Tom Varga is pictured here on set for “The Trial of the Chicago 7” in 2019. (Provided photo — Thomas Varga)

LAKE PLACID — An Aaron Sorkin movie that’s currently nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, has two Lake Placid connections.

Two men – Thomas Varga and James Appleton — make up two-thirds of the sound department on “The Trial of the Chicago 7.” They both grew up in Lake Placid and graduated from Lake Placid High School, but they didn’t know each other during their childhoods here. Each had dreams of leaving the Adirondacks and finding something bigger in the entertainment world. Both went off to college with the goal of getting into the film and TV industry.

Their similarities — both their roots and the part of the industry they work in — brought them together later in life. Appleton said they met for a drink one day, formed a friendship and they’ve been working together ever since.

“Tom and I have probably done about a dozen movies together now and some other small jobs,” Appleton said.

Varga, a sound mixer, and Appleton, a boom operator also in sound utility, are responsible for the sounds you hear in “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” which can be seen on Netflix. Not the music, but the actors’ dialogue and other atmospheric sounds. Appleton used the opening and closing of a car door as an example. The sound department is responsible for recording those sounds.

Tom Varga and James Appleton are pictured here in front of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington. (Provided photo — Thomas Varga)

“The Trial of the Chicago 7” is based on the true story of eight activists who were brought to court by the federal government in 1969 following anti-war protests during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The government accused the “Conspiracy Eight” — Black Panther Party co-founder Bobby Seale, Youth International Party co-founders Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, activists David Dellinger and John Froines, National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam members Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis and Lee Weiner — of intending to incite a riot. Seale, who had only been in Chicago briefly and hadn’t met some of the others named in the case until appearing in the courtroom, was separated from the case about a month into the trial, but only after being literally bound and gagged in the courtroom after repeatedly objecting because he didn’t have legal representation present. The government didn’t retry the charges against him. Without Seale, that left the “Chicago Seven.”

On a typical day, Varga and Appleton were on set between 12 to 14 hours. The movie was filmed partially in Chicago and partially in a church basement in New Jersey, which was outfitted to look like a courtroom. The movie presented some unique challenges, according to Appleton. It had a large cast, and many of the scenes feature several actors with dialogue.

“We had to put microphones on each person. There’s just so much to do,” Appleton said. “But that’s what we do for work.”

This project required advance preparation. Due to the number of people involved in the scenes, Varga built a new audio cart for this movie while working on a different movie, “The Woman in the Window” with Amy Adams.

“The script was so good, it was Aaron Sorkin and the cast was incredible,” Varga said. “It was one of those things where you had to dive into this no matter what the cost or how challenging it may be. You just have to jump in … because you might not get a chance like this again. So I did it.”

Varga said everyone involved in the movie was “really excited about it.”

“Scripts like this don’t come along all that frequently,” Varga said. “We really believed in the script. It was a great experience, and we did a great job.”

There’s one particular scene in the movie that struck a chord with Varga. In it, Abbie Hoffman, played by Sacha Baron Cohen, can be heard recounting a moment where he, Jerry Rubin and Tom Hayden were surrounded by police in front of the glass storefront window of a bar. Inside the bar, there was an elitist, politically connected crowd that Hoffman saw as still living in the 1950s. Outside, the 1960s were unfolding. Hoffman recalls seeing police take off their badges and name tags before pushing the group of activists through the bar window.

For Varga, it was a reminder that “change comes hard in our country.”

“America wasn’t really ready for progressive ideas,” he said. “Anti-war sentiment was looked down upon.”

Varga said he saw the movie as showing that you can make a difference by doing things that are, hopefully, going to benefit the common good of humanity.

“The movie just struck a chord with me,” he said. “I felt it was a project I needed to be a part of.”

Seeing the movie be nominated for numerous awards — his sound department has also been nominated for a Cinema Audio Society award — has been “incredibly exciting and rewarding,” Varga said.

“We put so much of our heart into making it the best picture it could be,” he said.

For Varga, this isn’t the first time he’s been involved with a film that’s garnered honors. He was nominated for an Oscar in 2015 for his work on “Birdman,” and he won an Emmy in 2016 for his work on “Mozart in the Jungle.”

Leaving Lake Placid and entering the film and TV industry took some work, but Varga and Appleton made it happen.

“When I turned 18, I basically just wanted to get out of there,” Varga said. “It’s such a small town. Even though I love the woods … I didn’t see a lot of opportunity there.”

Despite the both of them wanting to get away and see the world when they were young, time has brought them back to the Adirondacks. Varga lives in Jay, and Appleton lives in Lake Placid.

Appleton said the more time he spent in cities, the more he grew to appreciate where he grew up. He eventually founded the Lake Placid 9r hiking challenge.

“As a kid, you just want to get out of here and get to something bigger and better,” he said. “And after some time, you just say, man, I want to get back to the woods. I want to get back to the High Peaks and do what I like to do.”

The 93rd Academy Awards will air live on ABC starting at 8 p.m. Sunday, April 25. The 57th annual Cinema Audio Society Awards will be held Saturday, April 17 in Los Angeles.