“It really honors the bravery of men who say goodbye to their loved ones and go off to do very dangerous work,” divulges sound editor Wylie Stateman during our recent webcam chat (watch above) about the film “Deepwater Horizon,” for which he received his eighth career Oscar nomination. Directed by Peter Berg, the film tells the true story of the 2010 BP disaster, when an offshore drilling rig exploded and created the worst oil spill in US history. The ensemble cast includes Mark Wahlberg, Kurt Russell, John Malkovich, Gina Rodriguez, and Kate Hudson.
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The veteran sound editor and his team were tasked with taking a, “roughly 1/3 sized replica built in the Gulf of Mexico,” and making it appear as if it were, “45-miles out to sea, with operating equipment …There was nothing really functioning on that set, expect for the crew.” Before creating the various sounds and linking them together, Stateman starts by creating, “a style guide for the film,” and in the case of “Deepwater Horizon,” “it was very much this immersive, documentary feel we were looking for.”
Stateman previously competed for “Born on the Fourth of July” (1989), “Cliffhanger” (1993), “Memoirs of a Geisha” (2005), “Wanted” (2008), “Inglourious Basterds” (2009), “Django Unchained” (2012), and “Lone Survivor” (2013). He shares this nomination with Renee Tondelli.
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