Tim Prebble and His Three Nominations for Best Sound at NZ Film Awards

I consider Tim Prebble a true master of the craft. He is an amazing sound designer and one of the most prolific contributors to this community. This week is New Zealand Film Awards, and guess what! Tim worked as sound designer in the three films nominated for Best Sound in a feature film.

Tim has made an incredible post on his blog, talking about his work on the three films, including audio examples, videos, images, and tons of interesting information. The films are: BOY | Home by Christmas | Under The Mountain

So this week is the New Zealand Film Awards, and while it could appear as blowing my own trumpet (I am nominated as a member of all three groups of finalists for the feature film sound award) I figured maybe its actually better to celebrate the essence of the idea, ie the films themselves, and more importantly the small group of people who made each soundtrack happen.

While the outcome is a great honour and mildly newsworthy, the reality is that the decisions sometimes appear arbitrary; film, thank god/jah/buddha, is not a competitive event, and it is worth bearing that in mind with any awards, no matter how big or small. When I look back over a year (or a decade) at the films I enjoyed most as an audience member, and the films that stayed with me for weeks, months & years, the truth is many/most of them are not populist films. And so, the greatest reward, for me, is in the creative pleasure of collaboration and appreciating the gravity of that feelingat the time – assigning significance in the moment, especially when that ‘moment’ lasts 3 months.

When 2009 drew to a close, my dear friend & co-conspirator/collaborator/dialogue editor-extraordinaire Chris said something along the lines of “we’ll be lucky to have another year like this one” and truer words were never spoken. The more work you do, the more you learn to stop & appreciate when you are up to your neck in a film that is a beautiful, personal expression of its author, and which requires the same of everyone involved: total commitment, and total openness. We had many moments like that in 2009. The three films we are all up for as finalists were ALL like that, each in different ways. And we are all blessed to have been party to them.

Read more…