Bridgewater-native wins early Emmy for ‘Game of Thrones’ work
Posted Sep 18, 2015 08:09:12 AM.
Last Updated Sep 18, 2015 08:18:05 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The main awards are being handed out Sunday, but one Nova Scotian is already an Emmy winner.
Bridgewater-native Paula Fairfield has won an early Emmy for best sound editing for a ‘Game of Thrones’ episode that featured a massive fight scene with the supernatural White Walkers.
“A lot of people are unaware that film and TV, when they film it on location, it does not sound the way you hear it on TV or in the theatre,” she explained.
Fairfield told NEWS 95.7, her job is often to come up with sounds no one has ever heard before.
“When you have anything creature-like, it’s not just one sound,” she explained. “Like the dragons for instance, that has been unique in that every year they have to grow, the sound design has to grow each year and transform.”
She said the goal is to figure out how the producer wants the viewer to feel when they hear, see or experience a certain scene.
“Sometimes it’s a lot of trial and error but in the case of the ice zombies, what was involved was a human element because they were once human, an icy element because they are now icy and devoid of life, they must crackle and screech,” Fairfield said.
Fairfield started working in film sound in 1993 in Toronto, moving to Los Angeles in 1998.
The NSCAD alum said she mostly works alone, recording, creating and combining sounds
She said a lot of her inspiration comes from stopping and listening to her surrounding environment.
This is Fairfield’s first Emmy win, she’s been nominated twice before for her ‘Game of Thrones’ work, and has also received previous nods for the her work on the ABC shows ‘The River’, and ‘Lost’.
