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Why “Whiplash” Won an Oscar for Best Editing

williamdickersonfilmmaker.com

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Re: Why “Whiplash” Won an Oscar for Best Editing

#3

Post by miles932 »

I loved this movie, and immediately commented to a few movie-buff friends of mine that I was certain that they'd get an oscar for the sound editing. The actual movie edit was artful and amazing, but the sound edit.. talk about meticulous.. every single drum hit?! Called it! http://www.nabshow.com/thought-gallery/oscar-winner-ben-wilk...

Re: Why “Whiplash” Won an Oscar for Best Editing

#4

Post by sharkweek »

Interesting article - I am always curious how the psychology behind the edits subconsciously plays into my understanding of, and feelings toward, character dynamics.

For those who haven't seen it, Whiplash is my favorite movie of the past several years. The "third act" is probably the most intense finale I've seen in quite some time as well.

Highly recommended to anyone, musical background or not.

Re: Why “Whiplash” Won an Oscar for Best Editing

#5

Post by anigbrowl »

miles932 wrote: post #3

I loved this movie, and immediately commented to a few movie-buff friends of mine that I was certain that they'd get an oscar for the sound editing. The actual movie edit was artful and amazing, but the sound edit.. talk about meticulous.. every single drum hit?! Called it! http://www.nabshow.com/thought-gallery/oscar-winner-ben-wilk...

Sorry to be pedantic, but Whiplash won the Academy award for best sound mixing; the award for best sound editing went to American Sniper. Mixing involves the spatial and tonal quality of the sound; editing the temporal and semantic quality.

But either way yes, it is very meticulous, and I think you'd be even more shocked to look at the project files, because each individual sound you hear in a film often involves multiple layers of sound or multiple treatments of a single source sound through different mix busses. As a rule of thumb there are bout 10 edits on the sound track for every cut you see on screen. Thankfully there are some tools available to partially automate the process, but in the it requires a huge amount of work and near-endless reserves of patience.

Source: movie sound is what I (mostly) do for a living, though I haven't won an Acamdemy award for it.

Re: Why “Whiplash” Won an Oscar for Best Editing

#8

Post by superdude »

anigbrowl wrote: post #5
miles932 wrote: post #3

I loved this movie, and immediately commented to a few movie-buff friends of mine that I was certain that they'd get an oscar for the sound editing. The actual movie edit was artful and amazing, but the sound edit.. talk about meticulous.. every single drum hit?! Called it! http://www.nabshow.com/thought-gallery/oscar-winner-ben-wilk...

Sorry to be pedantic, but Whiplash won the Academy award for best sound mixing ; the award for best sound editing went to American Sniper. Mixing involves the spatial and tonal quality of the sound; editing the temporal and semantic quality. But either way yes, it is very meticulous, and I think you'd be even more shocked to look at the project files, because each individual sound you hear in a film often involves mu…

"Mixing involves the spatial and tonal quality of the sound; editing the temporal and semantic quality."

What does that even mean? I thought sound editing was the creation of all the sounds and sound effects, and mixing was the mixing.

Re: Why “Whiplash” Won an Oscar for Best Editing

#9

Post by bedhead »

sharkweek wrote: post #4

Interesting article - I am always curious how the psychology behind the edits subconsciously plays into my understanding of, and feelings toward, character dynamics. For those who haven't seen it, Whiplash is my favorite movie of the past several years. The "third act" is probably the most intense finale I've seen in quite some time as well. Highly recommended to anyone, musical background or not.

I am generally a movie curmudgeon with a high bar. I got it as an iTunes rental for a long flight. iTunes only gives you 24 hours once you press play. I watched it three times before expiring.

Re: Why “Whiplash” Won an Oscar for Best Editing

#10

Post by MichaelGG »

anigbrowl wrote: post #5
miles932 wrote: post #3

I loved this movie, and immediately commented to a few movie-buff friends of mine that I was certain that they'd get an oscar for the sound editing. The actual movie edit was artful and amazing, but the sound edit.. talk about meticulous.. every single drum hit?! Called it! http://www.nabshow.com/thought-gallery/oscar-winner-ben-wilk...

Sorry to be pedantic, but Whiplash won the Academy award for best sound mixing ; the award for best sound editing went to American Sniper. Mixing involves the spatial and tonal quality of the sound; editing the temporal and semantic quality. But either way yes, it is very meticulous, and I think you'd be even more shocked to look at the project files, because each individual sound you hear in a film often involves mu…

Have there been blinded tests done to gauge audience impact? I hobbied a bit with sound and when I see, for instance, the result of "professional mastering" side by side, I've often thought the pre-mastering version was better. No doubt this isn't always the case, but it makes me wonder. Especially given how much myth and superstition seems to happen in audio, even coming from pros.

Not to come across as rude - I'm just ignorant and curious.

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