No “Best Score” Oscar for the Dark Knight
Saturday, November 15th, 2008
Chances are, if you went to see a movie this summer, you probably saw the Dark Knight. It is, in my opnion, an extremely well crafted film from start to finish, and that includes the score within the film.
Problem is, while Dark Knight will at LEAST be nominated for a slew of Oscars (Best Supporting Actor and on), it will NOT be nominated for “Best Score.” Why? There were too many people involved with it.
There were five people involved with the score: Hans Zimmer (duh), James Newton Howard, music editor Alex Gibson, ambient music designer Mel Wesson, and composer Lorne Balfe.
The five above signed an affadavit citing that Zimmer and Howard were the two primary composers. But by adding Gibson, Wesson, and Balfe to the cue sheet, Zimmer and Howard ensured that all would recieve royalties acrued from the use of the score. However, the downside is, according to the Academy, there were too many people involved directly with the score thus disqualifying it from the Oscar nod for “Best Score.”
I wasn’t able to find out exactly how many people can be involved on a score while still keeping their work in contention for the Oscar, but from what I gather anything more than two is generally frowned upon by the Academy.
This wasn’t the first time in recent memory a score has been DQ’d: There Will Be Blood was unable to recive a “Best Score” nod due to the use of some pre-composed material within the score.
The moral of the story: by Zimmer and Newton not being total dicks and including the core crew invovled with the score, they ruined their chances of a “Best Score” Oscar this year. Oh well.