Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1475409
22 I M PS E . O R G CHARLES MAYNES MPSE: Julian, thanks for taking some time to chat. Can you tell our MPSE membership a bit about yourself and your journey into sound editing? JULIAN SLATER MPSE: I actually started out wanting to get into the music industry. I studied at a place called the School of Audio Engineering in London because at that time, I really wanted to get into music production. But as is the way with life, I took a slight detour and went into post-production which as it happens, I am very glad that I did. In my early 20s, I became a business partner in a post-production facility in London where we did a range of TV projects and feature films. I stayed there for 16 years before selling my stake and becoming freelance 'gun for hire.' CM: What are some of your favorite films, TV shows, and games that inspire you for your sound esthetic? JS: Well, that's a very open-ended question, I guess. Over the years, there's been many, many movies that I have listened to in awe. Obviously, there's movies like Star Wars that I grew up with but then there's a bunch of others that are less known that really influenced me. Much of the stuff that David Lynch did had an effect on me and made me realize what could be done with sound in terms of taking very different sounds and placing them in ordinary spaces. Barton Fink too, was also something that as I started out in my career, being very cognizant of. CM: Who are your mentors, and how did you connect with them? JS: Well, it's strange really because I don't think I've actually had any mentors. From the age of 21, I was the co-owner of a post-production facility in Soho, London. I think I was very much thrown into the deep end. I just learned all I could by talking to the various people we would hire in the facility on a freelance basis. But in terms of having a constant person who showed me their skill set, I never had it. I certainly wish I had, because that kind of level of tutorship in this industry is priceless if the person that's teaching truly is great at what they do. CM: How did you transition into doing sound as your career? JS: From as long as I can remember, sound is all I've ever wanted to do. I think it comes from being part of that generation growing up that had the Walkman. I used to spend hours listening to all kinds of music in my own personal headspace and that made me very aware of the power of sound. As I've said before, I initially thought this would be through music production but I am very glad that my path ended up in post production. CM: What are your favorite projects that you have been involved with and what makes them so important to you? JS: I have different favorite projects for very different reasons. Obviously, there are the projects that I do with Edgar Wright. These are amazing projects to be involved with because of how Edgar thinks about sound. The way that he works with sound is unlike any other director that I know of, there's such a wide variety of filmmaking and therefore, sound design in his movies, it really is a pleasure to work on them. If I had to pick, I would say that the movies that I am particularly fond of the sound design of Edgar's are Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and Baby Driver. Scott Pilgrim was such an original and unique movie even now, let alone some 10 years ago, and we really had a lot of fun trying to push the envelope of what we could do with action and video game towns. I feel like Baby Driver was the movie that really put me on the map over here [in the US] even though I had been living here for five years. I would regularly get goose bumps just watching back the work my sound team had done. I really had no idea how it would be received, but I knew that it was unique and we were doing something that hadn't really been done to that extent before. Then there are movies like Jumanji: The Next Level which are just all out fun comedy action movies. I'm really fond of doing those because they are great examples of family movies that everyone gets to see. It's great to work on family movies because those are the kind of movies I grew up with. I'm actually constantly watching and listening to things, convinced that my work is much inferior to it. I'm quite insecure like that, how I work on a project and put my heart and soul into it, and think actually that it is sounding really, really good and then the following week I'll see something that someone else has done and think it's way better. To that point, I still am searching to finish work on the perfect sounding project. I don't stop tinkering with it until it has been Printmastered ... but I never feel that its 100% finished, though to be clear, I am always very happy with the end result. CM: When approaching a new project, how do you prepare for the work? JS: There's no doubt about it that my least favorite part of working on a project is at the very start. I feel like you've just climbed a mountain with your previous project and here you are again looking up at the summit with a long way to go. In terms of actual preparation, it all depends on the project. If there is a level of historical accuracy that we need to recreate, I'll do some research into that particular project. However, I am a firm believer that what we do for cinema should sound great over and above it sounding realistic or factual. I think the most important thing that you can do as far as prep goes is building your crew. Since lately, I am spending a lot of my time mixing now, I don't have a crew around me that I take from project to project. This, in and of itself, means that I have to be very diligent about the people that I hire. Invariably, I will be working with people for the first time and as such, I need to know that those people are dialed into the way that I like to work. I'm a very firm believer that I am only as good as the team around me and because of this, my preparation, I feel like, really is building the team. CM: How do you prefer working with picture departments, in regards to developing design concepts and aesthetics? JS: I like to get involved in a project as early as possible. I think the key is to start supplying the cutting room with great tracks as soon as possible. Now