Wylie Stateman (born November 20, 1957) is an American sound director, supervising sound editor, sound designer, and post production media entrepreneur. Stateman has supervised over 150 sound projects, resulting in 9 Academy Award nominations, 6 BAFTA Awards, 3 Primetime Emmy Awards, and over 30 Motion Picture Sound Editor Awards. He also received a Science Technology award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1994 for Audio Track’s Advanced Data Encoding (ADE) System. In 2021 he won an Emmy Award for his sound design in Netflix’s original series The Queen's Gambit.
His creative sound work has included multiple collaborations with Oliver Stone, John Hughes, Quentin Tarantino, Wolfgang Petersen, Herbert Ross, Cameron Crowe, Scott Frank, and Rob Marshall.
Stateman was a co-founder of the post production sound services company SoundeluxAt the Movies; This Summer, Noise Matters The New York Times, 31 July 1998 where he served in a senior executive management capacity involved in the overall operations. Stateman also served as Chairman of the Board for the Soundelux Entertainment Group, a holding company that oversaw 11 entities including The Hollywood Edge (sound effect libraries), Modern Music (music editorial for feature films and television), DMG (computer game design), Mind’s Eye/Jabberwocky (books on tape), and Soundelux Florida (editorial), as well as Soundelux Systems (location-based entertainment systems integrator and installer), and Showorks (original content creator), among others.
Stateman went on to establish 247SND (twenty four seven sound), centered around a Dolby Atmos design studio in Topanga, CA.
Early career influences
1977-78: Professor Mort Rosenfelt was a University of Utah Film School professor who taught Stateman at the very beginning of his career in Park City, UT. When Rosenfelt took a sabbatical from Sunn Classic Pictures, the largest independent producer of content outside of Hollywood during its time, to set up Sunn Classic's post production department and mentored 20 young filmmakers on in-house post production systems. He taught Stateman post production theory and a rapid prototyping approach to problem-solving, whereby students were forced to completely rethink different angles to solve the same problem.
In 1979, Lon Bender met Stateman at Warren Sound West in Hollywood, an early post production sound facility and recording studio. They worked together as young sound editors on a series of films including Coal Miner's Daughter, Wolfin, and Southern Comfort, while incubating their original idea for Soundelux. Their collaboration resulted in the successful development of many companies (identified below).
1982: Craig Harris was an early expert of the Synclavier manufactured by New England Digital Corporation. It was the very first digital synthesizer piano keyboard that performed computer digital audio sequencing. Harris introduced Stateman to the idea of doing digital sound design with music design tools.
1982: Harry Harris was a US importer who introduced to Hollywood the AMS (Advanced Music Systems) Audiofile, one of the first 16-bit hard disk based recording systems dedicated to post production. This tool was the first to move entire editorial works into the digital world. It enabled Stateman to apply his rapid prototyping curiosity and quickly transition from film-based analog creative to digital-based creative workflows on computer hard disks - an avant-garde concept at the time when the largest hard disk available was 180MB and had to be registered with the US government.
1982: Scott Gershin met Stateman during the post production period of Tron. Gershin introduced Stateman to a digital audio workstation called "ADAP", which ran on an Atari computer, a precursor to the personal computer. This exposure encouraged Stateman to further embrace digital audio as a means for creative audio exploration and solidified in his mind the mass market potential of these tools in reaching next generation PCs.
Noteworthy collaborators Stateman has had multiple collaborations with some of the most prolific writer/directors in the motion picture and television industry including:
Oliver Stone — Snowden, Savages, The Untold History of the United States, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, W., World Trade Center, Alexander, Any Given Sunday, Nixon, Natural Born Killers, Heaven & Earth, JFK, The Doors, Born on the Fourth of July, and Talk Radio.
John Hughes — Dennis the Menace, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Curly Sue, Dutch, Only the Lonely, Home Alone, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Uncle Buck, She’s Having a Baby, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
Quentin Tarantino — Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, The Hateful Eight, Django Unchained, Inglourious Basterds, Grindhouse: Death Proof, Kill Bill: Vol. 1, and Kill Bill: Vol. 2.
Wolfgang Petersen — Das Boot (American Director's Cut), The Perfect Storm, Air Force One, Outbreak, In the Line of Fire, Shattered, Troy, and Poseidon.
Herbert Ross — Steel Magnolias, Footloose, Protocol, Secret of My Success, and Dancers.
Cameron Crowe — Almost Famous and Jerry Maguire.
Scott Frank — A Walk Among the Tombstones and Godless.
Rob Marshall — Nine and Memoirs of a Geisha.
Awards and nominations Wylie Stateman has been nominated for 9 Academy Awards, 6 BAFTA Awards (1 win), more than 30 Motion Picture Sound Editors Awards (4 wins), 2 Emmy Awards, and two Satellite Awards.
Academy Awards 2020: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Best Sound Editing) – Nominated 2017: Deepwater Horizon (Best Sound Editing) – Nominated 2014: Lone Survivor (Best Sound Editing) – Nominated 2013: Django Unchained (Best Sound Editing) – Nominated 2010: Inglourious Basterds (Best Sound Editing) – Nominated 2009: Wanted (Best Sound Editing) – Nominated 2006: Memoirs of a Geisha (Best Sound Editing) – Nominated 1994: Cliffhanger (Best Sound Effects Editing) – Nominated 1990: Born on the Fourth of July (Best Sound) – Nominated
BAFTA Awards 2017: Deepwater Horizon (Best Sound) – Nominated 2013: Django Unchained (Best Sound) – Nominated 2004: Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (Best Sound) – Nominated 2002: Shrek (Best Sound) – Nominated 2001: The Perfect Storm (Best Sound) – Nominated 1993: JFK (Best Sound) – Won
Motion Picture Sound Editors - Golden Reel Award 2020: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Best Sound Editing – Sound Effects and Foley) – Nominated 2020: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Best Sound Editing – Dialogue and Automated Dialogue Replacement) – Nominated 2018: Godless (Best Sound Editing – Sound Effects and Foley) – Won 2017: Deepwater Horizon (Best Sound Editing – Sound Effects and Foley) – Nominated 2014: Lone Survivor (Best Sound Editing – Sound Effects and Foley) – Nominated 2014: Lone Survivor (Best Sound Editing – Dialogue and Automated Dialogue Replacement) – Nominated 2013: Django Unchained (Best Sound Editing – Sound Effects and Foley) – Nominated 2010: Inglourious Basterds (Best Sound Editing – Dialogue and Automated Dialogue Replacement) – WonMPSE Announces Winners of 2010 Golden Reel Awards, Staff Report, Mix Magazine, 22 February 2010 2009: Wanted (Best Sound Editing – Sound Effects and Foley) – Nominated 2007: World Trade Center (Best Sound Editing – Sound Effects and Foley) – Nominated 2007: World Trade Center (Best Sound Editing – Dialogue and Automated Dialogue Replacement) – Nominated 2006: Memoirs of a Geisha (Best Sound Editing – Dialogue and Automated Dialogue Replacement) – Won 2006: Memoirs of a Geisha (Best Sound Editing – Sound Effects and Foley) – Nominated 2005: Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (Best Sound Editing – Sound Effects and Foley) – Nominated 2005: Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (Best Sound Editing – Dialogue and Automated Dialogue Replacement) – Nominated 2005: Troy (Best Sound Editing in Foreign Features) – Nominated 2004: Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (Best Sound Editing – Sound Effects and Foley) – Nominated 2003: We Were Soldiers (Best Sound Editing – Sound Effects and Foley) – Nominated 2002: Shrek (Best Sound Editing - Animated Feature Film, Domestic and Foreign) – Nominated 2001: The Perfect Storm (Best Sound Editing – Sound Effects and Foley) – Nominated 2000: For Love of the Game (Best Sound Editing – Dialogue and Automated Dialogue Replacement) – Nominated 1990: Born on the Fourth of July (Best Sound Editing – Sound Effects) – Won The Association of Motion Picture Sound (AMPS) 2017: Deepwater Horizon (Excellence in Sound for a Feature Film) – Nominated 2016: The Hateful Eight (Excellence in Sound for a Feature Film) – Nominated
Emmy Awards 2021: The Queen's Gambit: End Game'' (Outstanding Sound Editing for a Limited or Anthology Series, Movie or Special) – Won 2018: Godless: Homecoming (Outstanding Sound Editing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Special) – Nominated 1985: Space: Part 5 (Outstanding Film Sound Editing for a Limited Series or a Special) – Nominated
Satellite Awards 2020: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Best Sound) – Nominated 2004: Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (Best Sound) – Nominated
Entrepreneur In addition to his creative work, Stateman has been an active entrepreneur in sound-related businesses having founded, purchased, merged and/or managed over 30 corporate entities spanning post production services; sound effects libraries publishing; music post production services; video game post production; cinema facilities design, production and distribution; entertainment park design and production; software development for digital delivery systems; and more. Many of his endeavors were co-founded with his long-time partner, Lon Bender, as well as managed and/or developed alongside a team of executives who continue to serve as leaders of major Hollywood studios and post production facilities today.
1982: Soundelux: Soundelux became the most valuable independent audio post-production company in the entertainment industry.West L.A. Music Delivers 104 Pro Tools Systems to Liberty Livewire, 18 September 2001 At its peak, the company generated more than $120M in revenue, managed over 500 employees, and operated facilities in Hollywood, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Orlando, and London. 1984: Audio Tracks: Founded by Stateman, Bender, and Kim Waugh, Audio Tracks focused on top quality 35mm transfers and sound reprints. The company developed a transfer process branded ADE (Advanced Data Encoding), a system that enabled film-based production processes to interface with digital-based post production processes. ADE was the first system to create computerized edit decision lists (CMX) from manually assembled 35mm picture editor work tracks and allow a 35mm picture editor’s work track to interface with electronic digital audio editing. The ADE System won an Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences Academy Scientific and Technical Award in 1994. 1988: The Hollywood Edge: This company become known as the largest worldwide publisher and distributor of high-quality sound effects with a sound library that included over 75 multiple disc collections, 5,000 hours of content, 400,000 original tracks, and 5.5 million sound assets. The company was sold in 2014 during the Todd-Soundelux bankruptcy liquidation by Empire Investment Holdings. 1992: Soundelux Media Labs: Founded by Stateman, Bender and Scott Gershin, this company supplied sound design, voice over casting, and music composition to the interactive entertainment industry, with particular emphasis on video games, commercials, new media, and experience-based environments. The entity was later renamed Soundelux Design Music Group and ultimately merged with Pacific Ocean Post (POP Sound).