The Hurt parade (From Bournemouth Echo)

The Hurt parade

8:00am Saturday 6th March 2010 in

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At last month’s BAFTAs, independent film The Hurt Locker surprised the film world by winning six awards on the night, beating multi-million dollar film Avatar to win Best Picture.

One of the six awards bestowed upon the low budget Iraq war thriller was for Best Sound.

Head of Sound Ray Beckett, from Bridport, and Arts University College Bournemouth graduate Simon Bysshe were the two men responsible for all things sound on the film.

Ray was the recipient of the BAFTA award two weeks ago and is currently in America with high hopes he of collecting a second accolade tomorrow.

“Obviously we’re up against a massive blockbuster film in Avatar and the two films are very different in terms of sound – but there is no reason why we can’t win an Oscar to add to the Bafta,” says the sound recordist who has previously worked on various Ken Loach films.

“To have achieved what the film has already achieved is a massive success for a project of this size.

“The money to film it was only raised at the last minute and it nearly didn’t happen – we worked to a very small budget but the efforts of the whole team have meant it is now competing with multi-million dollar films for big prestigious accolades.”

The other member of The Hurt Locker’s two-man sound team was boom operator Simon Bysshe – a graduate of Arts University College Bournemouth’s BA Film Production course.

“We actually did all the filming three years ago and the film’s success has been a bit of a slow burner in terms of critical acclaim,” says Simon who graduated in 2006.

“It was my first proper job after leaving university so I was really lucky to be involved. I was recommended to Ray by a friend of his who I had previously worked with on a small-scale production.

“The main thing I remember about recording on location in Iraq was how hot it was! When I went out there I had no idea what to expect but we were working long days in blistering heat and we had to keep to a very tight schedule.

“Recording good sound was really difficult but I think we did a decent job. I also had to make sure I wasn’t casting shadows with my boom mic or getting it in shot accidentally – it was a tough project but ultimately very rewarding.”