“CONGRATULATIONS”

We would like to send congratulations to Production Mixer Ken Weston who kept the British flag flying at the 2001 Oscars with his contribution to the soundtrack of Gladiator, winner of the AMPAS Best Sound Achievement Award. Well done Ken. Unfortunately Ken was unable to attend the presentation ceremony so AMPS Vice Chairman Sandy MacRae personally delivered flowers and a bottle of champagne to him (on behalf of the members of AMPS), to make up for missing out on the bubbly that would have been in the limo taking him to the awards show.

THE 2001 AWARDS - WINNERS  & NOMINEES FOR SOUND

BAFTAS

Film Awards made on 25th February 2001

- BEST SOUND -

Almost Famous Jeff Wexler/ DM Hemphill/ Rick Kline / Paul Massey / Mike Wilhoit

Billy Elliot Mark Holding / Mike Prestwood Smith / Zane Hayward

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Andrew Paul Kunin / Reilly Steele / Eugene Gearty / Robert Fernandez

Gladiator Ken Weston AMPS / Scott Millan / Bob Beemer / Per Hallberg

The Perfect Storm Keith A Wester / John Reitz / Gregg Rudloff / David Campbell / Wylie Stateman / Kelly Cabral

BAFTA’s TV Craft Awards will be announced on 22nd April

OSCARS

 - ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND -

Cast Away Randy Thom, Tom Johnson, Dennis Sands and William B Kaplan

Gladiator Scott Millan, Bob Beemer and Ken Weston AMPS

The Patriot Kevin O’Connell, Greg P Russell and Lee Orloff The Perfect Storm John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff, David Campbell and Keith A Wester

U-571 Steve Maslow, Gregg Landaker, Rick Kline and Ivan Sharrock AMPS

Space Cowboys Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman

U-571 JonJonson

Gladiator also won the Cinema Audio Society’s award for ‘Outstanding Achievement In Sound Mixing’.

 Congratulations to all winners and nominees of Oscars and BAFTAs, and to the crews who worked with them to produce the sound tracks.

JOHN MITCHELL MBE

MBE - For services to the British Film Industry

John Mitchell entered the film industry in 1933, working as a rewind boy in the projection theatre at Ealing Studios. Over the course of the next sixty odd years he rose to become a top ranking sound mixer and sound recordist, working on such films as Olivier’s Hamlet, David Lean’s Great Expectations and A Passage To India.

He has twice been nominated for an American Academy award for sound and won an Emmy award for sound for The Scarlet And The Black. His name appears in the credits of more than 150 films.

During the second world war he was an officer in the Royal Navy’s Special Branch, (Antisubmarine branch) and was responsible for, amongst many devices, the design and manufacture of a small underwater echo sounder receiver. This was given to the crews of the Special Service Hotilla based at Dartmouth, so that when agents were dropped off on the French coast, the crew of the small rowing scows could get a bearing on their parent boat waiting up to two miles out at sea. The film Director Guy Hamilton, was the First Lieutenant on board such a boat, and graciously acknowledged to a film crew one day, when he and John met up again after the war, that he (John) was responsible for saving his life and the lives of many other sailors, with his small invention. John was later posted on secondment to the civilian antisubmarine experimental establishment at Failie on the Clyde, from where he was demobilised in 1946, and went back into the film industry.

Although he is now in his eighties, John Mitchell still works tirelessly to improve the work of British films and earlier this year he was asked by Jamie Payne of Epiphany Productions to oversee the sound on The Dance Of Shiva, starring Kenneth Branagh. He continues to give talks and demonstrations to society’s, clubs, and organisations around the country interested in the work of the film makers, giving away any fees paid to charity.

There is no better ambassador to speak about the British Film Industry than John Mitchell, who has spent a lifetime in films, and richly deserves being honoured for his skill and imagination