The first thought Chee Wei Tay had when he discovered he had won not one but five awards at a recent international film festival in Houston was to wonder how much excess baggage he would have to pay to bring the awards home.
The Point Cook composer won accolades at the 48th WorldFest Houston International Film Festival earlier this month for his work on music for television and documentaries that are shown across Asia.
Among his gongs was the Platinum Remi Award for outstanding music in Channel News Asia’s four-part documentary series Footprints.
The awards were the first time Mr Tay has received international recognition for his compositions.
And he hopes the awards will lead to bigger and better things.
“None of the projects I have done have been local. They are all for the Asia-Pacific or US region,” he said.
“Hopefully, something will come out of this and I can meet some Australian producers.”
Mr Tay began composing music 17 years ago while living in Singapore.
Initially, his work involved writing music for children’s projects.
Composing music has always been one of his passions, he said.
“The process of composing music to pictures is something I’ve always wanted to do,” Mr Tay said.
“I just never thought it would lead to winning awards like this.”
