It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
^ Back to Top
The MI6 Community is unofficial and in no way associated or linked with EON Productions, MGM, Sony Pictures, Activision or Ian Fleming Publications. Any views expressed on this website are of the individual members and do not necessarily reflect those of the Community owners. Any video or images displayed in topics on MI6 Community are embedded by users from third party sites and as such MI6 Community and its owners take no responsibility for this material.
James Bond News • James Bond Articles • James Bond Magazine
Comments
Sound is one of the most important parts of film making. The first thing you learn when you pick up a camera is that bad audio is much worse than bad visual. I know from your POV and many others this doesn't matter but it's an art in itself and I happen to feel good for the sound team. In their profession there is no higher honour and unlike Dan and Mendes, they receive neither the adulation of millions nor the capital gain. As SF was never going to be nominated for the so called 'biggies' missing out has had no effect IMO.
http://soundworkscollection.com/videos/skyfall
The bad: Sadly no 'Best Picture' and 'Best Supporting Actor' nomination. Those are considered a bit more 'premium'. I expected Javier Bardem in the lot, but perhaps the voters thought Javier already did a great villain in 'No Country For Old Men'. Judi Dench? I did not expect her to be nominated. Regarding 'Best Picture'.....I thinkk either 'Skyfall' or 'The Master' got slightly less than 5% of the votes, but still ending up 10th = No 10th nominee.
The good: Wow! Surprise! Thomas Newman nominated for 'Best Original Score'! Wunderful news. I guess the Academy still like Thomas. And do not forget.....he has never won an Oscar. So this might create a slight buzz. FIVE nominations in total. That's an absolute record for a Bond film. Delightful news! I especially think the 'Best Original Music, 'Best Original Song' and 'Best Cinematography' are absolutely worthy recognition for James Bond. In these categories 007 was never nominated. Scott Millan ('Best Sound Mixing') and Perl Hallberg ('Best Sound Editing') could be following Norman Wanstall's footsteps by winning the Sound Oscar.
Summarizing: Quite nice news ;-). Allthough I more or less expected this. Out of these five nominations, I actually see 'Skyfall' winning ONE or TWO Oscars. After 31 years ('For Your Eyes Only' got the last Oscar nomination in 1982) James Bond is back at the Oscars! And it might happen that after 46 years James Bond will actually win one (Last time was 'Thunderball' in 1966).
I agree about the missing out effect, I just can't get excited over them.
But you might be right, that treeating the music categories as not worth much, might be a mistake.
I wanted Bardem to get best supporting actor and think he deserves it and best picture would be a dream come true and a thoroughly deserved achievement. However, it was not to be; in fact I'd swap all SF's actual nominations for a best picture nomination. But oh well, 5 noms is still fantastic but it deserved more. Hopefully this will push EON further to make Bond 24 completely unignorable to the Academy.
However, having said all of this; the fact we are even talking of a Bond film in these terms is staggering. Remember the Pierce Brosnan days? Christ remember the mess that was DAD? I think SF has proven itself as a complete resurrection of not not only the character but the integrity of the series. This is a good time to be a Bond fan.
Now 'we are disappointed' because 'Skyfall' did not get an acting or best picture nod. Instead 'we get the cheaper technical categories'. Sjee, Bond fans can be such spoiled wrecks ;-). But not me. I have been saying continuously that we would get these nominations. And please remember, there were times -actually ALL the time- that we were saying the Oscars will never come to Bond. Pfff :-).
Well, I AM HAPPY :D!!
You can bet that if they had avoided more of the 'lighter' moments of the film, if Bardem had been less purposely funny and more sinister, and if they had been more serious and focused more on Bond & M's relationship, it would have probably gotten a few more serious nominations.
But instead they made a Bond movie, and Bond films aren't meant to win best picture. They're meant to win best Bond film, and I believe that's exactly what the producers, Mendes, and Craig tried to give us.
8 BAFTA and 5 Oscar nominations? Would you all have been this upset a year ago? No.
Sorry RC7 but I'm shocked to find myself agreeing with Germanlady here - awards for stuff like sound, music and even cinematography to a degree are frankly an irrelevance.
No disrespect to all those individuals and I realise they are a vital component of filmmaking and I'm sure it will be a special night for the people concerned but these categories are in no way indicative of the quality of a film.
I'm no expert and granted the sound when the tube train comes through the wall is impressive but then so is the rumbling of the waves at the start of DAD.
The point I'm making is that a shit film could very easily have the best sound technically or a great song but its still a shit film. So in terms of telling you if a film is any good or not they are meaningless. Of course its nice to have the best people in the business working in every department but at the end of the day if you havent got a good script youve got nothing and with plotholes big enough to drive the aforementioned tube train through SF was never troubling that department.
In awards terms best screenplay, picture, director and the 4 acting ones are the only things that count unless you are actually in the industry.
TDK won 2 oscars but does anyone remember what the other one was for? Heath Ledgers is the only one that counts when you are writing 'Academy Award Winning' on the DVD box.
This flurry of nominations just strikes me as a condescending pat on the back for the 50th and with the world caught up in SF fever. Bond films have always been technically solid (DAD parasurfing notwithstanding) so for the Academy to suddenly be throwing nominations at EON strikes me as a little curious. Are you saying that since TB not one Bond has delivered good enough sound, cinematography or score to even be nominated until this masterpiece?
If all this is a slap in the face to anyone Germanlady its not SF its the likes of Ken Adam and John Barry.
Any objective reasons as to why it 'thoroughly deserves' this?
We'll have a lot of trouble winning many of these awards. There's a lot of competition. Best chances we have are with Deakins and Sound Design.
Agree. And I wouldn't change a thing in Skyfall just to please the Academy.
None of John Barrys scores got nominated but the SF one does? They're taking the piss aren't they?
I honestly think that if it wasn't Newman, it wouldn't have gotten nominated. I really don't think the score deserves a nod. I hope he doesn't win.
Make this two ;)
What I really wonder is, that Bondfans so easily accept and say it themselves all the time, that Bond films are Bond films and hence don't deserve serious praise. Its almost, as critical acclaim and the following awards take something away from the feeling of a Bond film. They are not made to get awards - never have and that's it. Period. So they are happy for every bread crump thrown in their direction. I am not even talking abbout this film. Its a general attitude, that I don't understand. First and foremost - a film is a film and hence should be treated equally until its done. If you look up the ratings for example at RT, its 92% is more then most of the BP films have got. So - go figure...so - if even the die hard fans don't believe their film CAN be worthy of something more serious, how is the Academie supposed to? I am really done with hearing "Its a Bond film, so I doesn't deserve being BP or whatever".
Again I am not ranting for once about what or whatnot this film got. I am questioning the general attitude, that is not ready to change with the times and dwelves in the past IMO. Bobnd film never got anything, so we are fine, if we get a nice pad on the shoulder.
I did think the BAFTA snub was surprising.
Great news for Newman and Deakins... lots of nominations for both but they´ve never won an Oscar... Bond time??
Hamlisch and Newman for best Bond Music Oscar?... both are American you´know...
But I think this attitude of only being good enough to entertain the masses and not worthy of critical acclaim goes right back to Fleming when most people in the establishment (his wife included) slagged off his work as pulp trash. There has always been a snobbishness that Bonds were not serious enough and perhaps this comes from that nod and a wink they always give to the audience rather than playing it dead straight. But perhaps Bond wouldnt have survived as long if it was played for no laughs at all like Smiley. Tinker, Tailor is a quality thriller but 23 of them? No thanks - way too dull and depressing.
The price you pay for popularity is that people will sneer. If they wanted EON could have made a period CR practically as written and in black and white and if they had hired the right talent they could well have found themselves getting best picture nods but they know the audience they are after doesnt want that.
Personally I would have loved it but at the same time I would have been disappointed as I also want my dose of big screen thrills and action that I have got used to.
Maybe EON should diversify into two separate companies one producing a small, period adaptation of Fleming as written to chase awards (CR, FRWL, OHMSS and YOLT all done well could be up there for best picture and potentially best actor for whoever is playing Bond) and the other producing a standard massive Bond extravaganza that we are used to. They could alternate so we got a Bond picture every year.
That'd be brilliant but I don't think the period adaptions would make enough money for EON to keep producing them year in year out. We are talking about a world where Transformers is at the top of the box office on release.
Awesome to see Newman nominated, having created (for my money) one of the best Bond soundtracks ever. Hopefully this will bring him his much deserved Oscar.
Disagree here. EG- I'd be much more excited about SF being nominated for best picture than I would about it winning best sound mixing.
Saying that though I don't have many complaints about what we got (apart from the score being nominated). I wasn't expecting much and at the end of the day it doesn't really matter.
I agree that Life of Pi is probably the better of the two. The dark horse in that category is Seamus McGarvey. Anna Karenina is a stunning looking movie also.
Wouldnt have to. They would be done on a pretty modest budget and the money from the main series raking in a billion every time would subsidise them! Seriously though someone like HBO would love to put the money into it - never said they had to be on theatrical release (although if Oscar success is the aim then you have to obviously).
Historically and commercially irrelevant naturally. But on a perosnal level I think it's about time they had a few technical nods. They've never been in with a best picture shout but in terms of technical quality they've always been (with a few exceptions) at the top end of cinema.
I agree in part, it is a condescending pat on the back. However I'd argue that Bonds have always been at the technical forefront and as I said above, should intermittently have been nominated in such categories throughout the years. SF shouldn't get the blame for finally landing a few, the accusations should be aimed at the academy and why it's taken so long for them to recognise the technical quality of the canon.
Thomas Newman got nominated for his score? Frankly, I didn't think it was all that hot. Like someone had earlier stated, I was more impressed by David Arnold's work in CR.
They aren't "blah" categories for the men and women that bust their rear ends to do scores for films. Do you realize how hard that is? Composers barely get any time to score the film, often less than half a year during the film's post production, and they are still expected to produce gold. They have a hard and stressful job, just like directors and actors.
AND, WE GOT 5 NODS! THE MOST EVER and the last since Moore's era. Put a smile on, and quit the ungrateful mopey act.
Some people astound me...
I shall tell you exactly how Daniel Craig feels right now. I'm certain he is not sad about not being nominated for an Oscar. No. I am pretty damn certain Daniel Craig put up a big smile on his face when he saw the list of Oscar nominations coming up.
A Bond film is not just a film in which one aspect, for instance music, is perfect and all other aspects, like acting, plot, etc. are shit. Doesn't work like that. A Bond film is all about team effort. Actually, it goes much further than that. It's one big family, from actors to producers, from sound mixers to music composers, from singers to cinematographers, from screenplay writers to production and clothing designers. THIS is what can make or break a Bond film. And the Broccoli's/Wilson's know that.
This is the reason why working on 'Skyfall' must have been such a great thrill ride for all people involved in the production of 'Skyfall'. Without a great plot, great action music could not have been made. Without the wunderful acting of Judi, Javier and Daniel, the producers would have lost some creative inspiration. Without perfect clothes, make-up, production design and wunderful locations, the actors would not have been acting so Fleming-esque.
I truly believe that, while Javier Bardem, Judi Dench, Michael G. Wilson & Barbara Broccoli are not nominated for an (Best Acting/Best Picture) Oscar, they must have been very close to be nominated. They were on all the prediction lists. And while they don't have an Oscar nomination, they did receive some other prestigious Award nominations that a Bond film never got before, like a Producers Guild Awards and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
So dear fans? You might consider how absolutely wunderful it is that 'Skyfall' got nominated for FIVE Oscars. It's a unique team effort that makes everyone within the Bond family smile. Except....except certain fans in here. And that saddens me. These FIVE Oscar nominations for me feel as one giant 12 m high 'Best Picture' Oscar made of pure gold. And not for ONE moment I would say things like "Uhhh, David Arnold deserved the nomination and not Thomas Newman." Pa-the-tic.
So dear fans, it's not that black and white. It's all interlinked. And please take in mind that these FIVE Oscar nominations for James Bond 007 are unique, historic and record-breaking.
I'd prefer a TV series to a film actually. I think the books would be more suited to that anyway. Put it on saturdays so there's something to watch that isn't crap reality TV.