Paula Fairfield

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Paula Fairfield
Born(1961-09-17)September 17, 1961
OccupationSound editor

Paula Fairfield is a Canadian sound designer, supervising sound editor and re-recording mixer based in Los Angeles. She is best known for her work on the series Game of Thrones, for which she has been nominated for six Emmy Awards (and won in 2015 and 2019).[1] Fairfield has also been nominated for her work on the television series Lovecraft Country, The River and Lost, for which she received three Emmy nominations.[1] In May 2021, she was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from her alma mater, NSCAD University.

Life in Canada[]

Fairfield was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1961[2] and grew up in a nearby town called Bridgewater. She attended college at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University (NSCAD) in the early 1980s studying art history and photography. After graduating with a BFA,[3] she moved to Montreal for two years where she worked as an artist and did a training program at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB)'s Studio D.[4] Fairfield then moved to Toronto where she co-managed Charles Street Video, a non-profit centre run by artists. Her video and film art was exhibited all over the world and resides in several collections including the National Gallery of Canada.[3]

Fairfield worked at SoundDogs, the Toronto-based post production sound company. She said, "I just wandered in one day and they had just lost their effects guy and they took a chance on me. I had a lot to learn, but I loved it."[5] This is where she learned how to edit sound and sound design for television and film.[6]

Life in the United States[]

Fairfield moved to Los Angeles in 1998.[6]

She established her company, Eargasm, Inc, in 2014.[3] She has a studio in her home — a sealed garage with highly insulated walls.[7] The studio is setup for Dolby Atmos and uses PMC monitors and an Avid Pro Tools S6 console.[8] She left Los Angeles for the Coachella Valley after a divorce from her wife and losing her brother, sister and father to cancer.[7] According to The Desert Sun , "the desert’s spirituality and solitude keep her centered as an artist. After an intense day of sound editing, she simply steps out of her studio and into her home space, a quiet desert sanctuary she describes as 'Bliss.'"[7]

She says of her job, “I’m super excited by what I do, which is to create weird sounds.”[4]

Awards and nominations[]

  • Emmy Winner for Outstanding Sound Editing for a Series, Game of Thrones, 2019
  • Emmy Nominee for Outstanding Sound Editing for a Comedy or Drama Series (One Hour) - Game of Thrones, 2018
  • Emmy Nominee for Outstanding Sound Editing for a Series, Game of Thrones: Nominee 2013, 2014, 2016, Lost: Nominee 2007, 2008, 2010
  • Emmy Winner for Outstanding Sound Editing for a Series, Game of Thrones, 2015
  • Emmy Nominee Outstanding Sound Editing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special, The River, 2012
  • Winner Gemini Award for Best Sound in a Dramatic Program or Series, 1996
  • Nominee of Gemini Award for Best Sound Editing, 1996 and 1999
  • 5 MPSE Golden Reel wins and 12 MPSE Golden Reel Nominations
  • In 1996, she was recognized in "Who's Who in Canadian Film and Television"[9]

External links[]

Paula Fairfield at IMDb

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b "Paula Fairfield". Television Academy. Retrieved 2019-02-16.
  2. ^ "Paula Fairfield". www.gallery.ca. Retrieved 2019-02-16.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c "Paula Fairfield, Sound Designer, Eargasm Inc". www.fmx.de. Retrieved 2019-02-16.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b "Paula Fairfield | Sound Artist". AICAD. 2014-11-20. Retrieved 2019-02-16.
  5. ^ Lake, Michael. "The other mother of dragons". The Coast Halifax. Retrieved 2019-02-16.
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b "Canada's Paula Fairfield talks about Emmy nod for 'Game of Thrones' | Globalnews.ca". globalnews.ca. 2014-07-11. Retrieved 2019-02-16.
  7. ^ Jump up to: a b c "'Game of Thrones' sound designer creates in the desert". Desert Sun. Retrieved 2019-02-16.
  8. ^ "Studio Tour : Emmy Winner Paula Fairfield's Dolby Atmos Studio". RSPE. Retrieved 2019-02-16.
  9. ^ Who's Who in Canadian Film and Television. Toronto: Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. 1999. ISBN 978-0771576003. OCLC 671871586.
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