Gerard Kennedy took some time this week to speak with two of the nominated sound mixers from "No Country for Old Men": Craig Berkey and Peter Kurland.  The aural qualities of the Coen brothers film have been a talking point for some time, substituting thematically relevant room tone and production sound for original musical accompaniment.

The film was nominated for both sound mixing and sound editing, the latter being a surprise even to those of us obsessive enough to follow the crafts races.

Here's a quick look at Kennedy's piece:

Kurland has been working with the Coens for nearly 25 years (he was the boom operator on “Blood Simple”) and loves their joint efforts.

“There’s never any hysteria or screaming on the set,” he says. “They are exceptionally well prepared. It isn’t that there aren’t surprises but there are very few completely unexpected elements.”

Berkey adds to the notion that the helmers know exactly what they want to do, having “the whole thing laid out as they’re writing the script. But they also listen to new ideas regarding sound, having the confidence to have a minimal score in a film like this.”

Having been on the set with the brothers on many occasions, Kurland says new challenges still manage to arise on each shoot. He says this was definitely the warmest set apart from “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” and that, being out in the desert, wind was a large problem (as it always is for production sound). But the work was particularly pivotal in this film and had to be recorded just right. He also notes a new and somewhat bizarre element on the production called “dusk panic.” Only about 10 takes were done in the daylight and the rest were done during sunset or sunrise, with very little time to get those shots right.

Also, I particularly liked this bit of insight into building the character of Anton Chigurgh with sound elements:

Berkey also says he and his colleagues attempted to keep the mix quiet, at the same time trying to create a “theme” of sound for Bardem’s character akin to what might be present in a score, notably in the fact that the sound of a train almost always accompanies, or slightly precedes, his presence. “We wanted to get the idea that a big bad freight train is coming,” he recalls.

It is probably worth noting that this film is the biggest competition for Kevin O'Connell and greg P. Russell at the moment, and the infamous 32 nominations they claim between them.  But there is no denying the sheer complexity of the sound work in "Transformers," so at least we're looking at a race between equally deserving candidates rather than finding a musical in the mix that keeps the Academy from actually THINKING about this section of the ballot.

Check out the rest of Kennedy's column.