Another week another round of scatter shots. The Golden Globes came and went silently, Dario Marianelli’s work on “Atonement” won him best original score while Eddie Vedder nabbed a best orignial song globe for “Guarranteed” from “In to the Wild”. I didn’t post about “Atonement” so I was happy to find Q and A with Marianelli from November. I really dug the typewriter he incorporated within the score. Stay tuned for the BAFTA nods tomorrow. ...

As the Oscar hype machine keeps rollin’ I am glad to see coverage on almost all the nominees. Though its hard to keep up with all of it, so if I miss anything of note, please feel free to email me links! (David Giammarco) THE WATER HORSE Has two videos covering James Newton Howard’s work on the film that I missed. Tracking at Abbey Road. Collaborating with “The Chieftains”. THE WELLAND TRIBUNE ...

December’s issue of Mix Magazine has a great piece on “The Golden Compass” sound supervisor Glenn Freemantle. Its Available HERE. Data preservation for the cinematography community.

I want to thank sound supervisor and re-recording mixerSkip Lievsay for taking time for this Q and A! FSD: It’s hard to imagine NYC without the specific sound staples like endless car honks and city drone that we’ve come to expect as the local sound. How was the landscape’s sound perceived after the plague hits? SL: During the research, Franics created a specific soundscape for the film. As you say, removing the city from the city - cars and people, changes the sound of the city completely. Aside from the physical structures, the research shows that when the electricity goes off the city rapidly looses much of what we think of as city and reverts back to nature. ...

Continuing the coverage of potential Oscar nods, Variety shifted their gaze over to the Best Score and Song categories, HERE. I especially dig the piece, “Composers lower film score volume”, mentioning among others, composer Carter Burwell’s polarized efforts on “No Country for Old Men” and “Before the Devil Knows your Dead.” Data preservation for the cinematography community.

Dewey Cox unwrapped a holiday treat this weekend stuffing our stockings with his own brand of top 40 hits. Making all those songs fill out the theaters for “Walk Hard” is re-recording music mixer Bill Benton. I wanted to thank him for taking the time for this Q and A, he wanted to… “First and foremost, tell you this show was one of the most enjoyable times I’ve had mixing. Everyone on the crew from the director on down was really passionate about the project, plus we all had a lot of fun together.”- Bill Benton. ...

I just wanted to thank Production Sound Mixer William Sarokinfor taking time for this Q and A. FSD: I read recently that Ridley Scott really shot from the hip on this one: fast moving, quick set ups, etc. How does this type of shoot effect the sound department, especially on a show that is set in such an aural jungle like NYC? WS: Ridley is a master at capturing every bit of energy there is in a scene. Nothing (well… except for thousands of feet of unused film…) goes to waste. As much as possible he would use multiple cameras in a scene. Often cameras would be hidden in the shot. He’d have set dressing find a piece of furniture or a car (or even a potted plant) to hide a camera and crew. And just in case, he’d often dress the camera operators in period wardrobe. Ridley is always thinking and looking for opportunities, so if he sets up a shot with 3 cameras looking in one direction, just before we’re about to shoot he might set up a 4th (or 5th or more) looking in the opposite direction. Every department had to be on their toes. At first I thought sound was the only dept that was out of the loop. I assumed the Director of Photography had planned all the alternative shots in advance with his gaffer and key grip, but eventually I realized we were all in the same boat. ...

Extra, extra, the MPSE sound show is back! As hinted a few weeks earlier, here in Los Angeles on Nov. 5th, 2007, a sound event featuring editorial crew members (and maybe other craftsmen) of “Transformers” is being put on by the Motion Picture Sound Editors. Though my favorite transformer Soundwave didn’t make it into the film, I am excited that the MPSE is putting on what seems to be a very awesome night! Please note that this press release is very “hot off the presses”, so there is not going to be any info on either the American Cinematheque or MPSE websites as of yet. You heard it, er, read it here first! ...

I want to thank supervising sound editor Craig Henighan for doing this Q and A. FSD: Material like “Dark is Rising” allows for creation of sounds no one has ever heard before. What are some of your favorite creations in the film? Some of my favorites are the sounds we created for the Rooks (crows), which were a combination of different species of crows, mixed with female screams. We had to create different layers of intensity to give them somewhere to build to, but not be too scary since the movie is PG. There are some pretty intense scenes in this film, and with music and sound in the mix it added another dimension of intensity that we had to be conscience of. A “less is more” approach was taken after we did a first pass. We all agreed that it sounded great but it would be way too intense for a PG rating. Chuck Michael and Ai Ling Leewere also in charge of coming up with great sounds for everything from possessed horses, to houses that turn to ice then melt and get swallowed up by giant flocks of Rooks that turn into a huge tidal wave of what the director called “The Apocalypse”, which is what the title “Dark is Rising” refers to. Fun stuff to create. ...

“3:10 to Yuma” saunters into theaters September 7th. Donald Sylvester, who supervised director James Mangold’s last effort “Walk the Line,” dueled with the sound editorial. Sylvester, a sound editing renaissance man has cut everything from foley to ADR to dialog to effects during his career. Re-recording mixers Paul Massey and David Giammarco came out, faders blazing on FOX’s John Ford dubbing stage. Another “Walk the Line” alum, Massey is fresh off this May’s “Pirates of the Caribean” sequel while Giammarco mixed New Line’s “The Last Mimzy” earlier this year. Jim Stuebe was deputized to mix the production sound. Stuebe has production mixed Wes Craven’s last few films and shot sound on Ben Affleck’s directorial debut “Gone Baby Gone.” Composer Marco Beltram, another Wes Craven frequenter, scored “3:10 to Yuma” at Abbey Road in London. Beltram has already had a big summer composing for June’s “Live Free or Die Hard.” ...