美国国家公共电台 NPR After 21 Nominations, Will Sound Mixer Kevin O'Connell Finally Win His Oscar?

 

LOURDES GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

And now to a story about the longest losing streak¹ in Oscar history. A sound rerecording mixer named Kevin O'Connell earned an incredible 20 Academy Award nominations³ and zero wins. This year, he could break the curse. He's been nominated for his sound mix on "Hacksaw Ridge⁴," Mel Gibson's war movie. That brings the count to 21. So NPR's Danny Hajek asks, will this finally be Kevin O'Connell's year?

DANNY HAJEK, BYLINE⁵: If "Hacksaw Ridge" breaks his streak, he'll have a pile of acceptance speeches to choose from. He's kept most of his drafts.

KEVIN O'CONNELL: I do have those. And they're in a drawer. And I don't pay much attention to that stuff anymore. I almost feel like this is like a rebirth for me at this point, you know?

HAJEK: O'Connell's the guy that brings sound into movies. He's at the mixing stage at Sony Studios in Culver City, Calif. This is his office. It's a movie theater. His desk is an audio-mixing board that spans the length of the room.

O'CONNELL: Well, first of all, let me explain to you how it works.

HAJEK: He sits behind hundreds of buttons, knobs, sliders, rows of worn-out audio faders blinking and glowing. He's worked on "Star Wars" and "Raiders Of The Lost Ark." In "Poltergeist," he distorted Carol Anne's voice that comes from the TV static.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "POLTERGEIST")

HEATHER O'ROURKE: (As Carol Anne Freeling) Mommy, where are you?

O'CONNELL: It's the sound artists that bring those visual effects to life that make you believe that what you're seeing is actually real.

HAJEK: The epic⁶ launch in "Armageddon," Optimus Prime in "Transformers" - both Oscar-nominated mixes. He made Maverick's fighter jet come alive in "Top Gun."

O'CONNELL: Which is revving⁷ up in your face. And the second it explodes and starts to take off, we immediately pull those jet sounds down and raise up Kenny Loggins's "Danger Zone" music.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "TOP GUN")

KENNY LOGGINS: (Singing) Highway to the danger zone.

(SOUNDBITE OF JET FLYING)

HAJEK: He thought "Top Gun" would get him the Oscar that year. But Kevin O'Connell's name was never called.

O'CONNELL: It hasn't been the right time for me.

HAJEK: But when will the right time be? Scott Feinberg, who covers awards at the Hollywood Reporter, explains.

SCOTT FEINBERG: The Kevin O'Connell phenomenon can really be explained pretty easily in the sense that sound people, members of the sound branch of the academy, are the only people who pick the nominees⁹.

HAJEK: That accounts for O'Connell's 21 nominations. But picking the Oscar winner - that's up to the whole academy to decide. And Feinberg says that not everyone knows what goes into sound mixing.

FEINBERG: It's a coattail category. So if you have a best-picture nominee⁸ that's also nominated in that category, you can bet that's going to get a lot of votes just for being a movie that people liked.

HAJEK: And that, he says, undermines the craft. Sound is the other half of the movie. So take Kevin O'Connell's Oscar-nominated mix for "Hacksaw Ridge." While filling the battle scenes, O'Connell says the prop¹⁰ explosions sounded like firecrackers. And the prop rifles sounded like cap guns. So his team, including fellow nominees Andy Wright and Robert Mackenzie, had to redub all of it using historically accurate audio recordings¹¹ to recreate one of the bloodiest¹² battles of World War II.

O'CONNELL: Explosion after explosion - we have bright explosions, ones that go (imitating explosion) and ones that go (imitating explosion). Then we have American guns...

(SOUNDBITE OF FIRING GUN)

O'CONNELL: ...Japanese guns.

(SOUNDBITE OF FIRING GUN)

O'CONNELL: Then we have the USS-Missouri-firing-16-inch-cannons¹³ sounds.

(SOUNDBITE OF CANNONS FIRING)

O'CONNELL: Every single sound, every single footstep.

HAJEK: A soundscape so real, a group of veterans who previewed the film were convinced.

O'CONNELL: One veteran said, I don't know where you guys got the sound of the whizzing bullets cracking overhead. But that triggered my PTSD 'cause I've never heard it since.

HAJEK: So is "Hacksaw Ridge" a winning mix? Scott Feinberg from the Hollywood Reporter says he'll have to beat "La La Land." And that won't be easy. But it's been a decade since Kevin O'Connell's last nomination². And next weekend, win or lose, he'll be back at the Academy Awards with another acceptance speech in hopes that number 21 is Oscar gold.

O'CONNELL: Hopefully, my time will come. But it's going to come when it's the right time. And hopefully, this year, it is.

HAJEK: Danny Hajek, NPR News.

1 streak   

n.条理，斑纹，倾向，少许，痕迹；v.加条纹，变成条纹，奔驰，快速移动

参考例句：

• The Indians used to streak their faces with paint.印第安人过去常用颜料在脸上涂条纹。
• Why did you streak the tree?你为什么在树上刻条纹？

2 nomination   

n.提名，任命，提名权

参考例句：

• John is favourite to get the nomination for club president.约翰最有希望被提名为俱乐部主席。
• Few people pronounced for his nomination.很少人表示赞成他的提名。

3 nominations   

n.提名，任命( nomination的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Nominations are invited for the post of party chairman. 为党主席职位征集候选人。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Much coverage surrounded his abortive bids for the 1960,1964, and 1968 Republican Presidential nominations. 许多消息报道都围绕着1960年、1964年和1968年他为争取提名为共和党总统候选人所做努力的失败。 来自辞典例句

4 ridge   

n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭

参考例句：

• We clambered up the hillside to the ridge above.我们沿着山坡费力地爬上了山脊。
• The infantry were advancing to attack the ridge.步兵部队正在向前挺进攻打山脊。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 epic   

n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的

参考例句：

• I gave up my epic and wrote this little tale instead.我放弃了写叙事诗，而写了这个小故事。
• They held a banquet of epic proportions.他们举行了盛大的宴会。

7 revving   

v.（使）加速( rev的现在分词 )；（数量、活动等）激增；（使发动机）快速旋转；（使）活跃起来

参考例句：

• The team are revving up for next week's game. 这个队伍对下周的比赛跃跃欲试。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Since the introduction of new techniques, the production has been revving up. 自从新技术的引进，产量一直都在增加。 来自互联网

8 nominee   

n.被提名者；被任命者；被推荐者

参考例句：

• His nominee for vice president was elected only after a second ballot.他提名的副总统在两轮投票后才当选。
• Mr.Francisco is standing as the official nominee for the post of District Secretary.弗朗西斯科先生是行政书记职位的正式提名人。

9 nominees   

n.被提名者，被任命者( nominee的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• She's one of the nominees. 她是被提名者之一。 来自超越目标英语 第2册
• A startling number of his nominees for senior positions have imploded. 他所提名的高级官员被否决的数目令人震惊。 来自互联网

10 prop   

vt.支撑；n.支柱，支撑物；支持者，靠山

参考例句：

• A worker put a prop against the wall of the tunnel to keep it from falling.一名工人用东西支撑住隧道壁好使它不会倒塌。
• The government does not intend to prop up declining industries.政府无意扶持不景气的企业。

11 recordings   

n.记录( recording的名词复数 )；录音；录像；唱片

参考例句：

• a boxed set of original recordings 一套盒装原声录音带
• old jazz recordings reissued on CD 以激光唱片重新发行的老爵士乐

12 bloodiest   

adj.血污的( bloody的最高级 )；流血的；屠杀的；残忍的

参考例句：

• The Russians were going to suffer their bloodiest defeat of all before Berlin. 俄国人在柏林城下要遭到他们的最惨重的失败。 来自辞典例句
• It was perhaps the bloodiest hour in the history of warfare. 这也许是战争史上血腥味最浓的1个小时。 来自互联网

13 cannons   

n.加农炮，大炮，火炮( cannon的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Cannons bombarded enemy lines. 大炮轰击了敌军阵地。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• One company had been furnished with six cannons. 某连队装备了六门大炮。 来自《简明英汉词典》