During awards season, the greatest anticipation is always built up for shows like the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes — high-profile stages for the largest of talents, but more importantly the largest of stars. The Oscars may honor representatives from a wide variety of categories, but it’s no secret that the emphasis is placed firmly on the so-called “big races” — actor, actress, director, picture. It’s a shame that the technical categories so often get lost in the shuffle at these big events, but it’s all the more reason to hold events like the Golden Reels, an audio/sound design awards show, which held its 57th annual show over the weekend in Los Angeles.
Organized by The Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE), the awards honor the various areas of sound editing: Dialogue & ADR, Effects & Foley, and Music. This year’s honors paid dues to several science fiction productions, including James Cameron’s Avatar, which took home two awards on the film side, while SyFy earned two posthumous awards for Battlestar Galactica.
Avatar was recognized for sound editing of music in a feature film and sound effects/foley. Other winners on the feature side included Up, Inglourious Basterds, This Is It, and District 9, which was awarded Best Sound Editing: Sound Effects, Foley, Dialogue and ADR in a Foreign Feature Film.
Battlestar received honors for Long Form Dialogue and ADR, as well as Long Form Effects and Foley. Other television winners included The Penguins of Madagascar, House, Glee, and True Blood, which was given the award for Short Form Dialogue and ADR.
A lifetime achievement award was also given to ADR editor Larry Singer, the first ADR editor to receive the honor. ADR (automated dialogue replacement), more commonly referred to as “dubbing” is the process of recording voices in post production for the purpose of replacing poorly recorded or lack of on-set audio.
Steven Spielberg was also hailed with the MPSE Filmmaker award, which he accepted in person. There may not have been many other recognizable faces at the awards, but without this slew of editors, recordists, and effects men, those famous voices probably wouldn’t sound all too good.
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