2017 Oscars Summary – Best Sound Mixing

I posted earlier this week with a summary of the Best Sound Editing category and finish up sound with Best Sound Mixing. The nominees in this category included Baby Driver, Blade Runner 2049, Dunkirk, The Shape of Water, and Star Wars: The Last Jedi. The award went to Gregg Landaker, Gary A. Rizzo, and Mark Weingarten for Dunkirk.

If you need a refresher on what the difference between Sound Editing and Sound Mixing is, check out this article from mic.com.

1. Baby Driver
As I previewed earlier this week in my Best Sound Editing post, there was going to be a bit of a shake-up in the order of the five films that shared nominations for both sound categories. While Baby Driver came in fifth in my list for Sound Editing.

If you've seen this film, you know that the music Baby listens to is an integral part of the film and as such often fades in to take over the rest of the conversation and surrounding action/sound effects. I think this is an incredibly insightful way of using the music and mixing it in to effectively tell the story which brings it to the top of the category for me.

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2. Star Wars: The Last Jedi
I elevated Star Wars in this category as well for a similar reason as Baby Driver in that there are a number of instances and one in particular where I found the lack of sound drove the story much more than any sound inserted at those points ever could.

A number of times throughout this film, the characters of Rey and Kylo Ren are communing between one another through the Force though neither seems to know why or how. Each time, all other external sound is blocked out or extremely muffled including the voice of Rey's mentor, Luke Skywalker himself. Additionally, near the end of the film (**spoiler alert**) Admiral Holdo sets a course for the remaining resistance space cruiser that will cause it to travel through hyperspace in a pattern that crisscrosses the fleet of ships following it, effectively destroying their pursuers. While some filmmakers might choose to fill the room with enormous explosions of giant spaceships, this team decided to drop all music, sound effects, and dialog to nothing and allow the visuals on screen to speak for themselves. This single scene almost vaulted this to first place for me but not quite.

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3. Dunkirk
Deciding on third and fourth place in this category for me was very difficult and it could basically be a coin flip. Dunkirk was very strong from a sound perspective and as I mentioned the other day delivered sounds that were well mixed and served to put you in the shoes of the characters.

As with Star Wars, there were times where things dropped out of the mix very effectively, but I can't recall one specific moment where this jumped out to me above all others. This may be one I need to re-watch in the future and doing so may alter my perception so I will hold any additional judgement until that time.

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4. Blade Runner 2049
Again, this film could easily have been my #3 choice for this category, but there were not the same audio "wow" moments that I saw visually and cinematographically. Perhaps that is what is a bit disappointing since I wanted to love the sound of the film, but was overwhelmed by the visuals to the point of forgetting about the sound.

The other element that drops this film below Star Wars for sure is that there were no moments that could have called for sound but didn't. There are plenty of quiet moments in the film, but none where I thought, "that would have been an obvious place for sound, but I'm glad they kept it quiet."

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5. The Shape of Water
I am very glad this film did not win for this category. There were definitely areas where the mix was strong in this film, but not to the level of some of the other nominees. Like Blade Runner 2049, the visuals took so much attention throughout that it was often difficult to pay attention to the sound.

I think it should have been a strong contender for the Best Sound Editing category, but definitely see this as the least of the nominees from the mix perspective.

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