We congratulate alumna Gwendolyn Whittle, who was nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Best Achievement in Sound Editing for her work on James Cameron’s Avatar. The 1979 graduate has already won numerous awards for such films as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Cloverfield, Iron Man, Munich, Saving Private Ryan, and Titanic.

Whittle recently participated in an interview conducted entirely on Facebook. The interview was part of an online senior elective, Reel Narrative, taught by Ben Joplin, chair of our English Department. Whittle told students what it was like to go from Sem to working at George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch. “I credit Sem with laying the groundwork for a lot of my self-confidence – which you need in the film world.” A graduate of New York University, she initially had no idea what kind of job she wanted. She moved to San Francisco and involved herself in so many activities that when an assistant editing job came along, she threw herself headlong into it. “You've got to keep your ears and eyes open,” she advised the students, “Say ‘Yes’ if you think you can do any part of the job.”

It took her many years, but a lot of hard work finally earned her a key position at George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch. Her favorite part of the job is to oversee the recording of actors’ dialogue: “I like the word departments best. I love working with the actors and the directors, especially watching them interact. On low-budget films and documentaries, I have cut everything from foley to sound effects. On bigger pictures, I work with some fantastic sound designers: Ben Burtt, Chris Boyes, Gary Rydstrom, and Randy Thom, to name a few. For Avatar I loved working with the Na'vi language and the translating of all the extra crowd dialogue in the film with the inventor of the language, Paul Frommer.”

Whittle used a quote from one of her films to stress the importance of taking risks and pursuing dreams. “As Benjamin Button says: ‘It's never too late, or too early to be whoever you want to be. There's no time limit, start whenever you want, you can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing… I hope you live a life you're proud of, and if you find you're not, pick yourself up and start all over again.’"

Click here for the full interview with Gwendolyn Whittle.

For a list of her awards, click here.

To learn more about sound editing and other technical Oscars, click here.