A joyous sound crew brings him home – Oscar that is – and three more gongs as Les Misérables wins big for film sound, writes Erica Basnicki
LES MISÉRABLES’ sound team wrapped up Awards season in spectacular style as lead mixer Andy Nelson joined production mixer Simon Hayes and re-recording mixer Mark Paterson on stage to accept an Oscar for Best Sound Mixing. The Oscar followed two audio industry awards in addition to the BAFTA for Best Sound: the sound mixing team won the award for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for a Motion Picture – Live Action at the 49th Annual CAS Award on 16 February followed by a Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing: Music in a Musical Feature Film at the 60th Annual Motion Picture Sound Editors Golden Reel Awards the following day. The film’s dialogue premix and final mix were undertaken at Halo Post in Soho, where director of film post-production Dave Turner is celebrating the sound crew’s success. “Everyone at Halo is ecstatic about the wins. Halo only started its film division 18 months ago when it acquired the Noel Street premises, and
since then it’s been non-stop, culminating in this,” he said. “As the final mix progressed the
pressure really started mounting and by the end we were working literally working round the clock. However it was an exhilarating experience, certainly one we won’t forget. The end results are totally superb. Simon Hayes did an amazing job recording all the vocals live on set, and Jonathan Allen’s team at Abbey Road worked miracles mixing the score. Tom Hooper certainly seemed happy when he finally left Halo having made his final updates – the day of the UK premiere!” Halo has recently expanded its AMS Neve Gemini DFC console to 72 faders, added more cinema seating and upgraded the machine synchronisation to Soundmaster ION in its Dolby premier certified Studio 1, where the film was mixed. “All this proved essential for the Les Misérables mix, with its complex sound track lay, extensive music score and tight post schedule,” says Turner. In addition to Halo Post, the
film’s ADR and effects premix were completed at Goldcrest
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American rock band Queens of the Stone Age (QOTSA) is working on a new album, relying on Rock and Boulder monitors from Unity Audio in the process. The yet to be titled album
marks the return of Dave Grohl on drums, long-time contributor Mark Lanegan, and former bassist Nick
Oliveri. The album also features Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails. “The Unity Audio Rock studio monitors have been a fantastic addition to
Pink Duck Studios,” said QOTSA founding member Joshua Homme. “The imaging is fantastic. They have a bottom end that belies their size and a
Post – where Paterson usually works as resident mixer. In an email from Los Angeles, he said: “Tom Hooper’s vision to make a musical using dialogues recorded live on set provided us with a fantastic opportunity to work on
Simon Hayes, Mark Paterson and Andy Nelson hold their Oscars for Best Sound Mixing
a movie that is experimental and attempting to do new things with sound.” Goldcrest’s CEO, Keith Williams was thrilled with Paterson’s success: “We’ve seen Mark’s talent grow over the years and we are so pleased to
see his professional talent recognised with an Academy Award as well as BAFTA, CAS and MPSE Golden Reel Awards for Les Misérables this month. n www.goldcrestfilms.comwww.halopost.com