oscars

There are two Oscar categories for best sound: best sound editing and best sound mixing. The sound editor designs and pre-plans the sound for the film. If it's a special-effects movie like "Avatar," the sound editor supervises the crew charged with creating the film's soundscape, including all of the sound effects.

Sound editors and mixers are the Rodney Dangerfields of the film biz; they don't get any respect. Look for their names at the very end of the credits, way, way down there with the caterers, hair stylists, and dog wranglers. Yet their mission is near impossible: create a seamless soundtrack that is, in fact, constructed from thousands of sonic fragments.

It's a colossal multichannel jigsaw puzzle, except a lot of the pieces don't fit. It's the mixers' soundtrack machinations that thrust the audience into the reality of the film they're experiencing--the subterfuge totally works--most viewers believe they're watching a literal record of what the camera "saw" and what the microphones "heard." Depending on the type of movie you're watching, most, sometimes 90 percent of the sound was recorded after the film was shot.

The mixers typically work on 15- to 20-second sections of a film, running the sequence over and over, constantly tweaking the balances. They might get hung up on a single music cue for 2 hours. Movies still run at 24 frames per second, and each frame of picture might have hundreds of sound elements. There are background tracks (traffic, wind noise, etc), specific effects tracks (gun shots, birds chirping, etc), foreground dialogue tracks, background dialog (for crowd scenes), plus lots and lots of music tracks.

Music mixing always requires finesse, moving the music in relationship to the picture as little as two frames can completely shift its impact on the scene. Moving a bar here, a downbeat there--it's all about how the music blends with the effects and dialogue--it's easy to lose it. Changes in the music's equalization, balance, and volume can change from picture cut to cut.

Mixing a film is a highly technical endeavor, but at the end of the day, it's not a nuts-and-bolts medium, the film has to feel right. Picture editing dictates the internal rhythms, but sound pushes the film; it has all the little engines that make things happen. It's what gets you caught up in the emotions of the story.… Read more

Many products launch themselves very much like an investment banker launching himself at a party. They strut in, chin up, determined to tell everyone how great they are in as loud a voice as possible. Somehow, they feel, everyone will hear, whether they like it or not.

Apple tends not to follow that principle. It doesn't create noise. It creates intrigue. It makes people feel positive--even, sometimes, against their better judgment. Since the very earliest days of its advertising, it has worked very hard at the art of being charming. It knows how to turn up at the party and say hello. It offers a bon mot here and a smile there, until by the end of the evening, it has won over many.

If Apple were a politician, it would win quite a few elections (it wouldn't get involved in extramarital affairs in Buenos Aires, either).

Rumors are suggesting that Apple's latest attempt to influence our behavior and tickle us with the lightest of hands, the iPad, will be available at the end of this month.

Which means advertising, and probably quite of lot of it. Some say the ads will launch March 15. What might they look like? Well, yet another rumor has suggested that Apple shot one of its new iPad spots in a California diner called Jax on the Tracks.

This, if true, is interesting in itself, as it suggests that this campaign might actually involve people. More than just their hands, I mean. … Read more

A man is caught red-handed by his blue-bodied wife.

He is in bed with another woman. His wife is not happy. His wife, in fact, begins to assault him. She slaps him, as he and his other woman try to escape.

Is this a scene from "Fatal Attraction"? Is this, perhaps, a cinematic homage to two Oscar-nominated movies, "It's Complicated" and "Avatar"?

No, it is merely a commercial for AshleyMadison.com, the site that helps married people hook up with, well, other married people. AshleyMadison claims to have 4.5 million members and … Read more

2010 started off positively: an amazing CES visit, an uplifting State of the Union Address, and an entertaining Grammy Awards show. Yes, 'twas a great January...too bad that filthy, overgrown rat Punxsutawney Phil had to show up and ruin it with a dreary six more weeks of winter, which wouldn't be so bad except that Wilson won't have his iPad for another nine weeks.

Unfortunately, it turns out our furry little friend might be an amazing meteorologist, but his texting skills can use some work. It took Phil over two hours to send out his inaugural text message to awaiting subscribers. Phil took even longer to tweet out his prediction. Come on, Phil, are there no tween girls in Gobbler's Knob, Pa., that you can enlist to speed up your T9-ing? Maybe it's time for an upgrade.

Unfortunate news aside, we've also got plenty of exciting news to discuss, including this year's Oscar nominations! Of course, Avatar's nine nominations only make us that much more embarrassed about all of our trash-talking prior to watching the movie. But hey, we're big enough to admit our mistakes, however, infrequent.

And since that's more than I can say for some directors, we also have to take some time to run down this year's Razzie nominees. Will Transformers 2 take down G.I. Joe for worst movie of the year or Big Momma's House 2 circle back and reign supreme? Listen in to hear our predictions!

As usual, we've also got a few sticker pictures, but it's not even close to the number we've sent out so far, so SEND US PICTURES if you got them in the mail! Send all your tattoo and sticker pictures to the404(at)cnet{dot}com- we want to see them all!

Finally, today marks the premiere of CNET TV's newest show, preGAME! Hosts Jeff Bakalar and Mark Licea bring you all the latest gaming news plus in-house demos of the hottest games a week before they're released. The show starts today and runs every Tuesday at 4 p.m. ET. Check out all the preGAME action on CNET TV!

In case you weren't paying attention, 2009 was a banner year for big, big visual effects movies.

And the teams that crafted the most impressive work were honored Tuesday morning, along with all the best and brightest in filmmaking, when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the nominations for the 2010 Oscars.

Here at CNET News we have a special place in our heart, as you might expect, for visual-effects-heavy movies because of the fantastic amounts of technology and computing power that goes into them.

As usual, the Academy chose just three films as visual-effects nominees. … Read more

Heavy & Flo return to the show. It's supposed to be a monthly thing, but our schedule is a little erratic. Just be thankful we're not pregnant. They're up to their usual high-jinks because Daddy Bakalar is out of town to keep us in check.

The Oscars were on last night, so Heavy & Flo think it's an appropriate time to make fun of Japanese men, who can barely speak English. OK, Mr. Yu and Mr. Tang seem to think that it's pretty damn funny, too, when he thanks his pencil. Flo recounts her story … Read more

Hollywood has gotten better at delaying pirates from posting illegal copies of Oscar-nominated films on the Internet. The bad news is that eventually a higher percentage of nominated films end up on the Web.

Andy Baio, an independent journalist and programmer, says he has tracked how quickly pirated copies of Oscar-nominated films appear on the Web for the past six years. He logs whether the copies were recorded with handheld cameras or copied from DVDs.

A spokeswoman for the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), the trade representing the largest film studios declined to comment directly on Baio's research. … Read more

His name is Craig(slist). Daniel Craig(slist).

In a ruling I find a little perplexing, although my ruling is that most of life is a little perplexing, a judge in a Los Angeles Supreme Court left Craigslist stirred and shaken.

They were forced to reveal the name of the dastardly villain who tried to sell two tickets to the Oscars for $2500. Each.

The man only identified himself as Daniel on the site.

Apparently, those who are invited to the splendidly brief and modest affair, are explicitly told that they must not sell their tickets to anyone.

The reason? … Read more

The story of how Once went from a low budget indie film to an Oscar nomination (and win!) is arguably more compelling than the movie itself. But its simple storyline and amazing soundtrack is why it deserves such praise. Last night, Glen Hansard and girlfriend, Once co-star, and singing partner Marketa Irgl?va (a.k.a. Swell Season) took home the Oscar for Best Original Song. If you haven't heard "Falling Slowing" yet, it's only two clicks away. Here's our review:

"Ireland's Frames have built one of the more lovely and melancholy pop … Read more