The Oscars are back. Every year, it is night of celebration, celebrity-filled red carpets, well-tailored suits, glamorous dresses, and ... confusion. No, we're not talking envelopes. We're talking sound. Specifically: what the hell is the difference between Sound Mixing and Sound Editing? Yes, if you didn't know, there are several sound categories at the Academy Awards. Sound Editing and Sound Mixing are potentially the most confusing and there's a big difference between the two. And unless you're an audiophile or someone who can name the audio technicians on every theatrical release of the year (if this is you, I'm so sorry) then you're probably clueless as to what that difference is. But look no further. We've got you covered, all with the help of our good old friend, Baby Driver. Sound Editing essentially covers all the sounds that are recorded and will be added into the film, like the sounds of a creaky door, or the squeaks of basketball shoes changing direction on a gym floor. It's a bit more complicated than just holding a microphone up to a car engine revving, though. A lot of sounds are recorded on set, but some are done after the fact (think of all those fictitious sounds in Marvel movies). All of those sounds are created to build the natural, holistic sound of the scene. For the sake of clarity, let's revisit that opening scene of Baby Driver, which is conveniently nominated for an Oscar in both Sound Editing and Sound Mixing at this year's Academy Awards. Notice during the bank scene at 1:46, how the muffled dialogue and gunshots are audible through the glass windows. How you can hear the bank alarm, the engine revving, the gears shifting, the footsteps, the release of the emergency break, the gripping of the steering wheel, the sound of the car doors opening, and the screeching of the tires all in concert. These sounds are either recorded during filming or separately and are used to highlight the natural, ambient noise of the environment. Another good example is Blade Runner 2049. Sound editor Mark Mangini, who's nominated for his work on the film this year says he recorded, created and designed more than 3,000 unique sounds to bring the fictional world to life. The sound editor creates the sounds for everything the audience hears, and the best way to understand the art of sound editing is to watch the film on mute, he said. "This is how we receive these scenes, with no sound," Mangini said. "Everything you hear, no matter how small, from the tiniest buzz of an irradiated bee to the booms of massive waves crashing at the sea wall, has been recorded, designed, edited and mixed to create a world that doesn’t exist." “Baby Driver,” Julian Slater“Blade Runner 2049,” Mark Mangini, Theo Green“Dunkirk,” Alex Gibson, Richard King“The Shape of Water,” Nathan Robitaille, Nelson Ferreira“Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” Ren Klyce, Matthew Wood Now let's revisit this scene again. But this time, pay attention to the very beginning. As Ansel Elgort flips through songs on his iPod. The first full minute of this clip is a great example of sound mixing. How the music queues up with the clicking of the iPod, how it sounds like a background track, but then is later revealed that it's the song that the character is listening to in his headphones. Notice how he perfectly mouths the lyrics, dances to the beat. All of this is done after the movie is filmed, where sound is mixedin with the ambient noise of the scene and the dialogue. It's more than just adding music to video. As in this scene, it's all about using music (making sure that each individual noise is at the right level) as an element of the movie. Theo Green, a sound editor also nominated for his work onBlade Runner 2049, said one helpful distinction to know is that sound mixers used to be called "balance engineers." "So that maybe explains both what the production sound mixer is doing — balancing levels between clip-on mics and overhead boom mics for instance — and also that the re-recording mixers are helping to balance the levels of music, dialog and effects," Green said. "That word 'balance' explains what mixers do better than 'mixing' I think. Finding that balance is a fine art." Think of it this way. There are tons of different sounds created and recorded for the film, that's sound editing, then all those sounds are taken together and mixed to create the track for the whole movie. Put simply, that's the difference between the two. Films are often nominated in both categories, but they don't always win both. “Baby Driver,” Mary H. Ellis, Julian Slater, Tim Cavagin“Blade Runner 2049,” Mac Ruth, Ron Bartlett, Doug Hemphill“Dunkirk,” Mark Weingarten, Gregg Landaker, Gary A. Rizzo“The Shape of Water,” Glen Gauthier, Christian Cooke, Brad Zoern“Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” Stuart Wilson, Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick TopicsOscarsSound Editing
This year's nominees:
Sound Mixing
This year's nominees:
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