Who Is Mary H. Ellis? Wiki, Sound Designer, Net Worth, 'Prisoners' & Facts To Know

While Mary H. Ellis has worked on films like Goosebumps, Zombieland, Dumb and Dumber Two, and The Darkest Minds, nothing was like working on Baby Driver. First, editor Paul Machliss worked on set and all of the sounds were chosen and edited before production of the film began. This was because all of the timing of each moment needed to align with the sounds. Because the main character has an issue with ringing in the ear, he's always playing music through earbuds in the film, requiring a total of 32 songs. The choice to choreograph the music to all of the action and even the dialogue in the movie created this interesting challenge and ultimately an Oscar-nominated sound result.

Aside from being an Oscar 2018 nominee for Best Achievement in Sound Mixing for Baby Driver, Mary Ellis has 3 awards and 9 other nominations. She won the 2018 Association of Motion Picture Sound (AMPS) for Excellence in Sound for a Feature Film for her work on Baby Driver. In addition, she won the International Online Cinema Award (INOCA) for Best Sound Mixing for Baby Driver in 2017. She has also won an Emmy in 2005 for Outstanding Single-Camera Sound Mixing for a Miniseries or Movie for her work on Warm Springs. She has received nominations for an Academy Award, Emmy, BAFTA, AMPS, Awards Circuit Community Award, Cinema Audio Society, Gold Derby Award, INOCA, and Online Film & Television Association.

Since 1987, Mary H. Ellis has worked on over 60 feature films and television series, ranging from Goosebumps to Zombieland to Dumb and Dumber To. She's also worked on Prisoners, The Darkest Minds and the Oscar 2018 three-time nominee Baby Driver. Her sound designer career has also included television series such as Revolution, October Road, and Savannah.

In looking at IMDb credits and reading interviews and articles, it seems sound credentials can range from Sound Designer to Sound Editor to Sound Mixer, all for the same person. In distinguishing these titles, it's important to note that a Sound Designer creates the sounds, a Sound Editor gathers a magnitude of sounds together and Sound Mixers compile them all together for a film. It is easy to see how one person can blur those lines, given their involvement with the rest of their team. Sound teams for films can climb to upwards of 30 people who compile over 2,000 sounds into the movie. According to George Lucas, sound amounts for 50% of the movie, but most sound people do not get the credit they deserve.