On & Backstage: Achievement in Sound Mixing

Posted: Sunday, February 25th, 2007 by Michael van Poppel at 10.50 pm EDT.

CATEGORY: ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND MIXING
AWARD RECIPIENT: MICHAEL MINKLER, BOB BEEMER AND WILLIE BURTON
FILM: "DREAMGIRLS"

ONSTAGE
Michael Minkler: There's no way I'm going to be able to do this by memory, so first of all, we congratulate Bill Condon, thank you so much. You crafted a film that was filled with dazzling performances, unforgettable songs from Henry Krieger, stylish effects from Richard Yawn, electrifying editing from Virginia Katz and some smokin' sound.

In the end, you thanked us for helping you make your dream; it's really the other way around. Bob, Willie and I are so honored by this award and we thank all of those who collaborated with us on the mix, and we extend our love and appreciation to those in our family who bring us harmony in our lives.

Willie Burton: I'd like to thank our producing team, our cast and crew, also my loving wife Jackie for her support, and mom, thank you. God bless you all.

Bob Beemer: I'd like to thank Cindy, Jessie, Amy, L.G. and the guys in the backroom.

BACKSTAGE
Q. Hi, guys. David Cohen from Variety. I understand that with a project like this you're working with just an enormous number of tracks and an enormous complexity putting the music and everything else together, so I'm wondering at what point do you start to say to yourself, when are we just going to get this done? Were you ever wondering, is this going to be too much?
A. No. The studio provided us the correct amount of time. We had a very patient director and it was a dream experience, no pun intended. It was just the best.

Q. Mr. Barton, right here, Stephanie Fredrick with the Los Angeles Sentinel. We spoke earlier this week.
A. Hi, Stephanie.

Q. You're now holding your Oscar. You sounded like you wanted to say more on stage as well, so I wanted to give you an opportunity to finish.
A. Right, on stage. I didn't get the chance to thank Bill Condon our director who hired me, who believed in me, and also Laurence Mark our producers and Patty Whitcher, our producer and Leann Stonebreaker; I mean, they were fighting for me to get the job, and I really appreciate all the effort that they put into for me to be hired. And also my production crew that I never forget, Marvin Lewis, my boom man, Gary Theard, my boom man, and my go-to guy Mark Agostino. What a wonderful team I have. And we're able to do a great job for Mike Minkler, and Bob Beemer for post production to make the sound all perfect, and that's why we have the Oscar.

Q. You're holding that right now?
A. Right. This is Oscar right here.

Q. Your feelings about holding Oscar?
A. Oh, my feelings are great, I mean, this is my second Oscar. I feel a little bit better about it than my first Oscar. I almost passed out, I think. But this one I feel much better and also they're not going to take it back. My first Oscar, I thought they would take back my Oscar once I came into the media. And now I have this one and I feel that it's for me.

Q. Martina Christen, Jet magazine. Hi, congratulations. Could you first identify yourselves, and also I wanted to find out, 25 years after the original Broadway production, you guys were able to bring something to the silver screen in a fantastic way. The music was wonderful. What are your thoughts about that?
A. Well, we didn't have a lot to do with bringing the music to the screen, there were Randy Spendlove and Matt Sullivan who were the supervisors, the music supervisors on the show, who hired their production, music production people and the arrangers and the composers and Paul Rabjohns, they spent almost two years or something putting this thing together. We are just the recipients of their brilliance. We get all these cases and we try to make something out of it, but it was really their task in doing this. And with the direction of Bill Condon, Bill watched and listened to every note and every frame, and everything in this movie is Bill Condon.

Q. I'm sorry, could you also identify yourselves?
A. I'm Mike Minkler.

Q. Can each of you say your names, please?
A. Yeah, I'm Willie Burton. The most important thing with our job is to make it sound great, and that's why this team here, that's what we do, we made it sound great.
A. I'm Bob Beemer. Another part of the illusion is it's not all singing you hear, it's lip synched, post-done, prerecorded, everything, and a big part of what our illusion is to pull off the natural performance of the throat, just match every single little nuance. I thought that came out very well, because in the beginning we weren't sure how well we were going to do and in the end, Bill had the patience and the perseverence to make sure we could have the time to make it right and it came out well.

Q. Each one of you has won an Oscar before tonight. One of your other nominees, Kevin O'Connell, has never won in 19 tries now. Do you have anything to say to him?
A. I kind of figured this question was going to come up, so they said if it does come up, go ahead and say something. I think Kevin should just like maybe just go away with 19 wins and just call it a record and that would be the end of it. We work really, really hard at what we do, all of us do in our craft. And if we, you know, stumble upon an award like this, somebody is willing to honor us with something like this, we are so grateful. And I just wonder what Kevin's trying to do out there by trying to get an award by using sympathy. And Kevin's an okay mixer but enough's enough about Kevin.

Q. You think he should take his name out of consideration?
A. No, no, I just think that he should take up another line of work.
A. I would say for Kevin is that, you know, that's like the Susan Lucci nomination. But Kevin, I would just say hang in there, your time is coming. I think Kevin just needs to relax and his time will come and he will get his chance just like we did tonight. One thing I'd like to add is on the other hand, what he's accomplished is almost mind-boggling, it's hard to even fathom the amount of recognition and just the perseverence over the years, what we do is so hard and time consuming mentally and it's an amazing accomplishment to be nominated that many times, it must be terrifically frustrating for him. Like Willie said, eventually his day needs to come up, six times by now already but that's a tough karmic thing he has right now.

Q. Thank you and congratulations.