The LAMB Devours The Oscars: Sound Mixing

by Lucien · February 25, 2014 · LAMB Devours the Oscars · No Comments

Editor’s note: This is part of a 37-part series dissecting the 86th Academy Awards, brought to you by the Large Association of Movie Blogs and its assorted members. Nearly every day leading up to the Oscars, at least one new post written by a different LAMB will be published, each covering a different category of the Oscars. Also, every Best Picture and Best Director nominee gets its own post. To read the other posts regarding this event, please click here. Thank you, and enjoy!

SOUND MIXING

BY BUZZHUB

A few weeks ago I wrote about the Sound Editing nominees at the Oscars, and- frankly- I can’t really tell you what the Sound Mixing nominations did differently. The presence of Inside Llewyn Davis would suggest that Mixing involves music, but who really knows for sure?

Since I must attempt to say something or other about each of the Sound Mixing nominations, I will rate each film based on how much of a headache the sound in it gave me when I was watching it.

Captain Phillips

Pirates take over a ship and kidnap Tom Hanks! Loud noises! Shooting! Explosions! Water lapping! Aggressive score!

Headache rating: 8/10

Gravity

A film that begins with an increasingly loud drone and ends with extremely loud choral wailing.

Headache rating: 10/10

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

The sound of the Mirkwood spiders sent this arachnophobe into spirals of terror, whilst the rest of the film was pretty soft, sound-wise.

Headache rating: 6/10

Inside Llewyn Davis

The only musically-themed picture nominated, The Coen’s instant classic nearly send me into a trance with its gorgeous sounds. Bravo, Mr and Mr Coen!

Headache rating: 2/10

Lone Survivor

Guns! Bombs! Landmines! Mark Wahlberg shouting! The year’s loudest war movie laid the way for Marky Mark’s next headache-inducing fire-fest, Transformers: Age of Extinction!