional moments (the low tension drone bed playing as Big remembers when he failed Cookie, which leads to him feeling responsible for her death). It’s those small details that I think make Reservation Dogs such an amazing show.

Sound is the end of a long journey in bringing a film or TV show to fruition. It starts with the writing, goes through production and direction and the actors’ performances. All of that gets shaped in picture editing, then sound brings in all the final, subtle touches that tie it all together and give it a sense of location and time. And I really think Reservation Dogs is a great example of what happens when all of those components come together and perfectly complement one another.

The other thing I’d mention is the great work our dialogue editors [David Beadle and Sonya Lindsay] do on this show. We shoot very little ADR, and it is entirely filmed on real locations, no soundstages. On top of that, the actors often improvise and try different things in each take, so often we don’t have many takes of a line. The dialogue editors work really hard to clean up the dialogue and make it all work. They use every dialogue editor trick in the book since they can’t rely on getting it clean in ADR or having multiple takes to search through to find a clean take. I’m really amazed at what they are able to accomplish with all those restrictions and how they always deliver clean dialogue tracks to the stage.

Emmys: Editing FX’s Welcome to Wrexham

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Born in Cairo but living in Los Angeles, Mohamed El Manasterly was a DJ before transitioning to editing. His says his knowledge of music serves as a guiding force in his edits, style, and ability to create seamless transitions within his work.

Mohamed El Manasterly

El Manasterly was one of the editors on the docuseries Welcome to Wrexham, which he describes as “a captivating fish out of water story, following Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds as they take on the ownership of Wrexham soccer club.” Beyond its sports backdrop, the series delves into themes of friendship, perseverance, cross-cultural exploration, ambition and the unbreakable bond of comradeship.

The series — which will air Season 2 in September — received six Emmy nominations this year, including one for El Manasterly and his fellow editors. Let’s found out more….

How many editors are on the series and how is it broken up?
Our editing team consisted of four editors: myself, Charles Little II, ACE, Curtis McConnell and Michael Brown. Welcome to Wrexham thrived on a pure collaborative approach, with each of us contributing to every episode. The post team’s planning strategy was truly ingenious. For instance, I might build an episode, only for another editor to finish it, and vice versa. This workflow was instrumental in giving each episode multiple and distinct viewpoints, resulting in a fast evolution of the show’s development.

How early did you get involved on the show, and how early do you get your segments to edit? What’s the average per episode?
I joined the editing process a few months after it began, immediately immersing myself in scene cutting. Our editing team didn’t have a fixed scene quota. Instead, we tackled available scenes, maintaining a continuous and productive pace. At times, I took the lead on a specific episode, while also contributing to scene construction for other episodes or addressing notes. We navigated between episodes, driven by the structure created by our showrunner, John Henion.

With a show that has so much heart and focus on the community, even beyond the team, how did you approach telling a story that would speak to general viewers, not just sports fans?
Having moved to the US from Egypt nine years ago, during my initial four years here, much of the work I undertook revolved around films shot in the Middle East. Producers sought me out for my ability to bridge the cultural gap between the East and West. My approach involved identifying universally shared human traits — such as family, love, hate, struggle, ambition, success and failure — that transcend specific cultures or locations.

In the case of Welcome to Wrexham, although football provides the backdrop, the series derives its essence from the people, their aspirations and their passions. This aspect is what truly resonates and finds relatability across audiences, regardless of their backgrounds.

What direction are you typically given for the edit?
When it comes to editing unscripted content, good planning can only go so far; the true essence and texture of the show are ultimately shaped during the editing process, which unfolds in different stages. We were lucky to have executive producers who had a clear vision for the show’s aesthetic. Additionally, FX, the network behind the series, provided the freedom to explore and experiment.

The workflow was as follows: Showrunner John Henion collaborated with our story producers to outline the structure on paper. Once a rough draft emerged, editors, like myself, joined in to contribute our perspective. Scenes were prepared and then the cutting process began. Each scene’s purpose, tone, mood and role in advancing the overall narrative was always well-defined.

When the first cuts were ready, we would share them with Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds, whose feedback proved instrumental in elevating the show. Drawing from their scripted background, they gave the series a fresh sensibility, introducing nuances that redefined the boundaries of unscripted content.

Was there a particular segment/episode that was challenging? If so, why?
Each episode had its own challenge, but one of the most occurring was the football matches, given the repetitive nature of them. The main challenge revolved around maintaining freshness in our approach to each match and avoiding repetition. The solution emerged in the form of crafting a distinct theme for every episode.

Themes such as legacy, family and history acted as the interpretative lens through which we examined the material. Each episode focused on two or three characters, with the narrative of each match being conveyed from their perspectives. Whether focusing on players, coaches or even fans, the angle was shaped by the character’s perspective. We deliberately started each game in various ways — occasionally by capturing players’ preparations at their homes, sometimes diving into a match midstream when Wrexham was behind, and so on. This approach made every game feel fresh and new.

What system did you use to cut and why? Is there a tool within that system that you use a lot? How did you manage your time?
I use Avid Media Composer because of its robustness and stability. It’s a preferred choice for many major productions due to its reliability and sharing capabilities. Moreover, the software remains highly stable even when handling extensive amounts of footage and managing long-term projects. It supports collaboration among multiple editors on the same project, enabling seamless sharing of bins and enhancing overall workflow efficiency.

While working on Welcome To Wrexham, I operated remotely, which gave me the flexibility to organize my day as I like. I usually wake up at 5am, spend some time meditating and praying, and then start my first work session from 5:30am to 8:30 am. During this time, I can get a lot done without any distractions. After that, I go to the gym from 8:30am to 9:30am, and by 10am, I’m ready for our team morning call. At that point, I’m feeling fresh and have already accomplished quite a bit of work. After the call, I have another editing session from 11am to 1pm. By that time, I’m usually feeling tired, so I take a short 30-minute nap, followed by a 15-minute walk. This helps me recharge for my last editing session of the day.

What was the episode you chose to submit, and what is it about this episode that you think made it worthy of Emmy’s attention?
We selected the season finale episode titled “Do or Die” because we believe it showcases the best editing work. Throughout the season, we’ve been weaving parallel stories involving Rob and Ryan, the fans and the players. In this final episode, we bring all these story arcs to a conclusion during the crucial and defining match of the season. The primary objective of the entire season has been Wrexham’s promotion from the National League, making this match the culmination of the show’s buildup.

This episode took place in a high-stakes, intense game and we interwove moments to conclude the characters’ stories. However, it wasn’t just about wrapping up their stories; it was also about quickly reminding the audience of their individual journeys and providing a satisfying conclusion. This posed significant challenges, as we had to meticulously strike a balance between time spent in the match and moments taken to conclude character arcs. It took numerous iterations to achieve this delicate balance effectively.

Emmys: Editing A Black Lady Sketch Show

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HBO Max’s A Black Lady Sketch Show is an Emmy Award-winning, half-hour sketch comedy show. “It’s written, produced by and starring Black women on,” explains editor Malinda Zehner Guerra. “Robin Thede is the creator and star of the series. Its hilarious world of characters have been brought to life across four seasons by some of the funniest women in comedy including Quinta Brunson, Ashley Nicole Black, Gabrielle Dennis, Skye Townsend, Issa Rae and many more.”

Malinda Zehner Guerra

We reached out to Zehner Guerra, who was nominated for an Emmy Award for editing the show, along with supervising editor Stephanie Filo, ACE, and Taylor Joy Mason, ACE, to find out more.

You have multiple editors on the series. How is it broken up?
The post process for A Black Lady Sketch Show is a little bit different than on other narrative shows, since each sketch is its own standalone world. This season we had three editors — myself, Stephanie Filo and Taylor Joy Mason — and we would each take a new sketch as we finished our last.

Every few days we would be jumping into a completely new world and have to figure out the specific style, music and pacing for each one. It was definitely a challenge, but I think my experience in a wide variety of genres and formats across scripted and unscripted TV and features was an asset. I was already used to switching from a survival show, like Naked & Afraid, to a competition show like RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars and then changing it up again with a thriller independent feature like Confessional. So it was easy to pivot from cutting our Bridgerton-style sketch, “Frock of Shit” one day, to our murder podcast, “Fresh To Def,” and then the hilarious Telenovela, “The Bold and The Cubicle.”

Once all the sketches were shot and cut, we would then work on building the episodes, seeing what sketches made the most sense together.

With so many different stories, you must get to play with a lot of different pacing. How do you find the “funny” or enhance it in the edit?
Robin loves a super-tight edit with hardly any air between lines, so sketches move at a blistering pace. You’re always looking for moments to add reactions or lines from characters off camera that the viewer might not notice on their first watch. That really makes a sketch feel full of life and encourages the people to go back and watch again to pick up on those little things they may have missed the first time. Steph, Taylor and I would often share our cuts with each other while we were working on them to see what jokes were landing and offer suggestions to amp things up. It was a very fun, collaborative process of trying to make each other laugh.

What direction are you typically given for the edit?
The overall direction from Robin was to always push the comedy as much as you can and make the funniest sketch possible. The scripts were so hilarious to start with, but our cast are amazingly talented improvisers, so there was always tons of improv and alternate takes to play with, which gave us plenty of room to make different choices than what was scripted.

My first pass would normally be fairly close to the script, but I’d also have some alts prepared to show. We’d get into a session and start playing around with all the different options and trying out everyone’s ideas and put them together, and the end product was always a new level of hilarity. Robin really loves the post process, so all ideas are welcome, no matter how crazy, because they always lead to an even funnier sketch in the end.

Was there a particular segment/skit that was challenging?
Overall, the biggest challenge with editing comedy, especially A Black Lady Sketch Show where the cast are such amazing improvisers, is having too many amazing jokes to fit into one sketch. Between the script and the improv, you could easily have enough content to fill an entire episode with just one sketch. After you put everything you love into a cut, that’s when the fun starts and you get to roll up your sleeves and get a little ruthless — you start slicing and trimming and you really get to find out what the final product will be. I think that’s when an editor can really shine. When you are able to focus on what is best serving the story, the pacing and the comedy and then get rid of everything else, even if it’s your favorite joke.

What episode did you submit for the Emmys? What was it about that episode that stuck out?
We chose Episode 4, “My Love Language is Words of Defamation” because it really highlights the range of sketches we had this season. It has a great mix of genres, including our Monty Python-inspired “Gladys and the Knights of the Round Table.” It opens with “Fresh to Def,” our murder podcast sketch, which was across the board a team favorite. It also features a few of our fan-favorite sketches and characters, including a return to the “Black Lady Courtroom,” which has become such a signature sketch for the series and also guest stars Issa Rae and Yvette Nicole Brown.

What system did you use to cut and why? Is there a tool within that system that you use a lot?
We cut the show on Avid Media Composer. I think one of my most used tools in Avid is the AniMatte for changing the timing of things in a two-shot. A lot of times you’ll have a great reaction from one character, but the other person in the frame is already talking or moving in a way that doesn’t match their coverage. AniMatte allows you to comp in a different part of the footage and make it all flow seamlessly. It’s a great way to really fine tune the picture.

How did you manage your time?
Time management is crucial in post and can be really hard when you’re working on several sketches in different phases at the same time. On A Black Lady Sketch Show our post team, led by post producer Gwyn Martin-Morris, was integral in keeping us on track. She had the best system of spreadsheets for tracking all the sketches, and daily run-downs of what sketch we were working on or if we were working with the director or producers on a cut.

And, of course, our rock star AEs who kept the project organized and would help us find music or with temp VFX. That took the guesswork out of what was happening day to day and really let us focus on editing.

How do you manage producer’s expectations with reality/what can really be done?
So much of making a film or TV show is about experimenting and collaboration, and a cut is constantly evolving. When you get notes, or are working with the director or producers, the best mindset to have is, “let’s try it.” Sometimes I’ll read a note and my initial reaction will be “that won’t work,” or “we don’t have that footage,” but I’m going to do my best to see if I can address it.

Once I start playing around or looking at ways to repurpose footage to address the note, a path often appears to make it happen. It won’t always totally work, and we might decide to not use it, but sometimes it leads to an even better idea in the end. The more you try things out and come back with options or solutions to the problem presented, the more trust your director or showrunner will have that if you do come back and say something can’t be done, then it can’t, and you move on to the next note. Those moments of experimentation can really lead to some magical moments, but you would not have found them if you didn’t give it a try.

Emmys: The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Sound Editor

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Damian Del Borrello, MPSE, is a New Zealand-based sound designer with more than 15 years of experience crafting soundscapes for TV and film. Most recently, he served as the supervising sound editor of Amazon Studios’ The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, a prequel to the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit film franchises.

Del Borrello received his first Emmy nomination for sound editing on the episode, “Udûn.” We reached out to him to find out more.

Damian Del Borrello

What direction were you given for the soundtrack of the series?
The word that kept coming up in conversation was “cinematic.” The producers really wanted us to treat Rings of Power like a series of feature films, rather than a TV show. There was a real desire by the showrunners to bring something new to Tolkien’s Middle Earth, which was very exciting but also quite daunting. The original films were touchstone moments in cinema and redefined what fantasy sounded like on the big screen. Personally, I had been working in Wellington with some of the sound editors who worked on those original films, so the sense of responsibility was immense.

How would you describe the show’s sound?
The original LOTR films are often described as “fantasy documentary style” sound, which I think means “realistic.” Even though there are fantastical creatures and worlds, the level of detail is very high, and the quality of the sounds themselves is organic. We didn’t use synthetic sources for things like magic and creatures, almost everything came from real word recordings. The result was an organic sounding, yet highly detailed track.

The sound team

Can you describe your workflow on the series?
Robby [Robert Stambler, MPSE, co-supervising sound editor] and I were brought on at the start of principal photography and began building our libraries straight away. Picture editorial were cutting as soon as the first rushes came from location. For the first year or so, we would receive sequence cuts from editorial, which we would then flesh out and export stems for the editors to lay into the timeline – this meant they could work with high quality sounds as the cuts continued to evolve.

As we moved into the second year, full episodes started taking shape, and we would then assemble our sequence sessions into master sessions – each episode was split into four reels.

The last six months of the schedule had us mixing in Auckland New Zealand, which involved Lindsey Alvarez and Beau Borders, who both did an amazing job.

Any particular scene stand out as challenging and if so, why?
One of my favorite scenes is the orc battle in episode 6 ‘Udun’. The way in which music, sound effects and dialogue all weave in through the chaotic action is so satisfying. We never miss an emotional beat, sword slash, or pained scream – the clarity in the sonic storytelling is just awesome!

How closely did you work with the re-recording mixers on this one? How did that relationship work?
I was constantly on and off the mix stage, reviewing one episode with the sound team, reviewing another episode remotely with the showrunners and prepping new episodes to start on the stage at a later time. Supervisor/re-recording mixer collaboration is crucial in achieving a great soundtrack and also in having fun while at work — my relationship with Lindsey and Beau was fantastic; we all became close friends and would spend most weekends hanging out as well!

What tools did you call on for this show?
All sound editorial, both effects and dialogue, was done in Pro Tools. With the constantly evolving cut, it was important for us to be able to update our editing and premixing within a single session so all the details could be carried forward to the mix.

A key workflow tool was Matchbox by Cargo Cult. The ability to compare two AAFs/QuickTime video files/audio guide tracks and accurately find matches/differences meant everything. Our first assistant sound editor, Andrew Moore, was the co-developer of Matchbox. His ability to build detailed change notes and reconform files was amazing and kept us all on track when updates across multiple episodes came up.

Why do you think this particular episode was worthy of a nomination?
One word – “scale.” In my opinion, this is one of the most cinematic episodes on a streaming platform to date. The sheer volume of work to create the sounds for all the action, VFX and environmental components in the episode is monumental. Then, to have quiet, subjective moments as well as crystal-clear action sequences with massive amounts of spectacle and impact, makes this episode particularly special.

 

 

Emmys: Wednesday‘s VFX Supervisor and Producer

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The Netflix series Wednesday is a modern take on the class TV show, The Addams Family. It stars Jenna Ortega and Wednesday Addams, who while attending Nevermore Academy, attempts to master her emerging psychic ability, stop a killing spree and solve the mystery that embroiled her parents 25 years ago. Setting the series’ tone, the first four episodes were directed by filmmaker Tim Burton.

Wednesday

Tom Turnbull

Wednesday was nominated for 12 Emmy Awards, including one for Burton for direction and one for visual effects. VFX supervisor Tom Turnbull and VFX producer Kent Johnson were just two of the team who have been recognized for their work. We spoke to them about the show and its visual effects.

How many shots did each episode have, typically? 
Kent Johnson: They ranged, per episode, from as many as 311 to as little as 97 with an average of 184 shots per episode.

Tom Turnbull: Yes. Roughly 300 shots per episode, which is not super high, but working within a budget and schedule we deliberately focused our resources on shots that count rather than shot count. If a shot did not move the story forward, support the characters or provide emotional impact we did not do it.

What are some of the key VFX in the series?
Turnbull: Thing was the effect that was most important and that most interested me going in. I knew, done right, Thing would be incredibly popular and critical to the character of Wednesday. He needed to be as perfect as we could make him.

Kent Johnson

Nevermore Academy was also a critical, only partially existing as a location, it needed to be created digitally such that is would be accepted as fully real. The creature work, of course, was key and very tricky to pull off on a television budget and schedule.   

Johnson: I agree. The most prominent VFX in the series was likely Thing, the disembodied hand who was usually a 2D effect removing the actor but often a completely 3D CG character. Other effects include set extensions of a castle in the Carpathian mountains of Romania to make it into Nevermore Academy, the CG creatures Hyde Monster, Enid Werewolf, piranhas, Kent the siren/merman and spectacular particle effects in the appearance and destruction of the villain Crackstone.

Did you use virtual production or real-time VFX?
Turnbull: We did not entertain real-time VFX on the show. There was a strong feeling that we needed to ground the look of the show in real-world locations and filmmaking, and that virtual production would not be in keeping with our aesthetic. We did consider virtual production for some driving sequences, but logistically during the height of the pandemic, it was very difficult to orchestrate from Romania. We did use real-time rendering for Nevermore previs with Unreal, allowing us to explore its layout and design and to quickly design shots.

How many different vendors do you use, and what is the turnaround time like? Is it like a traditional television schedule or do you have more time?
Turnbull: There were four main vendors who worked on the complex hero effects and about six or seven secondary vendors who provided support. One of the great things about working with the Netflix model of releasing an entire season on one day is that it allows time to really work the material for early episodes. There is less pressure on hitting a date and some flexibility of dropping in upgraded effects after the mix and color are complete.

Episodes 101 and 102 effectively had eight months to complete, which you would never get on a traditional TV schedule.  This pays dividends in developing looks and procedures that can be applied to later episodes that have a much shorter delivery.   I hope never to see a TV schedule again.  The streaming model provides better creative opportunities.

Johnson: In the end, we relied on 11 different VFX houses. The delivery schedule varied wildly. Some of the more complex sequences took as much as five months from turnover to final delivery while simpler effects were knocked out in days or weeks. Although the turnovers and deliveries were highly fluid, we gave each episode a VFX production schedule of about 100 days in our planning of post.

What about the pipeline? Can you describe it?
Turnbull: On the production side we managed our workflow with Filmmaker databases and spreadsheets. We took the approach that we needed to provide post with as much data and reference as possible, scanning sets, performers and props along with a vast number of digital stills. Managing that much data is a task unto itself. During post we kept a shadow edit on Resolve to manage and assess shot work in context.

Production shot on an ARRI Alexa LF with Signature primes.

Johnson: When we had a locked edit, the editorial department would provide the vendor a QuickTime of the VFX shots in context as a reference. They would then order EXRs of the relevant frames plus 24 frame handles from the post facility using an automated process. The EXRs are posted to the specific vendor’s Aspera accounts for them to download. When the visual effects are approved as final by all of the stakeholders, the final EXRs are then sent from the vendors to the colorist for final grading.

What were the biggest challenges this season? 
Turnbull: To me, the biggest challenge of the season was the sheer volume and variety of the VFX work required. I had worked with Miles and Al before and was familiar with the density and scope of what they put down on the page. It was common to get to page 10 of a script and already be well over what would be considered normal for episodic, both for plot and visual effects. There was no singular effect that I did not have confidence in delivering, it was the number of different effects necessary to tell the story.

There were very few days where VFX was not on-set doing some kind of major effect. It made for a very high-energy, dynamic filming situation, which fortunately, I enjoy. We put a lot of effort into managing the volume of work and in collaboration with Tim and the showrunners, Miles and Al, managed to refine it to its essence. If we had not done that we would have been significantly over budget and the show would have suffered for it.  Less is more as they say.

Johnson: Nevermore Academy was a complex CG asset that required a great deal of time to design, redesign, adapt, model and tweak from shot to shot. The 3D CG Hyde monster was a new creature from the mind of Tim Burton. It required a few different concept artists approaching it from different artistic sensibilities to land on Tim’s vision and then a great deal of time to make such an outlandish creature appear photoreal in both appearance and movement.

 

What were the tools that you used, and why did you choose them for this project? 
Johnson: As the VFX producer, the tools that I personally used were Adobe Acrobat for scripts, Adobe Photoshop to sketch on and annotate tech scout stills, Microsoft Excel and FileMaker Pro for budgeting, DaVinci Resolve to edit Thing’s rehearsals and Adobe’s Frame.io to view previsualizations of virtual drone shots around Nevermore Academy. I’m very pleased that Tim Burton chose to use a physical miniature of the Addams Family house for a flashback where Wednesday buries her deceased pet scorpion in the family’s pet cemetery. Our vendors used Nuke, Maya, ZBrush, Houdini, Adobe After Effects and other software tools.

What was it about this particular episode that made it Emmy consideration worthy? 
Turnbull: Variety. Episode 108 has a bit of everything in it, Thing, Nevermore, Hyde and Enid Werewolf, along with a host of new effects surrounding Crackstone’s incarnation and demise. It also features complex creature work, including transformations, much more than any of the previous episodes.

We were also under considerable time pressure to wrap principal photography, and it was a minor miracle that we managed to get it in the can. A lot of the visual effects work was, as a result, created entirely in post. No one within the Academy voting membership will ever know or appreciate the team effort that went into that, but I do. The biggest achievements are often the ones that are not noticeable.

Johnson: The episode submitted was the Season 1 finale. With almost 300 shots, it showcased all the best VFX of Wednesday, including Thing, Nevermore Academy, the fight between two fully CG creatures of the Hyde Monster and Enid Werewolf. The battle between Wednesday and her nemesis, the pilgrim Crackstone, brought back from the dead and ultimately destroyed with complex dynamic particle effects and finally the poetic defeat of Christina Ricci’s character by a swarm of animated bees controlled by telekinesis.