Oscar On Mars: How Sound Editing And Mixing Flesh Out A Movie's World

Part three of our special four-part series, “Oscar on Mars.”

We're exploring the art of filmmaking by taking a look at one film, "The Martian," and why it was nominated for seven different Academy Awards.

Do we like "The Martian"? Yes. Do we think it's going to win on Sunday night? Who knows! But, as with any complex human endeavor, it's been fascinating to see how all the pieces fit together to make something beautiful.

On Monday, we talked about the visual effects wizardry that went into creating the Martian landscape.

"It was done on a lot of green screen, but there were big landscapes that were done in the Jordan desert that also had to be heavily manipulated with visual effects to make it work," Sean Devereaux told us, he's co-owner, VFX supervisor and creative director at ZeroFX.

Wednesday, we talked about screenplay and the delicate task of turning "The Martian," the book, into "The Martian," the movie.

"You know, it's a 400 page book, and as it was it was a two hour and 20 minute movie, so you have to make tough choices," Debbie Danielpour Chapel told us. She's an assistant film professor at Boston University, where she teaches "Writing the Fiction to Film Adaptation." "As a screenwriter, you're going to have a producer over your shoulder saying, we only have X number of dollars. If you cut out that long voyage, will your story still sing?"

Now, we're tackling sound mixing and sound editing with Brian McKeever, senior audio post production mixer at Soundtrack Boston.

Brian McKeever, senior audio post production mixer at Soundtrack Boston. He tweets @MKVR.

Radio Boston: Oscar On Mars: What Makes For A Great Fiction To Film Adaptation?

Radio Boston: Oscar On Mars: Behind The ‘Invisible’ Visual Effects Of ‘The Martian’