While most sound facilities focus on either music production or post production, Sound & Motion has continued its tradition of embracing both art forms for many years by garnering an award for Best Alternative Album at the 19th Annual SAMA Awards as well as Rising Star at the Short Shorts Tokyo Film Festival.

Music

At the SAMA Awards in May, Iscream and The Chocolate Stix won the Best Alternative Album for The Paradox, which featured the mixing and mastering skills of Simon “Fuzzy’ Ratcliffe (not to mention some guest flute!) with additional engineering by Matthew James.

The band had this to say: “Your mad mix and mastering skills certainly played a big part in the SAMA outcome, so a big thank you!’

The album was produced by Daniel Caleb Matthee (Pressure Cooker Studios), who along with Sound & Motion and his partner James Matthes also won the SAFTA for sound last year (Retribution.)

This is the studio’s 5th SAMA nomination and 2nd win (having won the 2007 Best Alternative Album award for Lark’s “Razbliuto’) and comes on the back of a 2013 MK AWARD, for Haezer Feat. Lark, recorded and mastered at the facility.

POST

On the Film Front, Loot by Greg Rom (Gentlemen Films) received the 2013 Rising Star Award (aka the Moet Award) at the “Short Shorts’ Film Festival in Tokyo in June. This short film has already done well for itself, having won a New York Short Film Festival Audience Choice Award, Best Narrative at the One Screen Film Festival, Special Mention at the 23° Edizione Festival Cinema Africano and a SAFTA Nomination for Best Short Film. It is still to officially premier in South Africa.

All the audio from the orchestral score through to the cinema surround final mix and sound design was done between the Cape Town and Johannesburg branches of Sound & Motion, under the watchful custodianship of Richard West, James Olivier and Simon Ratcliffe.

Said Greg Rom: “…I really need to thank every one of the talented humans at Sound & Motion Studios for their unwavering commitment to the film. Besides for bringing talent, hard work and creative input to the post process, their perseverance really added that extra bit the film needed to be just right. For this, I am truly grateful.’

This comes soon after the amazing news that Bench Film’s production PAST.TENSE, winner of the Cape Town leg of the 48 Hour Film Project, had placed 3rd World Wide in their category in Los Angeles. Sound & Motion is proud to have been Post Audio Facilitator on this project and to have extended the invitation to our CityVaristy interns and 3rd years to strut their stuff! Special thanks to Richard West, James Olivier of Sound & Motion Joburg and the composition team at Orangotang Music for the successes of the JHB leg, with no less than 2 wins and 3 nominations.

Sound & Motion Recent Accolades and Nominations since March last year include:

• 2013 “Rising Star’ Award for Loot, Short Shorts Film Fest, Tokyo

• 2013 SAMA Award for Best Alternative Album, “The Paradox’

• 2013 Mk-Award for Lark/Haezer “Brave’

• Won SAFTA 2012 Award for Best Sound Design for a Feature, Retribution, with Pressure Cooker Studios

• Nominated for SAFTA 2013 for Best Short Film for Loot (with Gentlemen)

• Awarded Encounters Film Festival Audience Choice Award 2012 for The African Cypher, as Sound & Motion Studios (With Fly On The Wall)

• Awarded Durban Int. Film Fest. Jury Award, 2012 for The African Cypher, as Sound & Motion Studios (With Fly On The Wall)

• Awarded New York Short Film Festival 2012 Programme Award & One Screen Film Festival award for Loot as Sound & Motion Studios (with Gentlemen Films)

• Audience Choice Award for the 48 Hour Film Project (Joburg) and audio

• facilitator for Bench Films 48 Hour Film Project (Cape Town) which came 3rd place World Wide in LA.