SPEECH BY: Nicolas Becker, Jaime Baksht, Michelle Couttolene, Carlos Cortes, and Phillip Bladh
FILM: "SOUND OF METAL"
Q. Hi.
A. Can you believe this?
Q. Yes. I'm super excited.
A. (Speaking in Spanish.)
Hello, guys. Congratulations. We are all pretty excited for Jaime Backsht. We were very surprised when you were nominated. Now you are the winners, Nicolas, Jaime, Michelle, and Carlos. Can you tell me how you feel with this win, and what are you expecting after for the Oscar?
A. Well, I think this is a brand‑new feeling. I don't think I have ever felt this before. How about you guys?
A. Very happy. How about you, Nico?
A. (Nicolas Becker) I'm happy. Of course, I would love to be with you physically, my friends, you know? But I'm happy for you ‑‑ well, all of us, you know? I am happy because we really did that together. It was really a great collaboration, a deep collaboration, so I'm super happy to share that with you, you know? Of course.
Q. Yeah. We have a very special phrase here in Mexico that everyone says, (speaking in Spanish.) Do you think that it applies now?
A. (Michelle Couttolene) Yes. (Speaking in Spanish.)
A. (Speaking in Spanish.) We are all these countries that ‑‑ and we can say comrones (phonetic); okay?
Q. Because of this ‑‑ hi.
A. Hello.
Q. Hi. Can you hear me?
A. Yes.
Q. Okay. Great. Congratulations. And what I wanted to ask you about is, this is the first year that they have recombined the sound editing and the sound mixing categories into a single award. Nico, I was hoping you could talk about what it feels like or what your thoughts are on the combined award, and also what it felt like to accept the award with your fellow sound mixers and editors together.
A. For me, it's amazing. I mean, it's a good time. It's amazing because I'm with my friends, you know? I'm with a team, and I always think that to do something great, you have to do something in close collaboration with people. So if I need to be with all these amazing people, for me, it's okay. And I really like it, you know? It makes sense because I think everything is making the process now, so it's all together.
A. I feel like this overlaps, the two categories coming together. This is a good movie to come together. This is a good movie. Before they shot the movie and ‑‑ I brought it home from all that we recorded, and I felt that this is a good movie for all the categories to be combined. Yeah.
A. Yeah.
Q. Hi. Congratulations. Hello. Congratulations to you all. Nicolas, this is for you. What was the greatest challenge in making this movie for you? I know you spent a year in pre ‑‑ you know, preproduction working on it, but what was the biggest challenge?
A. The biggest challenge for me is always to be ‑‑ to go in the brain of the director and to try to understand what will be ‑‑ what language we have to build for him and how I can combine this with my experience, you know? So I think the biggest challenge I've been also to try to make the film as ‑‑ really like a physical experience for the audience, you know? And I think for me it's trying to out from lesser or more, illustrate the new way of working, but to really go deep into the physicality of sound.
Q. Hey. How are you guys? We made it.
A. Hello.
Q. Hello, Nicolas. I love you too. Hello. I'm sorry to ask this question for the Mexicans, but it seems like ‑‑
A. (Nicolas Becker) You have to. You have to.
Q. I have to. We have good luck. Thank you, Nicolas. Yes. We have three luck with the good amigos, and Alfonso, and now you have to tell us the good luck too. What is this for you, bringing the Oscar to Mexico?
A. (Michelle Couttolene) I feel, like, really honored and really proud. And, of course, it's really, really ‑‑ I cannot believe it yet, but it's amazing. And I ‑‑ of course, it's teamwork. And also, with all the crew, it's shared. I'm super excited. I don't know what to say.
Q. Let's finish this one. We share with a lot of countries, so I think with Mexico ‑‑ we have three, but we have a great for each guy. We have an amazing guy in this older son, and we have a guy from Helsinki ‑‑ from Finland, no? I think it's from Finland. I don't know if it's from Helsinki, but from Finland?
A. (Nicolas Becker) From Kokkola.
A. Exactly. And from Venezuela. So we have a lot of countries involved in this process, and I think we are proud of all the countries, of the sound people of all the countries.
A. Well, I'm really glad that Mexico is part of this team because, as Jaime said, it's a bigger and broader team. But I'm really glad that I was able to ‑‑ it was developed in Mexico. The whole team came together there, and that's why it's so amazing, and I'm honored about that.
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