MPSE Wavelength

Winter 2024

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88 M PS E . O R G JENNY WARD has worked on more than 40 productions, including Paradise Road (1997), Kiss or Kill (1997, AFI winner Best Sound), In a Savage Land (1999, AFI winner Best Sound), King Kong (2005, Oscar Best Sound), Happy Feet (2006), Australia (2008), and Peter Weir's The Way Back (2009). Her work has been recognised with an AACTA for The Great Gatsby (2014). Jenny was awarded the 2014 NSW Cinema Pioneer of the Year Award, inducted in 2016 as a Life Member of the Australian Screen Editors Guild (which she co-founded), and in 2017, received the prestigious Gold Honour Badge from the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (Australia's film union) in recognition of her years of advocacy on behalf of her industry colleagues. ▲ Listening vs Hearing was at film school, looking to expand my knowledge of sound editing for an upcoming 35mm student film, when the fabulous picture editor, Tania Nehme, introduced me to Andrew and his wife Adrienne Parr at a local cafe. They were legendary for their work on Dead to the World (1991, Dir: Ross Gibson), where they had totally recreated every sound in post-production using ADR, Foley, and sound FX. I was very nervous about approaching Andrew a few months later to do a student placement, but he was incredibly enthusiastic, and I was invited onto Skip Lievsay. They've all been supportive and generous, just as Andrew was. I think throughout my time in this industry, working with different directors, producers, post producers, editors, assistant editors, sound supervisors, and sound editors, I've realised that the best people are the ones who treat others as equals, who forge a collaborative working relationship, who are quick to impart wisdom, and constructive in their criticism, and who can laugh during the process. Andrew was like this, and so are all the supervisors I listed above. We all get stressed trying to do our best for our projects, but if you can maintain a good working relationship with your peers despite that stress, that's what makes a good leader. Another thing I loved about working with Andrew was something seemingly insignificant but is actually incredibly important. It's lunch! He would take a lunch break and make sure we did too. We would hang out, go for a walk, eat together, converse, basically take time away from editing. Funnily enough, I've ended up at Warner Bros. NY where Paul and Skip also have this great habit. Lunch hour is important—Skip will go to the gym or we will go out to grab lunch or order in and eat together. It's a small but important balancing factor that I cherish. I'll always think of Andrew fondly. He is a huge reason I'm doing what I do today. He was a great person; funny, sweet, wore his heart on his sleeve and shared his passion for sound with all of the people who worked with him. ■ I Map of the Human Heart (1991, Dir: Vincent Ward). Andrew was working in a large corner editing suite at Spectrum Films, chockfull of trim bins, rewind benches, gang synchronisers, a hulking Steenbeck flatbed—all the paraphernalia of a 35mm cutting room. It was an eye opener for me, having come from a production office background and studying 16mm at film school. Everything was oversized, and what seemed like total chaos—there was music constantly playing, mostly world music that I was unfamiliar with, phones ringing, sound being laid up on gang synchronisers, as well as on the Steenbeck, and people constantly interrupting to ask questions—was, in fact, business as usual in Andrew's world. The difference between hearing and listening was slowly instilled, as you filtered out all the ambient editing room sounds to listen to the film's soundtrack being created, sound by sound, layer by layer, pondering the finished result in your mind's ear. At the end of my studies, I was invited to return to finish work on the film, a role which earned me my first sound assistant credit. In those days, you had to sit in the transfer suite, trawling through ¼" tapes to find sounds which might suit the film, removalist trucks were hired to transport the tracks to the sound mix, and sound charts were written out (and coloured in) by hand. Being part of that mix, with the director, producer, and sound team all in one room working together was very exciting. All that detailed work, all those sounds, now distilled into the final track—listening versus hearing. And so began my career in sound. After a couple of years teaching,

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