Outside Editorial and Big Sky Editorial Company, both in New York, and Margarita Mix Santa Monica topped the spot category nominees for the fourth annual Hollywood Post Alliance (HPA) Awards, which recognize creative and technical excellence in the art, science and craft of postproduction.
Outside garnered three nominations while Big Sky and Margarita Mix each earned a pair. Work from Outside and Big Sky accounted for the three nominees in the Outstanding Editing-Commercial category: Outside editor Neil Gust for NASCAR’s “Start Er Up” and Jaguar’s “XF/XK”; and editor Chris Franklin of Big Sky for Bing.com’s “Syndrome.”
For the Outstanding Color Grading-Commercial category, colorist Alex Bickel of Outside scored a nomination for Jaguar’s “XJ Launch Film” while Big Sky’s Valerie Junge earned nominee status on the strength of American Express’ “Members’ Moments.” Rounding out the nominees in the category was colorist Stefan Sonnenfeld of bicoastal Company 3 for Pepsi’s “Pass.”
Company 3 scored another nomination–this one outside the spot realm–for Outstanding Color Grading in TV for colorist Siggy Ferstl on the basis of Yankee Stadium Tribute-Yogi’s Bronx.
Margarita Mix’s two commercial nominees came in the Outstanding Audio Post category, one for mixer Nathan Dubin for Honda Civic’s “Grooves”; and the other for Jeff Levy for Honda Fury’s “Unleashed.” The latter was a shared nomination as Margarita Mix and audio artisans Paul Hurtubise, Richard Cooperman and Thom Blackburn of Santa Monica-based Solid worked on “Unleashed.” Rounding out the category was mixer Parv Thind of Wave Recording Studios, London, for Sony’s “Extreme Detail Bond.”
And the nominees in the remaining spot category, Outstanding Compositing, were: Geoff McAuliffe, Jimi Simmons, Sean McLean and Robin Hobart of Brickyard VFX, Santa Monica and Boston, for NBA’s “Amazing Playoff Moments–Bird Steals The Ball”; Brady Beaubien and Brandon Peterson of Los Angeles-based Interlace Media for the “International Landmark Destruction Campaign” promoting The Day The Earth Stood Still; and Colin Renshaw of Animal Logic, Sydney, for Toyota’s “Ninja Kittens.”
HPA Award winners will be announced and honored during a gala evening ceremony on Nov. 12 at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. For a full rundown of nominees spanning the feature and TV categories, log onto www.hpaawardsnet.com.
Already known are the honorees that evening for several other HPA kudos. Ben Burtt will receive the HPA’s Charles S. Swartz Award for Outstanding Contribution in the Field of Post Production. Burtt has worked in every facet of film production for over 35 years spanning directing, producing, sound design, sound editing, editing, voicing and voice design in motion pictures, TV, specialty, educational and documentary. He was the sound designer for the Star Wars and Indiana Jones series, has been nominated for 12 Academy Awards for sound effects work and has won four Oscars.
Meanwhile slated to receive the HPA’s Lifetime Achievement Award is post icon Paul Haggar who rose through the studio ranks from the Paramount mailroom to apprentice editor and ultimately to executive VP of Postproduction for Feature Films, a position he held for more than 20 years.
And finally the HPA Engineering Excellence Award winners are DVS Digital Video Systems for the CLIPSTER hardware and software turnkey finishing system; Signiant for its Content Distribution Management (CDM) software which was developed to centrally manage, secure, accelerate and automate the movement of rich media content; and S.Two Corp. for its OB-1 Uncompressed Digital Recorder, a complete system for providing images from digital cameras to post.
Directing and Editing “Conclave”; Insights From Edward Berger and Nick Emerson
It’s been a bruising election year but this time we’re referring to a ballot box struggle that’s more adult than the one you’d typically first think of in 2024. Rather, on the industry awards front, the election being cited is that of the Pope which takes front and center stage in director Edward Berger’s Conclave (Focus Features), based on the 2016 novel of the same title by Robert Harris. Adapted by screenwriter Peter Straugham, Conclave stars Ralph Fiennes as the cardinal leading the conclave that has convened to select the next Pope. While part political thriller, full of backstabbing and behind-closed-door machinations, Conclave also registers as a thoughtful adult drama dealing with themes such as a crisis of faith, weighing the greater good, and engaging in a struggle that’s as much about spirituality as the attainment of power.
Conclave is Berger’s first feature after his heralded All Quiet on the Western Front, winner of four Oscars in 2023, including for Best International Feature Film. And while Conclave would on the surface seem to be quite a departure from that World War I drama, there’s a shared bond of humanity which courses through both films.
For Berger, the heightened awareness of humanity hit home for him by virtue of where he was--in Rome, primarily at the famed Cinecittà studio--to shoot Conclave, sans any involvement from the Vatican. He recalled waking up in Rome to “soak up” the city. While having his morning espresso, Berger recollected looking out a window and seeing a priest walking about with a cigarette in his mouth, a nun having a cup of coffee, an archbishop carrying a briefcase. It dawned on Berger that these were just people going to... Read More