BURLINGTON, MA — Numerous films recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences were crafted using Avid’s creative audio and video tools (avid.com), including every Best Picture nominee and winner Green Book.
In the Film Editing category, winner John Ottman, ACE, for Bohemian Rhapsody as well as every nominee, including Hank Corwin, ACE, for Vice; Yorgos Mavropsaridis, ACE, for The Favourite; Barry Alexander Brown for BlacKkKlansman; and Patrick J. Don Vito for Green Book; cut their films using Media Composer | Ultimate.
Brown a longtime collaborator of BlackKkKlansman director Spike Lee, has been using Media Composer since he first started editing digitally and relied on it once more to cut the American biographical crime comedy-drama.
“Once I learned Media Composer, my life as an editor took a decisive turn for the better. When young people ask me why I cut on Media Composer, I tell them, ‘To me there is no second choice’,” he said. “We had a specific scene in the film where we had to incorporate merging images, and we did it easily in Media Composer. Spike had the ability to tweak what I did originally, and we were able to complete the sequence fairly quickly.”
All of the nominees in the Sound Editing category used Pro Tools | Ultimate digital audio software, including winner John Warhurst and Nina Hartstone for Bohemian Rhapsody; Benjamin A. Burtt and Steve Boeddeker for Black Panther; Ai-Ling Lee and Mildred Iatrou Morgan for First Man; Ethan Van der Ryn and Erik Aadahl for A Quiet Place; and Sergio Díaz and Skip Lievsay for Roma.
Hartstone, supervising dialogue/ADR editor on Bohemian Rhapsody, the biographical film about British rock band Queen, says: “The film is ultimately about the music, and we faced many challenges in sound editorial. In addition to building all the concert crowds, we had to create our main character, Freddie, using three different voices—Freddie Mercury, Rami Malek and Marc Martel (Mercury sound-alike). Most of the singing in the film was actually Freddie, with a few areas of additional singing performed by Martel. It required careful editing on our part to put those voices together and then make them come out of Rami’s mouth in a seamless way. Pro Tools | Ultimate was critical in helping us to achieve this.”
Every nominee in the Sound Mixing category used Pro Tools | Ultimate, including winner Paul Massey, Tim Cavagin and John Casali for Bohemian Rhapsody; Steve Boeddeker, Brandon Proctor and Peter Devlin for Black Panther; Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño, Ai-Ling Lee and Mary H. Ellis for First Man; Skip Lievsay, Craig Henighan and José Antonio García for Roma; and Tom Ozanich, Dean Zupancic, Jason Ruder and Steve Morrow for A Star Is Born.
“We’re honored that the film industry turns to Avid video and audio tools and solutions to craft Academy Award-nominated and winning films, and we congratulate all the winners and nominees on their remarkable achievements,” said Avid CEO and President, Jeff Rosica. “We’re committed to giving the creative community the tools they need at every step of their career—from the First family of tools to inspire those just starting out, to the Ultimate tools for those innovating at the pinnacle of their careers.”