Oscars (and ETEK)

I was too busy tonight to start up the popcorn machine and settle in for the Oscars -- but I did catch that Mike Elizalde, who the ETEK class visited last semester (see the blog post from the day we dropped in on his studio Spectral Motion here), was up for an Oscar for Best Makeup, for his work on Hellboy II. He didn't get the award -- but if I can humbly offer a sentiment of congratulations for being nominated, a nomination in itself is not too shabby. Mike was incredibly open and welcoming to our class, and it's great to see someone who's both very talented and very gracious get some props.


And later on in the evening, Richard King won the Oscar for Sound Editing, for his work on the Dark Knight. I didn't do a sufficient write-up, but the ETEK class saw Richard King -- along with composer Hans Zimmer and music editor Alex Gibson -- at the Egyptian Theater, giving a highly entertaining behind-the-scenes presentation on their sound work for the Batman film. One of the memorable pieces of that evening was a video clip showing King and crew destroying a multiply-miked car with the jaws of life, with obvious glee, to gather the raw material for the various acts of metallic destruction in the movie.

The only bummer -- M.I.A. didn't show up for the best song bit (I was holding out for a hospital bed video feed...)