Hoping to Strike Oscar Gold

Local Sound Designer Paul Ottosson Is Up for ‘Zero Dark Thirty’

While most of the world will be watching the Academy Awards at home or at parties, Palisadian Paul Ottosson and his wife, Karen Han, will be at the Dolby Theatre for Hollywood’s biggest night.   They won’t just be in attendance; Paul is up for his third Oscar, this year for Best Sound Editing for ‘Zero Dark Thirty.’ He previously won Oscars in 2010 for Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing for ‘The Hurt Locker.’   Ottosson, a native of Lonsboda, Sweden, never set out for a career in the movie business. He came to L.A. in 1987 when he was the keyboardist in a Swedish rock band, SadWings, and has stayed here ever since.   Early in Ottosson’s career he worked on music videos, video games, trailers and commercials, including a 2-1/2-minute one for Chanel.   A sound designer, supervising sound editor and re-recording mixer, Ottosson has worked in film and television for nearly two decades, and won an Emmy Award in 1998 for sound editing for the ‘Rats’ episode of ‘National Geographic Explorer.’ He is currently the sound supervisor and sound designer for director Roland Emmerich’s ‘White House Down,’ now in post-production.   In the early 2000’s, even without vast experience to back him up, Ottosson refused to team up with someone else for sound editing for ‘Spider-Man 2,’ Sony’s biggest grossing picture to date. Producer Laura Ziskin finally agreed, and Ottosson went on to win receive his first Oscar nomination. He has had subsequent nominations from various organizations, including the Motion Picture Sound Editors and BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts).   When Ziskin produced the 2007 Academy Awards, she called upon Ottosson to produce a segment. He came up with the creative idea of having a choir sing the sound effects from the nominated movies. The segment was a big success.   ’Zero Dark Thirty’ marks Ottosson’s second time working with director Kathryn Bigelow. ‘I think you tend to work with the same people because it has a lot to do with trust,’ he says. ‘You understand what they like, and what they don’t like. I think when you get to this level in moviemaking you get hired because they appreciate your talents.’   The film is about the hunt for Osama bin Laden, and posed its own challenges in sound editing. ‘A lot of other movies, like the big action movies, have a lot of music that drives across all these scenes. And it’s a lot easier, because you only cover the highlights,’ Ottosson says. ‘I didn’t have that chance with ‘Zero Dark Thirty.’ I had to build up the depth far greater to be able to work with emotional peaks and valleys like music would do, but I have to do that with the sound effects and the sound editorial and in mixing this movie. I think it’s really different from the competition in those categories.’ The typical moviegoer may not realize how sound enhances a movie. For sound editing, Ottosson and his staff must get sound from various takes and make it all seem seamless. ‘It’s a lot trickier than you might think because there are different angles and different performances,’ he says. A good take may be ruined because there is an unexpected sound elsewhere.   Sound effects are more obvious, but may not always be what they seem. For the stealth helicopters in ‘Zero Dark Thirty,’ he couldn’t get access to the real thing because of military restrictions, so he mixed the sounds of different helicopters together to give the rich sound of the stealth. ‘We build a little bigger to enhance things. I do that to make it exciting for the purpose of the movie.’   Sound mixing is when you ‘take all the sound and make the end product you hear in theaters.’ This includes effects, Foley, music and more. He gives an example: pouring water in a cup’hot water will sound different from cold. That’s the kind of detail he pays attention to every day. ‘Sound carries a lot of weight, even subconsciously,’ Ottosson says.   His duties include both creative and economic aspects. Deadlines and budgets must be considered along with imaginative ways to get the work done. Ottosson clearly loves what he does and enjoys working with people who are equally passionate. Some of his employees come in on the weekends, unpaid, just because they have an idea and want to work on it. ‘When you do something you love you always try to be better at it,’ he says.   Since most Palisadians will never experience winning an Academy Award (with notable exceptions) and giving a thank you speech in front of the entire known universe, Ottosson explains what this unique experience is like.   ’I was nominated for ‘Spider-Man 2.’ That year they invited all the nominees onto the stage. I told a friend who was next to me, ‘I think I might have a heart attack.’ My chest was hurting so badly, my hands were ice cold, I was sweating and I thought, ‘I’m not going to make it.”   The next time, when he was up for two Oscars for ‘The Hurt Locker,’ Ottosson practiced what he wanted to say in his head about ‘1,000 times.’ He was nervous in the audience until intermission, when a fellow nominee in the same category told Ottosson he deserved to win. This relaxed him, while his wife became increasingly nervous, finally overcome with tears when her husband was called to the stage to accept his award.   ’A friend of mine had won an Oscar before and he told me, ‘If you win, remember when you come up to the microphone, take a big breath and you’re going to be fine,” Ottosson recalls. ‘Literally, like in movies, everything just went quiet. I didn’t hear what was going on. I saw people applauding. I started to talk, but I didn’t hear what I was saying. I saw all these actors and actresses and directors and producers in front of me, and half of them I grew up watching their movies and stuff, and they’re sitting there listening to me talking.’ He did remember to take that deep breath before he began speaking.   Shortly thereafter, he returned to the stage for his second award. Han thinks her husband might be ‘the only person to win two Oscars in two minutes.’   Han is from Bengbu, a small city in China. She is an Er-Hu virtuoso, and has played all over the world and on many motion picture soundtracks. The Er-Hu is an ancient Chinese stringed instrument that has some similarities to a violin.   When the couple came to look at a house in the Palisades, they were sold before they even saw it; seeing families walking around outside was just the kind of environment they were looking for, something they didn’t have in the Hollywood Hills. They moved here in 2011, and their son Theo, 5, attends Village School. Ottosson had only been to the Palisades once, 25 years earlier, at a party at his friend Trevor Docherty’s parents’ home where, Ottosson says, ‘It was the first time I had grilled shrimp on a barbecue.’   Whether it was playing music in rock bands or working on feature films, sounds clearly dominate Ottosson’s world. He even takes recording equipment along when the family goes on vacation. ‘Cities have specific sounds and countries have specific sounds,’ he says. He has collected a huge arsenal of sounds, including the ocean recorded down the street from his home’just in case. ‘I end up thinking about sound more than what is probably healthy and normal,’ he says.   For Ottosson, bad sound editing examples include when things are too flashy, too dominant and when what is being said doesn’t match the actors’ mouths. It needs to be complementary, he says, but ‘it shouldn’t be noticeable.’ As for winning this year, Ottosson says, ‘If we get awarded again that is fantastic, but if we don’t it is truly a great honor just to be nominated and to be a part of a very small club of people.’ He is exceedingly modest about his success. ‘It’s a very humbling experience,’ Ottosson says about winning an Academy Award.   If he does win, the Oscar will be for Theo because, as the youngster says, they already have ‘one for mommy and one for daddy.’