Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1500189
M OT I O N P I CTU R E S O U N D E D I TO R S 81 traditional Maori instruments, from the dusty drawers and cabinets of museums, and brought their voices back to the world. He saw me recording sound effects on the campus one day and invited me to a recording session. This would be my first experience with a feature film. Hirini was playing the purerehua or bullroarer and flutes for the New Zealand classic film Once Were Warriors. It was an amazing experience and I play and make taonga puoro myself now. Mike Hopkins and I met on my second feature film Heaven which I'd been hired as a sound designer for. He and his assistant Peter Mills had just finished Peter Jackson's The Frighteners and I remember the producer saying that Mike said, "Who's this cowboy?" referring to me as I hadn't done much at all. He was really the person who taught me the most about sound and the detail and work that goes into it. A few years later, he asked if I wanted to be a sound effects editor on The Lord of the Rings and that was really the beginning of my full immersion into sound. I still composed from time to time, but people started to only know me as a sound designer. MC: I studied film sound at AFTRS (Australian Film Television and Radio School) in Sydney, where I met my first mentor in sound; Australian sound designer Liam Egan. He is an amazing designer and incredibly generous teacher. I was very lucky to work with him as a trainee on Beneath Hill 60 (Wavelength note: Beneath Hill 60 is considered by many to be one of the finest films made about the Australian army's experience in the First World War). He then introduced me to New Zealand sound supervisor Brent Burge who very kindly invited me to come to New Zealand for a visit to meet the crew here and see what they do. From the moment I arrived in New Zealand, I knew this was where I belonged. Wellington is a very artistically minded city and the community here that work on film are like a family. Of course, once here I also met Dave who was like an instant best friend. He is a huge inspiration to my work and my art in general. Both of us do a lot creatively; everything from music, to painting, photography, woodwork, cooking, making plum wine—it's all art. I am so incredibly blessed to be fortunate enough to work with my best friend every day. How did you transition into doing sound as your vocation? DW: I first wanted to do makeup and special effects and made a few props for a local theatre company. I watched the making of Brain Dead with Sir Richard Taylor from Weta Workshop, putting plaster on someone's face. I plastered Home studio. Opposite: Dave recording birds.