Hackenbacker Nominated For British Academy Television Craft Awards 2011

Hackenbacker Audio Post Production has been nominated for this year's British Academy Television Craft Awards in the Best Sound Drama category.
Indeed, the London-based facility has two nominations in this category - for its work on ITV's major costume drama series, Downton Abbey, which aired on ITV1 in the Autumn of 2010, and for Any Human Heart, a four-part mini series that was shown on Channel 4 last November and December.
Nigel Heath, Hackenbacker's Founder and Director, who was a prime part of the mixing team on both projects, said: "We are delighted to be nominated for two British Academy Awards for our work on Downton Abbey and Any Human Heart. We are especially proud to be part of such an esteemed list of nominees who, in turn, are great examples of talented and dedicated practitioners in the art of sound for television."
Downton Abbey and Any Human Heart have each received five nomination for British Academy Television Craft Awards, which recognise the contribution made by people working behind the scenes to create great television. The awards will be presented on May 8 at The Brewery in London.
Downton Abbey, a Carnival Films/MASTERPIECE co-production, was set in an Edwardian country house in 1912 and portrayed the lives of the Crawley family and the servants who work for them during the period from the sinking of the Titanic to the outbreak of the First World War.
Series Producer Liz Trubridge, whose previous productions include From Time to Time and A Short Stay in Switzerland, said: "We went to Hackenbacker with Downton Abbey on the strong recommendation of our Executive Producer and Managing Director of Carnival, Gareth Neame. I was delighted we came to that decision. It is always gratifying, with increasingly tight schedules, when the people we work with are willing to go the extra mile but I found the team at Hackenbacker did that and more… much more. The professionalism of Nigel and his team was both impressive and reassuring and their ingenuity in solving problems meant that I often only found out about them after they had all been sorted or were well on their way to being so."
Carnival Film's much anticipated adaptation of William Boyd's best selling epic novel Any Human Heart featured an all-star cast including Jim Broadbent, Matthew Macfadyen, Kim Cattrall, Gillian Anderson, Tom Hollander, Natasha Little, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Ed Stoppard and Samuel West.
Director Michael Samuels said: "Any Human Heart was the third time I had worked at Hackenbacker and as with my other experiences it was creatively thrilling and hugely enjoyable. Right from the start of the project I wanted to work with a sound team that would rise to the ambition of the project. Nigel and his team embraced the extremely tight schedule and showed the highest level of commitment and inventiveness, and what's more we had a lot of fun! The end result was four beautifully mixed films that have brought out everything I had hoped for."
Hackenbacker has won numerous awards for the quality of its audio post production and is renowned for helping productions come alive sonically. Over the past 25 years, the company has tackled numerous film and television projects including such notable productions as Spooks, Hustle, Life On Mars, Hotel Babylon, Criminal Justice, Four Lions, In Bruges and Is Anybody There?
(KMcA)