Paula Fairfield’s social media bios run along the lines of “Artist. Seeker of Sounds. Mother of dogs and the occasional dragon. Lover of pizza and flip-flops.”
Sounds like a pretty good work-life balance for someone who worked on Game of Thrones.
The Bridgewater native is an Emmy Award-winning sound designer who’s contributed to a lengthy list of film and television projects throughout her career, but it’s the recently concluded HBO medieval fantasy series that always gets the most attention. For 53 episodes of the hit series, Fairfield created the sometimes supernatural sounds on Game of Thrones, including, yes, the dragons.
“I’ve not been through this as a sound designer,” Fairfield said during an interview Friday at NSCAD University.
“It’s lovely people are so enthralled with it. It’s crazy. It’s overwhelming really.”
She manipulates natural or created sounds with computer assistance to come up with a range of emotional cues, including the anguished blood-curdling screech of an immense fire-breathing beast.
While fans quickly took to the internet to criticize many elements of the series as it concluded, sound design didn’t get much flak.
“You know, I’ve had some shoutouts from people who said they really enjoyed it, and that was lovely,” said Fairfield, 57.
She attributed much of the griping to human nature.
“Some of that is, I believe, a bit of anticipatory grief. Now it’s over and people take some time to look back on it, they might feel a little bit different over it and perhaps start to look at how the costuming is beautiful, the sets are gorgeous, the photography is amazing, the visual effects, everything.
“We worked really hard on the sound, to craft something extraordinary. People have kind of noticed, but they’ve been really wrapped up in their large grief over the end of the show.”
Throughout her career, she’s worked on high-profile productions, but Game of Thrones got big at a different time.
“I was on Lost, which was huge, but this, at this place and time and the world we’re in right now, there’s just so much anxiety and stuff and Twitter and Instagram, that machine was not in place when Lost ended and The Sopranos ended.”
Fairfield has been based in California for about 20 years. She said most of her work takes place on a souped-up Mac with a vast library of recorded sounds that she’s been building for years. She has captured the essence of many potentially endangered animals, and that’s come in handy.
“There are many, many sounds in the dragon voices, at this point,” Fairfield said.
“The screeches you hear are from critically endangered, disappearing species, vocalizing the painful death of a mystical, mythical being; it’s a beautiful metaphor.
“I keep saying, if you love the dragons, then consider the animals that went into making the dragons and what we are doing to them.”
Fairfield was in Halifax to give a presentation at NSCAD, coincidentally in the room where she got her degree 35 years ago.
“I got so much of the basis for the work that I do now from this place. My world opened up when I walked through these doors.
“I didn’t study sound or film, I’m self taught in that regard, but conceptual thinking, thinking like an artist, that’s what I got from this place.”
Fairfield has garnered nine Emmy nominations and one win, for her work on Game of Thrones. During her career in high-concept sound design, she’s worked with filmmakers like Robert Rodriguez, Brian DePalma and Darren Aronofsky.
She’s been working on Netflix’s upcoming Wu Assassins and will also debut an immersive sound commission, Ocean of Tears, later this year.
But if you only remember her for Game of Thrones, that’s fine, though she’s not going to stop working.
“Love it or hate it, it’s in everyone’s psyche and everyone’s talking about it. That’s a pretty special thing.
“I will always be forever grateful to the show and extremely proud of its magnificence, so I don’t mind being associated with it from now to the end of my days. But I very much look forward to working with lots of cool people and lots of cool projects. That’s my desire.”
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