Do you — or Oscar voters — know the difference between Sound Editing and Sound Mixing?
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This morning I returned to familiar conversational territory when a colleague in the office raised the question of the Oscars’ Sound Editing and Sound Mixing categories. Particularly a) whether there is any real difference between them and b) whether anybody can explain it. Before you read any further, assume there is a difference and have a shot at answering. Can you explain what separates the two awards?
The answer to the initial question is of course yes, yes and yes. There is a real difference between Sound Editing and Sound Mixing and it can be explained in a fairly straight forward manner. Sound Editing is the creation of an audio landscape; the things you hear made up from scratch. Sound Mixing is how the already made sounds are fitted and balanced. I remember reading a writer ambitiously describe the difference with relation to other jobs on the set. Audio Editing in a sense is like direction; Audio Mixing like cinematography.
Now that we’ve established there is a difference, and an easy way to explain it, there’s a third — and just as important — question: do Oscar voters actually understand the difference themselves?
Without interviewing each member of the Academy it is obviously impossible to generate a definitive answer. However, taking a broad look at past data can be useful to at least form a general impression. For example if, over a significant period of time — say, the last 25 years — the Academy overwhelmingly selected the same film to win in both sound categories, the insinuation would be that they were inclined to group the categories as one and the same.
It didn’t take much researching to discover that, over the last five Academy Awards, there are four instances in which the same film has won Best Sound Mixing and Best Sound Editing — a disconcerting preliminary finding. However, the numbers rolled out into a more encouraging set of results. Over ten years that number is five and over the last 25 years it reaches 11. Unsurprisingly, films heavy in action and/or spectacle (i.e. Inception, The Hurt Locker, The Matrix, The Bourne Ultimatum) tend to be the ones that win dual audio awards.
Eleven gongs out of 25 years proves that collectively the Academy are not judging the awards on audio autopilot and, at the very least, are separating the categories mentally. For those who want to geek out, below I’ve pasted the Sound Editing/Mixing Oscar results for the last quarter century.
2012
Best Sound Editing
Hugo
Best Sound Mixing
Hugo
2011
Best Sound Editing
Inception
Best Sound Mixing
Inception
2010
Best Sound Editing
The Hurt Locker
Best Sound Mixing
The Hurt Locker
2009
Best Sound Editing
The Dark Knight
Best Sound Mixing
Slumdog Millionaire
2008
Best Sound Editing
The Bourne Ultimatum
Best Sound Mixing
The Bourne Ultimatum
2007
Best Sound Editing
Letters from Iwo Jima
Best Sound Mixing
Dreamgirls
2006
Best Sound Editing
King Kong
Best Sound Mixing
King Kong
2005
Best Sound Editing
The incredibles
Best Sound Mixing
Ray
2004
Best Sound Editing
Master and Commander
Best Sound Mixing
Return of the King
2003
Best Sound Editing
The Two Towers
Best Sound Mixing
Chicago
2002
Best Sound Editing
Pearl Harbour
Best Sound Mixing
Black Hawk Down
2001
Best Sound Editing
U-571
Best Sound Mixing
Gladiator
2000
Best Sound Editing
The Matrix
Best Sound Mixing
The Matrix
1999
Best Sound Editing
Saving Private Ryan
Best Sound Mixing
Saving Private Ryan
1998
Best Sound Editing
Titanic
Best Sound Mixing
Titanic
1997
Best Sound Editing
The Ghost and the Darknesss
Best Sound Mixing
The English Patient
1996
Best Sound Editing
Braveheart
Best Sound Mixing
Apollo 13
1995
Best Sound Editing
Speed
Best Sound Mixing
Speed
1994
Best Sound Editing
Jurassic Park
Best Sound Mixing
Jurassic Park
1993
Best Sound Editing
Brad Stoker’s Dracula
Best Sound Mixing
The Last of the Mohicans
1992
Best Sound Editing
Terminator 2
Best Sound Mixing
Terminator 2
1991
Best Sound Editing
The Hunt for Red October
Best Sound Mixing
Dances with Wolves
1990
Best Sound Editing
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Best Sound Mixing
Glory
1989
Best Sound Editing
Who Framed Roger Robbit
Best Sound Mixing
Bird
1988
Best Sound Editing
Robo Cop
Best Sound Mixing
The Last Emperor
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I don’t know much about the Oscar process, but are these two awards voted by every academy member, or only by those in the sound branch? I imagine sound engineers would very much know the subtle differences between sound mixing and sound editing.
Great question! Here’s a 4th one: is the difference really worth bothering with? Couldn’t the same distinction be made on other areas like costume e.g. one for the design of the various costumes and another for how they’re used in the film?
“Sound Editing is the creation of an audio landscape; the things you hear made up from scratch. Sound Mixing is how the already made sounds are fitted and balanced. I remember reading a writer ambitiously describe the difference with relation to other jobs on the set. Audio Editing in a sense is like direction; Audio Mixing like cinematography”
Who wrote that? Not so much ambitious as erroneous.
Based on (admittedly mostly pre-digital) experience, in Australian practice at least, the recordist gets as much as possible on location, then after the picture editors cutting copy is handed over and the sound editors including effects dialogue and music then collate fabricate and assemble and mix down to, say 32 tracks (?) of sound for each frame – which the sound mixer then prioritises, sweetens and assigns a place to in stereophonic space and sound pressure level, working with the director to achieve the desired effects and the suspension of disbelief.
That’s basic – I could go on but I’ m sure there wil be others
Steven
No other pale deaf respondents?
To go on then; the mixer might more accurately be compared to a producer of a band or artist’s studio recording.
While a Mixer’s work might be apparent, IMHO, all an Editor’s work is discrete; if done properly everything just sounds like it looks.
( should note the Recordist now is likely to be mixing from a whole bunch of radio microphones, not just one or two booms)
No I don’t think that’s accurate…the mixer is simply to person who balances and brings the music score and sound effect / dialog tracks together in a cohesive way.
The equivalent of the ‘music producer’ role is still the films director since they make the decisions about what stays and goes in the audio track.
Decisions based on what they are offered at that stage of their baby’s gestation by a person who mixes for a living … based on their final mix experience and auteur’s concept of the finished production – versus people who make sound for a living?
Beg to differ.
Yeh, as in, the director makes that choice.
Differ all you like, it’s still the director’s call, except (obviously) where he leaves it to the people who make sound ‘for a living’
like me.
Sorry, was thinking of the perennial student director ( be it 2nd, 3rd or post-grad year) , that would rock up to their mix with armfuls of trims having pretty much forgotten about cutting sound … maybe that doesn’t happen anymore.
We should compare cv.s?
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