LAURIN-PRATTE, PROCUNIER ARE TOP WINNERS IN SOCAN FOUNDATION AWARDS FOR A-V COMPOSERS

Toronto, July 14, 2014 –The SOCAN Foundation today announced 10 recipients of the fourth annual SOCAN Foundation Awards for Young Audio-visual Composers.
This year’s competition attracted 54 entries, awarding $21,000 to 10 prizewinners. “This is a unique competition, the only one of its kind in Canada,” said Rick MacMillan, Manager, SOCAN Foundation. “It offers us an excellent opportunity to spotlight the many talented composers working in Canada’s vibrant film and television industries, including this year’s multiple prize-winners, Vincent Laurin-Pratte and Erica Procunier.”
The SOCAN Foundation Awards for Young Audio-visual Composers recognize Canadian composers 30 years of age and under for specific musical works in four categories of music created exclusively for audio-visual support (film, TV, Internet). The competition was judged by a jury of three prominent media composers: Derek Treffry of Toronto, Michel Cusson of Montreal and Hal Beckett of Vancouver.
The jury members praised Laurin-Pratte’s silent-film style score for The Fatal Sip, which won the $3,000 first prize in the Fiction category. “The score-to-picture is excellent,” says Beckett, “hitting all the moments and straddling the line between comedy and melodrama. And very skillful orchestrated.”
Laurin-Pratte also captured first prize in the Animated category, for the film John Doe, which incorporates crude, two-dimensional cutout figures in a live-action environment. “One of the most common mistakes is to over-compose and do way more than is necessary, to the detriment of the overall package,” says Treffry. “This project does not fall into that trap. It is really well scored and respects the negative space, allowing the punctuations to be very effective.”
Other $3,000 first-prize winners were Antoine Binette-Mercier for Takedown: The DNA of GSP, a documentary about UFC star Georges St-Pierre (Non-fiction category); and Emily Klassen for the psychological thriller Separation Anxiety (Musical Theme category). “Really creative, astonishing and quite emotional music on a very aggressive topic,” says jury member Michel Cusson of Binette-Mercier’s score. “The overall effect is a complete success.”
Procunier took the $1,500 second prize in the Non-fiction category for the film Avalanche, as well as the $750 third prize in the Musical Theme category for Fist Plus Face.
Additional Award recipients include Iman Habibi (second prize) and Josh Cruddas (third prize) in the Fiction category; Marie-Ève LaBadie (third prize) in the Non-fiction category; Spencer Creaghan (second prize) and Benjamin Goldman (third prize) in the Animated category; and Hugo Mayrand (second prize) in the Musical Theme category.
View complete list  of winners with their biographies.