Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1512183
94 M PS E . O R G sound post-production team on the series. Stefan and Andy are UK-based sound designers who had worked on a number of very big-budget feature films and had just recently won an Emmy for their work on the HBO show Generation Kill. It's always so interesting to work with new people as you always learn something from them and I certainly felt I learnt a lot from Stefan and Andy. Carrying on from this, in 2011, I worked as a supervising sound editor and edited sound effects on Lenny Abrahamson's film What Richard Did (2013). Having worked on Lenny's previous film, Garage (2008) which was very well received, I was delighted to be working with him again on What Richard Did. This was also the film where I feel I solidified a very happy and fruitful working relationship with Steve Fanagan as he mixed What Richard Did. This was a really great film to work on as it was the forging of a team that I feel lucky to be part of it, as together over the years, we have worked on a number of projects with Lenny and his editor Nathan Nugent, notably the feature films Room (2015) which was an Oscar-nominated film and was also nominated for a MPSE Award in (2016), Frank (2014), The Little Stranger (2018), the TV series Normal People (2020) which was nominated for a BAFTA TV Craft Award in 2021), and Conversations with Friends (2022). Personally, I feel the MPSE Award nomination for Room in 2016 was a great confidence booster. I feel that post-production sound professionals throughout the world are always creating great work but I think we all look to the big-studio productions as the bar setters but it is not often that the work from outside this system gets compared with the big-studio productions. So when we were lucky enough to work on a film that did push through into that arena, it was very gratifying to both Steve and I, and the whole sound crew that the work happily rubbed shoulders with the 'big' films. Other nominees in the category that year were Bridge of Spies, Mad Max, Sicario, and Straight Outta Compton, which to me is very good company! CM: Could you describe the unique qualities that define an Irish aesthetic that is different than the qualities that define UK or EU sound approaches? NB: This is an interesting question but I'm not sure that I could define an Irish aesthetic versus a European aesthetic versus an American aesthetic when it comes to sound design and sound post. I know that I'm drawn to films where the world is presented in a very 'real' way, one that feels like it retains the grit of the production track and allows the world in which the characters exist to breathe. Rightly or wrongly, I perceive this aesthetic in many varied productions from across the world but some that jump to mind straight away as benchmarks for me are Son of Saul (2015), The Power of the Dog (2021), Swan Song (2021), Monos (2019), and War for the Planet of the Apes (2017). CM: Are there any artists you are both influenced by, or would like to work with? NB: Going into any production, there are always two people (besides the director) that I'm always excited to work with, who I know will have a great influence on me on that production and long into Recording impulse responses on set for The Little Stranger (2018). We recorded sound effects and impulse responses for the 'hero' car in this film.